The NJ municipalities of East Windsor, Hamilton and Robbinsville have filed suit against the State of New Jersey for the return of funds that were supposed to be used to replace trees destroyed by NJ Turnpike construction.
According to reports, $15 million set aside for replacing 268 acres of lost tree cover has been diverted by the state Dept. of Environmental Protection to keep state parks open instead. Another $1.6 million that was to be used along the Garden State Parkway widening project has also been diverted. In total, the Turnpike project involves clearing 449 acres of trees in seven towns. $13 million remains for reforestation, an amount the municipalities claim is far too small to cover the losses. (Reforesting one acre costs $61,200, according to the reforestation plan the NJ Turnpike Authority submitted to DEP.)
The replanting funds were among the measures promised to the municipalities in exchange for land to accommodate the massive widening of the NJ Turnpike, which will add 170 new lane miles to the roadway from interchange to 6 to 9. The redirection of funds clearly violates the spirit of the No Net Loss Reforestation Act, which says that trees removed from state land during construction should be replaced as close as possible to the original site. Whether it violates the letter of the law should be determined by the lawsuit.
Town officials now regret transferring the land needed for the widening. “After this episode, what mayor in his right mind would ever sign an agreement with the State or the Turnpike?” Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried wrote in Politicker NJ. Aside from the lawsuit, the reallocation has prompted direct action by Mayor Fried (see picture), and has legislators weighing in and asking the Governor to intervene on behalf of the aggrieved municipalities.
The broken promise is another sorry chapter in the history of the Turnpike widening project, which has been poorly justified and promises little but induced traffic and more sprawl. The trees would have offered noise and pollution mitigation along the widened sections of the Turnpike. The net loss of trees is a blow to local residents, and threatens to deepen the adverse effect of the widening on greenhouse gas emissions, making it all the more difficult for the state to meet goals mandated by the Global Warming Response Act.
A state judge will hear the case on October 1.
While I support the widening of the NJ Turnpike, I find it sad that money needed to put trees back after construction is done. One way or another NJ needs to fix this.
I do wonder whether the diverted funds were from the annual expense budget or capital budget – I’d expcet most of the cost of the expansion to be bonded, and if NJ has taken bond money to handle 2010 expenses, then they will eventually learn the lesson NYC did decades ago about borrowing long term to cover current needs.
It is utter folly to widen any major highways at this time.
First off, endless road widenings do NOT reduce congestion.
It is far more efficient to run trains and transit which can carry 10X the capacity of roads for much less oil, energy, maintenance and greenhouse emissions costs.
Secondly, the world is running out of oil!
Why do you think we just suffered a major environmental disaster drilling for oil 1 mile below the Gulf of Mexico?
Because all the other oil is GONE!
None other than James Schlesinger, the first Energy Secretary of the US, just endorsed the newly published book by Robert Hirsh, Bush Administration Energy adviser, predicting that a decline in global oil production is coming in the next 1 to 5 years from its current plateau. So far the most oil produced in history was July, 2008.
And I think we all know what happened after that!
Besides the increased costs of oil as it runs out, this year also proved more than ever the reality of climate change:
1)100 square miles of Greenland icecap broke into the sea
2)Record heat waves in the Northeast
3)Record 100 degree temperatures in Russia leading to wildfires never seen in their history
4)Hottest year globally on record
5)Most scary of all, a National Science Foundation Report that methane gas with 50 times the potency of CO2 has already begun leaking from the Siberian tundra as it warms
We cannot afford Business as Usual with endless wasteful road construction for the road paving lobby.
We need to direct every cent we can to transition to oil,energy Green transit rail and public transit.
Any other course is simply not sustainable…
The state has a trick they use on a regular basis, especially when a new Governor takes over. The trick is to take back “unspent” funds and either use them for another purpose or to help balance the state budget.
These actions to use funds elsewhere do have consequences. In this instance it is environmental and short-sighted.
[…] it was trying to evade reforestation requirements (under state law, trees cut for state projects must be replaced elsewhere; maintenance projects are exempt). Only more recently did agency officials admit that the clearing […]