West Milford Lake owner seeks mitigation project support
Council pres seeks to avoid ‘mud hole’

By David Zimmer
Staff Writer
Suburban Trends
Sunday, March 29, 2009

With the West Milford Lake Dam facing an imminent breach, the property owner is now seeking Township Council support for a plan to turn the lake into a mitigation site and passive recreation area in hopes that this support will bring another extension from the State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

According to site engineer, Conklin Engineering’s Tibor Latinscics, the DEP’s Bureau of Dam Safety and Flood Control is actively seeking a clear plan for the post-dam project and wants the dam decommissioned as soon as possible.

As a result, he said the property owner, Marshall Hill LLC, owned by a West Milford resident, is seeking support and cooperation from any and all governing bodies to obtain another time extension to generate the funding and finalize the plan for the “lake bottom.”

Costs to decommission the hazardous dam have been most recently estimated at $440,000 by Civil Dynamics, another engineering company located in Stockholm, Latinscics said.

In order to obtain these “start-up costs,” Marshall Hill LLC is still pursuing the plans drafted by Latinscics that would breach the existing hazardous dam and create a Highlands Forest and Wetlands Mitigation site and future park in the 14-acre area in the center of town near Shop-Rite.

Council President Joseph Smolinski said that while they will need more information on the mitigation timetable for this project, local officials should “move positively” on the plans to keep West Milford Lake from becoming a “mud hole.”

According to Latinscics, the site would have a pond roughly half the size of the current lake, with upland forest and surrounding marsh, which would help filter water before it runs into Belcher’s Creek. These zones can then be marketed as credits to Highlands municipalities and developers under mandate to replace protected forests or wetlands encroached upon during development.

Due to increasing concerns about land conservation, local ecosystems and water quality causing strict restrictions on encroachment, Latinscics said that mitigation zones in the Highlands are currently valued at $100,000 to $200,000 per acre, depending on the supply and demand.

Once the dam is decommissioned, Latinscics said that the developers seeking mitigation credits would purchase the property and fund the post-dam development of a passive recreation area. How elaborate the park will eventually be, will be a direct result of how much money the land is valued at, Latinscics said.

Overall, the creation of the wetland is estimated to cost anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million depending on which version of post-decommissioning plans, as developed by Princeton Hydro for the local Environmental Commission, are most closely adhered to, Latinscics said.

These conceptual designs from Princeton Hydro consider critical issues with stormwater management, phosphorous reduction to improve lake water quality, and public space as well as how to make the area more aesthetically and environmentally friendly.

Latinscics said that, ideally, the park would eventually be donated to the township so the current owner does not have to be concerned with liability or maintenance issues on the property. This is because even after the dam is decommissioned there will still be a concrete spillway and a portion of the dam still intact, so that lake can fill up around 5 feet in severe storms.

Mayor Bettina Bieri said that if the municipality is going to own the property at some point in the future, township officials should have some input on what the park will ultimately look like, short of keeping it the way it is. Although she said that the passive recreation concept is not as ideal as simply repairing the dam, Latinscics said this was still possible, but very unlikely at this point.

While Mayor Bieri said that the council has supported this project when it was first discussed by the Environmental Commission, due to concerns with funding, liability and maintenance issues, she added that the council would need more information before it can send any letters of support to the DEP.



Silt control a concern in dam’s decommissioning
By David M. Zimmer
Staff Writer
Suburban Trends
Sunday, March 29, 2009

To safeguard other local bodies of water during the decommissioning of the West Milford Lake Dam, the local Environmental Commission and the greenwood Lake commission are both examining ways to prevent the lake’s silt, which has elevated levels of phosphates and nitrates, from ending up downstream.

The Greenwood Lake Commission specifically is still showing interest in a two- to eight-week lake restoration process proposed late last year by Global Ecology Corporation. The process would use microbes to consume organic material and neutralize many chemicals, trace metals and petroleum products.

Both commissions have found the process intriguing, but are still unsure of its effectiveness.

In a stroke of good luck for both commissions, the site engineer for the West Milford Lake property, Tibor Latinscics, said the lake, which must be lowered during a dam breaching, “is the ideal test case” to see if this process could be a cost-effective solution to the silt and contamination in Greenwood Lake.

According to Global Ecology Corporation Chairman Joseph Battiato, the microbes, which are most active in areas with currents, warm water, and sunlight, consume organic material on the lakebed for approximately 14 to 24 days. With multiple applications he said that the process could reduce organic matter 20 times the original volume within six weeks.

While the reduction of silt is beneficial, the main concern for both commissions is the prevalence of contaminants in the local lakebeds.

Still, the federally-approved process would create gaseous compounds with the high-levels of nitrates (salts) and phosphates on the lakebed to remove these contaminants. Moreover, acids could be added to humus-based, microbial product to reduce levels of deadly contaminants like lead and arsenic, which are notably high in both Greenwood Lake and West Milford Lake.

With an average of 3 to 5 feet of silt, Battiato said that the service could potentially be performed at West Milford Lake for the property owner at-cost, for an estimated $50,000 to $75,000.

The process would involved multiple applications of the product, which would be poured into the lake before being circulated and aerated from units along the shore until the microbes can maintain proper aeration on their own. Each treatment would require 78 to 79 gallons of the microbial liquid, Battiato said.

---