Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
Ban on hookups reducing construction, inspection fees
TOMS RIVER — United Water Toms River's failure to obtain a new state water-allocation permit could greatly reduce Dover Township's considerable revenues from building permits, placing the township in financial jeopardy, municipal officials said.
"Right now, all revenues in that department have essentially ceased," Councilman Carmine C. Inteso Jr. said. "United Water, through no fault of the township, has placed this township in severe jeopardy. I don't understand where United Water has stepped up to the plate and said: "We've wronged you. We'll do everything in our power to fix it.' "
Dover's budget includes $1.48 million in projected revenue from building permits and inspections during fiscal year 2006, which began July 1, 2005, and ends June 30. That number, $300,000 higher than the fiscal year 2005 revenue figure, could now be too high, township officials have said.
On Sept. 1, the state Department of Environmental Protection prohibited new connections to United's system because the company had exceeded its state water allocation permit — the amount of water it is allowed to draw — in three of the past five years. That action has basically halted new construction in Dover, South Toms River and the Holiday City and Silver Ridge sections of Berkeley.
The loss of revenue from building permits and inspections could lead to more budget problems in Dover, where taxpayers have seen two straight years of municipal-purposes tax increases — 9.9 cents per $100 of assessed property value in fiscal year 2005, and 7.3 cents this year.
Radiation issue raised
Inteso's comments came during a tense two-hour discussion with water company officials, who attended the Township Council meeting Tuesday at the council's request.
Inteso, Council President Gregory P. McGuckin, Mayor Paul C. Brush and Township Attorney Mark A. Troncone took turns grilling water company officials on topics ranging from the allocation issue to the discovery last week that United had failed to report seven instances of elevated radiation in its system during 2005.
Joseph Kotran, who attended the meeting, was one of several residents who said United has again lost credibility in the community.
"It betrays the community's trust," Kotran said of the water company's actions.
Ocean County Freeholder Director Gerry P. Little said he attended the council meeting to express the freeholder board's unhappiness with the water company.
"It is just inconceivable that you could violate the people's trust on drinking water," Little said. "We are very, very disturbed. We realize you are here trying to put a Band-Aid on a hole in this dike."
McGuckin said Wednesday the council is still pondering what steps, if any, to take against the water company.
Again and again, United's vice president of communications, Richard Henning, did not have answers when council members and Brush asked why the water company had violated state law by not submitting radiation test results to the DEP throughout 2005.
"It's like the movie "Groundhog Day,' " McGuckin said, referring to a Bill Murray film in which Murray's character is forced to live through the same day repeatedly. "It's the same thing, over and over."
Henning said the company has undertaken an internal investigation of its Toms River operation.
"We are trying to find out why these regulations were not followed," he said. "This is a deviation from our company policy."
Work permits bypassed
McGuckin said that his research indicates the water company failed to seek water main extension permits for 42 separate large projects in Dover that were built and connected to the system between 1997 and 2005.
The company should have submitted extension requests for those projects to the DEP, but those requests would have required United to include information about its water allocation permit and the likelihood that it would exceed its limit, McGuckin said.
"We have hundreds and hundreds of units that have been built that did not have the proper permits," McGuckin said.
Councilman John "Sevas" Sevastakis said that United's violation of its state water allocation permit could make it difficult for Dover to regain its "coastal center" designation under New Jersey's "plan endorsement" process.
The center designation allows municipalities to permit greater lot coverage for development applications, and it is needed for Dover to implement its second-round affordable housing plan.
The DEP has indicated that the township's draft plan is deficient, in part, because it contains no provision to address a water deficit here. The township must submit its plan endorsement proposal by March 15, and Sevastakis and Troncone both noted that the DEP said it will be several more months before the state is finished reviewing United's application for a higher water allocation.
"There's jeopardy of losing our affordable housing plan, after all the money, the work and the time we've put into it," Sevastakis said. "It's absurd that we've got to come to this stage."
Published in the Asbury Park Press 02/16/06
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