Urge Holmdel TC to Prevent Health Hazard
Holmdel Township Committee
Please Sign the Petition!
The Azura at Holmdel (former Vonage) development poses grave risks to our drinking water and our communities. The Holmdel Township Committee (“TC”) has the power and the authority to stop this health hazard and save our drinking water for now and generations to come. Please review the information below and sign the petition if you agree!
Background
The Azura at Holmdel project seeks to “grandfather” in an outdated, almost 50-year old wastewater management plant. For six months of the year, it will send inadequately treated wastewater to a Category-1 stream, the Willow Brook, and to the Swimming River Reservoir, the source of drinking water for more than 340,000 Monmouth County residents.
The permits for this plant were issued almost 50 years ago, before the risks posed by pharmaceuticals, PFAS, hormones, antibiotics, and other chemicals in our drinking water were understood, and before the technology to clean them out of water existed.
This redevelopment changes the use of the original building from office to full-time senior living, while adding 60 homes, an assisted living building, and a skilled nursing facility to the property. The developer seeks to “grandfather” this new development under existing permits, a disingenuous and deceitful move that pinches pennies and makes the developer more money, while putting our health at risk.
The redevelopment will also use an open-air wastewater lagoon for six months of the year, and once the lagoon becomes full, they will spray the partially treated effluent like sprinklers, and what goes up, will come down onto nearby parks and yards, in pools, and onto streets, where it can be picked up and travel near and far. Through our research, we have found cases where bacteria from wastewater lagoons have traveled more than four miles and caused Legionella outbreaks, leading to death.
The Holmdel Township Committee has the power and the authority to put residents’ health and safety first, and to stop this disaster before it happens.
This willful contamination of our drinking water is outrageous.
Please sign our petition urging the TC to stop this health hazard and save our drinking water for now and generations to come.
Please help! We are raising funds to hire professionals, such as a lawyer and engineers, to help in the fight to stop this massive redevelopment and the grave risks to our health. Let's prevent this health hazard before it contaminates our water. All funds raised will go to the professionals. No amount is too small - we are all in this together!
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To:
Holmdel Township Committee
From:
[Your Name]
We are writing regarding the contamination of our drinking water.
23 MAIN STREET PROPCO LLC (“Developer”), owner of the old Vonage property located in a Planning Area-5 area in southern Holmdel, is looking to "grandfather" existing NJ DEP water permits that will allow it to discharge inadequately treated wastewater directly into a C-1 stream that feeds into the Swimming River Reservoir for 6 months of the year.
For the other 6 months of the year, the wastewater will be discharged into a lagoon that sits 100 feet away from that stream, when the current environmental standard is 300 feet.
The expired existing permits were issued almost 50 years ago, when the property was an office complex and before we understood the risks posed by pharmaceuticals, PFAS, endocrine disruptors, hormones, antibiotic residues, and other chemicals.
This property is the subject of redevelopment that will change the land use from an office building to 299 units of senior living, assisted living and skilled nursing units with an out-of-date wastewater management plant that has a wastewater lagoon that is located within 300 feet of a Category-1 stream and will discharge the wastewater directly into that C-1 stream that feeds into a reservoir that is the source of potable water for over 300,000 residents.
This is contrary to the Holmdel Wastewater Management Plan.
Furthermore, there were violations found in 19 years out of the last 25 years of inspections, with fines that aggregate to around $150,000.
We urge the Holmdel Township Committee to prevent this health hazard and save our drinking water for now and future generations.
The Holmdel Wastewater Plan states that the Township Committee retains the wastewater planning authority.
We urge the Holmdel Township Committee to require the redeveloper to install a state-of-the-art wastewater management system, which would include a new package plant with subsurface effluent discharge fields constructed away from the stream feeding the reservoir, meeting current environmental standards.
We would like to make it clear that we are not in opposition of the redevelopment of the property nor to the affordable housing component of the redevelopment. However, the redevelopment should not be done at the cost of clean and safe drinking water for many of our residents.
Thank you.