The Friends of Pews Creek

Port Monmouth, New Jersey

January 2008

The purpose of this letter is to state the position of the Friends of Pews Creek (FPC) regarding the proposed Flood Control measures presented by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) and the USEPA in the Feasibility Report, known as the Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook Bay (RBSHB), Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Study, Port Monmouth, New Jersey (The Feasibility Report).  The Feasibility Report was authorized by the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Public Works and Transportation, adopted August 1, 1990.   

Basic details of the project are available at the web entry www.epa.gov/EPA-IMPACT/2000/March/Day-10/i5839.htm titled “Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook Bay, Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Study, Port Monmouth, New Jersey”.

As indicated in the DEIS, the purpose of the study is to identify a plan that would protect the Port Monmouth community from damages caused by hurricanes and storm.  The 1.8-square-mile Project area is located in Port Monmouth, Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, along the RBSHB, bounded by Compton Creek to the east, Pews Creek to the west, and New Jersey State Highway 36 to the south.

According to the DEIS, the selected plan consists of the following engineering projects and environmental impacts:

• 7,000 linear feet (ft) of earthen levees average +14 ft National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD);

• 3,600 ft of concrete floodwalls averaging about +8 ft NGVD;

• a 40-ft wide storm gate across Pews Creek with a flood water pump house;

• initial beach nourishment of about 378,500 cubic yards of sand, with periodic renourishment of approximately 125,000 cubic yards of sand at 10-year intervals;

• construction of three interior drainage ponding areas each with primary and secondary drainage outlets;

• The selected plan without mitigation would directly and indirectly impact approximately 14.89 acres of wetland and upland areas. The majority of these impacts would involve the conversion of native habitat types to maintained (grass-covered) levees, permanent floodwalls, and storm gate. Specifically, the selected plan would permanently impact several vegetation cover types;

• The selected plan would temporarily impact herbaceous, scrub/shrub, Phragmites wetlands, and high salt marsh habitats due to clearing and equipment operation in temporary work areas;

• Less mobile aquatic and terrestrial wildlife species within the footprint of the selected plan would experience mortality due to construction. Furthermore, a short-term decrease in reproductive success of these species could occur due to construction activities.

Based on the scope of the project outlined above, it seems as though significant areas of the Pews Creek natural area as we know it will undergo drastic changes including loss of wetland and upland areas and replacement with grass dykes, concrete walls and drainage ponding areas.

All of this will be done in an attempt to control flooding at areas in Port Monmouth and Belford. Why would anyone who has lived in any waterfront area believe that any engineering project will control flooding at areas adjacent to a floodplain?  We remember the USACOE project completed in 1973. This project included the construction of groins, a beach berm, levees (aka “the dike” at the East Keansburg side of Pews Creek), pump station, floodwall, and a storm closure gate in the Keansburg area. According to the USACOE’s Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook Bay, NJ SECTION 506 Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction Fact Sheet,“

As a result of recent hurricanes, coastal storm events, and the lack of subsequent storm protection measures in these areas, the shore protection and flood control abilities of the Keansburg, East Keansburg, and Laurence Harbor beaches has been significantly reduced, threatening the viability of the constructed project”.

So the USACOE states that hurricanes, coastal storm events and lack of other storm protection measures has reduced flood control.  What then, did this USACOE project accomplish besides the loss of over 10 acres of wetland areas and the degradation of dozens of acres to the west of the Dike resulting in complete infestation by Phragmites.  Has this USACOE project remedied Port Monmouth flooding?  The answer is no.  This useless engineering project isn’t even noted in the Feasibility Study.  The reason is that the Pews Creek area is a floodplain.  What is a floodplain?  A "floodplain" is the lowland area adjacent to a river, lake or ocean that accepts flood waters during storms and high tides.  The Pews Creek floodplain seems to be doing exactly what it is supposed to do.

Obviously, there is flooding at areas where people live in Port Monmouth and Belford. This flooding has been occurring ever since the first settler’s structures (or native American longhouses) were erected within a flood-prone area adjacent to (or within) a floodplain.  A look at an aerial photograph of the Pews Creek Floodplain shows the network of ditches excavated in the early 1900’s to control flooding and improve drainage within the floodplain.  Take another look at the aerial photograph; the Pews Creek and Compton’s Creek floodplains have been surrounded on three sides by residential development.  We have built communities within a stones throw of wetland drainage ditches in areas where insurers will soon not sell flood or hurricane insurance. 

So what is the solution? Another multi-million dollar USACOE project that will devastate large areas of a bayfront, tidal waterway and floodplain in the unlikely attempt to hold back the sea? 

We hope not.  We would like to see a retreat from “engineering solutions” to flooding issues.  We would rather see the implementation of more rational solutions as presented by the Floodplain Management Association including the following:

Preferably before a flood, (and certainly following a significant flood), communities should give immediate consideration to how future flood damages might be prevented or reduced. Some of the means for doing that are listed below. Community officials should consider putting a moratorium on building permits until there has been a chance to give adequate consideration to the following:

• Buying properties and turning the most vulnerable part of the floodplain into a greenway, park, forest preserve or other use not subject to much damage;

• Tightening zoning ordinances to limit the kinds of development permitted in flood-prone areas;

• Developing or improving arrangements for warning of imminent flooding;

• Developing or improving flood preparedness plans;

• Working with state and federal agencies to provide or improve structural protection for the area;

• Implementing a full range of non-structural measures;

• Providing technical and/or financial assistance to property owners in floodproofing or otherwise protecting their property against flooding.  

The Pews Creek floodplain is the home, feeding and breeding area to dozens of species including Egrets, Great Blue Heron, Mallards, Hawks, Fiddler Crabs, Mussels, Blue Crab, Spearing, Killies, Striped Bass and salt water Snapping Turtles. In recognition of the natural area, the Middletown Environmental Commission erected an Osprey nest platform in 2006 which was quickly adopted by a nesting pair that produced two (2) young Osprey.

The Friends of Pews Creek Volunteer Group encourages the residents of the Port Monmouth section of Middletown as well as all Bayshore area residents and visitors to examine the Feasibility Report (link provided above) to learn just what this plan will mean to your area.

Respectfully,

Joseph S. Martin

Friends of Pews Creek

2 Central Avenue

Port Monmouth, NJ 07758  

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