JACKSON – The Appellate Court has sided with the Pinelands Commission in an environmental matter involving Jackson.
According to a press release from the New Jersey Sierra Club, Peg Leg Webb, LLC, applied to build a resource extraction facility (i.e., sand mining operation) in a Forest Area of the Pinelands in Jackson.
Peg Leg Webb was granted preliminary approval by the Jackson Planning Board. The Pinelands Commission subsequently reviewed and denied the application and the company then took the commission to court.
Two Appellate Court judges affirmed the decision of the Pinelands Commission in an Oct. 11 ruling, according to the press release.
In a statement, Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said, “This was a victory for the Pinelands Commission and against destructive mining in an environmentally sensitive area. This is a critical case because sand mining destroys massive areas, leaving a desert in its place.
“This development would have put forests and water supplies in the Pinelands at risk. There could have been streams and wetlands destroyed. Extraction operations are not permitted in the Forest Area, where this site is located.
“The Pinelands Commission did the right thing for the Pinelands by rejecting this application and the court did the right thing by affirming the commission’s decision,” Tittel said.
“When you have a sand mine, you clear-cut forests and remove all vegetation. It destroys wetlands and even streams. This leads to nonpoint pollution runoff into the streams and drinking water.
“There is also an increase in air pollution from the hundreds of trucks a day that would be going in and out of the area. When they are done with all the sand mining, we could end up with uranium hotspots in the sand pit.
“In approving this project, Jackson ignored its own ordinances. It is critical that the Pinelands Commission has the authority to pull up and review these projects for consistency with the Pinelands’ Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP).
“When they did, they found this project violated the CMP and rejected it. The company sued, but it is important that the court reaffirmed the commission’s right to reject these projects and protect the Pinelands.
“This was a clearcut court decision that has upheld the integrity of the Pinelands Commission and the commission’s right to uphold the CMP. Unfortunately, when the commission (recently) approved two pipelines, the commission was violating their own CMP and undermining their integrity. The commission should show the same level of scrutiny and review when it comes to pipelines as they did for this mining operation,” Tittel said.
