Shark River Group To Urge Wall Officials To Allow Dredge Materials At Camp Evans

(A photo of the Shark River, from the Shark River Cleanup Coalition website, shows a sign warning of no swimming in the river.)

Members of the Save the Shark River group will be at the Wall Township Committee meeting Wednesday night to urge township officials to allow use of township land to dry materials dredged from the Shark River, to allow a dredging project to go forward.

John Dempsey, who has written to the Patch previously asking Wall officials to reconsider their refusal, told the Asbury Park Press that group members will be at the meeting at the municipal building on Allaire Road, which begins at 7:30 p.m.

The river has 100,000 cubic yards of sediment choking its channels, according to the Press report. And last May there was a significant fish kill in the river.

In addition to park access along the river, the Shark River is home to the Belmar Marine Basin, which hosts a fleet of large recreational fishing boats, also known as party boats, which take primarily daytime fishing trips out into the Atlantic. There is a charter boat fleet at the marina as well, and private boaters use the boat ramp to access the river.

The sediment is creating problems for those boats, which risk damage if they hit a shoal caused by the sediment.

According to a letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection that is posted on the Shark River Cleanup Coalition website, the DEP identified the Camp Evans site in Wall as a “potential option” for dredging the Shark River. But the letter notes the township must approve it -- a move Wall officials have not been willing to make, citing environmental concerns.

Dempsey told the Press Camp Evans is the most viable option because it is a former dewatering site and is in an isolated area.

Camp Evans was a military installation, primarily under the control of the U.S. Army, for nearly 65 years, according to a historical timeline produced by the Army in March 2005. The document, produced by the Army’s Communications and Electronics Command, better known as CECOM, follows the history of the parcel from its early use in 1914 when it hosted a transatlantic wireless radio receiver for the Marconi Telegraph company, through its transfer to Wall Township, Brookdale Community College and the state as a result of the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure Act.

The U.S. Navy controlled the property -- initially 93 acres -- for a year during World War I, and the Army took it over in 1937 after a period of private ownership. The site eventually encompassed more than 215 acres.

The CECOM document notes a lengthy history of contamination concerns, including PCBs, mercury and radioactive materials, that were addressed between 1993 and 2003, when the property was finally transferred. Wall Township received more than 117 acres of land under the BRAC closure, with the Army paying for most of the cleanup at the site.

According to the Press report, State Sen. Jennifer Beck, Neptune Township committeeman Randy Bishop and Monmouth County Freeholder Tom Arnone announced in January that they had come up with solutions to move forward with the Shark River dredging project in 2015.

Beck told the Press that the state solicited lists of potential dredging sites from each town bordering Shark River – Neptune, Neptune City, Belmar and Wall. The Department of Transportation pledged $5 million for the dredging project and will seek bids from contractors to do the work. Sheb said she expects the project will begin this fall.

“The challenge we have with dredging the Shark River is, we have been unable to find a site to dry the material,” Beck told the Press. “Wall Township has been clear that they have no interest in letting the state dry the material there. So we have looked for alternatives.”