Environmental Impact Report: Elm Street Park (ESP) & Florham Parks Open Space

"Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them". George Santayana

Section IV: State of our Waterways

Black Cat Ditch - Approximately of a mile in reach using the NJDEP iMAP tool (all stream measurements below were calculated using this tool). It is a channelized ditch that moves water from surrounding ditches and channels within the BMEC Very Mucky deep channel. I have seen different species of water fowl use this stream channel over the years but suspect it is highly sedimentized. It is located in the Whippany River Watershed. As such all waters drain into this river through other tributaries. If you want a good education on the negative effects of over development look at the environmental engineering performed in the Borough over the last 60 years - take a gander at an aerial map of the Black Meadows between Route 24 and ESP you will see a serious of straight channels and 90 degree channels laced throughout the complex all necessary to account for a cavalcade of development over this short nanosecond of time; Hassock Brook Historically this natural stream was more sinuous but as Florham Park developed over the last 40 years this stream was channelized and made deeper. It is mostly a linear feature in the landscape. Channelization of course destroyed much of the aquatic ecology. If you walk it today you see it is clogged with sediments, debris and garbage. Approximately 1.5 miles in Florham Park. This stream receives non-point source pollution from subdivisions, Emmet Park, Roads and Highways this is a compromised stream for most of its course; Pinch Brook - Approximately 1.6 miles through the Borough. A tributary of the Whippany River. In its headwaters in the Black Meadows to the point behind Mann and Florham Avenue the stream shows good morphology and structure, in other words it appears to have a nice nonlinear course to it. Moderate sedimentation as it originates in a relatively undisturbed series of wetland forest and marsh. As it approached Mann Ave. the stream has been severely compromised by ATV activity that has destroyed the aquatic nature of the stream bottom and highly eroded banks are evident. In areas near human development and activity (behind Hearthwood Village, the shopping plaza and Florham
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Avenue much garbage and waste exist. For at least another of mile the stream is highly compromised as it winds through residential areas and the Pinch Brook Golf Course;

Fish Brook Approximately mile in the Borough. This Stream starts out near Watson Street and runs throw the center of the woodlands behind Lakeview Avenue before it crosses over Brooklake Road onto the Fish Property where it outfalls into the Passaic River Floodplain. This is a highly compromised water course with many issues. It is deeply channelized and eroded, garbage is strewn in it everywhere you look, when it runs dry an unidentifiable white haze covers most of the bottom muds, deeply cut banks, highly sedimentized, and aquatically inert. The only positive attribute to this tributary is as a water conveyance feature that directs water off site into the floodplain; Spring Garden Brook The headwaters of this approximately 1.8 mile watercourse (1.3 miles in the Borough) is behind Whole Foods in Madison. I know and understand this stream very well as it is the stream that I grew up walking around as a child. It was an incredibly beautiful, natural tributary with the Passaic River in the 60s but was channelized and cut deep and widened in the 70s to create capacity as Madison and Florham Park allowed build out to occur in the wetlands that make up Roseland Park, Beechcrest, Sheerbrook, Brandywine, etc. Flood storage land was built upon. This change in land use caused back yards to flood right up to and sometimes into homes. The solution was to go in with backhoes and channelize the brook. Once completed all of the aquatic ecology ceased to function this happened almost overnight. Channelization created additional capacity but by todays standards would be considered an archaic engineering quick fix. I never again saw lesser yellow leg sandpipers in the stream feeding on crayfish and mussels, muskrat, mink and otter numbers drastically declined, wood turtles (State threatened species) were never seen again. All native fish were decimated. Today this stream is garbage strewn, sedimentized, highly eroded, and polluted. When it rains heavy you can smell the cultural cocktail of chemicals emanate from the flows. People that live along Annabelle and Beechcrest pile yard waste right up to the sides of Spring Garden Brook. Trees continue to collapse into the channel from eroded banks. The only remaining quality riparian buffer areas seem to be along the course that runs through Brooklake Country Club. The facilities manager has activity created riparian buffers dominated by mainly native shrubs and grasses.

Summary:
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As you can see from this analysis Florham Park water courses are highly compromised. They are in desperate need of attention. The FPEC took stream monitoring courses in 2010 and started the process of a baseline inventory. In situ water quality monitoring is necessary in order to complete a solid baseline. By looking at macroinvertabrates in the water I can tell you that the chemical data will not be good, (macroinvertabrates are biological barometers insect larvae, arthropods, clams, mussels, etc. that indicate water quality when analyzed for species tolerance for polluted water). If the town wanted to exceed the current water quality standards a huge initiative would have to be set forth 5 million dollars to start would be good (does the amount sound familiar). This action would of course benefit all citizens present and future. Rhetorical question to all citizens: What is more important immediately? (A) Build a new field complex so our kids can play tee-ball on artificial turf at age 5 and walk dogs, or (B) Repair our polluted, degraded and aquatically compromised waterways for all citizens of the Borough to enjoy and benefit from? Just trying to put things into perspective; what is the economic, quality of life, and responsible value we apply to clean water?

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