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Thursday April 03, 2003
Al Ristori, Star-Ledger Staff
(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association May 2003 Newsletter)
Two years of controversy and political intrigue over 650 subway cars offered by New York City for placement on the state's artificial reefs at no charge ended yesterday when Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell, at a meeting in his Trenton office, accepted the last 250 cars remaining but also imposed an eight-year moratorium on taking any more
Tom Fote, representing the State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, opposed the moratorium as being of no value and nothing more than a political payoff to Clean Ocean Action's Cyndy Zipf, who was the individual preventing acceptance of the entire 650 cars originally offered by the New York City Transit Authority to New Jersey. Zipf's first objection was on the basis that the state was making a junkyard of the ocean floor. When that didn't fly, she latched on to the minimal asbestos content in the cars.
Scientific evidence provided by the federal Environmental Protection Agency proved that the asbestos was innocuous, and the project was approved by every federal agency involved, but acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco still turned down the cars. That was just fine with Delaware, which held public hearings, brought out all the facts and accepted a multimillion-dollar bonanza for their reefs at New Jersey's expense.
The first 250 cars were lost at that time, but 400 were still available when Gov. James E. McGreevey took office with a commitment to revisit the issue. In the meantime, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia were also eagerly snapping up whatever cars they could obtain. It was only due to the good will of the transit agency's David Ross that these last 250 were held for New Jersey.
Having already lost millions of dollars' worth of free reef material involved in 400 subway cars, Fote and other sportfishing and diving leaders objected to the imposition of the eight-year moratorium, which will prevent the state from accepting any other subway cars that may become available during that period.
While everything so far has been done behind closed doors, Campbell did promise to hold public hearings on his Policy Directive 2003-02, which sets new artificial reef standards -- including the moratorium and doubling the structural integrity of materials from 15 to 30 years.
EPA regional oceanographer William Muir has estimated that the subway cars will last 25 to 30 years. That's based on his observations of Philadelphia subway cars with thinner walls that were sunk in 1990 and are still in good shape. Furthermore, in a letter to Zipf I unearthed yesterday, Muir noted that adding zincs "would double or triple the normal life of the car from corrosion but would need to be replaced every year. This is not at all out of the realm of the sport diving community."
Though Muir answered all of Zipf's objections, his opinions were downplayed at the meeting despite his background of having made more than 1,000 dives on natural and artificial reefs over the last 35 years and being the EPA's marine pollution expert since 1988.
Someone questioned the cost of the zincs, but that would be small change in an otherwise completely free deal -- especially when compared with the $90,000 required for a single barge load of concrete shapes, which anglers were trying to raise at last night's meeting in Brick sponsored by the Greater Point Pleasant Charter Boat Association. There are lots of free materials for reefs, but it's rare when fishermen and divers don't have to raise large sums for cleaning, transportation and placement.
While it's a shame one person was able to deprive the state's artificial reefs of 400 subway cars at no cost, at least there should be 250 placed on five reef sites by late summer or early fall -- and the public will be able to express disapproval of changes made to the Artificial Reef Standards