Community Corner

While Bacteria Exists, Experts Say Irrigation is OK

Officials believe water contaminants pose no serious risk to organic farm on Green Village Road.

While acknowledging the presence of bacteria in a brook adjacent to land that one Chatham Township family hopes to soon fully convert into an organic farm, local experts believe the area remains safe for irrigation.

Since purchasing a home at 461 Green Village Road in September 2010, Tom and Debra Bucuk, along with their son, Mike, have attempted to convert the land into an organic farm. They hope to sell the produce at the Chatham Borough Farmers Market. Their neighbor, Daniel Miller, agreed to let them farm approximately 2 acres of his property for the same purpose.

However, Richard "Erich" Templin, who lives across the street at 480 Green Village Road, has raised several concerns about the Bucuks' plans. Templin claims the Bucuks have violated township ordinances by running their commercial landscaping business out of the property that's zoned residential. In addition, Templin has raised potential contamination concerns that could affect farming on the property.

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The Bucuks' property sits near the Rolling Knolls Superfund Site, a former chemical dump site, and is bordered on one side by the Loantaka Brook, a headwater of the Passaic River that flows directly into the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.

The Bucuks began to plant about 1-acre of the property with tomatoes, potatoes and other produce. They were in the process of tilling the 2 acres of Miller's property this spring when the Chatham Township Police came with a stop-work order until the Chatham Township Committee makes a decision on the commercial farming issue. A draft ordinance is expected to be discussed in September.

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The Loantaka Brook

The Bucuks said they have received permission from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to use the water from the brook for base irrigation, or row crop irrigation, where plants are irrigated from the soil line or below the soil line, and the water does not directly touch the part of the plant that will be consumed.

According to the Great Swamp Watershed's website, the brook has two stems that join together near Woodland Elementary School. The larger stem passes the Morris Township Municipal Building, the Woodland Sewage Treatment Plant and the Seaton Hackney Stables. The second, smaller stem flows near Friendly’s on Madison Avenue.

The two stems are dammed to form Kitchell Pond in Morris Township. It then flows south to the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge, passing through Chatham Township and bordering the Bucuk's property on the eastern side.

Sally Rubin, the executive director of the Great Swamp Watershed Association, said the surroundings threaten the brook's water quality.

"About 95 percent of the base flow of the stream comes from the discharge from the sewer treatment plant," she said. "Immediately down from the plant is the Seaton Hackney Stable. ... They allow their horses to graze too close to the stream and there's no grass left at all. It's all mud." This causes the banks to erode into the stream.

The stable itself, Rubin said, goes right up to the edge of the brook. "Then when there's a storm, all the manure goes from the stables into the stream."

This contaminates the stream with fecal coliform, E. coli and other bacteria, and makes it unsafe for drinking water, but not, Rubin said, for irrigation.

"I don't believe that using that water, even if it has been contaminated, is a problem for irrigation because you can take that same manure, compost it, and use that as a fertilizer, which [would be] much more intense than whatever has been diluted in the stream.

"There's nothing wrong with using manure as a fertilizer. That's organic," Rubin said. "What they don't use in organic farms is chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides."

Laura Kelm, the director of Water Quality Programs for the Great Swamp Watershed Association, said the brook was tested regularly between 2005 to 2007 and from May 2009 to January 2010, but there is not regular testing currently done on the brook within Chatham Township.

Still, she said, "if there is fecal coliform in Loantaka near where a person will be withdrawing water to irrigate any food crops, thoroughly washing those items before consumption will eliminate those bacteria," she said.

Chuck Gullage, a water quality scientist and a citizen scientist of the Great Swamp Watershed Association, tests the brook water near the stables and at Kitchell Pond to monitor pollutant levels, as well as other locations within the swamp.

Besides the E. coli and fecal coliform from the Seaton Hackney stables, Gullage, a Chatham resident, said the main source of contamination are animal waste from geese who habitate Kitchell Pond and the runoff from the parking lots, streets and storm drains near Friendly's in Morris Township. Water levels in the brook, he said, can rapidly rise and fall, depending on the weather because of how much runoff comes from this area. "That's my major concern with the pollutants in the water," Gullage said.

Gullage also and said there was no threat to the water quality from running a farm at the Bucuks' property. “I saw nothing inappropriate or offensive that would impact the watershed,” he told the committee.

The Bucuks said they do not plan to rely on the brook for a primary water source because it is not monitored frequently. "We have city water through the barn, we could use that," Mike Bucuk said. "Or we could put in a well, [in which case] we'd have to go through the process of that."

"Only certain things would need irrigation," Mike Bucuk said. "We can work with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, so they would come out and design an irrigation plan for us...and if we needed approval [to irrigate from the brook or put in a well] they would help us with that."

Runoff and Erosion

The DEP organizes various bodies of water into one of three categories, according to surface water quality. The three categories are Outstanding National Resource Waters, Category One and Category Two waters.

According to its website, Category One (C-1) waters "are protected from any measurable change in water quality" due to their significance to the environment or as sources for fishing, recreation or water supply. For that reason, there must be a 300-foot buffer between any C-1 water body and any construction or land development or use, such as a farm.

Category Two (C-2) waters are likewise protected, but C-1 or Outstanding National Resource Waters, but with some lowering of the water quality permitted by permission of the DEP. For C-2 waters, only a 50-foot buffer is required.

Attached is a list of C-1 classified waters, published by the DEP. According to the list, Loantaka Brook is a C-1 water body "within the boundaries of the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge."

"Therefore," Gullage said, "the 300-foot buffer does not apply" to the portion of the brook that borders the Bucuks' property because "it's outside of the National Wildlife Refuge."

The Bucuks have not currently tilled land within 50 feet of the brook. They have mowed the grass up to within approximately 10-feet of the stream bank, but not beyond, and they have let wild plants grow along the edge of the stream bank.

Bank erosion is also a concern, and the Bucuks are prohibited from making any adjustments to the stream bank. Currently, it is possible to walk right up to the brook and even make your way down the bank.

"It's been mowed up to the stream for forever, so there's nothing holding [the bank] together," Mike Bucuk said. 

Rubin and Gullage have both visited the property, along with Kelm's predecessor, Kelley Curran. "I'm not an official person from the DEP, but all I saw was that they were making improvements to the property," Rubin said.

Curran was unavailable for comment, but Rubin and Gullage said they both spoke with the Bucuks on different occasions to discuss the owners' plans for the property.

Under the current conditions of the property, Rubin said, "there is some steam bank erosion going on. There always is. They [the Bucuks] said they wanted to plant blueberries and make some improvements to prevent erosion. ... They wanted to improve the stream bank stabilization."

Gullage said, "it looks like they've made improvements along the stream bank that will stabilize the stream bank further and help prevent further erosion."

The Bucuks cannot make any significant adjustments along the bank, according to Mike Bucuk, unless they receive permission from the DEP and help from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. If that is unable to be obtained, he said they could work on preventing further erosion.

"The simplest thing to do would be to work on the vegetative buffer within the first 20 to 25 feet next to the stream, so it doesn't wash out," Mike Bucuk said.

Planting blueberry bushes would be Mike Bucuk's first choice. "They grow wild all over here," he said.

The Bucuks said they have discussed their plans with a DEP employee and that an employee has inspected the property. Chatham Patch was unable to confirm this information.

Rolling Knolls

To the southeast of 461 Green Village Road, sits the Rolling Knolls Landfill, an unlined dump site of nearly 200 acres. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the landfill at 35 Britten Road was used to collect municipal waste, construction and demolition debris and various chemical waste until it closed in 1968. It was added to the Superfind National Priorities List on Sept. 29, 2003.

The site contains, according to its profile on the EPA website, "metals, PCBs, pesticides and volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, which are potentially harmful contaminants that can easily evaporate into the air."

Tanya Mitchell, the remedial project manager for Rolling Knolls, said, "We have not had any reported concerns of any runoff at this time [from the site]."

"In general, we are always concerned about runoff, [but] we focus primarily at the site," Mitchell said. "We are not looking at residential properties near the site. Our goal is to get at the source of the contamination, and control or eliminate [it]."

The EPA is still evaluating the soil and sediment at Rolling Knolls. Mitchell said more analysis is required before any impact on nearby properties could be absolutely determined.

Gullage, however, said that because the Loantaka Brook flows north to south, and Rolling Knolls is south of the Bucuks' property, any danger posed by the Superfund Site to a farm at 461 Green Village Road would likely be minimal.

"Rolling Knolls is downstream of Loantaka Brook, so it's unlikely that anything leaving there would be flowing downstream," he said.

Some of the companies that Mitchell said were Potential Responsible Parties (PRPs) that may have used the site to dump waste include Chevron, Alcatel-Lucent and Norvartis.

Organic vs. Conventional Farming Practices

Dr. Sara Webb, chairwoman of the Environmental Studies Program at Drew University, where she also teaches environmental studies and biology, said conventional farms have three major sources of pollutants, which she does not foresee in an organic farm without livestock.

The first pollutant from farms is fertilizers, which are used by both organic and conventional farms. However, the kind of fertilizers used varies. Conventional farms, Webb said, use conventional fertilizers similar to what is used on golf courses or residential lawns. In fact, Webb said, "often the concentration of contaminates is higher coming off of a lawn than a farm."

These fertilizers usually contain such chemicals as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. "Those tend to get into the waters downstream and those tend to pollute the waters," Webb said. On conventional farms, these fertilizers occur in high concentrations and on a large scale, increasing the potential for pollution, Webb said.

"If organic practices are followed [on a farm], they don't use commercial fertilizers. They use organic materials," Webb said. Organic fertilizers usually include materials such as manure, vegetable and animal protein meals or compost, which have less impact.

The second main pollutant from farming comes from pesticides for insects and weeds. Webb said conventional farms use pesticides containing chemicals, which threaten the environment and water quality.

"Those are a problem in farm country, but they are not used in organic farms," Webb said. Certified organic farms use organic pesticides with materials such as rotten eggs, menthol, vinegar or horseradish. The Bucuks said they use Deer Out, a deer repellent with menthol and rotten eggs, to keep deer from the plants currently in their yard.

The third source of contaminates from most farms, Webb said, comes from animal waste, usually from livestock kept in pens. Like the horses from Seaton Hackney Stables or the geese at Kitchell Pond, farming livestock pose a significant pollution threat. For a farm that only grows crops and does not have animals, it "makes a difference," Webb said. "It really means much less waste."

"I would think that an organic farm in the rural parts of our county would be a very appealing neighbor," Webb said. "It sounds like it could be a nice asset to the community, [and] without livestock there is a whole class of potential pollutants that are out of the picture."

As for the proposed farming site's proximity to Rolling Knolls, Webb said, "the community should be concerned about and very attentive to the Superfund site," but she does not consider herself qualified to comment on the connection between Rolling Knolls and the proposed site of the Bucuks' farm.

To become a certified organic farm, the Bucuks would need to apply through the state. They would have to show that no chemicals have been used on the land for the last three years. Abby Fair, a former mayor of Chatham Township and previous owner of the Bucuks' residence, has signed an affidavit attesting that no chemicals were used on the property for the past three years.

"They come and send out inspectors once a year," Mike Bucuk said.

The area has been used as farmland in the past, but never to sell commercially on a large scale. Some residents reportedly had roadside stands, but most used the produce they grew to supplement their families and exchange with their neighbors.

"The area’s been sprayed for pesticides," Templin said, questioning if the Bucuks' property can meet the qualifications for organic farming. "You've got the Superfund site, you've got a polluted brook. ... What if they don’t get certified? How can you sell the [produce] if you can’t get certified?"

Jeff Donnelly, of the Morris Mosquito Extermination Commission, said he has been with the commission for 34 years in various capacities. He currently serves as chief inspector and said "as far as adulticiding, we don't do anything in Chatham Township on the Green Village side."

Adulticiding is spraying chemical pesticides to target and kill adult mosquitoes. Larviciding is treating the waters to kill mosquito larvae, which Donnelly said is the preferable method to control the mosquito population.

"It's easier ... [because] you know they're there, in the water," Donnelly said. "Once they're flying around, it's difficult because you don't know where they are. I mean, we do it, but we haven't been doing it in that part of Chatham Township."

Donnelly could not give a specific date for when the last time the Green Village area was sprayed with adulticiding chemicals. He said he remembers spraying the River Road area of Chatham Township within the last two years, but said he cannot remember any time that the Green Village part of Chatham Township was treated for adulticiding.

Even larviciding, he said, has been minimal this year. "That's mostly in the spring, but it's so dry now we don't really do anything," Donnelly said.

From Here

A subcommittee in Chatham Township, comprised of Mayor Nicole Hagner and Deputy Mayor Bob Gallop, is currently exploring different ways to allow residents to farm, one that officials stress would not apply to the Bucuks alone.

Committee member Bill O'Connor said the committee will try to balance the needs of those like the Bucuks who would like to operate small farms on their property and sell their produce and the wishes of neighbors like Templin, who say the "pastoral" atmosphere of Green Village would be ruined by farms in the area.

"Everybody should understand, the way we look at this is a farming ordinance for the town," O'Connor said. "It is not an ordinance just for the Bucuks. It needs to deal with it in a way that works for anybody else who wants to run a farm, so it needs to not have a lot of loopholes."

Hagner said she does not anticipate having anything to present on the proposed ordinance before September. After that time, the ordinance will need to be approved by the Planning Board before it can go to the committee for final adoption.


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