Millstone needs a better COAH plan

With due respect to Millstone's Council On Affordable Housing (COAH) committee, the submission of Millstone's sole plan to New Jersey COAH on Dec. 30 is flawed.

Without doubt, Millstone Township and the other several hundred state municipalities were not provided enough time, and [went] without proper guidelines from the COAH state commission to submit an affordable housing plan that is realistic, reasonable, and viable to each municipality's affordable housing requirements. That said, Millstone's plan needs to be revamped.

There are several problems with the plan, but there is one major flaw that affects us all in Millstone, now and in the future — the inclusion of installing a package sewer treatment system. Not only is it disallowed in the town's master plan, but it has the potential to cause devastating results from its operation. The system's potential output based on the designs submitted for the number of housing units, business, warehouse and office space, could be as much as 450,000 gallons per day.

Where is that volume of waste going to go? Considering that the area designated for this system is between Route 33 and the Indian Point housing development, it will be adjacent to wetlands, the Millstone River and numerous shallow homeowner wells. It is inconceivable that this is the only solution that our Township Committee and Planning Board approved for submission. What lays ahead for Millstone's future if a system like this is installed? Who pays for the contamination that will surely spread to the nearby potable wells? Who pays for the backup system that is required to be installed when this system fails? And, who pays for the upkeep and maintenance of this system? We do, the taxpayers of Millstone.

How soon will it be that business developers in town will see this as a way to install other systems for their needs and can anyone say for sure that it won't happen and become a reality? Let's not open Pandora's box for others to take advantage of and let's not change the town's master plan. There's still time for our town officials to come up with a better plan. It's incumbent on all of us to speak to our officials and object to the proposed package treatment waste system.

Scott DeMonte

Millstone