STATE OF NEW JERSEY
220th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2022 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator CHRISTOPHER J. CONNORS
District 9 (Atlantic, Burlington and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Appropriates $26,140,000 for dredging projects and dredged material disposal projects related to navigational waterways.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning the dredging of navigational waterways and other waterways of navigational importance in the State and making an appropriation.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environmental Protection the sum of $22,140,000 for the purposes of dredging, and properly disposing of the dredged materials from, the following projects involving dredging of navigational waterways or related to the disposal of dredged materials therefrom:
Waterway Estimated Project Cost
Double Creek and
Highbar Harbor Channel, Ocean County $1,700,000
Smiths Creek, Middlesex County $ 400,000
Bidwells Creek, Cape May County $ 300,000
Waackaack Creek, Monmouth County $ 800,000
Upper Manasquan, Ocean County $1,200,000
Shark River Back Channel, Monmouth County $1,200,000
Rumson Dredge Spoils
Disposal Site Stabilization $ 500,000
Waretown Creek, Ocean County $ 400,000
Lakes Bay, Atlantic County $ 1,400,000
Beaver Dam Creek South Branch, Ocean County $ 500,000
Cedar Creek, Ocean County $ 450,000
Sunset Lake, Cape May County $ 840,000
Harvey Cedars North and South, Ocean County $ 900,000
Kettle Creek, Ocean County $ 500,000
Laurel Harbor/Oyster Pond Channel, Ocean County $ 450,000
Federal/State ICW Study $1,600,000
Kinsey Cove Channel (Harvey Cedars),
Ocean County $ 600,000
Liberty Harbor $ 350,000
Loveladies Harbor Lagoons Entrance $ 800,000
Mill Creek and West Thoroughfare $1,600,000
Mud Channel (Barnegat Bay) $1,200,000
Parkertown Creek $ 750,000
South Branch of Forked River $1,100,000
Westecunk Creek (Eagleswood) $ 1,200,000
TOTAL $22,140,000
2. There is also appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Environmental Protection the sum of $4,000,000 for the purposes of dredging, and properly disposing of the dredged materials from, the following projects involving dredging of waterways of navigational importance for recreational and residential boating in the State that have not been officially designated as navigational waterways:
Hancy's Pond, Forked River
Manahawkin Creek
Veeder and Bayview Lagoon
Mystic Island Lagoons
O Street Lake Lagoon, Seaside Park
Skippers Cove Beach
Sunrise Beach, Forked River
Thompson Creek, Tuckerton
Tide Pond Creek.
3. The Department of Environmental Protection shall apply any unexpended monies from the appropriations made pursuant to this act to the cost of dredging other navigational channels in the State.
4. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill appropriates $26,140,000 for the purposes of dredging, and properly disposing of the dredged materials from, certain navigational waterways, projects related to the disposal of dredged materials from such dredging projects, and the dredging of other waterways of navigational importance that are not designated as navigational waterways. The dredging projects of navigational waterways outside of the New York/New Jersey port region have gone unfunded for many years and the situation has reached a critical stage. A number of the projects on the list of navigational waterways in the bill are State priority projects that the State has been unable to fund from the "Port of New Jersey Revitalization, Dredging, Environmental Cleanup, Lake Restoration, and Delaware Bay Area Economic Development Bond Act of 1996," P.L.1996, c.70, because the remaining monies for this type of dredging have been committed to the Delaware River deepening project, another important and crucial navigational waterway dredging project. The projects funded by the $4,000,000 appropriation are of importance to residential and recreational boating.