Despite three major Delaware River floods in the past 13 months, the Department of Environmental Protection is reneging on promises to revise rules that would make it tougher for developers to build in flood-prone areas, environmental groups charged.
Representatives of the Sierra Club and New Jersey PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) accused the DEP of intentionally stalling new building restrictions to give developers more time to build.
“Every day of delay for fixing these rules means hundreds of permits go out for developers to build in areas that flood, and they shouldn’t be allowed to build,” said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.
The DEP has proposed readopting its existing Flood Hazard and Stream Encroachment Rules while it works on revising the guidelines. The DEP’s Vincent Mazzei Jr. said the agency was unable to finish drafting new guidelines before the old ones were to expire and was reissuing the existing rules as a stopgap measure. It hopes to have more stringent standards published before the end of the year, Mazzei said.
Flooding in the past 13 months has caused millions of dollars in property losses. Damage to private and public property from the floods in early April topped $50 million.
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