| TRENTON
– Attorney General Stuart Rabner announced
today that the State has successfully defended
before an appeals court its refusal to issue
a permit that would have enabled home construction
on a tract of environmentally-fragile wetlands
in southern New Jersey.
According to Rabner, a three-judge Appellate
Division panel upheld an earlier decision
by the Department of Environmental Protection
Commissioner to deny a general permit to
Samuel L. Doyal. Doyal had sought to build
a single-family home on a wetlands parcel
he owns in West Cape May, Cape May County.
The Appellate opinion was made public today.
Deputy Attorney General Jane Engel handled
the appeal for the State.
In rejecting Doyal’s 2003 application
for a permit, the DEP concluded that New
Jersey law prohibits the issuance of a general
permit for a regulated activity on any wetlands
that discharge into a surface water tributary
system. The wetlands tract at issue drains
into a storm water system, which in turn
empties into Cape Island Creek, a tidal
stream that ultimately discharges into the
Atlantic Ocean.
“This
decision represents an important upholding
of wetlands protections by the court,”
said Attorney General Rabner. “In
ruling as it did, the court validated the
State’s initial reasoning in denying
the permit application – namely that
the clear intent of the law is to prevent
development on wetlands that discharge into
surface water tributary systems.”
“Coastal
wetlands are among our most ecologically
productive natural resources and our most
fragile,” said DEP Commissioner Lisa
P. Jackson. “The court's decision
strengthens our determination to use every
means available to protect our environmentally
sensitive wetlands from the adverse effects
of development and safeguard the quality
of New Jersey's water resources.”
>> Wetlands
Decision (56k pdf) plug-in
|
