By Jason Raab - Lead Compliance Manager, Atlantic Region // 2021-09-08
- Wetlands protect drinking water by filtering out chemicals, pollutants, and sediments that would otherwise clog and contaminate our waters.
- Wetlands soak up runoff from heavy rains and snow melts, providing natural flood control.
- Wetlands release stored flood waters to streams during droughts.
- Wetlands provide critical habitats for a major portion of the State's fish and wildlife, including endangered, commercial and recreational species.
- Wetlands provide high quality open space for recreation and tourism. (New Jersey)
When planning a new community it is common practice to work around the wetland and properly protect it. This protection usually involves greater BMP protection than your typical perimeter control such as reinforced silt fence, double row silt fence etc. It is also important to inform and enforce contractors to not drive through or impact these wetlands in any way.
In New Jersey you may need to obtain a separate permit for Freshwater Wetlands. As the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection says, “An individual permit review is for activities having substantial wetlands impacts, and seeks to eliminate and/or reduce impacts through an alternatives analysis. “Substantial impacts” means a regulated wetland disturbance does not fall into one of the standard general permit or transition area waiver categories (for “minimal” disturbance activities). (New Jersey)
As member of the construction community, it is important we are properly preserve our wetland resources no matter where we live.
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection https://www.nj.gov/dep/landuse/fww/fww_main.html