Wetlands

The Upper Southampton Township Planning Commission has been asked by the Board of Supervisors to review the ordinance protecting wetlands. The review, however, has been put on hold until the Planning Commission decides on a definition of wetlands and determines why wetlands should be protected. On Monday night, the commission reviewed wetlands-protection proposals drafted by the Office of Policy of the state Department of Environmental Resources (DER) and the Bucks County Planning Commission.

Soon the Five Ponds Golf Course here will have an additional "pond," after the township pays to restore two acres of wetlands that were destroyed when the course was built in 1988. At its 7:30 p.m. meeting tomorrow, the township Board of Supervisors will vote on a resolution to advertise for bids for the project, said Bill Hess, township manager. It will probably cost the township a "couple hundred thousand dollars" to restore the wetlands, Hess said. At the meeting, Township Engineer Bill Major will present a review of the project to the board, Hess said.

One of the many legal issues holding up construction of the Blue Route had been concern over losing wetlands. Since the colonists came to America, more than 50 percent of the country's natural wetlands have been destroyed. Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rigorously controls projects that affect wetlands areas. "Wetlands are a very vital natural resource," said A. Ingrid Ratsep, a biologist with Urban Engineers Inc. in Philadelphia, one of three companies doing environmental work along the Blue Route.

In an extraordinary assertion of executive power, Gov. Kean boldly defended the environmental sanctity of New Jersey's wetlands Monday. Hurrah for that. But it may be that he was a bit too bold. There is no question that New Jersey's wetlands require protection. Wetlands are marshy lowlands. They replenish groundwater supplies and thus are essential to maintaining sufficient drinking water. They are therefore critical to New Jersey's economy and food supply. They help prevent flooding by storing storm-water runoff.

Moorestown school officials have asked state environmental officials for permission to build an addition to the South Valley School in a wetlands buffer area. A state permit is needed because the plan calls for two classrooms and a computer room to be built within 150 feet of a protected wetlands area, according to Jim Staples, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection. To obtain the permit from the DEP, school officials must show that there is no practical or cost-efficient alternative to building the addition as planned.

A proposal to construct a covered bridge across wetlands to avoid tough state regulations received tentative support from the Uwchlan Board of Supervisors Monday. But, according to state environmental officials, developer Lewis J. Brandolini 3d would still need a wetlands permit to build a 115-foot-long bridge as the main entrance to the 510-unit Williamsburg development on Norwood Road. Brandolini originally wanted to build a boulevard slightly north of the proposed bridge, but said he abandoned the idea after learning that he would have to go through a lengthy process to obtain a permit to build a road on wetlands.

Former Southampton Township supervisor Estelle Brager says that when she first moved into the township 40 years ago, the population was about 1,500 and the countryside consisted of mostly farms and woodland with small bodies of unpolluted wetlands - lakes, ponds, marshes and the like. However, according to Brager, today's township population averages about 16,000, with only "200 acres of undeveloped land left. " So, as vice president of the Bucks County Conservancy, a conservationist group, she helped persuade the township Planning Commission last week to adopt a motion that urges the township Board of Supervisors to strengthen an ordinance designed to protect wetlands.

A West Chester-area sportsmen's club filed a federal lawsuit against a business park in Exton yesterday seeking to have restored the wetlands that were altered on the property. The West Chester Fish, Game & Wildlife Association and its president, M. John Johnson, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against Oaklands Business Park and its owners, James J. Gorman and Christopher Knauer. Robert B. McKinstry Jr., an environmental lawyer representing the sportsmen's club, said the suit was filed under provisions of the federal Clean Water Act and the Pennsylvania clean-streams law, both of which allow private citizens and organizations to take court action to protect wetlands.

Wetlands, wetlands everywhere, but can a house be built? About 15 residents attended a Lower Moreland Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday to make sure that houses would not be placed on a tract that many say is wetlands. Developer Fred Betz & Sons hopes to build four houses in an undeveloped woodland in the 300 block of Pepper Road at Sugarmill Road. The problem is that much of the parcel is wet and other areas are covered with mounds of dirt from nearby construction.

A federal grand jury yesterday returned a 14-count indictment against a Bucks County landowner, alleging a long pattern of polluting a 14-acre wetlands area in Falls Township. It was the latest, and strongest, government action against John Pozsgai, 56, of Morrisville, who already has been fined $5,000 for ignoring a federal court order to halt dumping and land-filling activities. The grand jury charged Pozsgai with violations of the federal Clean Water Act from July 1987 through this month.

By Michael P. Nairn Even as residents of Southwest Philadelphia's flood-prone Eastwick neighborhood face the consequences of another major storm, city officials are considering a zoning change that would lead to the construction of more than 700 apartments there. Bordering Darby Creek and Cobbs Creek, Eastwick is located on a floodplain, an inherently unstable and shifting landscape. Moreover, it's downstream of the Clearview and Folcroft Landfills, which are federally designated Superfund sites.

The electronic billboard that flashed to life near the Margate Causeway in April, a half-mile from Richard and Debbie Levitt's backyard, took the couple's breath away. "This thing came towering up from the salt marsh . . . like a giant movie screen, changing every eight seconds," Richard says. "It was horrible," Debbie adds. The Northfield residents, both 65, have successfully sued to get the plug pulled - temporarily, at this point - on the action-packed LED light show.

Murky storm-water ponds, ugly waste-water lagoons and threatened wetlands may soon find a friend that helps them look and feel better. The tonic appears in the form of small floating islands filled with beneficial plants that help improve water quality, curtail erosion, and benefit wildlife. In southeastern Virginia, these grant-funded islands have been planted and are being studied and evaluated at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia Institute of Marine Science at Gloucester Point, Virginia Zoo in Norfolk and Elizabeth River sites.

Bush joins vets on 3-day bike ride FORT WORTH, Texas - Former President George W. Bush accompanied 20 wounded veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on his second annual 100-kilometer (62-mile) mountain bike ride through Palo Duro Canyon State Park outside Amarillo, which concluded Saturday. Retired Marine rifleman Eric Elrod, 29, said he had never met a president until the three-day Warrior 100K. "To meet any commander in chief is a big deal, but especially cool to meet your commander in chief who was in office at the time you served," Elrod said.

WASHINGTON - Mike and Chantell Sackett wanted to live on scenic Priest Lake in Idaho but couldn't afford to. So they bought a residential lot across the road that offered a distant view of the water, cleared the land, and put down gravel. But instead of building their dream home, the Sacketts found themselves enmeshed in a four-year legal battle with the Environmental Protection Agency over whether their dry lot is protected "wetlands" and possibly off-limits for building. On Monday, the Supreme Court will take up the Sacketts' case, not to redefine wetlands but to decide whether landowners are entitled to a hearing before a judge when confronted by the EPA. The case is being closely watched by developers and environmentalists.

New Jersey has received a $1 million federal grant to protect ecologically sensitive wetlands in Cape May County that are home to many species of migratory birds. The state Environmental Protection Department will use the money to buy five parcels totaling 140 acres in Middle Township. They will be added to the 17,000-acre Cape May Wetlands Wildlife Management Area. That site includes land between the Garden State Parkway and the barrier islands. The area provides habitat for one of the most significant concentrations of migratory birds in the world, including the red knot, nesting water birds, water fowl, and rare plants and animals.

Prominent Burlington County farmer James Durr is in trouble with the government - again. A federal grand jury last month indicted Durr, 55, for allegedly making false statements to authorities and "taking" at least one bog turtle. The turtles are native to New Jersey and have been federally protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1997, largely due to habitat loss. The alleged acts against the species, scientifically known as Clemmys muhlenbergii, occurred on Durr's Turtle Creek Farm in North Hanover.

Four years ago this weekend, Hurricane Katrina, a Category 3 storm, caused massive destruction along the Gulf Coast from central Florida to Texas. Much of the damage was caused by storm surge, which destroyed infrastructure and damaged critical refineries. It also contributed to levee failures, flooding homes and small businesses on a scale that stunned even the most jaded hurricane watchers. The severity of Katrina's damage in Louisiana was caused, in part, by the fact that the state had already lost one-third of its original wetlands - about 2,000 square miles - an area larger than Delaware.

Lynne Shivers delighted in her discovery much the way Walt Whitman had gladdened at the droning of bumblebees and the widening whistles of the russet-backed thrushes along Big Timber Creek more than a century earlier. "I was just relaxing and had a collected works of Whitman sitting next to me," said Shivers, whose Deptford house overlooks wetlands along the creek. She read: "And I walked along the Big Timber Creek . . . " "Wait a minute," Shivers exclaimed to herself. "That's the creek outside my window.

To the right of the desk in M. John Johnson's second-floor home office stands a cherry cabinet housing his nine shotguns. To the left hangs a photograph of liberal actress Linda Evans giving him an award at the White House. In the middle, a window opens onto gently sloping farmland framed by trees in the distance. It was a threat to this view 20 years ago - a new owner's plans to build 150 houses - that first brought out Johnson's latent activism. He organized hundreds of neighbors in East Bradford Township, found a buyer willing to pay more to sit on the land as an investment, and gave the developer a choice: Sell now for a modest profit, or face fights and delays every step of the way. The builder took the money.