Rep. Rush Holt, who joined Fox on the tour, said he would look into residents' concerns. The tour also included a stop at a Superfund site on Route 29 in Kingwood Township. A number of chemical spills were reported in 1973 and the property was placed on the Superfund list in 1984. The cleanup ended three years ago and shortly afterward the Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance moved its office there. Kingwood Committeeman Stephen Rawlyk said the community was happy with the cleanup process.
Residents are protective of the environment here.
As the buzz saws began whirring earlier this month, the Beveridge family, who have lived on a leafy private road here for the past three decades, were forced to concede that they had lost, despite having spent thousands of dollars on environmental consultants and attorneys to prove that the land contained valuable wetlands that should have been left undisturbed. Dyal needed the assessment, her attorney said, to sell the property. Without a permit to fill in the wetlands, it would have been impossible to build a house on the six-acre lot, he said. An environmental advocacy group based in the area disagreed, however, arguing that the wetlands on the lot were in fact part of a system of streams and other wetlands in this former potato farming region and, therefore, important habitat. The Beveridges had contended that their study showed water from the property flowing through a drainage ditch and through a series of underground pipes to nearby Horse Run creek.