By Joanne Pannone • Central Jersey Group Chair
Fred Stine, citizen action coordinator of Delaware Riverkeeper, led Trenton-area nonprofit representatives on a driving tour of the Assunpink Creek from where it travels under city streets in Trenton to its headwaters in Monmouth County. We visited the Hetzel Pool rain garden, which reduces stormwater runoff, and also a brownfield reclamation in a floodplain.
Another site was Sweetbriar Ave. in Hamilton Township, where Synnergy sought to build a solar farm on a 40-acre, partly wooded lot with flooding issues. Sierra Club, Riverkeeper, and community advocates successfully convinced the township that this was not in the best interest of the residents of Cornel Heights along the Assunpink. The project scope was reduced from 12.5 acres of forest lost to 7 acres.
Our last stop was at Homestead on Kuser Road in Hamilton, where stormwater miscalculations caused flooding in Veterans Park.
On this tour, my role as a Rutgers-certified Environmental Steward and Green Infrastructure Champion was to share my local knowledge of the Assunpink stream system. Chapter members Stan Greberis, Joe Testa, Gary Frederick, and family members also attended.
When we build and clearcut our natural landscape, we alter the water flow. One inch of rain on 1 acre of parking lot produces over 27,000 gallons of water. Rain gardens help replicate the natural water cycle. When rainfall exceeds absorption capacity, the Assunpink floods neighborhoods that were built too close.