Cox Hall Creek will be partly flooded with salt water to control phragmites. Photo by Jack Fichter

VILLAS — A project to remove Phragmites reeds from Cox Hall Creek by bringing in saltwater from Delaware Bay is closer to a start date.

A hydrology study from Hatch Mont MacDonald Lomax Consulting is continuing and will determine how much saltwater should flow into the creek, according to Brian O’Connor, a Geographic Information Systems Specialist with the county Planning Department.
He said the next phase of the study would determine how many pipes should go under the dune to Delaware Bay as well as their size, to bring in water from the bay. The pipes will have tide valves as controls.

The hydrology study will also determine how much saltwater is needed to kill the phragmites which are considered an invasive plant.

Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority personnel will be trained and be responsible for operating the control valves. If a hurricane was expected here, opening the valves at low tide could empty the creek, said O’Connor.

“They can actually control the amount of saltwater going in there to literally within an inch or two of elevation which has to be that way because some of the properties are built right on the marsh,” he said. “They are working on that model which will lead to the actual design of the culvert underneath Clubhouse Road.”

The last hurdle is getting the approval of a few remaining landowners whose property is adjacent to the creek, said O’Connor.
If a homeowner’s shallow well becomes salty due to the flow from the bay into the creek, Lower Township is responsible to drill new wells or provide public water for property owners, he said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife is willing to take over the entire project, said O’Connor.
Last year, the federal Division of Fish and Wildlife and National Resource Conservation Service offered to oversee and find over $4 million to restore Cox Hall Creek, due largely to the federally endangered plant, Swamp Pink, growing there.

Stakeholders in the project have been meeting with the state Department of Environmental Protection Land Use Division including the Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, National Resource Conservation Service, NJ Fish and Wildlife, Green Acres, County Mosquito Commission, Cox Hall Creek Focus Group, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

At an April 9 meeting with DEP, an extension to July 2009 was requested to get all needed permits.
O’Connor said New Jersey Fish and Wildlife determined berms will not be necessary to protect upper wetlands because tidal flow can be controlled to within a couple of inches. He said saltwater would only flow into a portion of the creek basin and freshwater wetlands would be protected.

The idea is to bring back native grasses like Spartina. He said the plan is to bring Cox Hall Creek back to a natural saltwater marsh.
O’Connor said the restoration would not resemble Green Creek were tidal valves were opened wide producing a kill off of trees. He said a few trees would be lost at Cox Hall Creek but could be replaced with more salt tolerant trees.
An old MUA pump station will be removed.

Contact Fichter at (609) 886-8600 ext 30 or at: jfichter@cmcherald.com.