Lake Rogerene turned brown after stormwater runoff escaped the nearby construction site for The Villages housing development in RoxburyPhoto Credit: Drone photo by Frank Lombardo
Lake Rogerene from abovePhoto Credit: Drone photo by Frank Lombardo
Aerial view of The Villages housing development being built in Landing section of RoxburyPhoto Credit: Drone photo by Frank Lombardo
Aerial view of The Villages housing development being built in Landing section of RoxburyPhoto Credit: Drone photo by Frank Lombardo
Aerial view of The Villages housing development being built in Landing section of RoxburyPhoto Credit: Drone photo by Frank Lombardo
Beach section of Lake Rogerene after runoff contaminated lakePhoto Credit: Drone photo by Frank Lombardo
Lake Rogerene turned brown after stormwater runoff escaped the nearby construction site for The Villages housing development in RoxburyPhoto Credit: Drone photo by Frank Lombardo
PublishedApril 13, 2022 at 11:25 AM
ROXBURY, NJ – In what one area resident called an “environmental Armageddon,” dirt from a massive construction project in Landing was washed away by recent storms and ended up in Lake Rogerene, leaving the water brown and lake lovers livid.
The runoff came from the 161-home housing development called The Villages at Roxbury now being built off Shippenport Road in Roxbury, about a quarter mile away from Lake Rogerene, according to residents and officials. Some homeowners in the lake community, which lies mostly in Mount Arlington, angrily demanded action at Tuesday’s meeting of the Roxbury Mayor and Council.
Among them was Lake Rogerene Civic Association Trustee Paula Danchuk, who brought aerial photos showing the condition of the 9-acre lake before and after last week’s heavy rains. The drone shots showed a once-clear lake turned to opaque tan by the storm runoff.
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“We thought we had things in place that would protect Lake Rogerene,” Danchuck told the council. “But, obviously, it’s not working.”
The Villages at Roxbury project - including stormwater runoff prevention - was approved in 2007, but work didn’t begin until last year.
Early Morning Phone Call
Roxbury Township Manager John Shepherd said he was made aware of the situation late last week, noting the runoff came from heavy rain that started last Thursday evening. “Everybody who lives here knows how heavy that storm was that occurred, certainly not a common storm for us,” he said. “But it was a heavy storm. We have those.”
Shepherd said he was alerted to the problem at about 7:30 a.m. Friday by Mount Arlington Borough Administrator Carolyn Rinaldi. “She let me know there was a problem, and it needed to be looked at,” he said. “I let her know we’d look at it immediately.”
A consulting engineer for Roxbury went to the site as did inspectors from the Morris County Soil Conservation District (MCSCD), the agency that enforces the state Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Act. Shepherd said the MCSCD, by 11 a.m. Friday, told the contractors building The Villages “what needed to be repaired.”
He said the inspectors found that “something wasn’t properly blocked, one of the outlet structures, or it just broke loose due to the volume of water.” Shepherd said the broken system has been repaired, but he noted the MCSCD also “recommended some additional measures along the outlet … to provide additional controls for any sedimentation.”
'Like An Open Strip Mine'
Mount Arlington Borough Councilman Andrew Cangiano, a Lake Rogerene resident, attended the Roxbury council meeting and confirmed that “everybody jumped right on” the matter as soon as they were alerted.
“It’s a very unique situation,” he said. “You have a very, very large construction site … It’s like an open strip mine. It’s just a huge, huge project.”
Cangiano said the soil erosion prevention system that broke during the storm was little more than “an old piece of plywood” and he stressed that “the results were catastrophic.”
He called for “some redundancy … a little resiliency” in the project’s runoff prevention. “Because if the one piece of plywood breaks free in another heavy storm, we don’t know what the effects of this is going to be on the lake. We just can’t afford another break,” Cangiano said.
Roxbury Mayor Jim Rilee said he was “a little surprised” that the MCSCD allowed The Villages at Roxbury builders to have vulnerable erosion prevention systems in place. “They’re usually a pain in the butt sometimes with what they require,” he commented.
Rilee asked that research be done to see if The Villages at Roxbury's escrow account can be used to help remediate the situation. The Villages at Roxbury is being built by Stone Water Holding, a preferred developer for Ryan Homes. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.
During the meeting’s public session, Lake Rogerene resident Andrew Danchuck tried to express the seriousness of the matter, noting that the lake is “the centerpiece” of the Lake Rogerene community.
“It’s gorgeous,” he said. “And it’s being ripped apart right now. What happened here: The Villages committed environmental Armageddon against Lake Rogerene. It’s beyond horrific what’s happening.”
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