Despite past defeats, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers once again has determined that The City of Burlington NJ, Burlington Island is the "ideal" place to deposit thousands of tons of sludge from the bottom of the Delaware River.

This independent branch of the Army intends to use contractors to clear-cut 40 acres of Island forest (1/10 of the Island). Denuded, those areas of the Island will no longer support life, but be subject to erosion and then smothered in tons of mud. 

The preparation for dumping dredge spoils on the Island then will use additional acreage (along the Eastern border of the Island's 100-acre freshwater lake) as a dump site for the resulting mass of trees and branches. This rotting mass of rank vegetation is intended to take place upon State-owned land, around the perimeter of the Island. That includes the most visible part of the Island.

At some undetermined point in the near future, the USACE intends to dredge up silt and mud, (despite testing, likely laced with refuse, tires, combustion byproducts and heavy metals), to deepen the navigable channel that permits ships to reach factories, distributors, trash dumps and trash-burning facilities along the shores as far north as Trenton Falls.

How do we know this will occur sooner, rather than later? Because, the forest will reclaim the slashed land in as little as a few years. It is evident that USACE and NJ Department of Environmental Protection would rather dredge-and-dump in the near future, than repeat the cost of deforestation. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lists Navigation among its Civil Missions. It operates and maintains 12,000 miles of commercial inland navigation channels.
Doing so, it dredges more than 200 million cubic yards of construction and maintenance dredge material annually. The Corps is charged to provide safe, reliable, efficient, and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation systems (channels, harbors, and waterways) for movement of commerce, national security needs, and recreation.

But, the USACE also lists Environmental Quality among its Missions, with a commitment to, "support sound environmental stewardship". Their own website lists missions to implement an estuary habitat restoration strategy. And, they brag about being the Nation’s number one federal provider of outdoor recreation.

Since the State of New Jersey has, through riparian rights, preserved use of Burlington Island for educational and recreational purposes, we find this use of the island as a dumping ground for acres of polluted, infertile mud, silt and clay...

• to be at odds with the City's best interests to one day develop the Island for the benefit of the schools;

• to flout the State of New Jersey's intent for the use of the Island for the common good;

• to be harmful to the indigenous wildlife (including bald eagles and other protected species);

• to certainly deforest areas of the Island that will be smothered in impenetrable filth;

• to potentially create odiferous wasteland that will stink up nearby neighborhoods of homes, churches, and possibly even the struggling dowtown;

* and aesthetically spoil the view from the City's Riverfront Park, a Green Acres preservation plot established in part by the State of New Jersey, the eldercare community along the riverbank, and Curtin's Marina and other commercial enterprises.

Given any or all of the preceding reasons, the decision to proceed with undue haste to despoil this last remaining urban wilderness, left in trust by Quaker settlers, is dangerous, willful and ignorant of the needs of the City of Burlington citizenry, the will and commonwealth of the State of New Jersey. The City, State and Federal representatives must unite to prevent the triumph of convenience over the preservation of vast potential.

By signing this, I hereby petition all interested parties to halt the deforestation and destructive dredge dumping on Burlington Island long enough to consider other, better means of dredge tailings disposal. I insist that the public has been denied due process in this matter that consumes tax dollars yet ignores the public will.