The Lawrence Township Council has come out in opposition to a planned sewer line through Colonial Lake Park that would potentially threaten several specimen trees in the park.
The Township Council adopted a resolution at its March 18 meeting stating its opposition to installing a new sewer line – as proposed by the Ewing Lawrence Sewerage Authority – through a section of the park and called for placing it in another location.
ELSA’s plan calls for installing the sewer line near a grove of trees in Colonial Lake Park, in an area opposite Winchester Avenue and Polk Avenue. Green plastic flags have been placed in the park to outline the sewer line’s route.
The Friends of Colonial Lake Park nonprofit group estimated that as many as four or five trees – located between the walking path and the lake – could be affected. The group is calling for the sewer line to be relocated.
The new sewer line is needed to accommodate new development in Ewing Township. It would connect to the ELSA sewage treatment plant on Whitehead Road in Hamilton Township.
Tom Ritter, the president of the Friends of Colonial Lake, told Township Council that there are many beech and oak trees in the park that are at least 100 years old. The sewer line would go through a sensitive area of the park that includes the trees.
Installing the sewer line as proposed by ELSA would mean trenching or drilling several feet deep to accommodate it, which could threaten the health of the trees that are a signature asset to the park, according to the Friends of Colonial Lake Park.
“We feel there is a reasonable and workable solution that avoids the sensitive area and at the same time offers ELSA an equitable solution,” Ritter said. “It is for the sewer line to exit the park before entering the environmentally sensitive area.”
The alternate route suggested by the Friends of Colonial Lake Park would run out of the park and onto Polk Avenue. At the end of Polk Avenue, it would turn left onto Lakedale Drive.
A wavier would be needed from the New Jersey Green Acres program, however. The sewer line as proposed by ELSA would be installed in an easement granted by the Green Acres program.
