Will Holmdel Drinking Water Be Jeopardized?

A Township Committee meeting scheduled days before the Thanksgiving holiday is normally expected to be quiet and short.  Instead, the meeting developed into a new environmental battlefront.  At issue is the discharge of wastewater on the former Vonage property for six months out of the year into Willow Brook, which feeds into the reservoir for drinking water for more than 300,000 Monmouth County residents, including Holmdel.

Prologue

For the past two years or so, the Township Committee has been working towards a redevelopment plan for the former Vonage property located at Main Street (Route 520) and Holmdel Road.  The concept plan calls for a 299-unit senior living, assisted living/memory care and skilled nursing complex.

At a special meeting that took place on November 10, 2025, Vonage redeveloper continued its application for the plan before the Holmdel Planning Board.  So many residents attended the meeting, the Planning Board opened up the back wall to accommodate more residents in the entry foyer of the building.

Novembre 25^th Township Committee Meeting

Perhaps in anticipation of residents voicing their concerns about the Vonage redevelopment plan, the Township Committee added a specific item on the agenda at its November 25^th meeting for a discussion/update on compliance with affordable housing mandates, which includes the Vonage redevelopment.

The Township Committee explained Holmdel’s current affordable housing requirement and that the Vonage redevelopment will add 31 units plus a bonus credit of 15.5 towards its latest requirement of 106 units.  The Township Committee also mentioned that the Vonage Ad Hoc Committee examined various options and felt that the CHA/23 Main Street redevelopment plan offered the best option given the circumstances.

The Devil is in the Details

At the time the Vonage redevelopment plan was introduced in 2024, it was noted that the plan is a “concept” and it was specifically mentioned that Holmdel residents would have the opportunity for public comments about the project when it comes before the Planning Board, when details of the project will be shared.

However, in what appears to be circular logic, the developer’s representatives have repeatedly mentioned to the Planning Board that its application for the development is “compliant” with the redevelopment plan, implying that the Planning Board should approve the project on this premise.

It is only when the application for the project came before the Planning Board did various details became known.   Specifically, at the November 10^th Planning Board meeting, the redeveloper presented its plan for wastewater management, which was only to refurbish or upgrade the equipment in the existing wastewater treatment system to be “grandfathered” under existing permits from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

It has no plan to bring the wastewater management to be in compliance with current code and standards.

The existing wastewater treatment system and associated permits, installed back in 1977, are almost 50 years old.  The current DEP permits allow the wastewater to be discharged directly to the Willow Brook that feeds the Swimming River Reservoir that provides potable water to Holmdel and other Monmouth County residents.

For the other six months of the year, the wastewater is fed into a lagoon to allow the wastewater to evaporate into the air and percolate into the ground.  During this phase, it is also allowed to spray the effluent through a sprinkler-like system to certain parts of the property when evaporating and percolating are not sufficient.

At the Planning Board meeting, questions were raised by residents and many were not satisfactorily answered.

Planning Board member Wes Fagan stated that the DEP records show it found 19 violations out of 25 inspections since 2000.  He questioned who would bear responsibility if the wastewater management system failed.  The redeveloper’s attorney noted that they do not have to post any performance bond to satisfy any equipment or plant failure.

Fagan noted that something must have gone wrong with the original design for the DEP to allow effluent to be directly discharged into the stream for six months of the year.  To make matters worse, there has not been any percolation test to see if the lagoon is currently functioning properly.  The redeveloper’s wastewater management expert could not answer the question when asked if he knows or is aware of any new development using the existing Vonage wastewater management design.

Two weeks later, Fagan, a member of both the Holmdel Planning Board and Holmdel Environmental Commission, took the unusual step of voicing these concerns as an individual on a personal basis at the November 25^th Township Committee meeting during the public comment session.

An important point of discussion was the fact that the existing wastewater management system is limited, by DEP permit, to handling 40,000 gallons per day.  There is some question whether this is sufficient capacity to handle the wastewater for the 299-unit project.

As a retired professional with expertise in flow meters, Fagan noted that the current drawing has no mention of existing flow meters or any new flow meters to measure the gallons coming into or leaving the wastewater treatment plant.  In other words, how do we know how much wastewater is actually being handled?  In addition, there are monitoring well symbols in the legend but no monitoring wells were shown on the plan.

The lagoon, which holds the wastewater for evaporation and percolation, would no longer be allowed under the current standard that requires a 300-foot conservation easement.  In addition, Holmdel’s development regulation requires a 150-foot buffer to any Hop Brook tributary, while the plan shows the buffer to be only 100 feet.

Last, but not least, Fagan noted that the redeveloper has not granted permission to the Holmdel Environmental Commission’s request for a site visit, saying these concerns are outside of the jurisdiction of the Planning Board.

They say the devil is in the details.  There are many questions raised regarding Vonage’s very old wastewater management design and the clear danger of contaminating our drinking water for current residents and future generations.

The fact that the Holmdel Township Committee has not required the redeveloper to upgrade the wastewater management system to current standards may be one of the questions that needs to be answered.  Presumably, it could require it as part of the redevelopment agreement, which is an arm’s length agreement negotiated by two willing parties.

The hearing for the Vonage redevelopment will continue at the next Planning Board meeting on December 16^th at 7 PM.

Stay tuned.  Now that more details about the Vonage redevelopment plan are known and questions raised, it will be interesting to see how the Township Committee will react.

See also the interesting video on Vonage’s wastewater management: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMoR47Vk/