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On April 20th, 2023, DEP enforcement officers cited Three Putt, LLC with two violations based on evidence that the former country club was pumping water, clay, and silt from their onsite irrigation ponds into a tributary of Blacks Creek located on a neighboring property without the appropriate dewatering permits. The citations were issued to Three Putt LLC, the group that still owns the property known as the former Old York Country Club and were signed by Dave Wheeler, a Three Putt LLC representative. 

On the evening of 4/19/2023, an initial call was made by witnesses including a property owner at 102 Bordentown-Georgetown Road to the DEP reporting a concern that there was a spill occurring in the tributary that flowed into Blacks Creek. The DEP advised that the Local Fire Department to be contacted immediately,  which was done. Prior to the Fire Department making it on scene, a Chesterfield Police Department Officer responded and referred in his report that he witnessed an unknown black substance flowing. Upon the Fire Department’s arrival, they also reported witnessing the flowing black substance and made a request for a representative from the Burlington County Health Department to come out to the scene, then they moved on to investigate if the substance was coming from the former Old York Country Club. The BCHD official also noted witnessing the same flow of black substance and made note in the report that:

“Ponds at the old york country club had pumps running, discharging water and sediment into nearby waterway.” And “They (meaning the CTFD)  cannot contact property owner or construction group (Active Acquisitions) to find if this is permitted or not. They may attempt to shut down the pumps until confirmation can be made that it is permitted. 

In New Jersey water cannot be discharged anywhere without a DEP permit to do so. Additionally, removing soil, silt or clay from an area also requires testing and permitting for removal. Old York Country Club, Three Putt, LLC or Colliers Engineering, the engineers contracted by Active Acquisitions to remove the soil from a pond liner had not applied for these permits.

The following morning the property owner reported that while the flow of the black substance had slowed it was continuing to flow from the direction of the OYCC.  The DEP investigation officers arrived on the property known as the former OYCC investigated the incident, noted the discharging of water from the irrigation ponds on the property and the removal of mud and sludge from the same. Photos of the  report, as well as the Notices of violation were included in the report from the DEP investigation and can be accessed here DEPNoPH.pdf (chesterfieldtwpnj.gov) 

“In the report the DEP investigators commented, 

“As reported by the representatives of Old York Country Club (“Old York”) and confirmed by the Department representatives (“Department”), Old York was pumping out one of the irrigation ponds and discharging the water onto the ground surface into the adjacent woods (“operations”).

The operation began about 9:00am, Monday 4/17/2023 and ceased on or about 10:45am Thursday, 4/20/2023.

The pump rating was determined to be 2,290 gallons per minute based on the manufacturers placard posted on the Pump. However, the actual discharge rate could not be determined. 

Old York also reported to the Department they (Old York) had land applied soil/sediment from the pond from their property adjacent to the pond. 

Two Notices of Violation were issued to Old York. One for violating the NJ Water Pollution Control Act and one for violating the NJ Water Supply Management Act. “

While it is noted that the DEP investigators did not witness any of the sludge flowing in the creek when they went to the neighboring property it was approximately four hours after Old York ceased pumping. Incident reports from the Chesterfield Police Department, the Chesterfield Fire Department and the Burlington County Health Department all confirm sightings of the black substance flowing into the neighboring property tributary. Additionally, the residents on the neighboring property had photo and video documentation of the black substance flowing on the evening of 4/19/2023 and the morning of 4/20/2023.

Notably, the Township Administrator visited the Old York Property twice on 4/20/2023 and had conversations with Active Acquisitions representatives prior to the DEP investigators arriving and returned after their arrival to begin the investigation. Mr. Sahol did not go to the incident reporting sight on the neighboring property nor did he acquire and review incident reports by the Chesterfield Fire Department or the Burlington County Health Department prior to providing comments on the incident to the members of the Chesterfield Township Committee. Additionally, he did not go to the neighboring property to investigate the incident where it was reported and only spoke with those residents in passing at a community event four days past when the incident was initially reported. The township administrator represented the incident at a township meeting as a non-event, despite the two violations received and did not feel that the issue of dumping on the neighbor’s property without prior approval and proper permitting approval was something that the township could enforce and suggested that it was a civil matter.