New Milford council forms seven-member committee to advise EPA on Hackensack River Superfund work

Mayor Patrino said the borough will participate in upcoming U.S. Environmental Protection Agency meetings about the Hackensack River and lower Hackensack River Superfund sites and proposed creating a local community-involvement panel to provide feedback to EPA staff.

"We are going to put together a CIP committee. It'll be a committee of seven people and we will meet with the EPA and we will provide our feedback," Patrino said during the council meeting. He said the EPA has contacted residents who previously signed up and is scheduling meetings in July to solicit input on project expectations and community needs.

The council moved to appoint a seven-member committee that will include the mayor, Councilwoman Sam Houston, Sharon Hillmer, a representative of the Flood Mitigation Committee, a representative of the New Milford Public School District, Vince Cahill, and a representative from the Environmental and Energy Commission. Patrino said a member of the committee will reach out to the EPA to coordinate scheduling; the committee will hold a 30- to 45-minute interview with EPA staff and report back to council on the topics and questions raised.

The item is advisory: council members described the committee as a vehicle to collect local priorities and concerns to feed into the EPA’s community-involvement plan. No regulatory action was taken by the council at the meeting; rather, it approved the committee membership and authorized staff to arrange the first contacts with the agency.

The next step, Patrino said, is for committee members to meet with EPA representatives in the coming weeks and return to the council with a summary of community feedback and any recommended next steps.