By Lisa Coryell
Hopewell Township resident John Maguire looks out from his backyard over Honey Lake.
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP — News that the state and federal government are planning to pull the plug on scenic Honey Lake, even as the township and area homeowners work to save it, has elected officials here issuing an edict: Leave the dam thing alone!
In a resolution adopted by the township committee last week, members formally objected to plans to decommission the lake’s dam, which has been deemed hazardous by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The vast water body is home to plants and animals, improves local property values and helps recharge area wells, the committee said.
“We want the state to know that we, as well as the homeowners around Honey Lake, are very sincere about not wanting this lake to be decommissioned,” said Mayor Jim Burd. “We think the funds they’re planning to use to decommission the dam should be used instead to restore it.”
A hydrologist report solicited by the township recently asserted that losing the lake could cause big problems for the local aquifer and the wells that tap into it.
“We can’t afford to take any risks with that lake,” said Committeewoman Vanessa Sandom. “We really need to do what we can to preserve the dam and the lake.”
Township Administrator Paul Pogorzelski says the resolution is designed to send a frank message to the DEP and the federal National Resource Conservation Service, which oversees funding for such projects.
“We want them to stop them from considering a removal of the dam because that’s the path they’re on now,” he said. “We’re working with the neighbors to find a way to restore the dam and save the lake and they keep saying ‘Decommission the dam, decommission the dam, decommission the dam’ and it’s frustrating.”
Honey Lake dam, built in 1964, is one of six small dams on Stony Brook constructed to halt the flow of silt into Carnegie Lake in Princeton. While the dam is in no imminent danger of collapsing, it recently was designated a “high hazard dam” by the state Department of Environmental Protection due to construction of homes in its downstream flood plain in the decades since it was built.
An original sponsor of the dam was the Mercer County Soil Conservation District, but that sponsorship is set to expire in 2013, leaving the dam orphaned.
Last winter the state told the township that if the dam isn’t shored up soon, the state will decommission it and drain the lake, leaving the once beautiful lake a running brook amid marshland. The cost has been estimated at between $2 million and $4 million.
Since then the town and the homeowners have been trying to figure out a way to fund the project. Months ago they were told that federal funds were available if a public entity like the township or the county would take ownership of the dam. But last month the township was told that Honey Lake no longer qualifies for funding to restore the dam, only to decommission it. The state told the township months ago that it had $1 million to put toward the project but that amount has since been reduced to $500,000 Pogorzelski said.
“Every time we start talking about a potential solution we’re told there’s no money or less money than we believed,” he said. “They indicate that they’re seeking to decommission the dam and take it down in the next fiscal year. We’re working toward finding a way to keep the lake with the homeowners funding it and these guys keep throwing hurdles in our way.”
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