In 2013 through 2015 Money Island Marina went through an intensive internal training
, planning and implementation program under the guidelines of the NJ Clean Marina program. It took us many hours and cost thousands of dollars but the resulting change in operational procedures was well worth the effort. This program led us to cleaner and more sustainable business practices. It also provided benefits to other stakeholders.
In the spring of 2015 we completed our final on-site inspection for certification with program Director Mike Danko. After some months when we did not receive the promised plague indicating completion of the program
, I called the program administrator. He said that the program had run out of funding and he hoped that funding would be restored.
Now, three years later the program is still apparently still unfunded and idle. The web site is still up but hasn’t been updated in these past few years. Our application is still pending.
At the July 2018 NJ Sustainability Summit I had time to consider our position on this and made a decision to promote the NJ Clean Marina program in hope of drawing public attention to the fact that this program despite our marina’s status.
In August 2018 the program administrator for the state of New Jersey said that NJDEP has blocked our acceptance into the program but refused to name the official who took this action. We believe that this is part of a larger series of moves taken by the NJDEP to specifically target this Money Island marina community. We are now working with our elected officials on a legislative solution. Unfortunately the NJDEP has a long history of murky internal governance and avoidance of influence by elected government.
Love to join