Over
the last 35 years, the Clean Water Act has helped make significant strides to
clean up New Jersey’s
rivers, lakes and streams. But today, many of our most majestic waterways—from
the Delaware and Raritan
Rivers, to the Passaic,
Musconetcong, and Toms
River—still suffer from
industrial pollution and run-off contamination from overdevelopment. New
Jersey’s ground water is also threatened by pollution
from underground storage tanks and contaminated sites, even though much of the
state depends on ground water for drinking.
Environment New Jersey is advocating
at the state and federal level for strong new protections for waterways and
underground aquifers. These include mandating development-free buffers around
waterways and well-heads where ground water is piped to homes, and limits on
pollutant discharges into water sources.