A Clean Water Agenda

Strengthen Protections for Drinking Water Sources

• The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) should upgrade the protective status of drinking water reservoirs, reservoir feeder streams, and water upstream of water supply intakes.

Clean Up the State’s Most Polluted Waterways

• Set limits on the amount of pollution that industry and sewage plants can discharge into our waterways to protect public health.
• Implement cleanup plans for all of New Jersey’s 1,042 impaired water segments within five years.

Force Sewer Plants to Reduce Pollution

• Mandate environmental reviews of all sewer plants that want to expand their operations. Reviews must include an impact of the expansion on drinking water and endangered species.

Stop Overdevelopment from Threatening Our Water

• Ban new or expanded sewer service in environmentally sensitive areas.
• Designate buffer zones around reservoirs and water supply sources.
• Prohibit highway building along rivers.

Ensure An Adequate Water Supply

• Require sewer treatment plants to return treated water to the natural water cycle.
• The DEP should implement policies to ensure development does not outpace growth.

Toxics Cloud NJ’s Waters

Toxic discharges into New Jersey waterways more than doubled between 1995 and 1998.

Surface Water Discharges:
1995: 2.5 Million Pounds
1998: 6 Million Pounds

Source: EPA's Toxic Release Inventory System using 1995 core chemicals and original industries with SIC codes 20 through 33.

Case Study: Health At Risk

The problems in North Haledon demonstrate the importance of both strengthening protections for drinking water sources and forcing sewer plants to reduce pollution.

Worried about suspected cancer-causing chemicals in their tap water, public officials in North Haledon shut school drinking fountains in two elementary schools last fall. For three years, the level of trihalomethanes (TTHMs) in North Haledon’s water has exceeded the current EPA standard of 100 parts per billion (ppb), with levels rising as high as 139 ppb. Recent studies of the effects of TTHMs on human health have led the EPA to set a new, lower standard of 80 ppb. The agency is also reviewing the current health literature and considering lowering the standard even further. TTHMs are a suspected carcinogen, associated with miscarriages and liver, kidney, and central nervous system disease.

TTHMs are formed when chlorine, used by drinking water companies to kill pathogens found in sewage, combine with natural matter in source water. North Haledon’s water source, the Passaic River, is heavily polluted by sewer plants, with 90 percent of its flow coming from sewage treatment plants in summer months.

The levels in North Haledon are symptomatic of a problem faced by communities statewide. Last summer, TTHM levels as high as 194 ppb were found in water tests in Fair Lawn, Patterson, and Lodi. Morris County’s water was at 98 ppb, and Newark’s level was 93 ppb.

Watersheds In Danger

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) evaluated each of the nation’s watersheds based on a variety of indicators, including current water quality and risk of future problems. The EPA’s conclusions are dramatic:

• Compared to other states, New Jersey has the highest rate of watersheds with "more serious water quality problems."
• The quality of 57 percent of New Jersey’s watersheds has declined from 1997-99, while only 14.3 percent have improved.
• All of New Jersey’s water regions are highly vulnerable to further declines in water quality.

Source: EPA. For more information about the health of your watershed, go to www.epa.gov/surf.

Do You Have Clean Water?

To find out, visit our NJWaters page.

This Web site enables you to quickly access information about the quality of waterways in your area. The first page of the Web site includes a color map of New Jersey. Once at the map, you can click onto your specific area to gain access to information including:

• Which watershed supplies water to the area where you live, a description of that watershed and the major rivers and streams contained in your watershed.
• Specific information on the water quality of individual rivers and streams.
• The types of pollutants in local waterways and their potential health impacts.

Our Polluted Waters

With a toxic legacy of chemical factories and manufacturing coupled with enormous suburban growth and development, New Jersey’s waterways are too polluted.

Too Much Pollution

• 85 percent of the state’s waterways are too polluted to swim or fish in.
• New Jersey’s sewage treatment plants collectively discharge 1.1 billion gallons of wastewater into our waters everyday.
• Drinking water for more than 2.8 million New Jersey residents is drawn from polluted waters.
• 1,042 segments of New Jersey waterways are known or suspected to be in violation of Clean Water Act water quality standards.

Too Little Protection

• The DEP currently proposes to allow sewer plants to discharge an additional 300 million gallons a day, without requiring an environmental analysis of the impact of that discharge on water quality.
• Under New Jersey’s water protection classifications, waterways used for trout production receive the highest level of protection, while most drinking water sources receive the lowest.

Overdevelopment Poses A Growing Threat

• New Jersey’s rapid growth threatens water quality. In areas where new development is the most dense, runoff is the leading source of water pollution.

Dwindling Water Resources

• In areas with the most rapid growth, development has outpaced water supply, causing serious shortages.
• Last year, sewer plants in Ocean County discharged 19 billion gallons of water into the ocean, rather than returning the water to the natural water cycle.

About The Defend New Jersey’s Water Campaign

The Defend New Jersey’s Water Campaign is a joint effort of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association, the New Jersey Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs, the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the Sierra Club, New Jersey Chapter, the Environment New Jersey Law & Policy Center, and many other statewide and local organizations and New Jersey residents.