It will always be an unresolved debate of where exactly you can point to the division between North and South Jersey.
Is it the magical dividing line of I-95 or the nebulous lines where sports affiliation changes from Giants and Jets to Eagles?
One dividing line that we should not be able to draw is differing standards of environmental protection.
Unfortunately,
there's a clear geographical imbalance for waterways that receive one
of the highest levels of protection under state law.
And you guessed it — South Jersey gets the short end of the stick.
This is partially a response to the region's geography.
Until
2002, New Jersey protected some of its most pristine rivers based
primarily on whether they were trout reproduction waters, shellfish
waters or in park lands.
But South Jersey's sandy soil means that
our local rivers are more acidic — and hence our waterways are less
often havens for trout fish.
This protection, though, is not merely for trout fisherman.
It
comes from a provision of the Clean Water Act called antidegradation,
which allows states to protect waterways before they become polluted.
In
New Jersey, the protection — termed Category One — means that waterways
can't become measurably degraded and that the state should protect
waters that are of "exceptional" water supply, ecological or
recreational significance.
The best thing about Category One
protections is that they actually have strong teeth against the largest
source of water pollution in New Jersey — polluted runoff from big
development.
The most significant component of these protections
— a 300-foot buffer from new large-scale development around Category
One waterways — was upheld earlier this year by the courts in
unequivocal language against a challenge brought on by the New Jersey
Builders Association.
These buffers keep overdevelopment from ruining our most pristine waterways.
And
if there's one dubious measure by which South Jersey outmatches the
rest of the state, it's for an unchecked increase in overdevelopment,
especially along the Jersey Shore.
Twenty-eight percent of the
state's growth in urban land between 1995 and 2000 occurred in only
four counties: Ocean; Monmouth; Atlantic; and Cape May.
That's why South Jersey's remaining pristine waterways, including the Toms River, need to receive these protections.
On
Nov. 1, Environment New Jersey — with the Pinelands Preservation
Alliance, Save Barnegat Bay, the American Littoral Society, New Jersey
Audubon Society, Sierra Club and New Jersey Environmental Federation —
filed a petition with the State to upgrade the Toms River.
Three
years ago — and two governors ago — the DEP identified the Toms River —
as well as scores of others — as candidates for increased protection.
And, as we stated in our petition, now is the time to finally act.
A
2001 Rutgers University land-use report places the Toms River watershed
within a "hot spot" for the growth of impervious surfaces.
More impervious surfaces mean less of the land that rivers need to filter out runoff pollution.
And
more polluted runoff means we're harming the river's ecology, polluting
a major recharger of the region's aquifer and contributing to more
beach closings.
The Toms River and its tributaries recharge the
Kirkwood-Cohansey, Magothy, and Piney Point aquifers, which supply much
of the region's drinking water.
These aquifers lie very close to
the surface of the ground, making them especially vulnerable to
contamination by pollution, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service study.
Yet, despite the region's rapid growth, the upper segments of the Toms River still remain relatively undeveloped.
Less
than 5 percent of the land in this area is covered by impervious
surfaces, providing a strong opportunity to protect the quality of the
river's water.
The riparian corridors are healthy, supporting threatened and endangered species like the osprey and the Northern pine snake.
As
importantly, the Toms River supports a robust population of water bugs
known as macro-invertebrates — the river ecologist's version of the
coal miner's canary.
These are all good signs for those who paddle and fish in the Toms River, too.
Given
the great resource we have in the Toms River, it's easy to see why we
need action before the banks of the Toms River become overrun by strip
malls and subdivisions.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine and the state
Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson have
the authority to put Category One protections in place.
In doing so, they would do a lot to preserve one of South Jersey's most deserving waterways for generations to come.
ETHAN LAVINE
Environment New Jersey
