Clean Water News

As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release.

TRENTON—As the new Governor's administration starts to set its priorities for the coming year, state environmentalists gathered at the State House today to release a list of "New Jersey's Top 30 Waterways To Save." The group called for the highest level of protection under the Clean Water Act, with what they called "Priority Status," for these waterways, because they all

1. serve as drinking water sources,
2. provide critical habitat for New Jersey's endangered and threatened species, and
3. the land surrounding these waterways is threatened by development.

The waterways include over 10 of the state's largest reservoirs, and parts of the Delaware, Hackensack, Passaic and Raritan Rivers, as well as six key rivers in South Jersey. (See a full list of the top 30 waterways below.)

"There should be places in New Jersey that are protected with a big 'hands off' sign from developers. We cannot purchase every acre around these waterways in the entire state of New Jersey. We need clean water regulations that protect these areas from inappropriate development and the subsequent non-point source pollution," said Douglas O'Malley, Clean Water Associate at New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG).

The Clean Water Act mandates that the state establish a program that protects pristine waterways from degradation by giving them the highest level of protection. Under the Act, these waterways cannot be measurably degraded in any way. Since 1986, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has underutilized this provision, upgrading waterways primarily because of the commitment of the state's Division of Fish and Wildlife's to protect trout reproduction streams. Over that time, only a handful of waterways were upgraded, including only one of the state's 14 largest drinking water reservoirs that, in total, provide water to over 3 million state residents.

"Development not only threatens water quality, it also threatens water quantity. Unless we move to protect these rivers, these rivers will not only be polluted, but we will see droughts made worse, putting the water supply for the people of New Jersey at risk," said Jeff Tittel, Executive Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

The highest level of protections under the Clean Water Act include:

• The establishment of buffer zones around waterways where no development is permitted to reduce non-point source pollution into the waterway
  
• Regulate non-point pollution the way we regulate point source, through the New Jersey Pollution Discharge Elimination program. In the case of Priority Waterways, any level of non-point source pollution that would measurably degrade the quality of the waterway would not be permitted under the program. The NJDEP already applies this protection to a select number of waterways within public lands.
  
• Limiting new or expanded sewer lines in areas around these waterways to reduce the amount of discharge from sewer plants into the waterway
  
• Require industrial and sewer plant dischargers to conduct environmental studies to ensure that any discharge will not measurably degrade water quality

"It's time we faced up to our problems with water quality and supply. Increasing protection for key waterways - giving folks the same protection as trout -is a critical and common-sense step we can take right now. A threatening situation has already been made worse - we can't afford to wait any longer to make it better," said David Pringle, the Campaign Director with the New Jersey Environmental Federation (NJEF).

Recent studies have found repeatedly that there is an urgent need for increased protections for waterways from non-point source (run-off) pollution and development:

• Water quality declined by 25 percent from 1993 to 1998 at five sites on the Walkill River in Sussex County near communities where two-thirds of Sussex County's 3,959 new houses were built in the last decade. (NJDEP and U.S. Census data)
  
• Between 1982 and 1997, the amount of developed land rose by 34 percent in New Jersey, making New Jersey the most developed state in the nation.
  
• Non-point source pollution was just as significant a contributor to declining water quality as point sources in 63 percent of the sites tested and a more significant factor in 16 percent of the sites tested. (NJDEP, 2000)
  
• From 1997 to 2000, 57 percent of New Jersey watersheds have declined in quality and nearly all New Jersey waterways are vulnerable to even more decline in the future. (EPA, 2001)

Billing the campaign as "Save Our Waterways," representatives from Defend New Jersey Waters, the state's top environmental coalition, include NJPIRG, the New Jersey Sierra Club, NJEF, NJ State Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs and the Jersey Coast Angler's Association (JCAA). The effort is part of a larger five-year effort to protect state waterways by reducing industrial and sewage discharge, limiting over-development and implementing clean-up programs for polluted waterways.

"We must not only protect trout and trout streams but all the fish-containing waters of the state. People should be able to drink the water and safely consume fish from any lake or stream in New Jersey - without worrying about all the advisories," said Tom Fote, Legislative Chairman of the JCAA.

Currently, development creates the type of pollution commonly referred to as non-point source pollution. Non-point source pollution is run-off that flows over land areas, picking up contaminants as it flows on its way into the nearest waterway. The more developed a land area is, the more pollution that running water picks up.

"Pollution from uncontrolled development threatens the quality of our water in more insidious ways than pipes discharging industrial waste," Mr. O'Malley said. "Despite its degrading effect, we cannot see it. But just because we cannot see it directly does not mean we cannot stop it. We need to crack down on non-point source pollution that degrades our water quality and the encroaching development where it originates."

New Jersey's Top 30 Waterways To Save

The U.S. Geological Survey released a report last year, citing a direct relationship between suburban and urban development and decreasing water quality. The study, Water Quality in the Long Island - New Jersey Coastal Drainages: New Jersey and New York, 1996 - 98, concluded that ground water in the Coastal Plain of New Jersey has the highest median nitrate concentrations ever documented by the agency's nationwide monitoring program. The Coastal Plain, once an agricultural land area, is now under rapid development and nitrates have accumulated from multiple sources: agriculture, sewer plant discharge and run-off, to add up to the most nitrates ever documented in ground water by the USGS.