Clean Water News

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

NJPIRG praised Gov. Jim McGreevey’s announcement today of a proposal that identified over 4,000 miles of rivers and streams in New Jersey as candidates for increased water protections. The proposal is part of Gov. McGreevey’s efforts last Earth Day to comprehensively protect the state’s high quality waterways that serve as drinking water sources and provide habitat for threatened and endangered species.

Since 2001, NJPIRG has urged the governor to follow through on his pledge to increase protections for the state’s high quality waterways. The current proposal encompasses waterways all across the state, looking at watersheds with drinking water sources comprehensively and incorporating data on impervious cover and threatened and endangered species. The proposal would potentially double the current protections for high quality waterways across the state.

"This announcement continues to fulfill the governor’s mandate: increase protections around pristine waterways that will curb uncontrolled development," said Douglas O’Malley, NJPIRG’s clean water advocate. "These proposals, for the first time, look at the whole watershed to protect our drinking water. It’s not rocket science – we need to offer the highest standards of protection for drinking water sources in this state."

The proposed upgrades, officially known as Category One, will ensure that there is no measurable increase in water pollution. The protections will ensure that there are buffer zones around pristine waterways that will limit new development and tighter standards on new or existing sewer lines and industrial pollution. NJPIRG will advocate for strong implementation measures of these new protections.

The proposed waterways will now undergo public comment before some of them are officially proposed later this spring. NJPIRG will advocate that the DEP include other rivers in the state that provide critical drinking water and move quickly to officially propose some of these waterways.

"The DEP has launched an ambitious list of waterways for consideration," O’Malley said. "However, there are still some important waterways that have not been proposed, and we will continue to work with the Department and the public to get protections for all of the state’s critical drinking water sources."

Last Earth Day, Gov. McGreevey announced Category One protections for nine of the state’s largest drinking water reservoirs and six pristine streams as the first part of the initiative. The reservoirs serve over 3.5 million state residents and include Wanaque, Round Valley and Manasquan Reservoir. He officially proposed these waterways for increased protections in October, and NJPIRG is advocating these new protections be adopted by this Earth Day, one year after they were proposed. The public comment period was extended for one month, and officially ended on February 17, 2003.

"It is important that these new proposed candidates do not overshadow the fact that the state still needs to adopt the new protections for the first 15 waterways proposed," O’Malley said. "These waterways are still unprotected and that will not change until the rules are officially adopted."

Currently, there are pending sewer discharge permits on some of the proposed waterways. The DEP is considering a sewage discharge permit from K. Hovnanian Co. to discharge 88,000 gallons of daily sewage into the Sidney Brook in Union Township from a proposed development, Milligan Farms. If the new protections are granted to the Sidney Brook, the developer would have to meet a much higher standard for the planned sewage discharge. The upgrading of the South Branch of the Rockaway Creek would also place a much higher standard on the plans for a Pulte Homes development, Windy Acres, in Clinton Township.

At the hearings in December on the proposed waterways, NJPIRG presented over 10,000 postcards as pieces of official public comment that support the governor’s initiative and have been collected from all over the state. Over 70 mayors have signed onto the Save Our Waterways campaign, calling on the DEP and Gov. McGreevey to strengthen protections for the state’s pristine drinking waters sources. In addition, over 60 local and statewide environmental groups have urged the governor to sign strong new protections.

During last year’s Earth Day press conference, the governor also promised to enforce these new protections throughout the state’s water rules. NJPIRG strongly supports the new stormwater management rules, which include a 300-foot buffer for Category One waters, and is urging the DEP to integrate these new protections throughout the state’s regulatory framework, including ground water, water allocation and septic rules.

"These are smart protections to encourage smart growth," O’Malley concluded. "We need to give increased protections to our drinking water sources and we need to stop encroaching development from coming right up to the banks of our pristine rivers and reservoirs." For more background on the Governor’s water initiative, please refer to last year’s Earth Day press release http://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/governor/njnewsline/view_article.pl?id=690