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Executive Summary
NJPIRG Law and Policy Center’s report New Jersey’s Watershed Health Report
Card: The Case for a Stronger Clean Water Program, written by Clean Water Advocate
Dena Mottola, presents data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) documenting that New Jersey has failed to restore and protect the health of its
rivers and streams. As a result, New Jersey’s watersheds (the land area that drains all
local waterbodies, affecting their flow, water level, and pollution level) are the most
unhealthy and most threatened watersheds in the nation.
Clearly, the condition of New Jersey’s watersheds is not surprising, given that the
state is the most densely populated and most industrialized in the nation. The challenges
that New Jersey faces to protecting our waterways only serves to underscore the need for
a stronger clean water program. In response to these challenges, this report concludes
that New Jersey’s clean water program must be the strongest in the nation, and act as a
model for other states.
About five million New Jersey residents drink water drawn from the surface waters of
the state. Failure to protect our watersheds has real consequences, putting New
Jerseyans’ public health at risk from unsafe drinking water, and unsafe recreational use of
waterways for fishing and swimming. This report makes the urgent case that significant
improvements to New Jersey’s clean water program must be made immediately.
The report’s major findings include:
· 42.9% of New Jersey’s watersheds, the greatest percentage in the nation, have
received the EPA’s worst possible watershed health score, compared with only
1.7% of the nation’s watersheds.
Six New Jersey watersheds received the lowest score. They are: the
Cohansey – Maurice (DE/NJ), the Crosswicks-Neshaminy (NJ/PA), the
Hackensack-Passaic (NJ/NY), the Lower Delaware (NJ/PA), the Mullica-
Toms (NJ), and the Sandy Hook-Staten Island (NJ/NY) watersheds.
These watersheds not only have serious water quality problems, but are
also considered by the EPA to be highly vulnerable to even further
declines in water quality. · 92.9% of New Jersey’s watersheds are highly vulnerable to further declines in
water quality, compared with 5.6% nationally.
Only one New Jersey watershed, the Delaware Bay (DE/NJ/PA), is not
highly vulnerable to a decline in water quality.
The watershed health scores for 57.1 % of New Jersey’s watersheds have declined
from 1997 – 1999, compared to only 10 % – 13% nationally. Only 14.3% have
improved (the remainder stayed constant).
Eight New Jersey Watersheds declined in water quality from 1997 - 1999.
They are the Delaware Bay (DE/NJ/PA), the Hackensack-Passaic (NJ/NY),
Lehigh (NJ/PA), the Lower Delaware (NJ/PA), the Middle Delaware-
Mongaup-Brodhead (NJ/NY/PA), the Middle Delaware-Musconetcong
(NJ/PA), Roundout (NJ/NY), and Sandy Hook-Staten Island (NJ/NY).
The report addresses five points. First, this report presents the EPA ‘health’
scores for each of New Jersey’s fourteen watersheds. The scores are based on the latest
and most comprehensive data available about both the current quality of New Jersey’s
waterways and the factors that threaten to put our watersheds at risk of even further
health declines in the future. Secondly, the report provides a comparison of New Jersey’s
scores with the scores of all the watersheds in the nation. Third, it includes a comparison
of New Jersey’s scores with the scores of other states that, like New Jersey, face serious
water quality problems. Next, the report presents both the current and past scores for
each New Jersey watershed, in order to show trends, either towards improved, sustained
or declined watershed health. Finally, the report presents recommendations for policies
that would strengthen New Jersey’s clean water program.
The NJPIRG Law and Policy Center recommends these policy changes to address
water pollution in New Jersey:
· Strengthen protections for drinking water supplies and other key waters -- Provide
these waters with the same level of protection (classification upgrades) current
New Jersey regulations only afford to trout streams;
· Stop overdevelopment from threatening our water -- Ban new or expanded
wastewater systems in areas that are both major water supply watersheds and of
natural significance that contain endangered/threatened species or exceptional
scenic value;
· Clean up the State’s most polluted waterways -- Set water quality based standards
(WQBEL’s) on dischargers, and implement clean-up plans (TMDL’s), within 5
years;
· Force sewer plants to reduce water pollution -- Apply comprehensive
environmental (anti-degradation) reviews to existing, and new, sewer plants and
lines; and
· Ensure adequate water supply -- Review the adequacy of the local water supply
for all proposed development in areas with low water supply, including a study in
the State's Atlantic coastal counties on depletive/consumption uses and shifting away from current practices that fail to adequately recharge local waterways and
aquifers.
These recommendations, if adopted by the Administration, would place the State
back on a course toward meeting the Clean Water Act's mandate to "enhance, maintain,
and restore the physical, chemical and biological integrity of the nation’s waters".
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