By JAN BARRY, Staff Writer
Oct. 31, 2000 (The Record)—A leaky, cracked sewer pipe in Paterson. Runoff tainted with lawn chemicals in Oakland. The leachates from horse manure in Morris County.
It all adds up to a pollution problem still plaguing North Jersey more than 20 years after the federal Clean Water Act ordered the nation's waterways made clean enough for people to swim and fish.
A campaign to finally address pollution caused by everyday runoff in a big swath of the region was kicked off Monday with speeches, a ceremonial check to the agency that operates the state's largest reservoir system, and an appearance by Miss New Jersey.
The campaign is aimed at improving water quality across the Passaic River Basin, which encompasses all of Passaic County, large portions of Bergen and Morris counties, and parts of five other counties.
The ceremonial check from the state Department of Environmental Protection represented a $1.15 million contract to the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission. The public water utility is to develop a watershed management plan for the 935-square-mile basin, whose rivers, reservoirs, and underground aquifers provide water to more than 3 million residents and hundreds of businesses.
Jill Horner, the reigning Miss New Jersey, gave a demonstration with a table-top model watershed that is used to educate schoolchildren about water pollution caused by runoff tainted with engine oil, farm and garden pesticides, lawn fertilizers, animal waste, and other items flushed into storm sewers.
"The lesson the children come away with is that the best way to keep your water clean is not to pollute it in the first place," Horner said.
A different sort of note in the day's positive tone was struck at the same time in Trenton on Monday: As the crowd of about 100 state officials, local officials, and activists celebrated the launching of the regional campaign in Wanaque, a DEP proposal to revise its clean water regulations was faulted as too lax by the state Assembly, which was meeting in Trenton.
The DEP is seeking to revise its watershed protection rules to curb development in environmentally sensitive areas. It proposed to loosen regulations to induce development in urban and suburban areas that have waste-water treatment plants with excess capacity.
In response to a 76-0 Assembly vote, Governor Whitman said Monday that her administration will work with legislators and other critics to fashion stronger watershed protection regulations.
In Wanaque, Environmental Commissioner Robert Shinn said the Whitman administration and the legislature have committed $6 million this year to launch watershed planning projects in 20 areas of the state. A major part of these projects, he said, will be to develop a public education campaign like that which created public support for recycling.
"Without individual education and cooperation, we can't get to where we want to be," Shinn said. "This effort is to make New Jersey a better place to live, work, and raise a family."
The DEP enforces federal environmental protection laws, one of which sets a goal of making waters clean enough to swim and fish in. The Passaic and many other North Jersey rivers have improved in recent years with the closing of smokestack industries, cleanups of toxic dumps, and construction of advanced waste-water treatment plants.
However, storm water runoff containing what officials refer to as "non-point source pollution the accumulation of pollution from small, everyday sources still causes elevated levels of pollutants in many areas, especially during rainstorms that overwhelm waste- water treatment facilities.
As a result, few streams in the region are clean enough for swimming, and many have advisories against eating fish caught there.
In creating a watershed management plan, the water utility is to work with various other government agencies, sewage-treatment plant operators, and such citizen groups as the Passaic River Coalition.
The management plan is to address how to persuade people in 137 towns and cities to help clean up sources of polluted runoff in an area that encompasses the 71-mile-long Passaic River and its numerous tributaries, including the Whippany, Rockaway, Pequannock, Wanaque, Ramapo, Pompton, and Saddle rivers. The region stretches through Morris, Passaic, and the western part of Bergen County and portions of Somerset, Sussex, Union, Essex, and Hudson counties.
In accepting the DEP contract, Michael E. Restaino, executive director of the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, said, "We're making a promise to the future, to our children, that they will have a cleaner environment with pure water to drink and adequate water to power our economic growth." Commission Chairman Robert B. Coyle said he hopes that people 50 years from now will appreciate the work this campaign aims to accomplish.
Staff Writer Jan Barry's e-mail address is barry(at)bergen.com
© 2000 The Record, Northern New Jersey via Bell&Howell Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.
