People have a complex
relationship with water. We swim in it and recreate on it, fish from it and withdraw
huge amounts from rivers and coastal waters for industrial use and drinking
water. At the same time, we discharge millions of gallons of wastewater right
back into those waterways and waterbodies. Continued population and development
pressures, coupled with the present and future impacts of climate change,
threaten the quality and abundance of this most essential resource. Unfortunately,
New Jersey has done a poor job in planning and regulating these issues. As a
result, NJ is losing hard won progress and is actively backsliding on water
quality protections.
This past year was one of the
driest on record for New Jersey, with nearly one-fifth (located mostly in Central
and Northeastern) of the state classified in a moderate drought and nearly 90
percent of the state listed as abnormally dry.[1]
These low water levels stress ecosystems and drinking water supplies. This ‘trend’
extends back several years, and, with the ever more apparent effects of a
warming climate, foreshadows a new normal. As our own NJDEP has stated, “[d]espite
a trend toward more precipitation, the Northeast is seeing longer periods
without rainfall and longer growing seasons. The result is a drier growing
season, especially during the summer months, when temperatures and
evapotranspiration are highest. This summer’s drying trend is exacerbated by
reduced recharge from spring snowmelt. New Jersey has experienced one severe
water-supply drought (2001-2002) and three minor ones (2005, 2006 and 2010) in
the last decade.”[2] Even
now, the NJDEP Drought Information website shows “a Drought Watch remains in
place in the Northeast, Central, and Coastal North Water Supply Regions. .
. Substantial rainfall will be needed over
the coming months to restore water supply reserves in preparation for the
high-demand season that beings in May.”[3]
Yet, NJDEP has neglected the critical tasks of inventorying and managing this precious
resource, as the current Water Supply Master Plan (WSMP) is 20 years old and 15
years overdue, despite widespread protest and opposition from elected officials
and environmental organizations.[4]
The WSMP inventories the amounts of
surface and underground drinking water in the State and compares it to the
amounts withdrawn for residents, business, power production, and farming in
order to achieve a balance between development, water withdrawals, and
environmental health. Overdevelopment and an expanding population creates more
impervious surface, which inhibits rainwater from percolating into the ground
to recharge aquifers and increases water withdrawals, putting our groundwater
resources at risk.[5] Without
a master plan in place, New Jersey could face severe water shortages into the
future.
Furthermore, building in low lying
areas, much of which acts as a buffer to absorb run off and storm surge, should
be discouraged due to climate change impacts of sea level rise, extended dry
periods (which dry out soil and decrease its ability to absorb rain) followed
by heavy rain events, and increased frequency of storm events.[6]
Yet, in the past year, New Jersey has amended two essential sets of regulations
protecting critical coastal and riparian areas that buffer and protect communities
from flood waters and absorb nutrients and pollutants before they reach waterbodies.
NJDEP consolidated a patchwork of coastal development regulations and
‘streamlined’ it into what is known as the Coastal Zone Management Rules
(CZMR). These changes enable even more development in vulnerable coastal areas
through a myriad of measures, including easing the process for getting waterfront building permits
and enabling larger upland development in the coastal zone.[7]
The Flood Hazard Area Control Act (FHACA) establishes buffer distances for
streams and rivers, and addresses how we develop in these riparian and coastal
areas. These regulations have also been ‘streamlined, which in effect, removes
protective waterway designations, and allows increased and unmonitored
development in essential riparian, coastal, and wetland habitat.[8]
NJDEP is also in the process of ‘updating’
its Water Quality Management Planning regulations (WQMP).[9]
These rules are required for New Jersey to meet its obligations under the
Federal Clean Water Act, and determine, among other things, the cumulative water resource impacts of future
development, how to manage and restore existing water quality impairments, and how
NJ expects to maintain existing water quality. However, simply put,
NJDEP’s proposed updates to the WQMP are damaging to water quality protection,
and allow for increased development and associated water quality impacts from
sewers, wastewater treatment plants, and runoff in coastal areas.
Overall, New Jersey has a holistic and
systemic problem. Development in coastal and riparian areas is continuing
unabated, even as the public safety, economic, ecosystem, and water quality
impacts of this type of development become clear (FHACA, and CZMR). New Jersey
continues to use vast amounts of surface and ground water for drinking,
industry, and agriculture, even while drought continues to impact our region
(WSMP). New Jersey is also failing to safeguard the water quality gains made in
the past, and is failing to properly plan for the future impacts of development
on these gains (WQMP).
Stream and groundwater withdrawals,
wastewater and industrial discharges, and development in coastal and riparian
habitat are continuing unrestricted. Poor integration among these regulations and
a lack of planning for future population increases and development will stress
ecosystems, put human health at risk, and is a dangerous and unsustainable path
into an uncertain climate future.
New Jersey’s water protection laws and
planning are heading in the wrong direction. Clean water for drinking,
swimming, fishing, and agriculture is invaluable. Clean Ocean Action will continue to fight for
clean water, and encourages the public to engage with us to protect this most
basic and essential resource. Follow our social media for important updates and
action alerts, call or email your elected officials and speak up for water
quality and habitat protections, and align your lifestyle and consumption patterns
with low impact and environmentally friendly values.
[2]
Climate Change in New Jersey: Temperature, Precipitation, Extreme Events and
Sea Level, NJDEP, available at http://www.nj.gov/dep/dsr/trends/pdfs/climate-change.pdf
[5] According
to preliminary research by the Association of New Jersey Environmental
Commissions (ANJEC), more water is being taken out than is being replenished in
one of our major aquifers, the Kirkwood-Cohansey in South Jersey. That aquifer,
which runs beneath southern Monmouth County and all of Ocean County, supplies
drinking water to approximately 3 million of New Jersey’s 9 million residents.
