Your Water, Your Future: The NJ Highlands

In 2003, NJEF helped to pass the NJ Highlands Protection Act, one of New Jersey's most important drinking water laws.

• The law is supposed to protect the Highlands' natural resources, especially its water supplies, the source of half the state's drinking water.
• These resources are critical to NJ's economy: our 3 largest industries (food processing, recreation-tourism-fishing, and pharmaceutical) are all water-dependent.
• If the Highlands are not adequately protected, the cost for additional water treatment (excludes additional health care costs) in its service area alone would be $100 billion over 50 years

The Law is being Delayed and Weakened

The Highland's Act's implementation is years behind schedule. The NJ Highlands Final Draft Regional Master Plan (RMP) has been released, but it does not provide adequate protections. NJEF is working to strengthen and implement the RMP as soon as possible. The protection of this crucial resource is an environmental, moral and economic imperative for the people of New Jersey.

The Importance of the NJ Highlands

• The NJ Highlands is 800,000 acres of largely contiguous forest stretching from Northwest Bergen County to Northern Hunterdon County.
• This area supplies half of the state's drinking water (for 5.4 million New Jerseyans) and is under massive threat from overdevelopment and sprawl.
• 3,000-5,000 acres of the Highlands are lost to sprawling development every year and build out could be reached in 20-30 years.
• More recreational visitors go to the NY-NJ Highlands each year than Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon National parks combined, making the Highlands an integral component of NJ's eco-tourism economy.
• Nearly 150 threatened and endangered species call the NJ Highlands their home.

Comments and Concerns with the Highlands Regional Master Plan (HRMP)

• Development in Water Deficit Areas (110 of the 183 subwatersheds in the Highlands) should not be allowed-i.e. no more development where water is not currently available.
• Extension of sewers and "package plants" in the Preservation Area should be prohibited except as specifically provided for in the Act, i.e., for health and safety, not for clusters and redevelopment.
• Eliminate exemptions to the requirement for 300' buffers around important waters.
• Practical Guidelines must be in place to protect, enhance and restore Natural Resources:
*There must be a clear hierarchy of preventing damage to natural resources requiring applicants to move through avoidance as the preferred alternative, minimization second, and mitigation as the last resort including benchmarks to prove its success before more development can.

*Forest resources should be protected and enhanced by requiring state certified forester approved Forest Stewardship Plans, not the weaker Woodland Management Plans in all cases.

• Ensure environmentally sensitive features in Existing Community Zones receive strict protections.
• Make clearer and more protective standards for Map Adjustments to prevent "lets make a deal".
• Expedite the development of documents, standards and guidance which must be in place to meet the bar set by the Plan's Objectives.
• Urge the Governor to issue an executive order immediately to ensure no adverse impact to natural resources occurs until an RMP is implemented that ensures the same no adverse impacts

Take Action!

NJ Governor Jon Corzine needs to ensure stronger implementation of the Highlands Act and no adverse impacts before then. Degradation of water supplies and other resources is occurring every day. Contact Corzine today!.

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Drugs in Drinking Water

The New Jersey Environmental Federation, the NJ Chapter of national Clean Water Action, reacted to the Associated Press survey of test results for pharmaceuticals in drinking water.

A vast array of pharmaceuticals has been found in the drinking water supplies throughout New Jersey. A USGS study found pharmaceutical drugs in the drinking water for over 850,000 North Jersey residents. Another study found epilepsy drugs, antibiotics, deodorants, and fuel additives in minute amounts in 30 of NJ's brooks and rivers, including the Passaic and Ramapo Rivers, which supply water to more than 1 million customers in North Jersey. In addition, a 2003 study by a Rutgers University chemist and the state of New Jersey found prescription drugs, preservatives, and caffeine in tap water around the state. Read More.

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Clean Water Authority Restoration Act

NJEF and national Clean Water Action are working to protect and improve the quality of all of America's waters. Americans support and deserve clean and healthy drinking water, wetlands, lakes, streams and ocean resources. Helping citizens make their case for clean water to local, state and national decision-makers is a core part of Clean Water Action's mission.

After decades of water neglect, Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 and Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, and strengthened them in later years. A response to strong public pressure for water cleanup, these laws provide a national framework for the protection of our health, recreation and economy from water pollution.

The laws have worked. The number of grossly polluted streams and lakes in America, and the number of health violations of drinking water standards, has declined.

Yet more threats have emerged. New contaminants not recognized in the 1970s could be putting our health at risk. Curbing global warming is essential for protecting our water resources.

And national policies that undermine the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act threaten to reduce critical protections.

NJEF and Clean Water Action is dedicated to making sure that elected officials listen to all of their constituents, not just powerful special interests. We know that when citizens learn of threats to clean water, they act.

Take Action!

For the first time since the bill was initially introduced four years ago, hearings have happened and movement of the bill is likely. This bill would rollback polluters' attempts to weaken protection for our nation's lakes, rivers and streams. But first we must overcome a strong lobbying campaign by polluting interests. Help Pass The Clean Water Restoration Act.

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Additional NJEF Clean Water Campaigns

New Jersey's Drinking Water Is Running Out

New Jersey's water supplies will run dry by 2020 if the government continues to do nothing about it According to Joseph Maraziti, a former chairman of the State Planning Commission, this is not a future problem, this is a problem we have today. Unfortunately, we have heard these forecasts with annual regularity, yet we have seen no action by Trenton. "It's the same message year in and year out," said David Pringle, NJEF Campaign Director. "Nothing changes. Are they going to get it this time? Our water supply is getting increasingly polluted, and the state doesn't have the policies in place to address that." Read More.

PFOA

Results from samples of drinking water taken by Sayreville Borough were found to have trace levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) when they were re-examined by the laboratory. When sampling results were first announced by the Borough, PFOA was described as "non-detect."

DuPont, the only company in the US that still manufactures PFOA, claims there is no proof of harms to human health. However, PFOA was labeled a "likely" human carcinogen by the EPA's Science Advisory Board in January of 2006 and has been the subject of multi-million dollar lawsuit settlements and EPA enforcement actions.

NJ Environmental Federation and the other members of the DuPont Accountability Coalition, a coalition of environmental and labor groups want an investigation into this source of "likely" human carcinogen in Sayreville drinking water. Take Action Now

Perchlorate

Perchlorate (rocket fuel) is a contaminant that impacts the drinking water of millions of people in the United States.

Two United States Senate bills aim to address perchlorate (rocket fuel) contamination and cleanup. The Perchlorate Monitoring and Right-to-Know Act (S. 24) and Protecting Pregnant Women and Children from Perchlorate Act (S. 150) are both sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Ca), Chair of Senate Environment and Public Works, and co-sponsored by Sens. Feinstein (D-CA) and Lautenberg (D-NJ).

S. 24 requires perchlorate to be a listed contaminant in consumer confidence report and requires EPA to issue a health advisory for perchlorate in drinking water and regulation requiring monitoring in public water supplies for the compound.

S.150 calls for the health advisory and development of a national primary drinking water standard for the contaminant under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

New Jersey, along with California and Massachusets have been leading the charge for strict drinking water standards at the state level. Stay tuned as we update you with more information.

Drinking Water Right to Know Reports

Drinking Water Right-to-Know reports (also, known as Consumer Confidence Reports) provide citizens with valuable information about the source(s) and quality of their drinking water. The annual reports detail what types of contamination, if any, have been found in the tap water, the potential health effects of any contaminants which violated drinking water standards, the sources of contamination (if known) and other important information. Currently, only those consumers who receive their water from systems serving over 10,000 people and also receive a water bill are guaranteed to receive a report in the mail. Find out more.

Fluoride

NJEF mobilized members, organizations and concerned citizens to attend a Public Health Council hearing to oppose a mandate that would have required fluoridation of all of NJ's public water supplies. Overall, the majority of people attending the Public Health Council hearing opposed the mandate. Two major newspaper's (Asbury Park Press and Star Ledger) editorial boards came out against statewide water fluoridation. Dr. Robert Pallay, Chair of the PHC, struggled with the ethical dilemma of whether the state ought to require even those opposed to the practice to have fluoridated water in their homes. "Do we decide to put something in the water people may not want to have??" Pallay asked.

Public opposition to the mandate, coupled with Acting Governor Codey's decision to strip the Public Health Council (PHC) of it's voting powers, stopped the mandate in its tracks. But, be forewarned, the proponents of water fluoridation, the NJ Dental Association, could petition the Department of Health or the NJ Legislature to mandate fluoride.

Under Codey's restructuring order, the 8-member council will only advise the state Department of Health and Senior Services, where its powers have been transferred. Since it has always been up to local municipalities to decide on water fluoridation, many opponents feel that the council, the only agency within the health department with independent authority, shouldn't have had the power to vote on a statewide mandate in the first place.

In addition, in March 2006, the prestigious National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a study citing adverse health effects of fluoride in water supplies. The NRC found that the current 4 ppm standard for fluoride is too high and has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make the standard more stringent in order to protect children against severe dental fluorosis and all age groups from bone fractures.

NJEF would like to thank other groups in New Jersey that opposed the fluoride mandate: Clean Water Council of NJ, North Jersey District Water Supply Commission, United Water, American Water Works Association, Evesham Municipal Utilities Authority, Environmental Justice (EJ) Advisory Committee to the NJDEP, NJ Sierra Club, NJ Citizens Opposing Forced Fluoridation, the Coalition Against Toxics, and the Holistic Moms Network.

Why is Water Fluoridation Bad for New Jersey?