DEP Report finds more streams, lakes, bays, and ocean waters fail to meet standards – trends worsen due to sprawling over-development
Unsafe to eat fish from, swim in, or drink from most NJ waters
Last week, we disclosed that more than 12.5% of NJ residential drinking water wells failed to meet drinking water standards, and that residents of more than 50,000 homes were unknowingly drinking unsafe water. See:
Drink at your own risk http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/08/drink_at_your_own_risk.html
The primary drinking water pollutants found were carcinogens radioactivity and arsenic. See Philadelphia Inquirer story here:
N.J. finds many private wells contaminated http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20080829_N_J__finds_many_private_wells_contaminated.html
Yesterday, the Asbury Park Press reported more bad news from another DEP Report known as the 2008 “Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report” mandated by the federal Clean Water Act. This Report looks at all lakes, streams, rivers, reservoirs, bays and oceans in terms of whether they meet standards set to protect drinking water, aquatic life, fishing, direct contact recreation, and swimming. In a generous headline the APP wrote: N.J. water quality up and down, report says http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008809010352
The DEP Report included an extended list of more than 1,000 “impaired” (polluted) waterbodies across the state that do not meet standards. This list also shows DEP’s “PRIORITY” for cleaning those waters up, as legally mandated by the Clean Water Act.
Here is a link to the DEP Report:
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms/bwqsa/draft_2008_integrated_report.pdf
Folks should go to Appendix B – buried at the end of the Report – Appendix B 2008 303(d) List of Water Quality Limited Waters (“List of Impaired Waters”) to look up their local streams and see if they are polluted – and whether DEP plans to clean them up. A cleanup plan is known as a “TMDL”, for “Total Maximum Daily Load”.
The APP highlighted key findings of the DEP Report:
67 percent of assessed drinking water supplies (many water bodies don’t have intakes, however) met the test; 33 percent did not.
Last year, 42 percent of 811 freshwater stream sampling sites for bottom-dwelling macroinvertebrate populations (insects, worms, mollusks and other indicator species) had excellent or good water quality; 58 percent had fair or poor water quality.
In 2001, 44 percent of 813 sites had excellent or good water quality; 56 percent had fair or poor water quality.
32 percent of recreational waters assessed met swimming health standards, and 68 percent did not. But the state’s ocean beaches are “fully swimmable,” except for a 500-yard stretch in Spring Lake and Sea Girt that is closed when it rains at least 0.1 inches.
All areas assessed for fish consumption failed to pass muster because the contaminant levels in fish were high enough to issue a consumption advisory or ban.
29 percent of trout waters assessed met an aquatic life standard; 71 percent did not.
64 percent of shellfish harvesting areas assessed met the test and 36 percent did not.
Tell DEP you demand clean water. Let them know what you think of their cleanup “priorty list” in Appendix B – many critically important waters are listed as low or moderate priority.
A “public information session” briefing by DEP on the Report will be held at the Public Hearing Room at the NJDEP Headquarters, 401 East State Street, 1st Floor, Trenton, New Jersey 08625, starting at 1:30 PM on September 11, 2008. :
The public can submit comments to DEP on the Report to:
Debra Hammond
Bureau Chief
Water Standards and Assessment
P.O. Box 409
Trenton, New Jersey 08625
phone: (609)777-1753
email: debra.hammond@dep.state.nj.us
I wonder if the DEP has communicated any of this to COAH.
Thanks for keeping us informed, Bill!
JerseyOpine – Even if the DEP had communicated this to COAH, the bigger question is whether COAH would listen, or even care!
ditto, byramanaic! & also to byramaniac, thank you for keeping us Highlanders and others informed. Why did no one else write to thank you when you hit the 500 consecutive publications mark?! So many profit from your work, you should’ve received scores of public postings thanking you.
Back to Bill,: thanks for staying on top of so many issues. Most of us have very little time to sort through the tons of RSS feeds, news compendiums, etc., we get daily–much less to give any serious thought or analysis to the issues.
Not only do you bring issues to our attention after they’ve become public–for which we are grateful–but you ferret out very significant actions, admendments, regulations, and the like BEFORE it hits the press, info that the DEP and other state agencies slip in w/little fanfare and often no press releases.
Some of this would probably go unnoticed, or at least unnoticed for a vvery long time, until it is too late for us to even try to do anything about it, if you were not continually on the case.
And your astute analysis based on your many years of experience in the DEP, your knowledge of the regulatory world in general, and your wide reading in all areas is invaluable.
And generous.
As a writer myself, I am continually amazed at how much you can produce–not only serious pieces, but tales of your life, gorgeous photos, and more. it is not only helpful reading this column, it is fun.
I’m glad to see that at least a few in the media are picking up on some of the most important things you’ve uncovered (e.g., monies owed to DEP for easements, concessions, and the like in state parks going uncollected; reports owed DEP for info re hazardous wastes on their sites and attendant to that, fees owed for not filing, for late reports, etc., not being collected by DEP).
If only the DEP would pay attention to you, think of how much money it would save the taxpayers.
Not to mention that no longer could DEP whine about not having the funds to to hire staff to carry out investigations, oversight, cleanups, and the like nor could they use lack of funds as a reason f(not a good reason on any level) for having to privatize efforts that they should be taking care of (leaving the fox to guard the hen house).
Some of your critics complain that YOU only criticize without offering solutions. While of course that is ridiculous (just look at the three paragraphs above), you often give very imaginative solutions, such as developing environmental jobs for the construction industry.
I could go on, but most–if not all–readers probably have not even gotten this far, so I don’t want to make this any longer.
Whitman, in his INtroduction to Leaves of Grass talks about how America has gotten beyond the ‘sleepwalking’ of the MIddle Ages.
Unfortunately it is slipping back in. But people like you are trying in the most diverse, imaginative, and compelling ways to reverse that trend, the erosion of our civil rights, the degradation of Clean Air and Water Acts, of the Endangered Species Act.
As you not only criticize but express hope–and hope in the American citizen–for why would you do all this if you did not believe in what Whitman calls “the noble character of . . . all free American workmen and workwomen … the general ardor and friendliness and enterprise–the perfect equality of the female with the male … the large amativeness–the fluid movement of the population–slavery [substitute for this any subject you take on–isbjorn1] and . . the stern opposition to it which shall never cease till it ceases or the speaking of tongues and the moving of lips cease. For such the expression of the American poet is to be transcendent and new.”
You may not write poetry, Bill, but if Whitman were alive today, I’m sure he’d include the vast range of postings, including your photos and quotes from songs, etc. as the ‘expression of the American poet’
Thank you.
You can compare the quality of the water in NJ to the quality of our education system.
We can solve the problem of poor water quality the same way we solve the education problem. Just LOWER the standards.
That’s exactly what DEP is doing. They are eliminating the group that sets water standards – relying on the federal government to do it. And we know how good the feds have been on this.
Dear disseddep – please send me documentation that the DEP water quality (or drinking water) standards group is being eliminated and that DEP will rely on federal standards. THis is a terrible idea, worse than Whitman EO 27 policy on “federal consistency”.
Send documents to:
PEER
PO Box #1
Ringoes, NJ 08551
This is nothing new. A year ago I was reading BassMaster magazine. They had a list of states where it was safe/not safe to eat the fish. The categories were: OK, Not safe, Call First.
New Jersey was “call first” state. Surprised?
Can’t – will get fired. probably will anyway. Yes, that group being disintegrated- probably work they are doing on chromium and PFOA. No layoffs. “Reassignments”
You’ll see.
disseddep – I do this for a living. Its called “anonymous activism”. THe last thing we want is for people to go the whistleblower route and lose their jobs or face other retaliation. Been there and done that.
Suggest you go to our website and check it out (guidance document available – “The art of anonymous activism”).
http://www.peer.org
We can prevent any identification and disclosure of your involvement and keep things strictly confidential.
Chances are there are many DEP staffers aware of and thus multiple potential leakers of this info.
I guarantee your confidentiality and you get to control everything I do with the info – if you are not comfortable, it stays confidential. PEER communications are lawyer client privileged.
I don’t claim to be any kind of environmentalist, but while watching all the development that transpired between the Jersey shore and Freehold during the last 20 years, I could not help but wonder about all the trees that were taken down (Don’t they provide oxygen?); all the more sewage to accommodate all the new construction, etc.,etc.
Why then, is it surprising that the waterways are becoming contaminated. The developers would put a house on every inch of ground in the state if the politicians would allow it — and they do! I think it is called, “Pay to Play.”
this story on contaminated water proves the point of the myriad influences on environment in this area. essex county among the worst. how can vegetation grow in polluted air/water and soil? it doesnt.
. THE DEER ARE NOT THE REASON THAT VEGETATION IS NOT GROWING IN
> SOUTHMOUNTAIN. FIRST OF ALL, DIVINCENZO DID NOT AUTHENTIC SOIL TESTS TO SEE
> WHAT THE SOIL IS THERE. WE KNOW WE HAVE HAD OVER 100 YEARS OF MANY CHEMICAL
> TOXINS, ARSENIC, ETC HEAPED ON OUR SOILS, BUT INSTEAD DIVINCENZO GOES ON A
> KILLING SPREE OF A SPECIES WITHOUT ANY INVESTIGATION AT ALL OF THE
> AIR/WATER/SOIL WHICH IS AFFECTING VEGETATION. WE HAVE GLOBAL WARMING, WHICH
> HAS BEEN SCIENTIFICALLY VALIDATED AS MAKING “NATIVE” PLANTS SEEK THE CLIMATE
> THEY ARE USED TO BY MOVING NORTH WHEN THEY CAN. THE GROWING CONDITIONS FOR
> WHAT WERE FORMALLY “NATIVE PLANTS” IN THIS AREA NOW EXIST NORTH OF THIS
> LOCATION. secondly, we have sun dimming, forest isolation so that trees cant
> cross polinate, we have bees dying, we have multi species dying out, which can
> carry seeds to new areas. Deer in fact scientificallty do exactly that – carry
> seeds and spread them. the conclusion that south mountain conservancy has
> come to is inaccurate and seems to consider south mountain as existing inside
> a “bubble” that it can correct. the general bad environmental conditions in
> essex county permeate south mountain.
>
> 2. i do not like attacking any species and slaughtering it. God made a world
> with many species. We need to keep as many of them alive in almost dead Nj as
> we can. Most people like the wildlife and consider a park as home to wildlife
> and want to preserve that. I am thrilled to see a deer.
>
> 3, encouraging hunting, hunters, brutality, violence in essex county is about
> as bad as it can get. there is enough violence in newark, irvington, etc. We
> need to discourage shooting, killing, murder of living things.
>
> 4. hunting is dangerous to the congested area of south mountain. i see reports
> every single day of hunters killing each other, killing horses, dogs, cats,
> other species, and innocent people driving their cars or walking by or hanging
> their clothes up on the line. Hunters shoot first. We have had a man killed in
> readington township. We have had a bedroom shot into in readington township.
> We have had a home shot into in Mt. Olive. We have had a baby killed in its
> mother’s arms in its own home in ny state. we have had a day care front window
> shot out by a hunter in maryland. it is clear these people are very dangerous.
> you can “educate” them forever but they shoot first and ask questions later.
> peaceful folk really dont want these beer bellied rednecks in nj.
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