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Environmental Advocates Call For Greater Protections For Toms River
By Jo Ann La Russo
OCEAN COUNTY - New Jersey is known for its beautiful water resorts areas. Citizens want clean water to swim, fish and boat in. For resident and visitors, water quality is paramount at our Jersey shore.
Development brings in the ratables politicians say are important to ease tax burdens, but environmentalists say such remedies are only short-term solutions. The true price of development, they say, is costly.
Such was the message at a meeting held last week by a group of scientists and environmental activists.
"The Toms River is pristine, but threatened," said Ethan Lavine, environmental associate for Environment New Jersey.
The Toms River plays an important role in this part of New Jersey. It recharges the aquifers that supply much of the region's drinking water and empties into Barnegat Bay, a nationally recognized recreational and ecological treasure, he argued.
The panel pointed out the serious threat that overdevelopment presents for the water quality of the Toms River and other coastal New Jersey waterways. They warned what increased pollution will mean for these waterways and the natural places they support, like the Barnegat Bay, the Pinelands and the Jersey shore.
The growth of impervious surfaces such as parking lots, paved areas and rooftops in the watershed add to the amount of pollution that is entering our waterways, members of the panel said. As these surfaces replace vegetated areas, ecosystems lose their best defense against pollution and contamination.
"The bays are only getting worse as we build upstream," said Tom Fote, legislative chairman of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association. "If we don't do enough to protect the sources that provide them with clean water, we're in serious trouble."
That's why they are pushing for Category One designation for the Toms River.
The Category One designation will guard against a measurable deterioration in water quality. The designation of Category One status on a segment of a waterway triggers the establishment of a 300-foot riparian buffer zone along its banks, placing limits on new, large scale development projects along its banks.
The scientists and environmental advocates said that the Category One protection is one of the state's best defenses against pollution from over development along the waterways. They want Governor Jon Corzine to have the state declare the Toms River a Category One waterway.
"Granting Category One status to the Toms River is a logical continuation of the state's commitment to protecting the unique Pinelands ecosystem," said Rich Bizub, of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance.
Statewide and local environmental groups have petitioned the state Department of Environmental Protection to grant the Toms River Category One designation. The petition was filed in November. The NJDEP has yet to issue a response.
"We need Governor Corzine to grant it the best protections we've got to offer before its banks become overrun by strip malls and subdivisions," Bizub said at the meeting.
Degraded water quality in the Toms River and other coastal rivers and streams are placing additional stress on some of the most ecologically significant areas in the state, such as the Pinelands and Barnegat Bay.
The fragile ecosystem is threatened on Barnegat Bay, explained Dr. Michael Kennish of Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Services.
"Algae kill the sea grass that is so important to keep the proper ecological level," he said. "Overgrown, it can smother the eelgrass and shellfish that live there."
He also outlined the negative effect that unwanted nitrogen compounds flushing out of the Toms River can have on the Barnegat Bay. The nitrogen fertilizes the bay, enabling the growth of the undesirable algae causing a chain reaction of events that upset the composition of the water.
"Nitrogen pollution is serious," he said.
Lavine pointed out that the number one threat to our water quality is environmentally associated pollution.
Dr. Cara Muscio, Rutgers University Cooperative Extension in Ocean County, explained, "The main threat to our waterways is non-point water pollutants that run over the land into our waterways … The runoff picks up and carries other things with it. Sediments or dirt from construction sites suffocate small organisms. Bacteria is also a human health hazard."
Nutrients are good for plant growth, but too much will create a disastrous result, according to Muscio.
"The chain of events from too many nutrients causes disastrous consequences. The issue of development changes the dynamics. Add to that, when the population doubles in the summer months, with millions of people coming into Ocean County, it places additional stress on the system when at the same time there is an even higher demand for clean potable, swimmable, fishable water," Muscio said.
They discussed steps that New Jersey can take to protect these places from further degradation and ask that residents help in their effort to have the waterway designated as Category One. They ask supporters of the Category One designation for the Toms River to petition the governor's office, and DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson's office and urge acceptance of the Category One petition.
Corzine can be reached at: Governor of New Jersey, State House PO Box 001, Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0001, or by phone at 609-292-6000. Jackson can be reached at: Lisa Jackson, N.J. Dept. of Environmental Protection, 401 E. State St., PO Box 402, Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0402.
Advocates of the Category One proposal say that Toms River is worthy of this designation because of its high water quality, exceptional recreational value, ecological significance as habitat for threatened and endangered species and source water for the Barnegat Bay.
Not only is the designation appropriate, they argued, but badly needed as the development boom in this part of the state could forever degrade the Toms River if left unchecked.
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