"Clean Water Now Campaign"

Water pollution has plagued the people of New Jersey for many years. In 1972 the government recognized the need to pass strong national clean water standards and passed the Clean Water Act. The goals set by the Clean Water Act were to return all waterways to fishable and swimable conditions by 1983, and to eliminate the discharges of all pollutants into waterways by 1985. Today these goals have still not been met by New Jersey.

In an effort to reduce toxic discharges into our waterways by combating illegal pollution, New Jersey passed the Clean Water Enforcement Act of 1990. This act requires that minimum fines be imposed on all illegal polluters. Since the passage of this act, New Jersey has moved to 41^st in the nation for illegal dumping. This is great progress seeing that New Jersey was ranked 16^th in 1995 and 36^th in 1997.

Unfortunately, the decrease in illegal dumping is overshadowed by an increase in the amount of legal discharges of toxic and other chemical pollutants into New Jerseyıs waters. New Jersey is currently the largest discharger of reproductive toxins in the nation. In 1997 New Jersey polluters discharged three times the amount of reproductive toxins as New York which is second in the nation for toxins that have been linked to birth defects and infertility. New Jersey ranks seventh in the nation for carcinogens dumped into waterways.

As you are reading this, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is revising standards that will affect the amount of toxins discharged into all New Jersey waterways. In 1996 the DEP introduced a 1,500 page regulatory proposal which if adopted would have allowed millions of gallons of more pollution into New Jersey's waterways. Following massive public outcry against the proposal, the Whitman administration announced that it would not adopt the key rollback section of the proposal and initiated a stakeholder process with the goal of creating a clean water program that will protect us and our natural resources into the 21^st Century.

Drafts of clean water standards from the stakeholder process contain unacceptable weakening of existing water quality protections. The Department of Environmental Protection is expected to release a final copy of these standards in early May. In 1996 the only thing that was able to stop the bad rule proposal was massive public outcry. We need to duplicate this public outcry to strengthen our clean water standards.

The Governor made clean water a priority for her administration in her recent State of the State Address, yet the Department of Environmental Protection is considering a proposal that would weaken our clean water standards and allow more toxins into our waterways each year. It is time for every person and organization that is concerned about water quality to contact the governor and voice their concerns. Writing letters to the editor to raise public awareness of the need for stronger clean water protections in New Jersey is also critical to protecting our waterways.

If your club would like to get more involved fill out the form on the last page of this newspaper. You can call NJPIRG at 609-394-8155 x 306 for more information. Together we can protect our families and the fish that we gather from toxins in the waterways.

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