Defend NJ Waterways Campaign

by Dena Mottola

(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association April 2000 Newsletter)

Another year, a brand new fishing season, a new Governor (well, an Acting Governor) and a promising Governor’s race ahead of us!  It’s a good time to forge ahead with a plan to clean up and protect our waterways in New Jersey. 

Hi, my name is Dena Mottola and I am the new Clean Water Advocate at the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group.  Since I came on board four months ago, I’ve been working in partnership with Tom Fote and other leaders in the recreation and environmental community in New Jersey to set a plan to DEFEND NEW JERSEY’S WATERWAYS. 

Unlike our waterways, what must be done to protect our waterways is crystal clear.  Our state’s clean water program, run by the DEP, must be reformed to include significantly stronger protections for our already too polluted waterways.  According to the EPA, New Jersey’s watersheds are the most polluted and the most threatened in the nation. 

With all our industry and all our population growth and development in New Jersey, we face the greatest challenges to protecting our waterways in the country.  Our state must respond to the challenge by making New Jersey’s clean water program the best and strongest clean water program in the country.  

The Defend New Jersey’s Waterways Coalition, including NJPIRG, the Sierra Club – New Jersey Chapter, the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the Jersey Coast Angler’s, the New Jersey State Federation of Sportsmen Clubs and many other local and statewide civic and environmental groups has forged a Clean Water Agenda that addresses the fundamental reasons why our water is so polluted in New Jersey. 

Our Agenda would protect and clean – up the state’s waterways and limit pollution from some of the largest sources: overdevelopment, sewer plants, and other industrial dischargers.  It also addresses the lack of adequate water supply in the southern New Jersey and recommends that the state require sewer plants to stop dumping in the ocean and instead recharge local water systems.

The DEFEND NEW JERSEY’S WATERWAYS Campaign has three goals:

1)     To educate the public about reforms that are urgently needed to protect our waterways;

2)     To urge the candidates for Governor in 2001 to endorse this agenda and consider it a major priority of the new Administration; and

3)     To urge the Acting Governor to adopt our clean water recommendations right now by including them as amendments to two major DEP water regulation packages, which have not yet been finalized.

To succeed, the Defend New Jersey’s Waterways Coalition needs the active participation of fishing groups.  Please join by filling out the form below and sending it to the JCAA office.  PIRG and JCAA, along with the other members of the Defend New Jersey’s Waterways Coalition will be working closely together throughout the year to highlight the importance of the Clean Water Agenda.  Your participation and ideas on how to do this are encouraged.