newjerseynewsroom.com

BY JEFF TITTEL

COMMENTARY

On Thursday, the Department of Environmental Protections announced it wants residents throughout New Jersey to begin conserving water, however they have done nothing to combat the issue themselves. Since we had below average precipitation thus far this year it was inevitable that water conservation advisory was going to be implemented. The New Jersey Sierra Club believes the DEP needs a much more proactive system to deal with droughts especially with the possibility of this dry weather pattern continuing through the summer.

We have a system that’s broken like an old water pipe and we believe the DEP must get serious on its efforts to deal with drought. For far too long there has been a drought of action and a deficit of planning.

First, we need to change the indicators for a drought to include dying crops, forest fire alerts, low ground water levels, and low stream flows. We believe we also need to look at ecological flows in streams and rivers as well as fisheries and dilutions from sewer plants. Currently, our system is based on false indicators. The only indicator the DEP presently uses to assess drought is low reservoir levels.

As of now, we do not require action on conservation until a drought warning is in effect. We believe we need to implement conservation measures much sooner. A drought watch, not just a drought warning, should require conservation. Also New Jersey does have alternative day watering, gray watering systems programs and there is nothing to stop a resident from turning their sprinklers on while it is raining.

DEP’s approach to drought is praying for the next hurricane. New Jersey’s water system is out of balance and there are no real conservation measures in place.

The DEP’s solution has been to move water around. But taking water out of one basin and moving it to another has negative impacts, including the fact that it can ruin the basin. Moving water around without requiring conservation will not solve the problem. Purveyors deliberately pull extra water to protect their own supply whether they need it or not. We shouldn’t be taking water out of depleted watersheds for irrigation.

This lack of action has put the environment and public health at risk. There is not enough water in the northern part of the state during dry periods, especially in the five counties impacted by recent drought advisory. The failure of New Jersey to adequately clean up and protect our waterways becomes critical in dry and hot periods. At many of our major water supply intakes, the water is either too low or too dirty to be able to take in during drought conditions.

The state has not fixed their system when it comes to dealing with drought there. There is a flood of problems because New Jersey looks the other way until it is almost too late. Instead of praying for rain or right now asking people to voluntarily conserve waster they need to do something fix their broke system.

Yet our leaders have done little to deal with the impacts of drought over the years. There are several steps the DEP should take to improve its water supply and quality:

• We must fix the drought warning system to include additional indicators, like ground water levels, stream flows, soil conditions, and crop and forest conditions

• We need to overhaul the drought rules to give the DEP stronger authority to conserve water and clean up our streams and rivers

• Water conservation requirements, such as odd and even lawn watering, must go in to effect much sooner

• Rain sensors on irrigation equipment and sprinklers should be required all of the time, not just when there is a drought

• More streams should be designed as Category One protection

• Overdevelopment must be limited above our critical supply reservoirs and intakes

• Our Water Supply Master Plan needs updating. It was last completed in 1995 with 1986 data and is woefully out of date and inadequate, yet it still guides decisions

• We need to stop weakening our stormwater and sewer rules

• Leaky infrastructure should be fixed. In many of our cities, aging infrastructure leaks out 25 to 30 percent of its water due to old pipes that were put in over a century ago

• Statewide fertilizer and soil compaction regulations should be established

• Polluted waterways should be cleaned through water quality based effluent limits

• Impervious cover should be limited in areas with depleted groundwater and in our main water supply intakes

• Our sewer plants need to be upgraded

• The state needs to recalculate its safe yields based on changes that have occurred due to impervious cover and depleted uses
• We also need to plan for the impacts to our water supply due to climate change and sea level rise.