Clean Water

Clean water is essential to the residents, environment, and economy of New Jersey.

Primary Concerns:

Studies by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the U.S. Geological Survey, and others show critical deficiencies in water supplies and quality.
Drinking water is affected by land-use decisions and the resulting pollution.
Unresolved legacy issues concerning lead and combined sewers, new regulatory requirements for emerging contaminants, growing threats from climate change, algae-infested lakes and ponds, as well as aging infrastructure.
Over 90 percent of the waters monitored in New Jersey do not meet all the applicable water quality standards.
Many of New Jersey’s communities experience the challenges of stormwater runoff that results in flooding and combined sewer overflows. Stormwater management is a significant contributor to waterway impairments and current funding for today’s stormwater management and for the needs of the future is clearly insufficient.
Sea level rise and increased shoreline development puts more people and property at risk from storm hazards - local communities need better tools and resources to prepare for a healthy, safe and resilient future.

Not Started

In Progress

Completed

First 100 Days

Charge the Drinking Water Quality Institute with investigating options for addressing contaminants beyond the single-chemical approach, including regulating the PFAS class of chemicals as a class (as opposed to individual chemicals in drinking water standards) to also include surface water quality and groundwater standards.

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First 100 Days

Provide new state funding for water infrastructure, with a focus on environmental justice communities. Funds should prioritize lead pipe replacement (at least $500 million in principal forgiveness for low-income communities), addressing Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) (at least $400 million), and climate resilience ($300 million, with principal forgiveness for water infrastructure improvements that enhance climate resilience). Additionally, prioritize non-point source pollution, emerging contaminants, aging septic systems, and harmful algal blooms. Allow for a portion of the funds to be redirected if federal funding directly funds priorities and pursue a policy of maximizing the acquisition and use of federal funds for water infrastructure and pollution abatement.

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First 100 Days

To prepare for expected new federal capital funds, increase the capacity of the NJ Water Bank staff to review applications through temporary hires or consultants. Additionally, utilize additional staffing and resources to provide technical assistance for under-resourced water supply systems successfully apply for funds and construct projects (e.g., Water Assistance Corps)

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First 100 Days

Mandate an appropriate balance of green and gray infrastructure in water quality regulatory or permitting mechanisms, including in the pending Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) permits, so that green infrastructure does not take a back seat.

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First 100 Days

Propose regulations to implement the new law to inventory and replace lead service lines.

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First 100 Days

Eliminate the Residential Site Improvement Standards control over stormwater management.

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First 100 Days

Provide matching grants to localities to hire consultants to review the feasibility of implementing stormwater utilities

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First 100 Days

Utilize the “Sea Level Rise Guidance for New Jersey” document to incorporate sea level rise and flood elevation standards into all state-funded infrastructure projects and other investment decisions.

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First 100 Days

Propose NJ PACT regulations that:

1. Protect headwater streams with more protective policies through the Freshwater Wetland and Flood Hazard Control Act rules to recognize and protect headwaters with riparian zones, by providing clear guidance on stream delineation methods consistent with current science, updating New Jersey’s National Hydrography Dataset to incorporate Lidar and predictive modeling consistent with best available science, removing the erosional channel definition, reducing the regulatory burden on educational trail development through broader permit by rules on pedestrian only trail building and bridge building, and eliminating permit by rules, permits by certification and general permit rules that do not demonstrate a de minimis impact on riparian zones.
2. Integrate surface water quality standards, water impairments, and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) (including approved Waste Load Allocations) into the land use, water quality management, stormwater and discharge permitting process
3. Ensure regulations encourage the use of living shorelines and other natural systems along all coasts to address resilience and water quality issues
4. Include an onsite retention standard for stormwater, including application to redevelopment projects in a way that allows them to move forward in a resilient way
5. Incorporate climate change projection data and requirement for resilience planning, including for inland waters, and use the state’s regulatory and financing authorities to direct development away from high hazard areas identified through such projection data.
6. Redefine the tidal and fluvial flood hazard areas with higher standards regarding planning for and addressing climate change and create “Inundation Risk Zones” with enough flexibility to avoid exacerbating the financial and social hardships faced by environmental justice communities
7. Address systematic racism and classicism by proposing regulations and written policies that ensure equitable and just outcomes for people of color and/or with lower incomes
8. Strengthen existing regulations to eliminate the presumption that horizontal directional drilling (HDD) is a no-impact construction technique. Require individual permits and detailed geo-technical analyses for HDD installations and require that applicants avoid sensitive natural resources rather than assuming that HDD will prevent impacts to these resources.

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First Year

Update the Water Supply Master Plan and incorporate at least a 20-year planning period and concrete recommendations and actions (both administratively and legislatively) to address the findings in the plan, including:

1. Analysis of surplus and deficits at a HUC11 (at a minimum) watershed level, rather than the larger Watershed Management Area levels found in the 2017 plan
2. Examination of the practice of discharging consumptive use of water outside of the source HIC 11 watershed
3. Addressing the impacts of climate change on water availability
4. Improve the accuracy of water availability in carbonate bedrock surface and groundwater systems by using field data.

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First Year

Provide low-cost testing to private residences to encourage testing of wells outside of the change in ownership period

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First Year

Utilize the sale of homes and required well test results for targeted outreach and testing of adjacent properties, depending of the test results.

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First Year

Adopt a “One Water” approach (as promoted by the US Water Alliance), whereby water is managed in an integrated, inclusive and sustainable manner. Specifically, link groundwater regulations with surface water regulations and empower the Internal Standards Consistency team to implement.

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First Year

Fund partnership of community colleges and water utilities to create a pilot program to replenish the water workforce and create pathways to job and career opportunities for local residents through training and apprenticeship programs, modeled after the NJ Offshore Wind Institute.

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First Year

Propose and adopt a new Lead and Copper Rule that protects public health through improved water sampling, quick public notification, proactive requirements for lead mitigation, corrosion control, and public education.

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First Year

Ensure safe drinking water in child care centers by running an education campaign that informs parents and staff of the danger of lead in drinking water. The campaign should include a statewide map of test results, practical action steps and useful resources that prompt them to act.

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First Year

Direct $100 million in already approved bond proceeds to school districts with the most lead poisoning.

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First Year

Adopt NJ PACT rules.

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First Year

Improve the Water Quality Management Planning process to include cumulative impacts, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), and address interconnected ground waters and surface waters.

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First Year

Amend Stormwater regulations to require volume, as well as peak rate, reductions and application of water quality standard to all types of impervious surfaces, including roofs and sidewalks.

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First Year

Strengthen the Tier A Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Permits to add clear, specific, measurable plan for impaired waters with Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). Provide guidance to municipalities to develop plans, encourage municipalities to address water quality-based requirements as part of a regional stormwater management plan, and require regular monitoring of basin outfalls to ensure approved designs are meeting the regulatory requirements.

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First Year

Encourage the transportation sector to use green infrastructure as a way to manage road runoff by amending New Jersey’s Complete Streets policy to include green streets and provide technical assistance and incentives for communities to apply for New Jersey DOT local aid funds to implement green streets.

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First Year

Request that the Environmental Protection Agency designate the Raritan Bay as a “No Discharge Zone” to prevent vessels from discharging sewage into the water.

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First Year

Increase funding support for nature-based solutions to address impacts from polluted runoff and impacts from climate change, including marsh stewardship, examination of new approaches to sediment management within coastal and estuarine systems, living shorelines and habitat restoration and landscape recovery through the Blue Acres program.

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First Year

Ensure recreational waters are not degraded by (DEP)
1. Developing a definition for “exceptional recreational waters” in the Surface Water Quality Standards
2. Implementing the existing “Outstanding National Resource Waters” definition to protect all waters on public lands to the highest antidegradation standards
3. Protecting New Jersey’s five National WIld and Scenic Rivers, National Water Trail, and State Water Trails by granting them the highest protection as Outstanding National Resource Waters and including them on all DEP permit checklists

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First Year

Introduce New Surface water Quality Standards for Category One Waters, including a new Highland Waters anti-degradation standard (e.g. H-1), and public water supply systems serving less than 100,000 people.

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First 100 Days

Issue the next five-year Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) permits with the following provisions:

1. Require permit holders to implement green infrastructure projects within five years, including looking at innovative projects at school yards
2. Provide climate change data and projections for use in the selection, implementation, and evaluation of CSO projects
3. Identify and prioritize environmental justice neighborhoods for CSO mitigation
4. Require the permit holders to continue public outreach on the projects that have been selected in the Long Term Control Plans
5. Ensure equitable financing of Long Term Control Plans, whereby costs are shared between sewage treatment utilities and municipalities to reduce impacts on ratepayers

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First Year

Propose regulations to define reporting requirements for the Water Quality Accountability Act and make reports publicly available.

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First Term

Investigate the use of chemical mixture screening by the federal or state government to assess toxicity.

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First Term

Explore use of water treatment-based standards to complement individual chemical-by-chemical standards. Fund large pilot projects to evaluate the effectiveness of large-scale contaminant removal by carbon (or other) treatment. In 2017, New Jersey conducted a pilot study at two water treatment plants and determined that carbon treatment removed a large percentage of unregulated contaminants from drinking water.

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First Term

Update, enforce and implement existing Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) and move forward with identified TMDLs from integrated reports, as required under the federal Clean Water Act. Develop an annual action plan naming specific TMDLs to be completed each year, including a stakeholder process to improve the development and implementation of TMDLs.

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First Term

Increase allocation of federal pass-through programs, like 319h and 604b, that fund stormwater management and nonpoint source pollution projects. The last round of funding was announced in February 2020 for up to $3.5 million total funding. Targets should be established, such as at least ten TMDLs per year, funding for at least ten water quality restoration plans per year, funding for implementation of at least ten watershed restoration plans per year.

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First Term

Explore mechanisms that allow municipalities to deny development and redevelopment in high-risk flood areas, such as enabling towns to refrain from rebuilding public infrastructure, such as roads, after repetitive damage and destruction.

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First Term

Fund and incentivize land preservation projects within the Delaware River Watershed, taking advantage of Land and Conservation Fund monies.

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First Term

Preserve and restore Raritan Bay through riparian and shoreline land acquisition, restoration of natural areas, and supporting environmental and living shoreline restoration projects that utilize shellfish.

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First Term

Designate all beaches along the Raritan Bayshore as bathing beaches and perform regular, protective water quality testing to provide timely notification of water quality that creates health risks.

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First Term

Develop a consistent and meaningful sampling program for Raritan Bay to track trends over time, isolate pollution sources and understand the health of the Bay.

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