Protecting Pinelands water is vital for region’s future

Guest Column

JOHN C. STOKES

It is an essential ingredient for sustaining all forms of life, a resource whose availability has enabled the most complex civilizations throughout history to flourish. Indeed, water is lifeblood of our planet.

Residents of New Jersey can take pride in knowing that their state is home to one of the largest supplies of clean drinking water in the eastern United States Located in the Pinelands area of southern New Jersey, the Kirkwood Cohansey aquifer contains an estimated 17 trillion gallons of pure water. That’s equal to nearly half of all the water consumed each year nationwide.

Clean water is vital for the region’s sustainability.

More than one million people get their drinking water from the Kirkwood-Cohansey. The aquifer also feeds our rivers, streams and coastal estuaries and is a critical component of a unique Pinelands ecosystem that provides refuge for dozens of rare plant and animal species.

Many residents who rely on this tremendous resource may not realize that the region’s sandy soil makes the aquifer particularly vulnerable to pollutants. That’s because water passes quickly through the porous soil before reaching the water table, and can carry along pollutants from sources such as septic tanks and landfills.

Fortunately, the standards being implemented through the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan have protected large, undeveloped tracts of land, enabling water to absorb and recharge the aquifer while greatly limiting the negative effects of development on water quality. The plan has allowed for growth in certain areas with infrastructure such as sewer and public water.

The Pinelands Commission, the agency charged with overseeing land use and resource protection in the Pinelands, is ever mindful of the need to protect water supplies.

Commission scientists are now past the midway point of a six-year study that will help gain a better understanding of the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer and how current and future water supply needs in the Pinelands can be met while avoiding adverse impacts on the environment it supports.

Next year the commission will complete its first comprehensive re-examination of the Pinelands’ land use boundaries in 27 years. These land use designations help to prevent development in parts of the Pinelands valued for their ecological and water resource values. The designations

will be revised to ensure that valuable areas are afforded the best possible protection.

Since May, the commission has been implementing new storm water management regulations devised to significantly reduce the effects of “nonpoint” pollution. These regulations are among the most protective in the nation.

Additionally, the commission is testing new septic system technologies that can remove 60 percent or more of the pollution generated by standard septic systems.

Last but not least, the commission recently completed two comprehensive, subregional planning initiatives that will better protect water supplies.

The first initiative, undertaken in the Toms River watershed in Ocean County, protects 73 percent of a 17,000-acre area through strict conservation zoning requirements, reduces wastewater by 600,000 gallons per day, reduces other pollutants from development by 700,000 gallons per day and establishes protective buffers of 600 feet on each side of high value streams. The second initiative, undertaken in Medford and Evesham in Burlington County, includes plans for a “development transfer” program that will likely avoid all development within a valuable watershed area.

Aside from the commission’s efforts, residents can do their part to protect water supplies. By planting native grasses and plants that are already adapted to the region’s unique environment, people can reduce water consumption and avoid using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They can also help by regularly maintaining their septic systems.

Working together, and with continued vigilance, we will successfully safeguard a resource upon which we all depend.

John C. Stokes is the executive director

of the New Jersey Pinelands Commission,

an independent state agency that

oversees land use and natural resource

protection in the Pinelands area of southern

New Jersey.