Smart Growth Solutions

Improving New Jersey's Water Resources and Water Quality

Introduction: Water, the Key to Life
1. The Oldest Recycling System: An Overview of the Water Cycle
2. Watersheds
3. Disturbing the Natural System: The Consequences of Careless Growth
4. The Challenge of Smart Growth
Benefits of Improving New Jersey's Water Resources & Quality
1. Habitat and Species
2. Human Health and Public Safety
3. Economic Prosperity

Introduction: Water, the Key to Life
Water is key to life. A human needs one or two liters of water daily to survive, and we use water for crop irrigation, for industrial processing and for recreational activities. Moreover, water is necessary to the survival of all living organisms on this planet. While water covers three-quarters of the earth's surface, more than 97 percent is saltwater and only 3 percent is fresh water. Of this three percent, 77 percent is frozen in polar ice caps and glaciers, 22 percent is ground water, and the remaining small fraction is in lakes, rivers, plants and animals (see Figure 1).

The protection of our surface and ground water supplies to ensure a sustainable supply of clean and plentiful water should be the goal of individuals, businesses, and governments world wide. In order to protect this resource, we need to understand how water cycles, how it relates to our use of the land, and how smart growth techniques can help ensure this key resource today and preserve it for tomorrow.
1. The Oldest Recycling System: An Overview of the Water Cycle
  Unlike fossil fuels, fresh water is a renewable resource. The water in your glass may have fallen from the sky as rain just last week, but the water itself has been around pretty much as long as the earth has! When the first fish crawled out of the ocean onto the land, your glass of water was part of that ocean. When the dinosaurs walked through lakes feeding on plants, your glass of water was part of those lakes. In the future, as people venture to the stars, the water they will be drinking will be made of the same molecules. If properly used and carefully conserved, the natural hydrological (water) cycle can and will supply our fresh water needs on a sustainable basis in perpetuity.
  
  In order to preserve the natural water cycle, one must first understand the process. The diagram below illustrates this cycle of constant movement of water above, on and below the Earth's surface (see Figure 2). The water cycle, the oldest recycling program, is nature's way of cleansing and reusing water in the environment. The cycle begins when precipitation (rain, snow, sleet) falls on the land. A portion of this water falls onto the land and soaks into the ground. Through infiltration, this water seeps into the ground, stored either in the pore spaces of soils or in the pores or fractures in bedrock. Some of the water flows downhill along the surface into rivers and streams and eventually into the ocean. During this journey, some water evaporates and returns to the atmosphere, while plants, through transpiration, use the water. During evaporation and transpiration, water vapor moves into the atmosphere where it cools and condenses. Clouds form and the cycle begins all over again.
2. Watersheds
  The NJDEP defines a watershed as the "geographic area in which all water, sediments, and dissolved material drain to a particular receiving body." At the federal level, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines a watershed as "an area of land from which all surface and ground water flows from higher elevations downhill to a common body of water such as a stream, lake, wetland, estuary, or ocean." Watersheds integrate ecological processes related to land, air, and water and nature defines their boundaries, not man (see Figure 3).
  
  In order to protect our water supply, it makes sense to study waterbodies and the watersheds that drain to them. Our local streams, rivers and lakes link our communities with the lands that surround them, with our history and culture, and with our neighbors living downstream. From our understanding of the water cycle, we know that not only does water run into the streams and rivers from the surface of a watershed, but it also filters through the soil, and some of this water eventually drains into the same streams and rivers.
  
  These two processes, surface runoff and infiltration are important for a number of reasons. For one, they affect water quality. The water that runs off the Earth's surface of picks up any refuse left there - from decaying organic matter, trash and the even more dangerous industrial residues and deposits these pollutants in streams and rivers as it drains the watershed. Water that filters through the soil can also become contaminated with pollution that is left over from agricultural, industrial, commercial, and other types of human activity.
  
  Since we all live in a watershed, we are all part or the problem and the solution. What we do to our rivers determines the ultimate health of our water supply.
3. Disturbing the Natural System: The Consequences of Careless Growth
  In its natural state, our environment works to ensure that water is filtered as it moves above and below ground through the water cycle. As water infiltrates into the ground, soils filter out most contamination. As water runs along the surface of the land, wetlands, forests and riparian areas, when intact, work to perform the following functions:
  - Removing sediment, nutrients, and pollutants by slowing stormwater velocity and providing opportunities for filtration, absorption, and decomposition
  - Reducing stream bank erosion
  - Shading surface waters to prevent excess warming and helping to decrease water temperature
  - Maintaining biotic diversity of aquatic plants and wildlife
  - Preventing flood-related damage and associated costs to surrounding communities
  - Helping to maintain adequate recharge of filtered water to aquifers
  - Providing greenway corridors for wildlife
  When in a natural state, generally 40 percent of the water in the water cycle is lost to evaporation or transpiration, 10 percent runs over land to the local waterbodies, 25 percent goes to shallow infiltration into the ground and the remaining 25% goes to deeper ground infiltration.
  
  As we replace our forests, wetlands and fields with roads, homes, factories, malls and office parks, we change the patterns of the natural water cycle and lose the benefits that the forests, wetlands and grassland provide in the cycle. Development replaces the natural ecosystem with impervious surface (hard surfaces such as rooftops, pavement and concrete) that reduces the amount of ground water recharge and increases the surface runoff to our streams often causing flooding and increases the amount of pollution entering our streams. Figure 4 below shows how increasing impervious surface can change the water cycle.
  
  The loss of the natural ecosystem does have consequences to our water resources. New Jersey can be an important case study to show how important water is to the residents of the state and how sprawling development has put this natural resource in danger.
  
  Water plays a key role in New Jersey. The state has over 127 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline, 1,871 square miles of freshwater and coastal wetlands, bays, estuaries, freshwater lakes and ponds and over 8,000 miles of rivers. Also, the over 8 million residents in the state rely on surface and ground water for their drinking water. It is clear why the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has set a goal for the water resources in the state as follows:
  New Jersey's rivers, lakes and coastal waters will be fishable, swimmable and support healthy ecosystems. Ground water will be a clean source of water. Every person in New Jersey will have safe drinkable water. Adequate quantities of surface and ground water will be available for all needed uses. (Source: NJDEP, New Jersey's Environment 2000)
  NJDEP monitors the populations of aquatic insect larvae and other organisms that live in the stream beds as an indicator of the overall health of the aquatic ecosystems. These benthic (bottom dwelling) organisms respond to improving or degrading conditions. Between the years 1992-1996, NJDEP sampled at 762 stations around the state with a target of 50 percent of the stations unimpaired. 36.5 percent were unimpaired, 52.2 percent were impaired and 12.2 percent was severely impaired. Compare this to the 810 stations sampled from 1997-2001 and we see a decrease in the unimpaired streams (34.2%), and increase in the impaired sites (57.2%) and a decrease in severely impaired sites (8.6%). We have also seen a net loss of agricultural lands, forested lands, and wetlands in New Jersey between 1986 and 1995.
  
  We all need to work together to ensure that our water resources are protected and enhanced to ensure that future residents of New Jersey have enough water to meet their needs.
4. The Challenge of Smart Growth
  The challenges of smart growth are many. Each person in New Jersey needs a place to live, to work and to relax. That means homes, businesses, roads, public transport, sport arenas, parks, malls and open space. The challenge lies in balancing the protection of natural resources with economic prosperity; in protecting the historical structures and cultures; in encouraging business; in providing residential services; in preserving farmland; and determining where to best site residential, commercial and agricultural zones. Who must rise to challenge? All levels of government - federal, state, county and municipal - as well as business leaders, teachers and citizens must work together to ensure that the principals of smart growth become a reality. It is not about trading economic prosperity for environmental protection. Instead it is about learning from past mistakes, stepping outside the traditional development patterns and methods, and working together to understand the issues and developing solutions.
  
  The challenge is in continuing to look toward and plan for the future to ensure that we have clean water, diversity in our ecosystems and opportunities for our children. Not sure where to start? Surf this website to learn more about the tools, techniques and policies that can make smart growth a reality in your community.
Benefits of Improving New Jersey's Water Resources & Quality
1. Habitat and Species
  Our society is often anthropocentric in the way we view the world through the lens of the human experience. Discussions of ecosystems, habitats and their associated species are generally outlined in terms of the benefit or detriments to our society. Te benefits are often seen to include plant extracts that are the basis for new cancer drugs; the peace felt by many when listening to the rush of water; or the money generated by the fishing industry. Yet there is another lens to view habitats as well, which is the deep-seeded value to the preservation of living organisms for their own sake - to live and be part of the cycle of life.
  
  New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation, and yet it has an incredible breadth of ecosystems that include the Pine Barrens, the Highlands, saltwater and freshwater wetlands and various coastal communities. According to studies by the United States Geological Survey and NJDEP the physical alterations of habitats stand out the most compelling ecological problems in New Jersey. Virtually the entire state is at risk from ongoing fragmentation and loss of habitat. Increasing impervious surfaces results in changes to the quantity and quality of storm runoff that alters natural stream flow patterns, increases erosion, and further degrades habitat. A continuing cycle of habitat degradation compounded by a proliferation of additional, related stressors (e.g. invasive species, inadvertent mortality, noise, nutrients, etc.) leading to further degradation, represents a serious and overarching threat to NJ ecosystems.
  
  We see the results of this fragmentation in the species that need this food, shelter and water that the habitat provides. Within the state more than 400 species of animals have been identified and 20 percent of these are listed as threatened or endangered. Of its more than 2,200 species of native plants, New Jersey lists more than 15 percent of native flora as endangered and 36 percent of native flora of conservation concern. This unique state is home to 90 mammal species, 79 reptile and amphibian species, about 325 avian species and more than 400 fish species.
  
  While this discussion will include the benefits to humans when protecting our plant, animal and insect populations, it is important to recognize the intrinsic value of the environment. How do we place a price on the protective display of a killdeer as it fakes a broken wing to lure a predator away from its eggs? Or on a multicoloured field of wildflowers that lures many species of butterflies with their nectar? Or on the alien quality of a preying mantis as its head, with its large eyes, swivels in your direction? In protecting and preserving natural ecosystems, we are protecting that which benefits us, but also that which we have yet to place a price, but understand that there is value.
2. Human Health and Public Safety
  Studies have shown that many types of contaminates are reaching the ground water, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, metals such as mercury and arsenic and solvents and pesticides that can all cause illness. Exposure to chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is largely a result of historical chemical use. The health effects associated with exposure to PCBs include breast cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, liver and gall bladder cancers, pancreatic cancer, decreased thyroid hormone, and prenatal effects that influence postnatal neurodevelopment. The populations most at risk are fish consumers, and infants breast-fed by women who consumed contaminated fish while pregnant. The list of chemicals and their related health effects is long. Globally, the production of synthetic chemicals has vaulted from under 150,000 tons in 1935 to more than 150 million tons in 1995.
  
  These contaminants can enter our wells, increasing health concerns and requiring expensive remediation treatment. Every state in the United States has reported cases of groundwater contamination. Once groundwater is contaminates, it is difficult to define the area of contamination and then remove the pollutant. The United States would have to spend an estimated $1 trillion over the next 30 years even to begin to purify thousands of sites where ground water pollution is most severe. Yet scientists warn us that this costly process will not be sufficient to undo the damage. Prevention is key.
  
  Another unexpected consequence of our sprawling pattern of development has been a link to health concerns. In 2003, the American Journal of Public Health and the American Journal of Health Promotion jointly released special issues that indicated a link between sprawl and obesity and sprawl and hypertension. The number of overweight children ages 6 to 11 has doubled in the last 25 years - the average 11-year old today weighs 11 pounds more than in 1973. Other studies have shown that 71 percent of parents with school-age children walked to school themselves as children, but only 18 percent of their own children walk to school.
  
  The reason - the suburban developments that we have built force us into our cars to take children to school, to go to the library to pick up the newest bestseller, to the grocery store, out to dinner or to a play date. The result - we walk less and drive more, increasing our waistline and contributing to hypertension, coronary disease, diabetes, asthma and even mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.
3. Economic Prosperity
  The tools of Smart Growth can protect the natural environment not only to ensure that critical habitats, animal and plant species are preserved and our health and weight improved, but also to ensure economic prosperity.
  
  In New Jersey, commercial fishing generates $100 million for the economy annually, and the state is first in the nation for shellfish production and is the leading supplier of surf clams and ocean quahogs for both the nation and the world. Think of the jobs that would be lost if our oceans are closed for harvesting due to bacterial contamination.
  
  Tourism is New Jerseys second largest industry, generating over $120 billion in revenue and supporting more than 500,000 jobs. This includes recreational fishing that has more than 181,000 licensed freshwater anglers and 826,000 salt water anglers. It includes the birdwatchers that gather each spring along the Delaware Bay to experience one of the world's greatest bird migrations of red knots, ruddy turnstones and semipalmated sandpipers. It also includes the sun and sand worshippers that travel to "the shore," the hikers, the canoers, the kayakers, and the naturalists. If we fail to protect the forests, oceans, wetlands, marshes, rivers, waters, and meadows that draw these tourists, the jobs and money generated will be lost.

Resources:

http://mbgnet.mobot.org
McKee, Bradford. September 4, 2003. As Suburbs Grow, So Do Waistlines. New York Times.
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. New Jersey's Environment 2000.
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. March 1999. Planning for Clean Water: The Municipal Guide.
New Jersey Future. 2000. Living with the Future in Mind: Goals and Indicators for New Jersey's Quality of Life.
Sampat, Payal. December 2000. Deep Trouble: The Hidden Threat of Groundwater Pollution. Worldwatch Paper 154.
Steering Committee of the New Jersey Comparative Risk Project. March 2003. Final Report of the New Jersey Comparative Risk Project.
Watt, Martha K. 2000. United States Geological Survey Prepared in Cooperation with the NJDEP. A Hydrologic Primer for New Jersey Watershed Management.