TOMS RIVER – At a town hall meeting Thursday, a panel of scientists and policy experts highlighted the growing threat to water quality for the Toms River and other coastal waterways in the path of some of the fastest development in the state.
The Toms River (Ocean and Monmouth Counties) and the natural places that depend on its clean waters – including the Pinelands and Barnegat Bay – are at risk because of the impact of runoff pollution from increased development, panelists warned. New Jersey’s four coastal counties alone accounted for more than a quarter of the state’s growth in urban land in recent years.
“There is a bit of a catch 22 in that people come here because of water,” said Cara Muscio, marine agent with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension. “This means more people will continue to visit and move here, placing additional stress on the system, and at the same time there is an even higher demand for clean, potable, swimmable, fishable water.”
Environmental advocates at the meeting called on the State to grant the Toms River clean water protections that limit new development directly along its banks. This protection – called the Category One designation – installs 300-foot buffer zones along a waterway that block new, large-scale development projects and maintain a vegetated strip that greatly reduces the amount of non-point runoff pollution that enters the water.
“The Toms River is pristine, but threatened,” said Ethan Lavine, environmental associate for Environment New Jersey. “We need Governor Corzine to grant it the best protections we’ve got to offer before its banks become overrun by strip malls and subdivisions.”
Susan Kennedy, policy advocate for the American Littoral society highlighted the important role land use regulations play in the preservation of the state’s waterways. “Obtaining a Category One designation for the Toms River would be a major step towards protecting this important natural resource,” said Kennedy.
Degraded water quality in the Toms and other coastal rivers and streams places additional stress on some of the most ecologically significant areas in the state, such as the Pinelands and Barnegat Bay.
“The bays are only getting worse as we build upstream,” said Tom Fote, legislative chairman of the Jersey Coast Anglers Association. “If we don’t do enough to protect the sources that provide them with clean water, we’re in serious trouble.”
“Granting Category One status to the Toms River is a logical continuation of the state's commitment to protecting the unique Pinelands ecosystem,” said Rich Bizub of the Pineland Preservation Alliance. Bizub highlighted the inconsistency in granting sections of the Toms River high-level PL (for Pinelands) protections while leaving its headwaters vulnerable to serious degradation.
The town hall meeting comes several months after statewide and local environmental groups officially petitioned the state Department of Environmental Protection to grant the Toms River Category One designation. The petition, filed November 1, 2006, lays out a scientific- and merit-based argument for granting the protection. NJDEP has yet to issue its response.
Signing the petition are American Littoral Society, Environment New Jersey, New Jersey Audubon Society, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Pinelands Preservation Alliance, Save Barnegat Bay, and Sierra Club – NJ Chapter.
"There are already environmentally unfriendly development projects quickly moving forward that by infringing upon the proposed 300 foot buffer would effectively render Category One classification moot in some areas,” said Greg Auriemma, chair of the Sierra Club’s Ocean County chapter. “Quite simply, the NJDEP has to move faster than the bulldozers do.”
The petition calls for upgrades along the remaining pristine segments of the Toms and its tributaries. On the main stem, protections would extend from the headwaters in Monmouth County eastward to the Route 528 bridge in Cassville, where Pinelands water protections begin, and then again at the terminus of these protections at the New Jersey Central Railroad tracks at the border of Toms River and Manchester townships eastward to the Garden State Parkway. The petition also calls for upgrades to tributaries including Mirey Run, Dove’s Mill Branch, Union Branch, and Wrangle Brook.
The effort has found support among municipalities that would be impacted by the upgrade. Environmental Commissions in Millstone, Berkeley, and Toms River townships have passed resolutions in favor of Category One designation. Mayor Paul C. Brush of the Township of Toms River has submitted a letter to Governor Corzine encouraging him to seek the upgrade.
Lavine identified several other pristine South Jersey waterways in need of Category One protections, including Great Egg Harbor River (Atlantic and Gloucester Counties), Salem River (Salem County), Cedar Creek (Ocean County), and Oldmans Creek (Gloucester and Salem Counties).
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