New Jersey Admits 970 Rivers and Lakes Polluted

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=54633a09cab18ccf&cat=9dd26ff7f3fbfc0e

TRENTON, New Jersey - May 4 - Nearly one thousand water-bodies across New Jersey are too dirty for fishing or swimming, according to the latest agency figures posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Many of the 970 polluted lakes, rivers, bays and estuaries serve as drinking water sources, habitat for fish and shellfish, and recreation for hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents.

Water pollutants include nutrients such as phosphorus; toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury, and lead; pesticides; toxic chemicals including PCBs and dioxin; and pathogens such as fecal coliform bacteria. One direct result of this pollution has been a rise in the number, scope and severity of health advisories against consuming local fish or shellfish.

“Given how bad this news is, no wonder the state tried to low ball this report,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe, noting that the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which issues news releases on a daily basis did not feature this new report in any press statements. “Setting aside the technical details, the quality of state waters is getting worse each year while the state sits on its thumbs.”

Under the federal Clean Water Act, New Jersey is required, every two years, to prepare and submit to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a list of polluted or “water quality limited waters.” This list has been known as the Impaired Waters or “303(d) List” (after the Clean Water Act subsection requiring it).

This formal listing has significant regulatory implications. For example, development in polluted watersheds must be more strictly regulated by DEP as well to control “non-point” source pollution. Sewage treatment plants and industrial pollution discharges to listed waters must also be more strictly regulated. In addition, these dischargers must upgrade their plants to install additional pollution controls.

more...
When you look at us and what we are doing to our environment are we any different than China or Russia???

[marmar]

1. Tragic...

Can we turn it around? Or is the world irretrievably f..ked? :cry: :cry: :cry:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. Duh.

I used to swim in a lake that you had to build an immunity to. Now, I look at it and think, "Woah, I'm not dead! Wait, what the hell kind of irresponsible parents did I have?"

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Are there actually any lakes in NJ

that aren't polluted?

Would have been a much shorter survey.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. Probably up at the Gap. nt

[LostinVA]

7. Go to South Jersey, and the ponds and marshes

Beautiful, rural area. I grew up there.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

13. Ewww....south Jersey.

Unless I'm going to the shore, I don't go below New Brunswick.

[BlueStateBlue]

11. Swartswood Lake doesn't allow gasoline powered engines on

the lake, electric only. It helps.

[Jersey Ginny]

5. Saw the Paterson falls yesterday. They are beautiful to look at

but the water leading up to them looked muddy at best and very polluted in reality. Very sad. No excuses either. The pressure to build on land that ought to be protected is enormous and the government is not taking a strong enough lead. Our former Governor McGreevey took on the issue of open spaces and development needs, but it is such an uninspiring issue to people that it didn't go anywhere-then he made headlines that overshadowed anything sensible. Now we have this report and the Jersey jokes can start to fly. I love my state. And yes, there are many lakes and we have beautiful beaches. I never really liked lakes. They never have felt clean to me regardless of where they are.

[donsu]

6. we are no different and we are too cowardly to stop the corporations

americans will live by toxic chemical plants and wonder why they are sick and dying.

americans are so dumbed down they don't know enough to care about their own survival.

america is a crime scene

global warming will be the winner

[Blue_Tires]

15. well said n/t

[henslee]

8. As long as the mafia is in the waste removal business, rivers and

lakes will be polluted.

[noonwitch]

9. Well, in Michigan we only have 5 polluted lakes

They're just really big.

Seriously, though, the great lakes are still salvageable. I swim in Lake Michigan several times every year. Lake St. Clair is the one that is worst-off. John Engler let everyone in Macomb county flush their untreated sewage into the Clinton River, which empties into Lake St. Clair. There have been less beach closings (due to fecal coliform bacteria) over the past couple of summers, since we got a democratic governor.

[Supersedeas]

10. is that Chrissy Todd Whitman's state?

[BlueStateBlue]

12. Was. n/t

[WhiteTara]

14. Christie Todd Whitman ex gov and EPA head

should tell the whole story. Repukes hate not only America (and our freedoms) they want to kill the whole planet.