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Impact on Environment and Quality of Life

Water:
Heavy water use is tapping out the vast underground aquifers that hundreds of thousands of North Jersey residents rely on. Increasingly, experts are pointing to population growth and development, not just dry weather, as a major cause of the long-term shortage outlook.4 State officials say the public will have to make sacrifices or face a permanent water shortage. The Assembly Water Supply and Drought Task Force is considering measures such as a permanent odd-even schedule for watering lawns, higher water fees, and multimillion-dollar plants to turn seawater into drinking supplies. The State Plan, a blueprint for managing population growth, noted that New Jersey needs to spend $2 billion to patch leaks and clean up contamination in the water system; it could cost another $3.3 billion to accommodate population growth during the next 20 years. By 2040, the state expects water use to rise by nearly 80 percent.5

“It is a significant problem,” warns Assemblyman Louis D. Greenwald (D-Camden). “Joe Public does not really understand how big a problem it is. At the end of the day, we’re going to have more and more and more people and the same amount of rain.”6

Water Quality:
From 1997 to 2000, 57 percent of New Jersey watersheds declined in quality, and nearly all New Jersey waterways are vulnerable to more decline in the future, according to an EPA study. From 1993 to 1998, water quality declined by 25 percent at five sites on the Wallkill River, where two-thirds of Sussex County’s 3,959 new homes were built.7

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