DEP Must Take Action to Protect and Restore Barnegat Bay

Barnegat Bay is sick and dying.  Everyone from the Governor to local fishermen, tourists and swimmers know it.So, why the State’s delay in recognizing and designating it officially “impaired” under the Clean Water Act (CWA)?

Under the CWA, a waterbody is determined to be impaired when it has “chronic or recurring monitored violations” that are related to its health, which includes diminished designated uses such as fishing and swimming.

It is hard to understand how the drastic decline in shellfish populations or the prevalence of stinging sea nettles and algae blooms doesn’t lead the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection straight to such a simple conclusion: Barnegat Bay is impaired.

If this legal designation is put in place, the DEP must develop a plan that calculates and then reduces the amount of pollution that enters the Bay.  The goal is to lower the pollutant loadings enough to get Barnegat Bay back on its way to ecological health and also further protect it as a thriving economic engine for the State. Don’t we all want -- and more importantly need –a clean, healthy Bay?

The Bay’s pollution problems are many but we know the most significant is the impact of polluted stormwater runoff from over-development. The result of too much development on the land areas that drain to the Bay is quite simply too much polluted stormwater entering our streams, rivers and directly into the Bay itself, making it unhealthy.

Not only fishing and swimming are current telltale signs of an impaired Barnegat Bay. Recent scientific studies also prove the Bay is sick. This science provides the DEP the information needed to calculate the Bay’s current pollutant loads and then allows for the development of a pollution “budget” for the Bay to be restored to a healthy condition. Instead of working on this pollution reduction plan for the Bay’s health, the DEP has instead taken to hiding behind the mantra of “we need more science” before taking this meaningful action.

Time is running out for the Bay and we desperately need the DEP to take this first and vital step to accept the science; quantify the amount of the runoff pollution from existing development; and then calculate the amount we need to reduce pollutant loads to for the Bay to be healthy, fishable and swimmable.

Many other states are more interested in action than excuses and are declaring waterbodies impaired based on everything from fish kills or chemical measurements to simple public observations: all legal, allowable and effective approaches according to guidance from the EPA.

A 2013 EPA guidance memo on impairment designation notes that the state of Vermont recognizes impairment by “public feedback and complaints in addition to field surveys of algae blooms to assess waters”.   For swimming and contact recreation use in lakes, waters are considered impaired if an ongoing record of public complaint concerning the algal conditions in the water has been established.

The state of Delaware employs a simple narrative criteria stating: “Waters shall be free from…any pollutants that may impart undesirable…colors to the water or to aquatic life found therein, may endanger public health, or may result in dominance of nuisance species”.

For Barnegat Bay, nothing could be more nuisance than stinging sea nettles and algae blooms. In fact, NJ’s own Clean Water Act narrative nutrient criteria recognize just that, but DEP refuses to use the tool at their fingertips. Sadly, the case for impairment designation is as clear as a jellyfish sting after day swimming at your community’s Bay beach. Barnegat Bay is sick and the DEP must recognize that and then do their job to restore it to health.

You can help collect ‘citizen science’ about the impaired condition of Barnegat Bay by downloading our iPhone App, “Marine Defenders”, and then report jellyfish or nuisance algae blooms you experience when trying to enjoy the Bay.

In addition, we hope you’ll join the American Littoral Society and sign our petition on Change.org asking the DEP to protect and restore the Bay by declaring Barnegat Bay “Impaired” under the Clean Water Act. http://www.change.org/petitions/new-jersey-department-of-environmental-protection-commissioner-marti... Visit our website for information www.littoralsociety.org

Helen Henderson

Atlantic Coast Program Manager

American Littoral Society