Contact Us:
Alexandra Wenholz
Campus Organizer
Stockton College
Office: G212
Office Phone: 609-748-6097
Email: Stockton@njwaterwatch.org
Local Water Quality Issues
Richard
Stockton College is a beautiful campus situated in the heart of the
Pine Barrens, a state wilderness treasure. The campus is surrounded by
trees and waterways and the area is home to many animal and plant
species, some with protected status. Unfortunately, an increasing
amount of development continues to threaten the health of local
waterways. Development, which leads to an increase in water usage, is
rapidly depleting the state's largest aquifer, located beneath the Pine
Barrens. Additionally, development leads to an increase in non-point
source pollution, with trash, fertilizer, pet fecal matter, and oils
running into local waterways. The impact of development can be best
illustrated by looking at Atlantic City and surrounding beach
communities, where urban runoff from residential and commercial uses is
high, leading to beach pollution as well as occasional beach closings
due to sewage and chemical spills.
About the Stockton College Campus Chapter
The
Stockton Water Watch program is working to educate the campus and the
community about the impacts of development on water quality.
Additionally, we are dedicated to teaching the campus and the community
about how they can become stewards of their waterways. This year we
will continue with our classroom and community education programs, by
going into local elementary schools to teach children about water
quality and holding our annual environmental education forum. We will
also hold and participate in a number of beach, river, and lake
cleanups. Finally, we will engage in a vernal pond monitoring program
where we assess the aquatic life and water chemistry of the ponds in
order to obtain state protection of that land. Vernal ponds are small
seasonal ponds that provide important wetland habitat to many amphibian
species that cannot survive anywhere else.
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