SUMMER WATER WATCH EVENTS!
RIVERPALOOZA!
New Jersey State-wide River clean up
Saturday August 8th, 2009 10-1 pm
For more information call 732 247 0639 or visit the official RIVERPALOOZA! webpage at: www.njwaterwatch.org/riverpalooza
NEW LOCATIONS ADDED! Check the webpage for locations in your area!
RIVERPALOOZA IN THE NEWS! http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/State_making_a_splash_at_Riverpalooza.html
About Waterwatch
Rutgers - New Brunswick Chapters
The New Brunswick site is comprised of three separate NJ Community Water Watch chapters located at each campus of Rutgers University. The chapters all primarily work in Watershed Management Area 9, comprising the lower Raritan and its tributaries. This area is generally urban and heavily developed, creating many water quality problems. While the Raritan River's industrial past factors heavily into the health of the watershed, recent development and urban sprawl have become the most serious threats to waterways in this area. Non-point source pollution and the occasional combined sewage overflow have led the EPA to label our watershed as a "high vulnerability" area.
The New Brunswick chapters focus on three separate brooks and communities, which flow into the Raritan River: The Mile Run Brook, the Lawrence Brook and the Highland Park Community.
Cook/Douglass Chapter
Livingston Chapter
The Livingston Chapter is working to impact the water quality of the Raritan River by working with the communities of Highland Park, Piscataway and Edison. We are working with the Highland Park Environmental Commission, the Edison Wetlands Association and other community organizations to conduct stream testing on the local streams that flow through these areas. We are also reaching out to schoolchildren in classrooms and educating them about water pollution and the prevention of it. We are looking forward to our Alternative Spring Break trip to the Louisiana Gulf Coast where we will assist with the post-Katrina reconstruction effort.
Last semester on Make a Difference Day we had a cleanup in conjunction with the other New Brunswick Water Watch chapters in Boyd Park. We worked together to remove about 50 yard-size bags of trash. This year for Earth Day we are looking forward to bringing 100 volunteers from our community and our campus to the Raritan-Wide cleanup.
Rutgers College Chapter
The Rutgers College Chapter of New Jersey Water Watch works to protect the Raritan River and its New Brunswick tributary, the Mile Run Brook. The Raritan is the largest river entirely within New Jersey and the 14th most polluted waterway in nation. Although its waters have been classified unsafe for fishing and swimming, the Raritan remains the source of at least a portion of the city's drinking water. Though the legacy of years of industrial pollution still affects the health of the river, the more pressing concern for current residents of New Brunswick is an increase in non-point source pollution caused by over-development. The Rutgers College Chapter works to educate students and community members about threats to New Brunswick's water, and to motivate them to act in defense of our streams and rivers.
This year, in collaboration with the students at Cook & Douglass Colleges, we are organizing our fourth annual Raritan-wide Earth Day Cleanup, scheduled for Saturday, April 21st. In addition to hosting a giant community river cleanup in New Brunswick (behind the AMC-Loews Movie Theater on Route One), we will be coordinating simultaneous cleanups of 10 other communities along the Raritan. Earlier in the semester, we will be organizing our semi-annual College Avenue Street Sweep, where we remove trash and debris from the streets around campus to prevent it from washing down our storm drains and into the Raritan River.
Our Environmental Education volunteers have worked in several elementary schools in New Brunswick, presenting lessons to the children about water pollution, stream ecology, and how they can conserve water in their homes. We've also worked with the 7th and 8th graders of the Citizen Schools Apprenticeship program in New Brunswick's McKinley School. We spent several weeks teaching these students about the Raritan River watershed and preparing them to organize their own community cleanup.
Finally, our Stream Monitoring volunteers are continuing a campaign to conduct visual and biological assessments of the entirety of the New Brunswick portion of the Raritan River, as well as the Mile Run Brook. In addition to sharing this data with the NJDEP, the City of New Brunswick, and Rutgers University, the students hope to begin working on a solution to the erosion of protective vegetation surrounding these waterways.
Read our Alternative Spring Break Blog from last year
What We Do
River cleanups: Each semester our chapters organize several river cleanups throughout our communities to engage campus students and community members around their local water quality issues. River cleanups not only help revitalize areas of our community parks and river banks, but are also a great way to draw attention to the issues we face, such as urban run off and over development that have adverse affects on our waterways. Contact the organizer for your campus to learn about our upcoming cleanup dates and how you can sign up to volunteer!
Education: Our chapters are currently working with the New Brunswick School District to construct a plan that would include New Jersey Community Water Watch presentations and field trips in the third grade water curriculum. In addition to this effort we also work with many community groups to educate children on the importantance of water quality and environmental stewardship.
Stream Monitoring: Our chapters work with many existing groups (including the Lower Raritan River Basin Watershed Management Project and the Lawrence Brook Watershed Partnership) to assess the effects of development and industrial pollution on our waterways. We also strive to involve communities in long-term stewardship of their local rivers, lakes and streams.
