Cook/Douglass College
Organizer: Jennifer Spangler
732-247-2197
cookdouglass@njwaterwatch.org

Chapter Background
The waterways we work with here on the Cook and Douglass campuses are located in the Lawrence Brook Watershed. This 48-square-mile watershed spans parts of 5 different municipalities: New Brunswick, East Brunswick, North Brunswick, South Brunswick, and Milltown; it also includes most of Cook Campus. As a result, we work primarily in Milltown and parts of New Brunswick.

The Lawrence Brook, one of the major sources of drinking water for all of Milltown and parts of East Brunswick, is the main body of water within the watershed. It is a tributary of the Raritan River and has a 10-mile span of 5 different lakes (Davidson Mill's Pond, Farrington Lake, Mill Pond, and Weston Mill's Pond). It also has several tributaries, including the Saw Mill Brook.

The basic problem is that portions of the Lawrence Brook throughout the watershed are considered severely to moderately impaired by the Department of Environmental Protection and EPA standards. This problem arises from a few definitive factors including non-point source pollution or runoff, over-development, and industrial pollution. These factors can be addressed by Water Watch now and in the future.

Often it is the general public and key decision-makers who are unaware of the factors and the consequences facing their water, as well as the practical solutions that are present and possible to address the issues. NJ Community Water Watch strives to restore our water quality by fostering a long-term commitment among college students, community members and organizations, and key decision-makers to the health of local waterways.

This past semester we ran a lot of great campaigns. Our river cleanups campaign hosted community river cleanups, including our largest cleanup, the Raritan-Wide Earth Day Cleanup. During this cleanup, 10 Raritan communities and close to 500 volunteers descended on the Raritan on the biggest environmental day of the year to revitalize the area and take a stand for better water protection.

Our stream monitoring campaign worked to monitor 6 sites along the Lawrence Brook; we took visual, biological, and chemical assessments into account to determine the consequences and factors that are contributing to our poor water quality.

With our environmental education campaign, interns and volunteers worked in local classrooms, teaching basic and interactive lessons pertaining to water and water quality issues in order to increase youth awareness of the pressing environmental issues we face in our communities.

We also focused on media outreach and visibility tactics for our chapter in an effort to reach a broader audience about the water quality issues that are present in our area. Local and campus media outlets were targeted, as well as campus and community visibility, to promote education and events.

Lastly, the Cook/Douglass chapter continued to help the Gulf Coast community as it has for the last 3 semesters by taking a group of 20 students down to New Orleans for Alternative Spring Break, where we rebuilt homes that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In addition to our trip, returning volunteers promoted educational events and activities on campus to let students know how they can continue to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina.