Builders League of South Jersey Asserts There is No Proof That Water is in Short Supply in South Jersey.

Business Editors/Real Estate Writers

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The following is an opinion editorial provided by Builders League of South Jersey.

The following is an Op-Ed regarding the water supply in South Jersey, submitted in response to recent media coverage on two studies conducted by the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection By Joseph J. Hochreiter, Jr., CGWP, Vice President, Blasland, Bouck & Lee, Inc., West Conshohocken, PA.

As a hydrogeologist and Certified Ground Water Professional with 30-years of experience working on water issues in New Jersey, I will be the first to acknowledge the scientific complexity associated with designing and implementing studies on the availability of water in South Jersey. I would like to comment, however, on two State-government studies on South Jersey's water that have recently been discussed in the press. These are the Pinelands Commission's recently initiated 'Kirkwood Cohansey' Project, and NJDEP's December 2003 'Status of the Water Supply of Southeastern New Jersey'

Given my first-hand knowledge of these government studies in my role as consultant to the Builders League of South Jersey, I want to discuss some issues not widely covered in the press accounts covering these studies. In my view, it is far from clear if the 'warning signs' raised in the State's report on water supply and the Pinelands Commission's Work Plan for the Kirkwood Cohansey Project portend a real water supply crisis for Atlantic County, and the Pinelands Regional Growth Area in particular.

The December 2003 State study referenced therein was prepared by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). It produces no new scientific data - it is a compilation of information which has been published in other venues, including the State's own drought web site. There is no 'new evidence' presented to support the theory of an impending water crisis in Atlantic County. The report recommends a comprehensive study of the region's water resources be performed (a recommendation that the Builders League of South Jersey endorses) to quantify how much water can be safely taken from the region's aquifers, yet provides no details for how this work will be funded or when it will be started. Additionally, the five-year, $6 million Pinelands Commission study of the water resources of the Pinelands has only just begun. Having reviewed the scope of this investigation, I conclude that this study will not ultimately tell us the sustainable yield of the region's water supply aquifers.

The absence of study data did not prevent the State from using its paper study as the basis for making new policy in this report. While the water-reuse aspects of this new policy make sense, other policy elements will have a chilling effect on economic growth in the region. For example, as of December 2003, the State quietly imposed an indefinite moratorium on most new water withdrawals from the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer. This moratorium will be in effect 'until the comprehensive study (noted above) is completed': the same study which has no secured funding or start date! There is no basis in science for implementing such action at present, yet those who grow crops (agriculture is the single largest user of groundwater in Atlantic County) and attempt to buy new homes in the region will needlessly suffer as a result of this decision.

It should be noted that State policy makers have known for at least 30 years that a major water supply aquifer, the Atlantic City 800-Foot Sand, has been 'mined' (that is, more water has been taken from the aquifer than has been able to naturally recharge the aquifer from precipitation). Despite concerns about the potential for salt-water intrusion into this aquifer from the resulting 'cone of depression', studies conducted by the State and Federal government over the past decade indicate no imminent threat to the aquifer from salt water. 'Warning signs' like the Atlantic City cone of depression have been around for a long time, and have not yet resulted in dry wells or streams. Nor have they prompted the State into crisis mode - until now.

Droughts are a real occurrence across New Jersey, and I certainly advocate a rational, multi-element approach for mitigating the effects of drought on water supply aquifers and the environment. However, today's NJDEP appears to know of only one way to react to the threat of drought - limit the demand for water. Water conservation is a prudent defense against the impacts of drought, but we should also be looking at alternative solutions, including: finding ways to recharge aquifers with treated stormwater and wastewater (lest that water be wasted to the ocean); developing inter-connects with water supplies elsewhere in the State; intelligent, cycled pumpage of the aquifers in Atlantic County; constructing water supply reservoirs; and evaluate the further application of desalination technology (as is being used in Cape May County).

Concerns exist about the effect of development on the Pinelands' water and ecology. Appropriate scientific inquiry intended to address such concerns makes sense, however these concerns often create political tensions between perception and scientific reality when dealing with water issues in the Pinelands. In my view, the real concern being expressed by the NJDEP and the Pinelands Commission through their implementation of these studies is the political desire to limit development in the Atlantic County Regional Growth Area. Regional growth areas were established 25 years ago by the State as a way of protecting the core Pinelands region from the effects of development, and in that regard such designations have succeeded in directing development away from the core of the Pinelands. However, some State and local officials would like to extend these development protections, reserved for the core of the Pinelands, into the growth area.

The battlefield upon which this issue is being advanced is water. If the State can create the impression of an impending water crisis, even when the data needed to support such a view has yet to be collected and evaluated, political forces then get an opportunity to significantly constrain human activity (with agriculture and housing at the top of the list) within the Atlantic County Regional Growth Area for the indefinite future.

From the State's perspective, the 'dark forces' in this battle are South Jersey farmers and prospective new homeowners. Does that feel right to you?