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The New Jersey Water Supply Authority's Watershed Protection Programs Division was formed in 1999 to administer a systematic source water protection program for the watersheds that the Authority relies upon for its water supply. The Division's primary objectives include the development and implementation of projects that afford protection of the quantity and quality of the source water in the Raritan and Manasquan River Basins, and the Delaware & Raritan Canal and its tributaries for the benefit of the Authority and its customers. Guided by the results of the Raritan Basin and Manasquan Basin Watershed Protection Plans, the Division began developing more detailed protection plans for priority sub-watersheds. As each of these sub-watershed plans is completed, the Division works with a variety of organizations to implement the recommended strategies. The Division's core activities are funded by a dedicated Source Water Protection component of the regulated rate the Authority charges for the sale of its water. This dedicated rate, paid by our customers, allows the Authority to leverage these dollars to attract matching sources of state and federal funds. Additionally, Source Water Protection funds are used to finance the acquisition of critical water resource land through the NJ Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program.

What Is A Watershed?

A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. John Wesley Powell, scientist geographer, put it best when he said that a watershed is:

"that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community."

Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes. They cross county, state, and national boundaries. In the continental US, there are 2,110 watersheds; including Hawaii Alaska, and Puerto Rico, there are 2,267 watersheds. -- Excerpts from USEPA

Picture Credit: Recycleworks.org