The Raritan Plan:  Four Years After

Riparian Areas and Related Biological Impairment of Streams

As noted in the Basin Bulletin, Spring 2007, the Raritan Basin Watershed Management Plan (www.raritanbasin.org) was released to the public in early 2003.  That article discussed the six key environmental issues and the resulting stakeholder vision for the basin, while the second article (Summer 2007) addressed surface water quality.  In this article, we focus on another of the six key issues:  loss of riparian areas, with the related issue of biological stream impairment.  As described in the Raritan Plan:

“Riparian areas historically covered roughly one third of the Raritan Basin, and nearly one third of riparian areas have been lost as of 1995.  Losses within specific subwatersheds range to more than 80 percent.  While most riparian losses were initially to agriculture, most recent losses are to development.”

“NJDEP assesses streams for ecological health every five years, and some watershed associations have more frequent biological monitoring.  The Raritan Project reports use both data sets.  Based on NJDEP’s basin-wide work, the number of severely and moderately impaired streams increased from 1993 to 1998, though some streams improved.”

What did the Raritan Plan propose to address this issue?  What has happened since 2003 to implement these ideas?

Implementation Strategies

The Raritan Plan includes both basin-wide and watershed management area strategies to address the six key issues.  Three Basin Strategies relate to the protection of riparian areas.  They recommend a “Lands for Water” initiative based on mapping of lands that are critical to the quality and quantity of Basin ground and surface water resources (RB-S1); adoption of land use provisions in municipal master plans and ordinances requiring that developments preserve critical areas for water resource protection (RB-S2); and a planning “toolbox” for municipalities and developers that can be used to control development impacts (RB-S5).

Riparian area protection strategies for the North & South Branch Raritan, Millstone and Lower Raritan Watershed Management Areas primarily focus on:

 Headwaters Protection – strategies include delineating headwaters streams and the critical areas that protect them, evaluating their current condition, improving municipal regulation of such areas, protecting them through land preservation, and restoring them where necessary.

Critical Water Resource Protection Areas – strategies include delineating land areas that are most critical for protection of water resources and protecting them through land preservation (both through acquisition and land development controls).

So, How Are We Doing?

There are a number of strategies proposed to address protection and restoration of riparian areas.  Significant efforts are in progress to implement many, though certainly not all, of these strategies.  Funding limitations are a major constraint on success, but progress is being made. 

Protection of Riparian Areas

The major riparian area protection efforts relate to land preservation efforts, statewide regulation of new developments along streams, and municipal stormwater management ordinances.

  NJDEP Rules – Wetlands along streams have been regulated by NJDEP since 1988 under the Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act, which has provided useful protection of some riparian areas.  The existing Stream Encroachment rules include stream buffers that depend on water classifications and watershed size.  The Municipal Stormwater Management rules, adopted in 2003, provide for 300 foot buffers for both sides of Category One (C-1) waters – NJDEP has been adding to the list of such waters over the years.  More recently, NJDEP has proposed to adopt new Flood Hazard Area Control (aka stream encroachment) Rules that will incorporate stream buffers of 300, 150 or 50 feet, depending on the surface water classification of the stream.  Finally, NJDEP’s proposed Water Quality Management Planning Rules would require municipal adoption of riparian zone ordinances that are consistent with the proposed Flood Hazard Area Control rules.

Land Preservation Programs – An early project following completion of the Raritan Plan was development of a Critical Water Resources Protection Area map for use by land preservation programs.  One component of this map is the riparian areas for the entire basin.  The NJ Water Supply Authority relies on this map (and a similar one for the Spruce Run Reservoir watershed) to target its acquisition work using ratepayer funds.  Some other acquisition programs have also used the map for this purpose.  In general, land preservation efforts by Green Acres, counties, municipalities and nongovernmental organizations have emphasized protection of stream corridors, among other resources.

Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act – This act has profound impacts on land use in the Highlands Region, which comprises 17 percent of the Raritan River Basin.  Stringent NJDEP regulations in parts of the region (including 300 foot stream buffers along all waters of the Preservation Area) are to be complemented by a Regional Master Plan proposed by the Highlands Council, which includes recommendations for 300 foot buffers along most other Highlands waters. 

Local Land Use Ordinances – A number of municipalities have adopted ordinances requiring protection and deed restriction of stream corridors.  Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association (www.thewatershed.org) developed a model stream corridor protection ordinance.  The Hunterdon County Environmental Toolbox Committee endorsed this and other model ordinances that will benefit water quality when locally adopted (www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/planning/toolbox.htm).  Finally, nearly all municipalities have adopted new stormwater ordinances for new development projects, as required by NJDEP, including the C-1 buffers.

Understanding Riparian Areas – Recent work by the NJ Institute of Technology has emphasized the need to better define riparian areas, specifically those land areas that contribute the most sediment and pollutant loads to streams if disturbed.  This approach, known as variable (or critical) source areas, is being used by North Jersey Resource Conservation & Development Council to determine the agricultural areas where restoration of riparian buffers is most critical.  NJIT is applying the approach to the Rockaway Creek watershed to address all types of land use impacts.

Restoration of Riparian Areas

The Raritan Basin Watershed Alliance has determined that stream restoration is critical to attaining the goals and objectives of the Clean Water Act in the Raritan Basin, and therefore selected stream and riparian areas restoration as a major initiative.  The Restoration Committee is working on the following components of this initiative:

Methods to Inventory Restoration Needs:  The NJ Section of the American Water Resources Association established a Stream Restoration Committee, which is cooperating with the Raritan Alliance to establish methods to identify stream reaches needing restoration, estimate the costs of implementing the projects, and assessing restoration methods to ensure that they will work over the long term.  The first steps are scheduled for completion in 2007.

Developing the Capability to Implement Restoration Projects:  A second work group of professionals in the restoration and environmental management field are assessing the ability of existing organizations, agencies and funding sources to achieve stream restoration on a major scale.  While some restoration efforts are occurring, they are limited in number and scope, and do not come close to meeting the overall need.  How do we get to the point where scores of restoration projects are happening every year?

Creating the Partnerships and Resources for Restoration:  The Raritan Alliance is moving forward on creating partnerships to implement this initiative, with the hope that each year will see building momentum toward comprehensive stream restoration.

What Will the Future Bring?

The loss of riparian areas from 1995 through 2002 continued earlier trends, where natural or previously farmed riparian areas were converted to developed land.  Very little natural riparian area was lost to new farmlands.  New State and local regulations will further slow the loss of riparian areas, as will land preservation efforts.  Still, most regulatory efforts use fixed buffer distances as a general estimate of the most critical areas.  Further research should allow critical riparian areas to be delineated in much more detail, with adjustment of regulations and acquisition to address the critical areas.  Local regulations can help fill the gaps, especially through the use of development layout techniques (e.g., clustering, open space subdivisions, lot size averaging) that protect the riparian areas without changing the zoning densities.

Even if protection of existing riparian areas is successful, we will still need to address the impacts of past losses on streams and their surrounding landscapes.  Stream and riparian restoration will be the next major initiative toward achieving society’s objectives for streams that are fishable, swimmable and capable of sustaining healthy ecosystems.

The next article will focus on Loss of Ground Water Recharge.