Students Reclaim Raritan

By Melissa Morgan

On Sunday November 4^th, students from Rutgers University reclaimed their connection to the Raritan River.  With the organizational skills of the student interns of New Jersey Community Water Watch, over 300 university students hit the banks of the historic river to remove piles of trash from the river and its flood zone. Just one week before, 35 Water Watch students plowed through New Brunswick streets, cleaning up garbage and preventing litter from flowing into storm drains that lead to the Raritan.

Each year thousands of students enter Rutgers University and learn the alma mater, “On the banks of the Old Raritan,” yet many of these same students see the river as nothing more than a dirty, smelly, geographic presence. There was once a time when the banks of the Raritan were full of young students hanging out, swimming, fishing, and enjoying the river as it was. Those students were lucky; today these activities are impossible.  A legacy of industrial pollution and the current threat of non-point source pollution have left the Raritan the 14^th most polluted river in the country.  New Jersey Community Water Watch at Rutgers is seeking to change this by reconnecting students to their local environment through service and education.

New Jersey Community Water Watch is a joint project between AmeriCorps and the NJPIRG Law and Policy Center.  Currently there are Water Watch AmeriCorps volunteers at six college campuses in New Jersey.  These AmeriCorps volunteers organize students to run projects that actively promote healthy water quality in New Jersey. Students organize clean ups, go into elementary school classrooms to teach about environmental stewardship, and monitor at risk water ways.  The Rutgers University chapter of Water Watch has organized eight clean ups so far this semester, including the November 4^th “Reclaiming the Raritan Clean Up.” 

Currently, New Jersey Community Water Watch is organizing “Education Week 2008”.   In addition to visiting elementary school classrooms throughout the school year, every January Water Watch college students and AmeriCorps volunteers visit a different city in New Jersey each day for a week to teach lessons about local water quality issues.  During Education Week 2007, Water Watch visited Trenton, Newark, and Atlantic City.  This year Water Watch would like to add a fourth day to Education Week and teach lessons in New Brunswick.

The theme of Water Watch’s 2008 Education Week is “Community Solutions to Water Pollution.” Water Watch has designed fun, comprehensive lessons for 3^rd-8^th grade classrooms that explore ways in which communities address the problem of water pollution.  On January 15^th, Water Watch volunteers will teach 23 classes of students in New Brunswick about how their community works to preserve water quality. 

The Rutgers University chapter of New Jersey Community Water Watch is proud of our location in the lower Raritan watershed.  We are actively seeking to establish contacts that would aide in our mission to reach out and equip students and community members to reclaim the Raritan and become good stewards of our local environment.  If you would like to become involved in the Rutgers-New Brunswick Chapter of Water Watch or help out with Education Week 2008, please contact AmeriCorps Volunteer Rebecca Grinstead at Rutgers@njwaterwatch.org.