The Raritan Basin will Benefit from Two New 319(h) Grants

NJDEP has awarded $3.6 million in 319(h) Grants to 11 nonpoint source pollution projects throughout New Jersey.  Two of those grants will benefit the Raritan Basin.  Mt. Olive Township will receive $393,994 for the Budd Lake Watershed Restoration, Protection and Regional Stormwater Management Plan.  The New Jersey Water Supply Authority will be granted $237,290 for the Watershed Restoration and Protection Plan for the Lockatong and Wickecheoke Creek Watersheds.  While the Lockatong and Wickecheoke Creek Watersheds are located in the Central Delaware Tributaries Watershed Management Area (WMA 11), their drainage is carried into The Raritan Basin via the Delaware and Raritan Canal.  These watersheds represent nearly 60% of the total drainage into the Delaware and Raritan Canal (downstream of the Delaware River intake) and have a significant impact on Canal water quality and sediment loads.

The five square mile Budd Lake Watershed located in Mt. Olive, Morris Township is the headwaters of the South Branch of the Raritan River.  Budd Lake, New Jersey’s largest natural lake, is a Category-1 waterbody, which is on NJDEP’s 2004 integrated list of “impaired waters.”  It has a high priority ranking for establishment of a TMDL for fecal coliform and mercury.  A 1998 Phase 1 Diagnostic Feasibility Study found that stormwater runoff plays a major role in polluting the lake with nitrogen, phosphorus and suspended sediments causing problems, such as blue-green algal blooms and shallow water depths in some shoreline areas.  In 2001, small sections of shoreline were dredged as a short-term solution to the non-point source pollutant loading problem.  Development of the Budd Lake Watershed Restoration, Protection and Regional Stormwater Management Plan, which will be incorporated into Mount Olive’s Municipal Stormwater Management Plan, as appropriate, will increase the likelihood of long-term benefits of future structural and non-structural stormwater management measures.

The New Jersey Water Supply Authority (NJWSA) and its partner the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will develop a watershed restoration and protection plan for the combined watersheds of the Lockatong and Wickecheoke Creeks.  Watershed Restoration and Protection Plan for the Lockatong and Wickecheoke Creek Watersheds will address issues internal to the watersheds (e.g., Sublist 5 concerns regarding fecal coliform bacteria, phosphorus and temperature) along with the protection of the Delaware & Raritan Canal to which both streams flow.  The process will include local and county interests in a project committee, and will rely on a combination of information sources, including existing data assessment, GIS analyses, field assessments for stream health and targeted water quality parameters, BASINS modeling and NRCS assessment of agricultural practices.  The result will be a complete watershed restoration and protection plan which will not only include a detailed assessment of which stream segments in the watersheds violate surface water quality criteria for fecal coliform bacteria, phosphorus, and temperature, but will identify the specific nonpoint source abatement measures (as well as their geographic locations when applicable) to be implemented in order to restore and protect the future water quality integrity. 

 -Adapted from 319(h) Grant Proposals for the Budd Lake Watershed Protection Plan and the Lockatong and Wickecheoke Creek Watershed Restoration and Protection Plan.

For more information about the Budd Lake Project, contact Kathy Murphy, Mount Olive Township or John Robinson, Garden State Engineering.  

For more information about the Lockatong and Wickecheoke Creeks Project, contact  Dan Van Abs, New Jersey Water Supply Authority

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