 | Vol. 4 No. 4 Spring 1997 |
| A Newsletter About New Jersey's Water Quality Programs |
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The Next Generation Two complementary strategies focus on environmental results |
How can we build on the success of past water quality initiatives? The answer may come from two promising new initiatives. Water resource managers, the regulated community, and stakeholders agree that over the past 25 years, significant water quality improvements have been achieved through statewide planning, permitting, enforcement, and finance programs. However, significant, complex water resource issues still remain. Continued environmental improvement will require innovative approaches that maximize the effectiveness of agency and stakeholder talents and resources.
To build and expand upon New Jersey’s water quality successes, the DEP is embarking on two complementary management strategies that focus on achieving environmental results—the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS) and the Statewide Watershed Management Framework. While NEPPS is intended to reinvent environmental management in New Jersey, watershed management proposes to reinvent water resources management. Key common elements of these strategies include:
National Environmental Performance Partnership System
In January 1997, Governor Christine Todd Whitman, DEP Commissioner Robert Shinn and EPA Regional Administrator Jeanne Fox signed New Jersey’s first comprehensive NEPPS Agreement. This agreement replaces numerous activity-oriented workplans with a goal-oriented management plan for most planning, monitoring, science permitting, enforcement, and finance programs. The agreement includes goals, milestones, indicators and activity commitments for air, surface and ground water, drinking water, land and natural resources (goals only), site remediation, solid and hazardous waste, pesticides, radiation, pollution prevention, compliance and enforcement, and mercury. The agreement will be implemented using Performance Partnership Grant funds, other EPA funds, state appropriations, bond funds and other agency grants. Last year, New Jersey was one of five states to pilot NEPPS. This year, approximately 30 states are expected to participate. (The NEPPS process has been described in detail in the Summer, Fall and Winter 1996 issues of the New Jersey Discharger.)
Statewide Watershed Management Framework
On January 14, 1997, DEP released the Draft Statewide Watershed Management Framework Document for the State of New Jersey. In this document, the DEP explores various aspects of a statewide watershed management process, and proposes a delineation of watershed boundaries and a phased, prioritized schedule for implementing watershed management activities throughout the state. The document also provides a structure for coordinating and integrating existing DEP programs through a watershed framework and expands the focus of traditional water resource programs beyond site-specific, point source regulation to also include regional, nonpoint source pollution control and non-regulatory management measures.
Under this framework, the state’s 96 watersheds would be grouped into 20 watershed management areas within 5 water regions. A plan to coordinate existing DEP water resources programs and activities, encourage extensive stakeholder participation, and provide a schedule for implementing watershed management is also included in the framework. The DEP proposes to implement such activities on a sequential, incremental basis to more effectively target high priority areas.
The draft framework document is currently under review by a broad group of stakeholders working with the DEP on reforming the NJPDES and other water resources management rules. The document will be publicly distributed prior to the April 18, 1997 New Jersey Watershed Forum--a one-day public forum to present the draft framework document to the general public for review and comment and to discuss key issues related to its implementation. The distribution of the draft framework document, along with the Watershed Forum, is intended to initiate an ongoing dialogue with the citizens of this state and other stakeholders on the development and implementation of statewide watershed management in New Jersey. A final framework document is expected to be completed by July 1997.
NEPPS and Watershed Management
Implementing watershed management is key to achieving the goals and milestones related to water quality and quantity in NEPPS. Watershed assessments, which can incorporate stakeholder data, will provide detailed information for watershed-based indicators. These indicators and assessments can be used to develop specific milestones and to design and target effective watershed management strategies to address watershed-specific and statewide water resource issues.
Significant components of the NEPPS Agreement, particularly the water section, are intended to advance the implementation of watershed management in New Jersey. For example, monitoring activities will accommodate watershed priorities, assess current water quality in waters on the Impaired Waterbodies List (303d list), and provide data for watershed based water quality models. Nonpoint source pollution control and stormwater management will also be implemented as key components of the statewide watershed management framework. In addition, the NEPPS Agreement includes commitments to complete and implement the Statewide Watershed Management Framework Document, adopt the Water Quality Rule Package, and adopt the Wellhead Protection Area Rules and delineations. Other statewide programs, such as Underground Injection Control and Enforcement and Compliance Assurance have committed to conducting some or all of the program’s activities in a manner consistent with watershed priorities.
Many of the environmental indicators developed for NEPPS will facilitate watershed characterization and assessments. Indicators related to surface and ground water quality and quantity, fish and shellfish populations and contaminant levels, point source loadings, and beach debris removal are some examples. Air indicators for acidic loading, metals and other toxics, and criteria air pollutants are expected to provide useful information for evaluating air deposition impacts to surface water quality. Site remediation indicators for remediation status and aerial extent of ground water classification exception areas will improve our understanding of these impacts on a watershed basis.
The concurrent implementation of NEPPS and the Statewide Watershed Management Framework is expected to be beneficial to all users of water resources (i.e. human and aquatic) and will continue to forge new partnerships between federal, state, and local governments; the regulated community; academia; environmental groups; and citizens. The strong emphasis on data assessment in both of these processes is expected to greatly enhance our understanding of ambient conditions, the causes of those conditions, and the effectiveness of management actions. This will maximize environmental benefits and the wise use of resources.
Additional information on the National Environmental Performance Partnership System and related documents, including 1996 and 1997 Self-Assessment of New Jersey’s Environment and DEP Programs, 1996 and 1997 Performance Partnership Agreement, and a workshop report entitled Management for Environmental Results in New Jersey, is available from DEP’s Division of Science and Research (609-984-6071). These documents are also available electronically through the DEP’s Bulletin Board at (609) 292-2006.
For more information on the Draft Statewide Watershed Management Framework Document for the State of New Jersey or the upcoming New Jersey Watershed Forum, please contact DEP’s Office of Environmental Planning at (609) 984-0058. The draft framework document will also be available in the near future on the DEP's computer bulletin board (609) 292-2006.