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Across the Watershed Is a Quarterly Publication of the Great Swamp Watershed Association

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Across the Watershed Is a Quarterly Publication of the Great Swamp Watershed Association Write us at: ACROSS THE 2001Visit us- 2002at: P.O. Box 300 Annual36 Main Report Street New Vernon, NJ 07976 WATERSHED Madison,Inside NJ 07940 Fall 2002 The Great Swamp Watershed Association Vol. 22 No.4 What’s in the Water? A Toast To the Swamp by Karen Patterson As the accompanying article Water Quality Standards Set for Great Swamp, reports (see page 2), the first-ever standards for nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment levels in the five tributaries of the Great Swamp have been established. This is good news indeed, as it gives us all something to measure future water quality data against, and something to work for: the protection and maintenance of water quality in the Passaic River and Primrose Brook; and the restoration of Great, Loantaka and Black Brooks so that they meet the individual standards set for those streams. But just what is the problem with nutrients in our streams? They aren’t the typical “pollutants” we generally think of as threatening human health, such as lead, mercury, Volatile Organic Compounds, coliform bacteria and others. In fact, Save the Date… phosphorous and nitrogen are naturally occurring elements found in some quantity The Watershed Association is having in all surface waters (streams, ponds, a Cocktail Party! swamps, etc). Furthermore, phosphorous Friday, November 15, 2002 and nitrogen are essential to plant growth; without them we might not have the 6:30 - 8:30 pm abundance of over 500 species that are (The Annual Meeting will be held currently found in the Great Swamp before the party at 6 pm.) National Wildlife Refuge. In a healthy water ecosystem, if sufficient light and At Mead Hall, Drew University temperature are present, the availability of phosphorous and nitrogen are often the determining factors in the rate of plant growth. There will be a Silent Auction The availability of these nutrients strongly influences the amount of plant growth that can featuring such items as: occur in a given ecosystem. - golf outing at Muirfield G.C., Problems arise, however, when excess levels of these nutrients enter our streams, lakes and Scotland swamps. When there is an influx of phosphorous and nitrogen into an ecosystem, there will - Dinner at Rod’s likely be an increase in plant productivity. This may initially lead to greater biological - Gap Gift Certificates diversity because plankton, the base of the food chain, increases and provides more food for - Maine Beach House Vacation larger organisms such as fish, humans and other mammals. But as excess nutrients continue - Giants Football Tickets - Dinner at The Ryland Inn to enter the ecosystem, the natural aging process of the system is accelerated. This is known plus much more! as eutrophication and it can actually lead to destabilization of the ecosystem: as more plant material is produced, more plants die off, and more bacteria works to decompose the dead plant RSVP by November 1, 2002 material. The bacteria use oxygen in the process of decomposing the plant material, thus (973) 966-1900 continued on page 7 We protect the places you love. www.greatswamp.org Water Quality Standards Set for Great Swamp by Leonard W. Hamilton Across the Watershed is a quarterly publication of the Great Swamp Watershed Association. GSWA works to About four years ago, the Ten Towns Great Swamp Watershed Management Committee protect the ecological, historic, and launched a stream monitoring program as part of its comprehensive stormwater management cultural integrity of the Great Swamp and its watershed. The Association plan. Professionals from F. X. Browne, Inc. set up training programs for a group of about 20 promotes the conservation and Great Swamp Watershed Association volunteers. Then, they waited for rains to come so restoration of the watershed’s natural they could go out and wade hip deep into streams to establish flow rates. They lugged heavy resources and encourages land use that is monitoring stations to the streams for permanent installation. They calibrated equipment. compatible with these goals. They swatted mosquitoes! This was a long-term project to amass data over many years in order to monitor changes Board of Trustees and, perhaps, to help guide future planning decisions. Nobody expected that within a few short Officers David A. Budd, Chairman years (well, they were short for those of us who were not wading in the streams) this work would Robert E. Blanchard, Vice Chair lead directly to the establishment of new water quality standards for the Great Swamp, but Linda Wilson, C.F.A., Treasurer that is what happened: In June of 2002, a document entitled Water Quality Standards for George Cassa, Secretary the Great Swamp Watershed was unveiled at the 7th anniversary meeting of the Ten Towns Trustees Committee. William A. Aiello, Ph.D. Many are surprised to learn that such standards did not already exist. What about the Marshall P. Bartlett federal guidelines established by the EPA? What about the state guidelines established by the Paul C. Becker NJDEP? Both, as it turns out, are vague and incomplete, especially at the local level. Michele E. Blanchard Richard C. Clew The EPA has some broadly defined standards for different ecological regions across the nation, Nancy P. Conger but then recommends the use of reference streams (both good and bad quality) for local Michael Dee Eugene R. Fox comparisons. Daniel D. Harding The NJDEP has somewhat more useful standards for broad categories of streams. Some numerical Pamela Harding Christine Hepburn, Ph.D. standards are available for Fresh Water Category Two, but the more rigorous Category One Julie A. Keenan simply calls for no degradation. Curiously, several of the streams in the Great Swamp start Edward G. Kirby, Ph.D. out as Category Two and then, administratively, become Category One as they enter the Judith A. Kroll Nancy Miller-Rich Refuge. This administrative change in category and protective criteria is inherently confusing Ann Parsekian and makes it difficult to set up simple and enforceable guidelines for land use. Dorothea Stillinger The Ten Towns Committee, working with its consulting scientists and volunteers, has brought Staff order to this chaotic situation by setting specific, numerical water quality standards for each Cheryl Amatelli, Financial Director stream in the watershed. These standards were derived by integrating several methods and Bonnie Gannon, Development Director sources of data: Jan Malay, Land Steward John Malay, Project Director I Data from stream monitoring stations Karen Patterson, GIS Analyst I Water quality standards (where available) and methodology from the EPA Missy Small, Communications Director Gina Snell, Membership Director I Water quality standards (where available) from the NJDEP Julia M. Somers, Executive Director I Primrose Brook and the upper reaches of the Passaic River were used as reference streams for relatively undisturbed conditions in the local ecosystem. Using these resources, separate water quality standards were established for each stream Across the Watershed for both base flow and storm flow conditions on the following measures: Editor: Missy Small I Nitrogen (3 different types) Layout: John Malay I Phosphorous (2 different types) Contributors: I Suspended solids Leonard W. Hamilton Taken together, these measures of nutrient pollutants and sediment levels of the stream Karen Patterson provide a useful index for the ecological health of the stream. So, how healthy are the streams? continued on next page 2 - www.greatswamp.org We protect the places you love. As shown in the table, the upper portion of the Passaic River is GSWA Welcomes Interns and in excellent shape, as is Primrose Brook except for some problems with high sediment and phosphorous levels during storm events. AmeriCorps Ambassador At the opposite extreme, Loantaka Brook fails on every measure. Fall is always a busy time at Watershed Association headquarters Black Brook and Great Brook have less serious problems, but they and so we’re particularly pleased to welcome Drew University interns are far from healthy. Stephen Chiarello, Amy Hopkins Ewen, Nicholas Kasimis, and AmeriCorps Ambassador Elyssa Serrilli. Stephen, Amy and Nick Stream Health Based on Water Quality Standards are seniors at Drew and Elyssa recently graduated from Rutgers. (Baseflow : Stormflow) Phosphorous Nitrogen Solids ‘Watershed Model’ Offered Passaic River Good : Good Good : Good Good : Good to Teachers Primrose Brook Good : Poor Good : Good Good : Poor To bring environmental learning to life in area schools, teachers Great Brook Poor : Poor Fair : Good Poor : Fair are invited to bring a working model of a watershed into the classroom, courtesy of the Watershed Association. Black Brook Poor : Poor Fair : Poor Good : Poor The classroom presentations, offered by staffers and volunteers, Loantaka Brook Poor : Poor Poor : Poor Poor : Poor include a three-dimensional tabletop watershed model- an interactive educational tool that vividly illustrates how human actions affect These specific standards provide a strong and targeted framework the water quality of lakes, rivers, and streams. to help guide land use decisions across the watershed. For The model depicts land use in a typical watershed, demonstrating development within the subwatersheds of the Passaic River and how industrial, commercial, agricultural, forest, and residential land Primrose Brook, special efforts need to be made to prevent uses impact water quality. degradation of their already high water quality. For Black Brook Students participate in the demonstration by helping to “pollute” and Great Brook, a combination of prevention and some corrections the model with cocoa, lemonade and fruit punch (dirt, fertilizer and of past problems should bring them up to standard. For Loantaka pesticides, respectively), and then by making it “rain” to demonstrate Brook, good preventive measures for future land use will only prevent how pollutants run off the land and into rivers and lakes. the stream from getting still worse; the restoration of Loantaka Brook to good health will require significant (and expensive) retrofitting Teachers interested in arranging a classroom presentation should and repair.
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