VOL. 58, NO. 3 Fall 2011 A publication of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, central New Jersey’s first environmental group. Your water. Your environment. Your voice. Inside 2... A Dam Comes Down! 6... Member Spotlight: Reserve Expands to 930 Acres Matt Wasserman After many years of hope and several years of negotiation, completes a “conservation corri- the Watershed Association has purchased nearly 70 acres dor” between Hopewell Borough 8... of forest, wetlands, and meadow from Thompson Realty and Pennington (see map p. 11). Calendar Company, boosting the organization’s Watershed Reserve of Events to 930 acres. The acquisition unites the two previously The land, at the southwest corner of unconnected portions of the Watershed Reserve and Wargo and Moore’s Mill-Mt. Rose Roads, was purchased with funds that the Watershed Association secured from the state’s Green Acres Program. Mercer County and Hopewell Township provided matching funds through their respective open space programs and additional funds were provided by Conservation Resources, Inc. and individual donors. Prior to the purchase of the Thompson tract, the Watershed Reserve consisted of two nearby but separate pieces of land. The Thompson property consolidates the Reserve and protects a diversity of wildlife habitat. Approximately 70 percent of the land is forested with meadows and shrubland comprising the balance. The Thompson property now affords protection to a 1,000-foot section of the Honey Brook and its associated wetlands. The Honey Brook is a significant tributary to the Thompson Tract, looking north toward the Mt. Rose Ridge Category 1 waters of the Stony Brook, and provides source Continued on page 11 Conservation Advocacy Science Education FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Trucks and Fish When my son was little, he was obsessed with trucks. Dump trucks, fire trucks, garbage trucks, these were his passion. He could spend hours at a time playing with Tonkas or watching David Sidoni and his “Theregoesa videos” (There goes a bulldozer, There goes a snowplow, etc.) I would wince a little with each reading of “Building a Road,” a large format picture book that described the complete process of transforming a verdant forest into Workers demolish the Calco Dam a glistening new road, but admit that I enjoyed making noises with Jimmy to simulate the bulldozing, grading, and he’d caught in the Millstone River, just a few miles from the paving taking place on the pages in front of us. At the time former dam site. I was working for the Wilderness Society and spending most of my days fighting against proposed roads through Over the coming years, we hope to celebrate the removal wilderness areas in Alaska and elsewhere only to spend a of the Blackwells Mills and Weston Causeway Dams on the part of each night celebrating the monster machines that Millstone River and the return of shad and other fish that carry out such deeds. (I’m pleased to report that despite once graced these waters in great numbers. I look forward to his early fascination, my son is now a budding naturalist keeping you informed of our progress. and environmentalist.) VVVVRRRRRROOOOOMMMMM. Those memories came rushing back to me this summer as I gazed at the three large machines dismantling the Calco Dam in the Raritan River. One truck with an enormous jackhammer-like appendage hammered away at the concrete and steel dam, reducing it to rubble. A second vehicle gathered up the debris with its giant claw and deposited the wreckage into an enormous dump truck. In addition to freeing the river from its shackles, the big Lighting trucks in the river released my inner two-year old. the Scene In an effort to save It was thrilling to witness the demolition of this energy and demonstrate dam, which had been the only impediment to fish another emerging technology, migration between the Atlantic Ocean and the the Watershed Association has Millstone River (the Millstone joins the Raritan decided to install LED light fixtures just a few miles upstream from the former for outdoor lighting. Light emitting Calco Dam site.) As the dam crumbled and the diodes (LEDs) are much more energy river rushed through, the water level upstream efficient and live much longer than the of the obliterated structure quickly dropped halogen floodlights they are replacing. to meet the water level below it. Mild rapids An average LED uses only 44 watts of appeared and long-hidden pools revealed power and lasts 50,000 hours while an themselves spontaneously in the river. average halogen floodlight uses 300 watts and lasts only about 3,000 hours. In Within hours, I saw great blue herons and addition, LEDs are mercury-free egrets fishing these pools. Later that afternoon, and lead-free! a friend e-mailed me a photo of a striped bass 2 Fall 2011 www.thewatershed.org STREAMWatchiNG Focus on Heathcote Brook scientists are conducting extensive sampling at two sites on Heathcote Brook in South Brunswick, NJ. This stream has been noted to have high bacteria concentrations. Staff members have been sampling Heathcote Brook on a monthly basis to determine if there are patterns linked with the contamination (e.g. high pathogen levels following storms). We anticipate finishing our data collection later this year. After analyzing the data, we hope to identify the sources of con- tamination to the Brook and then work to repair or remove these pollutants to improve the Brook’s water quality. Heathcote Brook Two years ago, the Watershed Association initiated a monitoring program for fecal pathogens. Our StreamWatch volunteers monitor nine sites in our watershed for E. coli, bacteria used as an indicator of fecal pathogen contamina- tion. Pathogens enter surface waters in a number of ways, including leaking septic tanks or fields, runoff from farms, and runoff of wildlife waste. After the water samples are collected, they are incubated on a Petri dish and the number of bacterial colonies is counted. The results are compared to the NJ Surface Water Quality Standards to determine if a stream is impaired (notably contaminated) for bacterial quality. If a stream is found to be impaired, interested What’s Bugging You? parties can identify ways to prevent further contamination from these pathogens. How does the Watershed Association use GIS? GIS (geographic information system) is a system that In addition to the volunteer monitoring combines hardware (computers and gps units), soft- program, Watershed Association ware, and data to better visually analyze information using maps. GIS provides a means to combine multiple sources of data (such as land use and water quality) that are integrated into maps. For example, to determine Like us on where potential pollutants may be entering our streams, Visit www.thewatershed.org and we map and analyze water quality data, land use data, click the Facebook link. Click the and information on the location of industrial and “like” button to join our network. stormwater discharges. This information provides us with a critical first step to cleaning up our streams. Fall 2011 www.thewatershed.org 3 CONSERVATION BEGINS AT HOME Stormwater Runoff in Harry’s Brook The Watershed Association was pleased to welcome Daniel Fletcher as our 2011 Princeton Environmental Institute summer intern. Daniel is a rising senior at Princeton University in the department of civil and environmental engineering. The focus of Daniel’s internship is modeling stormwater runoff and management in the Harry’s Brook watershed. While the Harry’s Brook headwaters are, at least in part, within the relatively undeveloped Princeton Ridge, large portions of the stream are highly urbanized. In fact, a large section of Harry’s Brook in Princeton Borough is contained entirely in underground pipes that are fed by storm sewers. As a result, Harry’s Brook tends to carry large amounts of water and can overflow its banks, even during smaller rainfall events. The large volume of water, and the energy associated with the flow, results in localized flooding, stream bank erosion, and downstream transportation of sediment. Some landowners have complained that their properties are literally being washed downstream. Habitat Daniel Fletcher and Amy Soli What is fracking? quality for organisms including fish and macroinvertebrates Fracking, a short-hand term for hydraulic fracturing, (insects, crayfish, and mussels) is also compromised. is a process that uses water and a variety of chemicals to create cracks in underground rocks and force natural Daniel is working on a model to predict how much gas towards the surface so that it can be harvested stormwater infiltrates the soil and how much moves into for energy. The process has increased natural gas the stream through runoff. The goal is to determine the production but has led to the contamination of extent to which various small scale stormwater manage- ground and surface water in a number of areas. The ment practices, such as rain barrels and rain gardens, Environmental Protection Agency is conducting a can reduce stormwater flow and flooding. If the study study to assess the impacts of fracking on determines these practices can make a discernible water resources. difference, we hope to work with homeowners and small businesses in the Harry’s Brook watershed to Pennsylvania and New York currently allow fracking help reduce flooding, improve water quality, and but the New Jersey State Legislature approved legis- restore habitat. lation to ban fracking for natural gas drilling, which could become a concern in the northwest corner our state. Governor Christie had yet to sign the fracking Our Apologies ban into law before the deadline for this publication. In the previous issue of Wellspring we wrote “The CEO Foundation” rather than Read more: “The Rita Allen Foundation” in President http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/ & CEO Elizabeth Christopherson’s quote about the Foundation’s $100,000 gift to hydraulicfracturing/index.cfm the Watershed Association.