Upgraded Stream Protections Proposed by DEP

[thmyorke1]

https://www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2019/19_0013.htm?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

The DEP is proposing to upgrade 749 miles of rivers and streams to Category One waterways. This would increase protections and include a 300-foot development buffer.

[RyanLoughney]

interesting... Does this restrict fishing?

[AndyS]

Among the waterways to be classified are portions of the Pequest River in Warren County, the Salem River in Salem County, the South Branch of the Raritan River in Somerset and Hunterdon counties, the Lamington River in Hunterdon and Somerset counties, and the Ramapo River in Bergen County.

[thmyorke1]

interesting... Does this restrict fishing?

As far as i know about Cat 1 waters, no, anglers arent limited by the categorization. Plenty cat 1 waters are fishable Currently, i think spruce run creek is an example. Basically just stricter regs for urbanization / discharge i believe.

[HBird11]

Maybe the state should consider backing off the road salt a little bit! There’s no way the massive amounts they use can be doing the waterways any good! The small town of Columbia up here by me in the NW part of the state just found out that a lot of the residents wells are contaminated with 4-5 times the permissible levels of salt and a study results say it’s coming from road salt

[Hookmanski]

I feel like this is a great thing. It will prevent new structures being built close to the waterways (i believe a new building must be 300 feet away from a class 1 waterway EDIT: I see thmyorke1 already said this :D).

I'm all for protecting the great streams and rivers we have in NJ.

[AndyS]

But what can be done for the streams like the Green Brook. I went back to where we cleaned in December and it looks like this already. All fine and well to talk about the Lamington etc, but why not include the BIG picture ?

[Drossi]

But what can be done for the streams like the Green Brook. I went back to where we cleaned in December and it looks like this already. All fine and well to talk about the Lamington etc, but why not include the BIG picture ?

Plastic wastes are a huge problem and will only get worse cause there's no money to be made in recycling. That plus people being complete pigs or not securing their recycling bins during a storm lead to everything ending up in the river.

The thing that can be done for places like Green Brook is to educate the idiot residents on the consequences of their actions or lack there of.