November 23, 2019

Huge thanks to Laurie Gneiding for a great meeting today about how to protect our drinking water. Almost everyone who attended is on their own personal well, but even those on a municipal water source are likely drinking groundwater. Laurie spoke about how it is critical that we protect our aquifers, the underground formations that hold usable groundwater. Threats include excess impervious surface area, which causes more runoff into streams and less recharge of the aquifer; overuse through overdevelopment; and pollution from a variety of sources, including pesticides, fertilizers, road runoff, leaking tanks, and pharmaceuticals.

If you are interested in the quality of your well water, you can go to https://www.raritanheadwaters.org to sign up for testing. If you are on municipal water, your municipality should have the results of an annual water quality test posted on its website. You can also use Raritan Headwaters to test if you have lead in your municipal drinking water.

For most of us, the Highlands Regional Master Plan (https://www.highlands.state.nj.us/njhighlands/master/) has an important impact on the type and amount of development that is allowed in our municipality. Please pay attention to how your local town council discusses the Plan and future development, because this can have profound impacts on aquifers.

We finished the meeting with an interesting discussion of what the IGSV focus should be in 2020. Email indivisiblegsv@gmail.com with ideas!