 |
In New Jersey, environmental
protection and AEA have grown up together.
Amid the hoopla of the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970,
the Department of Environmental Protection was created
in Trenton. In
July, the Environmental Protection Agency was
established in Washington, D.C.
And on June 19, 1971,
a charter group of nine sewerage and municipal utilities
authorities created AEA’s predecessor, the Authorities
Association of New Jersey.
Authorities had been
in business for many years before these landmark events,
often created to meet local and regional environmental
needs more efficiently and effectively.
Indeed, at his first news conference after taking
office as DEP’s first commissioner, Richard Sullivan
told reporters how the state was urging 15
municipalities to give up their separate sewage
treatment systems and join the Ocean County Utilities
Authority.This is the story of the role environmental
authorities have played in implementing laws and
regulations that have greatly improved New Jersey’s
environment over the last 34 years.
It is a story that shows how authorities will
continue to demonstrate a commitment to environmental
protection for many years to come.
AEA members are at
the forefront of statewide efforts to ensure a clean and
healthful environment.
Thirty years after this association was created
during a meeting in Somerset County, AEA members look
forward to a future where local, county and regional
authorities continue to meet challenges in a world of
ever-increasing demand to conserve natural and public
resources.
The stated purpose of the AEA’s predecessor, the
nascent Authorities Association of New Jersey, was to
foster relations between authorities and provide
information on legislation and legal, technical and
administrative issues.
Before that first Earth Day and first DEP news
conference and first AANJ meeting, laws and regulations
in New Jersey provided a level of environmental
protection more suited to the post-war era the Space
Age. Sixties
and 70s-style activism began to focus on significant air
and water problems that were affecting people’s lives. Public policy embarked on a historical journey that responded
to New Jersey’s unique environmental character and
reflected the changing pressures on our natural
resources over the years.
Clean Water Act amendments were on the horizon at
the state and federal levels and water and wastewater
plant operators and supervisors needed to know how to
implement them and anticipate future requirements.
Today, AEA embodies the ideals of leadership and
commitment demonstrated by those who started this
association. The ultimate goal remains the same: ensuring a future where skilled, dedicated environmental
professionals work to provide water, wastewater and
solid waste services in their communities.
For 30 years and longer, authorities have upheld a
solemn public trust every day, around the clock, by
carrying out their duties as stewards of the environment
at the highest levels of effectiveness and efficiency.
The benefits are clear for all to see.
By any standard and according to all available
measurements, New Jersey has dramatically reduced water
pollution levels. AEA
members have played a central role in that 30-year
effort and are prepared to continue that record of
achievement in the future.
Implementing a great investment of public resources,
wastewater authorities have helped improve water quality
to where shad and other fish have returned to the
Delaware River in great numbers, where they were scarce
in the 1970s..
Shellfish waters open to harvesting have
increased steadily from 75 percent of available waters
in the mid-1970s to nearly 88 percent this past year.
These improvements have extended to the area off
Atlantic City, where DEP recently cited upgrades near
the Atlantic County Utilities Authority wastewater
plant.Beach closings are rare these days, but not
too long ago they numbered in triple digits.
Improved treatment at plants along the Jersey
shore is largely responsible for turning that problem
around and AEA members from Northern Monmouth to Cape
May helped lead the way.It’s been said that if you want to find
stories about achievement in the local newspaper, you
should go to the sports section.
There’s another source.
Check out the Consumer Confidence Report from
your local water authority the next time it comes in the
mail. It
will list dozens of potential contaminants that the
authority monitors constantly. More than likely you will find that your local water quality
far exceeds state standards and that microbes,
chemicals, carcinogens and other nasty things are at
levels too low to be detected.
In fact, statewide figures show that the public
investment in drinking water quality has paid big
dividends. According to DEP’s latest figures, nearly 97 percent of
water systems in the state met all microbiological
standards and 93 percent met all chemical standards.
Water purveyors and wastewater treatment plants
are working together more and more, too.
During the dry spell in summer 1999, sewage
plants along the Passaic River, where nutrient levels
are a critical concern, reduced nitrate levels to help
protect water supplies in that region.Specific improvements in treatment in the
last 30 years have yielded clear benefits throughout the
state. Ammonia
levels have decreased steadily since 1975.
As soon as wastewater treatment plants installed
secondary treatment the measurable demand on oxygen in
surface waters was reduced by nearly two-thirds.
This means there is less material within the
wastewater discharge competing for oxygen that is
available in the stream.One major theme of the first Earth Day was
the national litter problem, and students in New Jersey
led many community cleanup events.
AEA-member authorities have helped propel
improvements in solid waste management over the years,
continually upgrading landfill design as the
state-of-the-art improved.
Recycling has become a way of life for New
Jerseyans. Solid
waste authorities helped the state reach its ambitious
goal of 60 percent recycling
and have been recognized for innovative ideas that
helped introduce an important environmental ethic into
everyday lifestyles.These efforts comprise important benchmarks
of environmental improvement in New Jersey.
But protecting natural resources is only one part
of the story of environmental authorities over the past
30 years. Authority
facilities are meticulously engineered to comply with
all the standards that govern environmental quality.
Each one represents a substantial commitment of
public resources by taxpayers and ratepayers.
AEA members supervise plant that cost hundreds of
millions of dollars to operate every year, and that
represent about $5 billion in upgrades and improvements
statewide since 1972.
Executive Directors and Commissioners go about
this work with sharpened pencils because they live in
the communities they serve.
They depend on the same water, sewer and solid
waste services and they pay the same taxes.
When either is affected, AEA members are affected
along with their neighbors.
In the future, AEA members will continue to their unique
role at the forefront of statewide efforts to clean our
environment. AEA
members understand the relationship between the public
investment that has been made so far in environmental
protection, and what that investment has achieved. They know their local communities, they know how to address
problems that may arise, and they know how to safeguard
the environment and uphold the public trust.
Newark Star-Ledger, April
26, 1970, p.23
DEP news release, March 2,
2001
DEP, Cooperative Coastal
Monitoring Program
2000 Water Quality
Inventory Report for New Jersey, p. II:1.5
2000 Water Quality
Inventory Report for New Jersey, page III:3.1-14
New Jersey’s
Environment 1998, p. 63, solid waste production
data
New Jersey’s
Environment, 1998, p. 11
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
