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Guys-
Attached is an interesting article I received through work about the actions NJ DEP is taking to improve the water quality of some lake in the state. Specifically, it mentions Budd Lake, Musconetcong, and Hopatcong. There's been some discuss on the board and in past meetings about the effects of lawn fertilizers, goose crap, and flood-related erosion on our lakes. Mercer comes to mind. It's really encouraging to see that action is being taken to look into these problems and hopefully solve them.

Sorry if this doesn't post right.
- NJ Matt

Daily Record (Morristown), Apr. 7, 2005
STATE BOLSTERS EFFORT TO MAKE BUDD LAKE CLEANER
DEP awards $393,944 so Mt. Olive can study the area's watershed
By Michael Daigle

Mount Olive's Budd Lake is the bottom of a big bowl that catches
everything that flows downhill from Naughright Road to the Budd Lake
Diner on Route 46, as well as surrounding hills.

Salt and sand from nearby roads, lawn fertilizer and motor oil all
find their way into the lake, Mount Olive grant writer Kathy Murphy
said on Wednesday.

That is why she was pleased to learn that the state Department of
Environmental Protection awarded $393,944 to help the township study
the lake's watershed with an eye toward developing a storm water
management plan.

More important, Murphy said, is that Mount Olive's efforts to clean up
the water will have a regional impact.

Budd Lake is the headwater of the south branch of the Raritan River,
which flows into Round Valley Reservoir in Hunterdon County, a public
water source.

The grant to Mount Olive was one of six given to Morris and Sussex
county governments and watershed groups on Wednesday -- part of a $3.6
million program that funded 11 projects statewide.

"This progressive funding program will reduce storm water runoff,
which impairs the quality of New Jersey's waters," said acting Gov.
Richard J. Codey.

The grants come from the federal Environmental Protection Agency,
which is authorized under the 1987 Clean Water Act to fund projects
that reduce nonpoint source pollution, or storm water pollution. That
includes contamination of ground water, waterways and oceans from
runoff carrying fertilizers, pet wastes, motor oil and litter, the DEP
said.

"Recent flooding costs in New Jersey are estimated to be about $30
million," said DEP Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell.

"By maintaining and restoring natural buffers and managing runoff from
developed sites, we can protect stream corridors and reduce the
potential for flooding of the state's rivers."

The DEP received applications for 35 projects totaling more than $6
million.

Projects were selected based on the ability to eliminate pollutants.
Projects received special consideration if they curbed pollution going
to Category One water bodies or impaired waterways, the DEP said.

New Jersey's largest inland lake, Lake Hopatcong, is implementing a
project that will install subsurface sand filters. They use sand and
vegetative filter strips, which are composed of a variety of plants,
to remove phosphorus from storm water runoff entering the lake.

Mount Arlington Mayor Arthur Ondish, who also is executive director of
the Lake Hopatcong Commission -- which oversees the lake -- said he is
grateful that the state recognized the need to clean up Lake
Hopatcong.

He said $844,500 -- the largest grant announced on Wednesday -- will
go a long way toward improving the water quality in Lake Hopatcong,
which each year sprouts a large crop of weeds that feed on phosphorus
fertilizer runoff and require constant harvesting.

The project to install the filters also will support efforts made by
towns around the lake to build sewer systems, which help cut down on
lake pollution, and efforts like that in Mount Arlington that promote
the use of non-polluting fertilizers, Ondish said.

"We are doing everything locally we can to keep the lake pristine, our
most wonderful natural treasure," he said.

Ondish agreed that the DEP approved "targeted grants" that provide
regional solutions.

For example, Lake Hopatcong flows into Lake Musconetcong, which, as a
smaller lake, has perhaps a more severe weed problem.

"Lake Musconetcong is a lake that needs help," Ondish said.

June Herseck, executive director of the Rockaway River Watershed
Cabinet, said the $201,000 DEP grant is aimed at reducing fecal
coliform levels and sediment in the Rockaway River. The Rockaway flows
in the Jersey City Reservoir in Parsippany, also a public water
source.

Dover's Hurd Park is crossed by two brooks -- including Jackson Brook,
which drains Hedden Park -- that enter the Rockaway River west of
Dover's downtown. Herseck said a river gauge near that confluence
registered high levels of fecal coliform pollution.

Herseck said the project will study how to reduce the impact of the
local Canada goose population and provide plantings and other buffers
that would stabilize stream banks and reduce the sediment entering the
river.

The area is under study by four towns, Morris County and the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers as part of a Jackson Brook Watershed plan to reduce
flooding.

Three Sussex County projects that received funding all are part of the
same extended Wallkill River watershed, said Nathaniel Sajdak,
coordinator of the Wallkill River Management Group. Wallkill received
two grants totaling more than $290,000 for restoration and storm water
management in the Papakating Creek watershed and the Clove Acres Lake
watershed.

Another Sussex County grant went to Vernon for a $385,674 program in
the Black Creek watershed.

"The grant provides us funding to two or three years," Sajdak said.

The Wallkill River begins at Mohawk Lake and runs north into New York
State and eventually into the Hudson River, Sajdak said. His group
plans to use the funds to map the flow of pollution in the watershed.

Vernon health director Gene Osias said the township has similar plans
for its $385,674 grant, which will be used to develop a project to
mitigate highway runoff and other pollution and to create buffers for
the Black Creek. The storm water management plan fits into the
township's development plan under a state-approved town center
concept, he said.

"This is an example of how development can be done while protecting
the environment," Osias said.

Michael Daigle can be reached at mdaigle@gannett.com or (973)
267-7947.

Copyright 2005 Daily Record.