Water Quality

BARNEGAT, N.J. - Appearing at a site that has become a symbol of pollution and overdevelopment in New Jersey, Gov. Christie cleared the way Thursday for almost $650 million in low-cost and no-cost loans for water-quality and protection projects. The bipartisan legislation Christie signed at Barnegat Bay will make $400 million available for projects that clean up water used for fishing and swimming. An additional $250 million will be available for drinking-water projects. Cities, counties, and utilities across the state have already submitted more than 170 applications.

In another potential roadblock to natural-gas drilling in the upper Delaware River basin, a consortium of environmental groups filed suit in federal court Thursday seeking to delay the adoption of regulations until environmental impacts are studied. The groups contend that the Delaware River Basin Commission, which governs water quality and withdrawals, is subject to federal rules requiring environmental reviews of major projects. The commission "has acknowledged the value of it, and they have simply chosen not to do it," said Maya van Rossum of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, one of the groups that filed the suit.

When a group of teenagers approached Cobbs Creek this week to test its water quality, they could see something was wrong even before collecting samples: hundreds of dead fish were floating in the slow-moving West Philadelphia waterway. After a short hike upstream and some quick chemical tests, they fingered an apparent culprit Wednesday morning: chlorinated water draining from a municipal swimming pool. The matter was still under investigation Thursday by the state Department of Environmental Protection, whose officials said they did not know for sure who bore responsibility for the mishap.

WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled House passed a bill yesterday that would sharply curtail the federal government's role in protecting waters from pollution by barring the Environmental Protection Agency from overruling state decisions on water quality. The bill passed on a 239-184 vote. Sixteen Democrats joined the majority of Republicans in supporting it. The White House threatened to veto the bill, saying that it "would roll back the key provisions . . . that have been the underpinning of 40 years of progress in making the nation's waters fishable, swimmable and drinkable.

THIS JUST IN: Rivers often cross state boundaries. In fact, some rivers actually are state boundaries. So if hazardous waste were dumped into the Delaware River in, say, Trenton, some of it would almost certainly find its way to Philadelphia. And we likely would have a problem with that. When it comes to water quality, we're all in this together. That's why the Clean Water Act - which sets and mandates the enforcement of national standards for water quality - has been essential to protecting the environment for nearly four decades.

TOMS RIVER - Barnegat Bay is in trouble, and the economy of the region that depends on it could be badly hurt if things don't change, New Jersey's chief environmental official said Monday. Environmental Commissioner Bob Martin noted that the bay is a huge part of New Jersey's $35.5 billion tourism-based economy. He said pollution from lawns and storm sewers is killing it. "The ecological health of Barnegat Bay is in decline, threatening the economic health of the region," he said at a hearing.

POINT PLEASANT, N.J. - He's no David Hasselhoff, and "Big Al" Wutkowski doesn't know any women who have one-piece red swimsuits. But the Point Pleasant sport fisherman and boater is becoming a real-life baywatcher. The American Littoral Society, a New Jersey shore environmental group, is enlisting him as its first Barnegat Bay guardian, sworn to be the eyes and ears of environmentalists and law enforcement on the endangered waterway. He'll be out on the water looking for illegal or dangerous boating activities, sources of pollution, and unapproved development along the coast.

POINT PLEASANT, N.J. - He's no David Hasselhoff, and "Big Al" Wutkowski doesn't know any women who have one-piece red swimsuits. But the Point Pleasant sport fisherman and boater is becoming a real-life baywatcher. The American Littoral Society, a New Jersey shore environmental group, is enlisting him as its first Barnegat Bay Guardian, sworn to be the eyes and ears of environmentalists and law enforcement on the endangered waterway. He'll be out on the water looking for illegal or dangerous boating activities, sources of pollution, and unapproved development along the coast.

He has sailed the South Pacific alone, motorcycled from Alaska to South America, and lived with a primitive tribe he discovered in Ethiopia. He has paddled a kayak hundreds of miles along the United States' East and West Coasts, on rivers in Germany and France, and down dangerous rapids on the Yangtze in China. He has filmed tribes in Guyana, acted in films, and helped save the life of a woman whose car plunged from a bridge into icy waters at the Jersey Shore. And along the way, he was in a 1979 Playgirl magazine photo spread and won five national American Ironman titles with the U.S. Lifesaving Association.