NJ Sierra Club Opposes Suez Plan to Buy Water for Rockland

The New Jersey Sierra Club opposes a proposal from Suez to buy five million gallons of water a day from the Wanaque Reservoir, the largest reservoir in North Jersey, to augment Rockland County's supply.

“Our state has a long history of opposing Suez and New York siphoning water from our state. The DEP stopped Suez from taking water from Cranbury Lake and Potake Pond on the NJ border. Our state has spent over ten million dollars of Green Acres money, and helped raise over $100 million more, to help preserve Sterling Forest and the Wanaque Reservoir watershed. For decades, we have opposed allowing NY to take our water. It is more important than ever to continue to do so now because of the drought conditions plaguing our state,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The Sierra Club has long fought to protect the Wanaque Reservoir and we will continue to do so.”

New York already sometimes takes more water out of the Ramapo River than they’re allowed, he alleged.

“The water they take from New Jersey will be used in New York for more development," he said. "This will mean more pollution including stormwater runoff and sewage coming into our rivers and reservoirs such as the Hackensack and Ramapo Rivers and Wanaque and Oradell reservoirs. 5 million gallons a day is the same amount of sewage that would come into the reservoir had we not bought Sterling Forest to protect it. If they divert this water, we will have to pump dirty water to make up for it.”

Said Tittel, “Suez in New York has failed to protect their own water supply by allowing too much development. Now they want our water to make up for it.”

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Tittel pointed out that the NJDWSC was an important ally in preservation of the Highlands. NJDWC conducted the study in 2004 that helped lead to the Highlands Act. They were able to show that development of the region would cost New Jersey ratepayers more than $50 billion to treat the water. Even as far back as the 1960’s the NJDWSC stopped Ford Motor Company from building a major city on the bank of the Wanaque River and a major highway that would cut through the reservoir to serve that city.

“The North Jersey District Water Supply Commission used to be an independent agency that looked after the water and environment. The Christie Administration removed both the previous board members and replaced them with his cronies. Now that it’s been stacked with political cronies, we’re concerned that they will go against their history and consider selling off our water, despite the drought conditions,” said Tittel. “We’re giving away our future. As New Jersey’s cities are growing, selling our water to New York will hurt that growth.”

The New Jersey Water Supply Master Plan has not been updated since 1995, making it impossible to determine all the consequences this proposal will have on the water supply, Tittel said. The plan does not include developments built since the last update, but that still rely on the reservoir for drinking water. Taking more water from the system could not only impact the Reservoir but also interconnected water bodies like the Ramapo, Passaic, and Pompton Rivers by creating drought/ low flow conditions and deteriorating water quality.

“Since the Christie Administration took over, New Jersey’s water has been threatened from all sides. Christie continues to roll back water protections and refuses to manage clean water properly. Our state’s Water Supply Master Plan is 20 years out of date. They are allowing development in important buffers and flood-prone areas. Our water quality and quantity is continuing to drop and we shouldn’t make any deals that will make the situation worse,” said Tittel. “Suez should get the Chutzpah Award for trying to take our water during a drought. We will oppose any kind of water allocation permit changes to prevent this deal.”

In particular, he said, selling New Jersey’s water during a drought is unconscionable.

In October, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued drought warnings in 14 northern and central counties and a drought watch in four others. Tittel alleged that New Jersey’s drought is not only a result of low rainfall, but increase of pollution, poor water quality, and the DEP’s failure to clean up waterways.

"Our water supply and reservoir levels are continuing to drop and instead of doing anything to fix it, the state wants to send what water we have left to New York. We are seeing our reservoirs sink to historically low levels and our rivers becoming low and dirty. Still, the DEP has refused to take any real action. Instead, they continue rolling back protections for clean water. With all of this considered, the idea of selling off gallons of clean water to NYS for development is ridiculous,” said Tittel. “There’s nothing to consider about this deal: they should say no. We’re in a drought warning now and may have a drought emergency soon. We should not be selling our most precious resource: our water.”