NJDEP Needs to Apologize to Raritan Bay Residents

Citizens can tell when their government doesn't care about them. It's obvious when government puts financial decisions over the well-being of people who generally have the least political clout - the working class.

Residents of Raritan Bay deserve an apology from Bob Martin, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). He has failed by inaction to bring polluted creeks and surface waters into compliance with the fishable/swimmable standard of the federal Clean Water Act. His lack of effort to improve water quality by reducing combined sewer outfalls and contaminated stormwater runoff has contributed to pollution that lead to the designation of the bay as "contaminated."

Instead, Mr. Martin forcefully shuts down an important effort by local residents and the non-profit NY-NJ BayKeeper to clean up waterways and restore habitat for the eastern oyster population to Raritan Bay and its surrounding waters. State officials said the oysters were in polluted, bacteria-contaminated waters. They claimed the oysters could be stolen by poachers and sold illegally, and if people got sick from eating them, New Jersey's profitable shellfish industry could be endangered.

Yet, what has NJDEP done recently to clean up Raritan Bay and adjacent waters? The answer is very little. Any real improvement in water quality has come about largely by the actions of volunteers, community groups, and non-profits, such as the NY-NJ BayKeeper. It is unrealistic to believe anyone is going to go out of their way to poach oysters and eat them when they are encased in large metal cages and hard plastic mesh, and anchored deep at the bottom of the bay. It takes a boat and a crane just to lift one cage out of the water.

To add insult to injury, Mr. Martin offered to relocate the NY-NJ BayKeeper oyster restoration project from Raritan Bay to the Maurice River Cove along Delaware Bay. Why Delaware Bay? Perhaps it is because they have a more profitable fishing industry than Raritan Bay, and Mr. Martin said early on that he wanted NJDEP to become more business friendly. Where are state resources to also help clean up Raritan Bay?

Does Mr. Martin not understand how heartbreaking this action was to many people. His unreasonable act has doomed an important shellfish restoration project in a highly populated area of New Jersey and put an end to an important way local residents, school children, and scout groups help clean up the waters where they live.

Never again will people trust or believe in the promises of NJDEP to improve and protect our environment. Never again should one organization hold such great promise and then see much of it go adrift.

Mr. Martin should remember that this situation was not brought about by the NY-NJ BayKeeper, but by NJDEP's inability to properly fund federal shellfish patrol compliance rules.  In the end, who really suffers from Mr. Martin's mistake are the people who generally have the least political clout - the working class who still have to put up with dirty water.