ASSEMBLY, No. 2662

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED JANUARY 14, 1997

 

 

By Assemblyman CORODEMUS

 

 

An Act concerning watershed preservation, protection and management, and providing for the expenditure of monies dedicated pursuant to Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6, subparagraph (a) of the New Jersey Constitution.

 

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Watershed Protection and Management Act of 1997."

 

    2. The Legislature finds and declares that, on November 5, 1996, the voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the New Jersey Constitution dedicating the equivalent of 4 percent of the revenues annually generated by the Corporation Business Tax for financing the costs of hazardous discharge site remediation, upgrading hazardous underground storage tanks, and water quality pollution monitoring, watershed based water resource planning and management, and nonpoint source pollution prevention projects; and that, of the 4 percent dedicated for these purposes, a minimum of one-sixth, or a minimum of $5,000,000, whichever is less, is annually dedicated for the purposes of water quality point and nonpoint source monitoring, watershed based water resource planning and management and nonpoint source pollution prevention projects.

    The Legislature further finds and declares that the Department of Environmental Protection currently administers the State’s water quality planning, monitoring, permitting and enforcement programs; that the department has recently begun to change its long-standing, permit-based approach to water resource protection and water pollution control to that of a watershed-based planning approach; that such an approach would greatly increase the overall efficiency and precision with which pollution control measures could be applied; and that the federal Clean Water Act establishes policy guidelines requiring states to clean up polluted waters and protect waters that meet water quality standards.

    The Legislature further finds and declares that the 1997 Fiscal Year funding levels must be increased in future years to enable the department to meet the requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act; and that the constitutionally dedicated and appropriated additional monies, when used to fund a watershed-based approach to water resource management and pollution control, will greatly assist the State in protecting waters that meet water quality standards and in attaining and complying with federal water quality standards.

    The Legislature therefore determines that it is in the public interest and consistent with the intent of Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6, subparagraph (a) of the New Jersey Constitution, to provide statutory guidance to the department for the use of the dedicated monies; that the dedicated monies should be used to support an expansion of department efforts in the area of water resource management; and that the State should adopt a watershed-based approach to most effectively and efficiently comply with federal guidelines.

 

    3. As used in this act:

    "Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection;    "Federal Act" means the federal "Clean Water Act" (33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.);

    "Total maximum daily load" or "TMDL" means the sum of individual point and nonpoint sources of pollution, other sources such as tributaries or adjacent segments, and allocations to a reserve or margin of safety for an individual pollutant;

    "Watershed" means a geographic area within which water, sediments, and dissolved materials drain to a particular receiving waterbody;

    "Watershed management activity" means activities or projects undertaken by the department or a watershed management group to improve the condition or prevent further degradation of a watershed, and may include, but need not be limited to, public meetings to discuss and exchange information on watershed issues, the establishment and operation of a stakeholders advisory group or groups dedicated to preserving and protecting a watershed, the monitoring, water quality modeling or assessment of the condition of a watershed, the development of policy goals to reduce the amount of pollutants discharged into a watershed, the development of projects designed to enhance or restore a watershed, the development, in consultation with the department, of a watershed management plan, or the reassessment of a watershed to determine whether the policy goals or the objectives of the watershed management plan have been attained;

    "Watershed management area" means a geographic area in the State, as designated by the department, within which may be found one or more watersheds;

    "Watershed management group" means a group that represents the various interests within one or more watersheds located in a watershed management area that is established by the department to improve the condition or prevent further degradation of a watershed or watersheds, and shall include local and county government officials and representatives of the business and environmental community; and

    "Watershed management plan" means a plan developed by the department or a watershed management group, in consultation with the department, designed to improve the condition or prevent further degradation of a watershed or watersheds, and shall include a determination of the total maximum daily load amount of pollutants that can be discharged into the watershed or watersheds targeted by the plan, and the implementation of water quality based effluent limits.

 

    4. The "Watershed Management Fund," hereinafter referred to as the "fund," is hereby established as a nonlapsing, revolving fund in the Department of Environmental Protection. The fund shall be annually credited with all monies appropriated pursuant to the requirements of Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6, subparagraph (a) of the New Jersey Constitution. Any interest that accrues on monies in the fund shall be credited to the fund.

 

    5.    Monies in the fund shall be used only for the following purposes:

    a. The development and adoption of a priority list of water quality limited waterbodies pursuant to the requirements of section 303(d)(1)(A) of the Federal Act (33 U.S.C. § 1313);

    b. The monitoring and assessment of all State waters pursuant to the requirements of section 305(b) of the Federal Act (33 U.S.C. § 1315);

    c. The development and delineation of watershed management areas;

    d. The identification of potential causes of the use impairment or water quality standard violations related to waterbodies on the priority list required pursuant to sections 303(d)(1)(A) and 305(b) of the Federal Act by means of assessment of reliable data, including, but not necessarily limited to, point sources, nonpoint sources, habitat degradation, and hydrologic changes. This identification shall include a broad-based intensive survey monitoring program that shall supplement the existing chemical, biological and toxics-in-biota monitoring networks, and that shall intensively sample watersheds or segments of watersheds on a periodic basis and establish a detailed watershed-wide assessment process. The number of monitoring sites within a watershed shall be determined by existing water quality, land uses, known and potential pollution sources, and the amount of available historical data. The supplemental survey monitoring program, shall be designed to provide:

    (1) a detailed profile of water quality over specified time periods;

    (2) an identification and detailed profile of both point and nonpoint pollution sources;

    (3) a quantification of pollution impacts on receiving waters from both point and nonpoint sources; and

    (4) water quality modeling based upon amounts of point and nonpoint sources of pollution and land use;

    e. The development of total maximum daily loads and water quality-based effluent limitations for water quality limited waterbodies, as required pursuant to section 303(d)(1)(C) of the Federal Act, and any regulations adopted pursuant thereto;

    f. The development and presentation of data on the department's Geographic Information System (GIS);

    g. The development and adoption of pollution prevention best management practices to control point and nonpoint sources of pollution;

    h. The characterization of land use and land cover in each watershed;

    i. The development and adoption of a watershed management plan; and

    j. The development and implementation of a local watershed protection grant program, as described pursuant to section 6 of this act.

 

    6. The department shall establish a grant program to assist local watershed management groups. A watershed management group may apply to the department for a grant pursuant to this section on forms prescribed by the department. The application shall state the objectives of the group, including the watershed management activities proposed and for which grant monies are requested. The department shall establish guidelines for the development of a local watershed management plan. The department shall provide guidance and technical assistance to watershed management groups seeking assistance in the development of a watershed management plan.

 

    7. a. Any monies appropriated to the department pursuant to Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6, subparagraph (a) of the New Jersey Constitution, and deposited in the fund, shall be used to support the purposes required pursuant to section 5 of this act to the extent that such purposes constitute activities in addition to those undertaken by the department in fiscal year 1997.

    b. Monies shall be appropriated to the department pursuant to Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6, subparagraph (a) of the New Jersey Constitution, deposited in the fund and allocated for the following purposes:

    (1) For the first three years immediately following the effective date of this act, 100 percent of the monies shall be used to support the costs of watershed management program development and planning, regulatory integration, and the purposes established in subsections a. through i. of section 5 of this act; and

    (2) Commencing three years from the effective date of this act, 50 percent of the monies shall be used to support the purposes identified in subsection j. of section 5 of this act and 50 percent of the monies shall be used to support the purposes established in subsections a. through i. of section 5 of this act.

 

    8. There is appropriated to the Watershed Management Fund from the General Fund, pursuant to the requirements of Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6, subparagraph (a) of the New Jersey Constitution, the sum of $2,500,000.

 

    9. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This bill would provide the statutory direction for the State to adopt and implement a watershed-based approach to water quality management and pollution control, to be funded by the monies dedicated pursuant to Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6, subparagraph (a) of the New Jersey Constitution. This portion of the constitutional amendment approved by the voters in November, 1996, dedicated a minimum of 2/3 of one percent, or a minimum of $5,000,000, whichever is less, of the revenues annually generated by the Corporation Business Tax for the purposes of water quality point and nonpoint source monitoring, watershed based water resource planning and management and nonpoint source pollution prevention projects.

    The bill would establish in the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) a "Watershed Management Fund," to which the annually dedicated and appropriated monies would be credited. The bill requires that monies in this fund be used by the DEP only for:

    (1) the development and adoption of a priority list of environmentally threatened waterbodies;

    (2) the monitoring and assessment of all State waters;

    (3) the development and delineation of watershed management areas;

    (4) the identification of potential causes of the degradation of waterbodies on the priority list;

    (5) the development of total maximum daily loads and water quality-based effluent limitations for targeted waterbodies;

    (6) the development and presentation of data on the DEP's Geographic Information System (GIS);

    (7) the adoption of best management practices to prevent pollution and to control point and nonpoint sources of pollution;

    (8) the characterization of land use and land cover in each watershed;

    (9) the adoption of a watershed management plan; and

    (10) the development and implementation of a local watershed protection grant program.

    The bill also provides direction for the expenditure of dedicated monies, such that expenditures in the first three years would be limited to watershed management and planning by the DEP. Commencing three years after the date of enactment, DEP programs would receive half of the dedicated monies and the other half would be used for grants to local watershed management groups.

    The bill appropriates $2.5 million to the DEP in FY 1997, which represents half of the maximum annual amount that would be dedicated pursuant to the constitutional amendment.

 

 

                             

 

The "Watershed Protection and Management Act of 1997."