South Jersey Water Savers is a collaboration between nine organizations working to protect water quality in the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer region of New Jersey. The participating organizations include the American Littoral Society, Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, Natural Lands Trust, New Jersey Audubon, New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Pinelands Preservation Alliance, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, and South Jersey Land & Water Trust.
South Jersey Water Savers is part of the larger Delaware River Watershed Initiative, uniting communities and organizations to protect forests and farms, clean up streams, and make cities and suburbs greener – all to ensure drinkable, fishable, swimmable waters in the Delaware River and its tributaries.
This network of environmental organizations are working together to conserve and restore South Jersey’s critically important water resources. Their new website is designed to engage and activate the public, decision makers, and other key constituencies in cleaning up polluted waterways that flow into the Delaware River, as well as preventing future pollution from entering these important water sources. www.sjwatersavers.org
Get to know your water source by checking out this interactive map.
“South Jersey Water Savers provides resources to homeowners, farmers, public officials, and governments with tools and support for cleaning up and protecting our waterways. The diversity of programs and resources are necessary to target all sources of pollution within the watersheds that drain into the Delaware River and the 17 trillion gallon underground aquifer – the Kirkwood Cohansey Aquifer,” says Jaclyn Rhoads, assistant executive director of Pinelands Preservation Alliance.
The Water Savers will be sharing video stories highlighting actions taken throughout South Jersey to protect and conserve water. From the website you can watch videos, use an interactive map to learn more about your water source, find specific recommendations and guidance about actions you can take to save water, as well as contact information to a variety of helpful partners.
“The source of our drinking water is extremely vulnerable,” says Emma Melvin of the American Littoral Society, one of the nine nonprofits leading the Water Savers campaign. “It’s vulnerable to runoff pollution from roads and fields, to intrusion from saltwater, and to every day over-use as summer heats up. At the same time, there are things we can all do–from planting rain gardens to installing rain barrels–that harness stormwater and turn it into clean water for nature, farming and fishing.”
The newly launched website provides additional tools and tips, along with stories of everyday water heroes.
