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Water in New Jersey Essays

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Water in New Jersey

Residential, commercial and industrial development is the largest contributors to landscape change in the state of New Jersey. When buildout occurs in one region, development pressure begins in another, virtually insuring the Megalopolis concept of one huge urban corridor stretching between Boston and Washington D.C. Year after year, farmland dwindles, roads become congested, and more residents are left to compete for diminishing natural resources. Desperate measures and newer technologies are incorporated to replace poor planning and lack of vision on behalf of decision-makers caught between competing interests. When the long term health and wellbeing of the established population and the short term gain of a …show more content…

When the competition for a vital resource is between residents and crops, human health and wellbeing takes precedence as a matter of policy. When this competition is between one group of residents and another group of residents, the only solution is to spread the resource even thinner often leading to inequities among citizens of differing financial or political influence. Decision-makers should have a zero tolerance agenda concerning any threat to our groundwater resources. This paper proposes that future growth needs to take into account our dependence on surface and subsurface water resources when planning developments and incorporating water resource studies into legislation meant to guide further development in New Jersey. The impact on citizens affected by new construction may not be felt until a crisis occurs and then it will be too late. With the remaining southwestern agricultural counties ripe for development it's never too late to change our vision of the landscape and refuse to gamble with the future needs of our citizens.

Groundwater Supplies and Their Description in the Southwestern Agricultural Counties
The counties of Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem are situated in the southwest corner of New Jersey and are historically known as fruit and vegetable producing areas with abundant groundwater resources available for irrigation purposes. These counties fall within the

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