WATERSHED PROBLEMS
- Based upon numerous monitoring sources including the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Ambient Biomonitoring Network, the NJDEP/USGS water quality monitoring network, and the Metal Recon Program, the Neshanic River and its branches are impaired for aquatic life, phosphorus, and total suspended solids (TSS), and listed on Sublist 5 of the New Jersey 2004 Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report.
- A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for fecal coliform has been approved and adopted for the Neshanic River. This TMDL requires 87% reductions in fecal coliform from medium/high density residential, low density/rural residential, commercial, industrial, mixed urban/other urban, forest, and agricultural lands.
- A TMDL for the total phosphorus in the Neshanic River is also completed in 2006.
- Another concern in the watershed is the increasing occurrences of no/low base water flow in the Neshanic River in the later summer (Reiser, 2004).
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