Clean Water Act at 50: What has been its impact in South Jersey?

CAMDEN ― Donald Norcross reminisced on Thursday about roaming from his Pennsauken home as a kid to go fishing in the Cooper River.

It was a warm day, and, well, the future congressman might have "fallen" into the water. When he got home, his clothes wet, his mother asked what happened.

When he told her, "she went berserk."

"I couldn't understand why she was so upset," the 1st District Democrat told the Courier-Post before recounting the story again to a group of government and environmental officials at Cramer Hill Waterfront Park as part of a 10-stop tour celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act.

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Mrs. Norcross had reason to be horrified: At the time, the Cooper River was polluted, filled with all manner of waste and toxins.

"Water flows downhill," Norcross said. "And Camden is at the mouth of the Delaware, so pollutants from up north flow down." But it wasn't just North Jersey's factories and cities that made South Jersey's waterways dirty.

"Municipal sewer authorities were some of the worst offenders," as were factories in Camden and Philadelphia, spilling chemicals, sewage and runoff into rivers, lakes and streams. Before the landmark legislation ― which then-President Richard M. Nixon vetoed before the House (overwhelmingly) and the Senate (unanimously) voted to override the veto, an act of bipartisanship almost unimaginable today — there was little to no regulation about what could be dumped or pumped into waterways.

Today, the Cooper River is a Category 1 waterway, the cleanest it can be by New Jersey environmental standards, and it's an economic engine for Camden County, noted county Commissioner Jeff Nash, liaison to the parks department, hosting rowing events that draw competitors from all over the country.

Cramer Hill Waterfront Park, the site of Thursday's event, is another Clean Water Act success story: A former landfill and illegal dumpsite, it's now an urban oasis where people can fish, a wetlands reclamation site, and a place where kayakers and canoers can paddle from the Delaware to the Cooper and back again.

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Bruno Pigott, deputy assistant administrator for water with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, spoke with Olivia Glenn, a Camden native who is now a senior advisor for equity with the agency, and took in the park's sweeping vistas.

"What a project," he said before the event began. "This place is gorgeous!"

Speaking to other officials later, he recalled how, before the Clean Water Act, "our waters were virtually unprotected from pollution."

"Rivers ran in colors. They caught fire. They were treated as repositories for our garbage, not real natural resources," he added. "Locally, raw sewage flowed into the Delaware and Cooper rivers and industrial pollution was largely unchecked. Bays could no longer support crabbing or fishing."

"Cities were built away from our water bodies; after all, why would you build close to a water body when it's your garbage can? That was America 50 years ago."

The Clean Water Act's impacts are felt locally, in cities, towns and communities all over the country, and here in South Jersey, Pigott said. EPA and the state's Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) have invested more than $300 million over the last two decades in cleaning New Jersey's waterways.

"It's not just about dollars, though," he added. "It's about real progress: We've been able to reduce the amount of street flooding, sewage backup and overflows and invest in green infrastructure that makes communities happier and more water-resilient."

The work is not finished, Pigott added: New challenges include PFAs, so-called forever chemicals that have seeped into ground and drinking water, and climate change. The recently-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act dedicates $50 billion toward water- and green infrastructure and climate change mitigation efforts.

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Norcross said the Cooper and Delaware rivers, along with the Mantua Creek in Gloucester County, were once among New Jersey's most polluted waterways, but legislation including the Clean Water Act and state legislation championed by former Governor and Congressman Jim Florio have been transformational, and give lie to the idea that environmentalism and economic development are mutually exclusive.

"We can still be an industrial community but do it in a clean, smart, safe way," he said.

NJDEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette echoed that sentiment, while admitting he's younger than the Clean Water Act itself (prompting at least one off-mic "Ouch!" from a fellow speaker).

Efforts to hold polluters accountable, to enforce environmental regulations, and to push for greater protections, have met significant pushback throughout the years, he noted.

"The backlash is formed as one choice: a healthy economy or a healthy environment, and that choice has always been and is still today, false. And anyone who tells you that garbage is wrong, and we must confront it always. Because when we went to move and place the Cooper River on the list of the most protected streams, those who thought it would mean no more development in the City of Camden, those who thought it would mean no more jobs, just because we wanted to ensure that this community, too, is entitled to clean water, it was never true."

Clean waterways are better for everyone, LaTourette added: "If we allow our waterways to be contaminated, to remain unhealthy, all of us pay, one way or the other. ... Environmental health is public health, is economic health."

Felix Moulier, who lives not far from Cramer Hill Waterfront Park, said he's seen the benefits of environmental efforts in Camden firsthand. Parks and waterways are cleaner; street flooding happens less frequently; and he and other residents can enjoy the city's green spaces.

"It's a worthwhile investment," he said, and a long overdue one in a city overlooked and literally and figuratively dumped on for decades. "Camden was a laughingstock for too long, and now it's held up as a shining model."

Glenn, who grew up in Parkside, has seen the progress not only as a resident of Camden but also as someone who's risen through the ranks of the environmental movement: She worked with the NJDEP and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation before joining EPA in March.

Like Norcross, she once found herself wading in the Cooper River, though not quite intentionally: Before taking a canoe out on the river "before it was a trend, back when I had to hunt for someone to lend me a canoe," she fell in because there were no docks. Nearly submerged, she called a local emergency room afterward, worried the water might be hazardous to her health.

"These were some of the real injustices people had to live with, day in and day out," she remembered.

Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has covered Camden and surrounding areas since 2015, concentrating on issues relating to quality of life and social justice for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. She's called South Jersey home since 1971. Contact her with feedback, news tips or questions at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @By_Phaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.

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This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Clean Water Act NJ: Delaware River, Camden cleaner than ever