Based on data from the watershed watchdog’s stream monitoring program in Hunterdon, Somerset and Morris counties, local waterways got a “C” grade on the 2018 water quality report card.
When rain falls onto surfaces impervious to water, it carries contaminants into storm drains and then into streams, including road salt and motor oil from roadways, and fertilizers, pesticides and animal waste from farms and homes.
Testing the waters Cindy Ehrenclou, executive director of Raritan Headwaters, said compiling the annual stream quality report card is one way the nonprofit works to educate local residents about issues affecting their water quality.
The upper Raritan River watershed includes the North and South Branches of the Raritan, and numerous tributary rivers and streams.
Every year in June, RHA staff members and volunteer citizen scientists conduct biological monitoring at 64 stream sites in the watershed.
Certain macroinvertebrates are very sensitive to pollution, making their presence an indicator of good stream health.
In addition to biological monitoring, Raritan Headwaters also conducts chemical, bacterial and habitat monitoring.
Stream sites ranked good include most of the North Branch from Mendham to the confluence of the South Branch in Branchburg.
Also rated good were several locations along the South Branch and its tributaries that were not rated excellent.
Other sites ranked fair include sections of the North Branch near Natirar Park in Peapack-Gladstone, the Spruce Run in Union Township, the Beaver Brook in Clinton Township, the Rockaway Creek in Readington Township, the Cold Brook in Tewksbury Township, and the Middle Brook in Bedminster.

CUC had strongly recommended that customers boil the CUC Saipan water before drinking.
Based on the latest information from CUC, between Nov. 7, 2018 and Nov. 20, 2018, CUC personnel tested 90 samples for coliform and E. coli bacteria from all areas of the Saipan water system.
All samples contained adequate levels of disinfection and none of the samples contained coliform bacteria.
The notice was distributed on Dec. 6.
CUC also reported that the water supply on Tinian has been stabilized.
CUC’s Tinian customers were notified on Oct. 27 about the water system being disrupted by Yutu.
A similar recommendation to boil CUC Tinian water before drinking was also issued.
Between Nov. 6 and Nov. 28, CUC personnel tested 11 samples for coliform and E.coli bacteria from all areas of the Tinian water system.
All of the other 10 samples were free of bacteria.
With the Tinian water system providing daily water service to the entire island, it is no longer necessary to boil the water before drinking.

Himachal Ravinder Sood Palampur, December 9 Despite mounting jaundice cases and other water-borne diseases, state health authorities and the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department are yet to take precautionary steps.
No appropriate steps have been initiated to clean water sources, check overflow of sewage, contamination of water channels, dumping of garbage into rivers and streams in and around Palampur.
The Bhiral and Mol Khuds, the two major tributaries of the Beas passing through Palampur town, are the major sources of drinking water in the lower areas of Palampur.
These have turned into garbage dumps.
The IPH Department lifts water from the Bhiral Khud near Thural for its water supply schemes.
Hotels, restaurants and shops, situated on the banks of these water channels between Lohana and Kalu Di Hatti, have also been dumping waste here.
Besides, there are a number of open toilets on the banks of these two water streams.
Labourers residing in jhuggis on the banks of Bhiral Khud near the Palampur-Dharamsala bypass have constructed over 20 open toilets and the waste is released into the water body.
The Health Department seems reluctant to take action against them.
Official record reveals that not even a single person has been fined by the department for polluting water sources.

After a month-long testing process beginning Oct. 18, drinking water in the Mount Pleasant area was been declared safe from a contamination of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances — also known as PFAS.
According to a Nov. 27 joint press release from the City of Mount Pleasant, Charter Township of Union and Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, PFAS testing in drinking water sources is being done as part of a statewide initiative spearheaded by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the private environmental firm AECOM.
Chemicals within the PFAS family have been used in the manufacturing process of a variety of products since the 1940s, including the foam used in fire suppression systems and products by Teflon and Scotchgard.
The testing was done on sources of public drinking water.
Water sources located on the property of the former Roosevelt Refinery near the corner of Pickard Street and Crawford Road, which tested positive for PFAS contamination in August 2017, are isolated from local drinking water.
All sites tested by the City of Mount Pleasant and Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe came back with a "non-detect" result.
Of the three sites tested by Charter Township of Union, two came back as "non-detect" and one site came back at 6 part per trillion (ppt).
This level is still below the Environmental Protection Agency’s lifetime health advisory of 70 ppt, and still safe to drink, according to MDEQ’s website.
Based on the 6 ppt test result, Charter Township of Union officials will be working with the MDEQ to conduct follow-up sampling and evaluation, the press release stated.

A visiting water scientist from the United States Department of Agriculture has been shocked by the state of New Zealand’s fresh water.
He has been in the country working with scientists on testing methods and said he came to New Zealand with the impression that it was clean and green and was surprised by what he has seen.
"I’ll be very honest, I was surprised, but I guess that was my misconception at the get-go."
He has been working in areas in New Zealand that are known to have problems with the water caused by the dairy industry and he describes the quality as very poor.
"Unfortunately where I live we have water that we can’t swim in, I see that also in New Zealand, you have rivers that you can’t swim in."
Dr Borchardt said New Zealand has a lot of similarities with Wisconsin in the level of water contamination related to agriculture.
He said septic systems were also contributing to the contamination in Wisconsin.
Dr Borchardt has been doing this work for 25 years and said officials in Wisconsin are finally accepting the data and doing something about it, but it took community activists to finally get some traction going on the problem.
He said in some parts of Wisconsin the undrinkable water was starting to affect house values, so the community took petitions and legal action at the national level before things started to be remedied.
Copyright © 2018, Radio New Zealand

Brother Nut filled 10,000 emptied bottles of Nongfu Spring water, a well-known brand of bottled water in China, with the polluted water that villagers have been drinking.
Air Pollution and the Meaninglessness This is not Brother Nut’s first exhibition, and it’s not his first time speaking for environmental issues.
“We can’t see the smog,” Brother Nut said.
“Turning it into a brick that we can touch, it’s not only for protesting against the air pollution, but also for the exploration of new recycling methods.” Brother Nut has expanded beyond pollution and environment for other art projects.
He explained in an interview with VICE China that the purpose of the project is to inform people: It’s not always easy to see the real values of things.
“People don’t like to do things that seem meaningless,” he said.
“But if there is a company that pays you for doing meaningless things, you may find the values that lie behind.” Upcoming Exhibition on Water Pollution After the first bottled water exhibition, the Environmental Protection Bureau of Yulin, Shaanxi started the investigation.
Brother Nut is concerned that it’s not enough for Xiaohaotu.
“There are many places like Xiaohaotu,” Brother Nut said.
“The background of this exhibition is not only the water pollution in Xiaohaotu, but the water pollution in worldwide.” 0 Want to see more stories like this?

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — More than 200 people who turned out for a meeting at the 157th Air Refueling Wing heard story after story about guardsmen who died from cancer, or suffered with other health ailments after serving at the Pease Air National Guard base.
Led by Doris Brock, who lost her husband Kendall Brock, a 35-year member of the guard who died in June 2017 from bladder and prostate cancer, a group of widows and retirees have pushed the Air Force to conduct a health study because of what they believe is an unusually high number of cancers at the base.
Brodeur, who served at the base from 1975 to 1998, spent the last two years of his life going through treatment, his widow told the crowd gathered in a hangar Friday afternoon at the guard base.
But as she heard the stories, she stood up and told the crowd that doctors initially thought her husband had lung cancer.
Perreault died exactly two months after he was diagnosed, she said.
"None of the stories we will hear today are good," he said.
Brock called the stories she heard Friday "just heartbreaking."
She believes the working group and the guard must strive to move forward to form an action plan.
"I think we need that database of what they did, what years they worked, what chemicals they were exposed to and what cancers they had," she said.
___ This article is written by Jeff McMenemy from Portsmouth Herald, N.H. and was legally licensed via the Tribune Content Agency through the NewsCred publisher network.

The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health issued the first closure Nov. 29 and expanded it to all of Imperial Beach due to this week’s rainfall.
The county said sewage-contaminated water from the Tijuana River was flowing into the US, putting swimmers, surfers and other beachgoers at risk.
Residents can call the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission at 619-662-7600 for information on pollution in the Tijuana River.
On Wednesday, FOX 5 spoke with surfers who said they knew about the dangers associated with contaminated runoff, but planned to paddle out anyway.
The rain also flooded low-lying areas around the Tijuana River Valley, including Hollister Street.
"This is nothing new for us, we’re kind of used to it," one Chula Vista resident said.
"It’s just a matter of driving safe."
“I try to go around as best as possible but, I mean, there’s nothing really that we can do right now," another driver told FOX 5.
"It kind of sucks.
I have friends that have lower cars and everything and they get flooded.” The intersection of Airway Road and La Media Road in Otay Mesa was closed due to flooding.

Catherine McCabe, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced Thursday that the action against Tirpok Cleaners, which burned down in 2017, was one of eight lawsuits filed to address pollution and environmental hazards in minority and lower-income communities.
The suit alleges that a dry cleaning solvent from the Reaville Avenue business, which opened in 1948, leaked from a wastewater holding pit on the property, contaminated soil and groundwater, and ended up in one of the borough’s water company’s wells READ: Neshanic Flea Market sold to Somerset County, Branchburg In 1989, the DEP discovered that tetracloroeothene (PCE) was in the Flemington Water Company Well 6 at the intersection of Elmwood Avenue and Williams Street.
But the link between the cleaners and the well was not confirmed until 2003.
Exposure to PCE, a degreasing solvent, has been linked to kidney dysfunction, respiratory tract irritation and cognitive and neurological effects, according to a news release from the DEP and Office of Attorney General.
In the lawsuit, the DEP is seeking an order requiring Tirpok to clean up the contaminated soil and groundwater and to reimburse the DEP for the costs.
In 2003, the DEP installed six monitoring wells, three on the Tirpok property and three at Wendy’s on Route 31, which was between Tirpok and the borough well.
The results from the monitoring wells, the lawsuit states, showed "compelling evidence that PCE contamination … adversely impacted the groundwater" in the Flemington well.
State officials are calling the eight lawsuits a new "environmental justice" initiative to support communities that have historically suffered some of the worst environmental problems in the state.
“But too often, the same communities suffer the worst environmental problems over and over again but don’t get the support that they need."
In 1948 he built the Reaville Avenue location.

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan businesses are discharging large amounts of chemical contaminants into the state’s waterways every day, according to a newspaper investigation.
State officials began testing 93 treatment plants in February through an Industrial Pretreatment Program to examine discharge being sent by commercial customers.
MLive.com obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act that show 16 of the plants received written orders over the past year to reduce industrial sources of perfluorinated chemicals, or PFAS, found in their discharges.
Exposure to PFAS has been linked in epidemiological studies to some cancers, thyroid disorders, low birth weights, elevated cholesterol and other chronic diseases.
At least 130 businesses have been considered as potential sources of PFAS.
Many of the businesses releasing chemicals are plating companies that make chrome parts for the auto industry.
“We haven’t used it in almost six years,” Lacks Enterprises CEO Nick Hrynyk said of the chemicals.
“But it’s still there because it just clings.” The highest recorded discharge level was 240,000-ppt of PFAS from Bronson Plating to the Bronson wastewater plant, which is about 25 miles south of Battle Creek.
The plant discharges into Swan Creek, which connects to the St. Joseph River and Lake Michigan.
Environmental advocates say the numbers are concerning.