MANTOLOKING, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey is moving to limit how much pollution can be allowed to wash into Barnegat Bay each day, a step environmentalists say is the single biggest way to improve water quality in one of the nation’s most threatened bays.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday unveiled the second part of his plan to save the bay, an effort begun shortly after he took office more than seven years ago. The $20 million effort includes setting a daily limit on the amount of nitrogen and other pollutants that can be allowed to wash into the bay.
It’s a step environmentalists have long sought, and one that Christie resisted for most of his two terms in office, saying more study was needed.
"From the very beginning of my administration I have made it a priority to do what no other administration ever attempted — to implement a cohesive strategy to protect an ecological treasure that is so important for area residents, visitors and the entire state," said Christie.
Yet he had long resisted setting numerical limits for pollution entering the bay, vetoing a bill in 2011 that would have set them.
Christie did not set a timetable for his Department of Environmental Protection to adopting the standards.
The DEP recently completed a study of Barnegat Bay, a shallow, narrow 42-mile long waterway surrounded by some of the state’s most heavily developed coastal areas.
Christie unveiled a plan to help Barnegat Bay in 2010 that included adopting the nation’s toughest standards on the amount of nitrogen that can be sold in fertilizer within the state.