Jersey WaterCheck: Connecting Communities with Water & Promoting Policy Change
By Kimberley Irby, Policy Analyst, New Jersey Future
Water infrastructure is essential to the health and well-being of our communities. Wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, in particular, critically impact watershed health, which subsequently affects the physical and mental health of communities that depend on and interact with that watershed. To track progress on improvements to such infrastructure, maintaining robust data and displaying it in a meaningful way is crucial. Jersey WaterCheck, a Jersey Water Works initiative, was created to highlight New Jersey’s water infrastructure needs and promote investment in related priorities. Members of the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed may find this new tool useful in their protection of the Delaware River Basin and their advancement of policies that will bring the Coalition’s mission to fruition.
Jersey Water Works is a collaborative effort of many diverse organizations and individuals who embrace the common purpose of transforming New Jersey’s inadequate water infrastructure. The vision for this transformation involves investing in sustainable, cost-effective solutions that provide communities with clean water and waterways; healthier, safer neighborhoods; local jobs; flood and climate resilience; and economic growth. Like the Coalition, Jersey Water Works engages the unique perspectives and expertise of its member organizations to solve complex problems.
Jersey WaterCheck is the collaborative’s shared measurement system that strategically monitors key aspects of improving water infrastructure in New Jersey. This data dashboard brings together information on water and wastewater systems from multiple sources into one user-friendly website. Jersey WaterCheck connects New Jerseyans to the state’s water systems and helps tell the “story” of New Jersey’s water. In other words, this online resource presents a state-level view of metrics for drinking water utilities, wastewater utilities, and municipalities. Users can also analyze these metrics for individual systems. Furthermore, when using the System Finder, users can enter their municipality, and their systems will appear on an interactive map.
Jersey WaterCheck Systems Finder Page
Jersey WaterCheck organizes its 55 metrics according to the four shared goals of the Jersey Water Works collaborative (i.e., Successful and Beneficial Green Infrastructure). Additionally, metrics are organized into categories that reflect pressing public interest issues and questions (i.e., “How does my system protect the environment?”). The metrics that Coalition members may be most interested to see include those that display whether wastewater utilities had effluent violations in the past three years, those that relate to green infrastructure projects and policies at the municipal level, and those that pertain to Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs), particularly for the Camden County Municipal Utility Authority (CCMUA) region.
Curious to learn more? Check out the Jersey WaterCheck website (NJWaterCheck.com) and watch the short explainer video on the home page. Then, share the link with your networks and stay engaged with Jersey Water Works as we improve and add to this tool. If you know of datasets specific to New Jersey or have ideas for metrics that would help advance your organization’s efforts in the Delaware River Basin, please let us know using the feedback form. We hope that you will join us in using Jersey WaterCheck to elevate the importance of New Jersey’s water infrastructure needs. Responding to these shortcomings will impact not only the resilience of our waterways, but public health in our communities as well.