The Water Works Reader’s Guide

Water Works tells the story of the fight to protect one of the most environmentally sensitive stream watersheds in New Jersey. This series began in response to a state Department of Environmental Protection plan to increase the amount of water pumped from the headwaters of Lockatong Creek, near the village of Quakertown, in Franklin Township. Water Works first appeared in the Hunterdon County News from March, 2003 to May, 2004. It now reports on a wider range of environmental issues in New Jersey and beyond from calamityhowler.com, while the story of Lockatong Creek continues.

New Jersey’s management of the Lockatong watershed has been controversial for years. The amount of water now pumped from the aquifer at the headwaters of the creek is five times the safe limit set by the state’s DEP. No impact studies were performed to justify any of the pumping the state approved here, and its records show it has failed to follow and enforce its own rules. Water Works charges that the NJDEP has repeatedly violated state regulations, and that it distorted and suppressed critical environmental data and misled the public in the presentation of its plans.

Water Works is a challenge to the state to defend its conduct, but you will find more than that here. Our story is also a painless tutorial in basic geology and hydrology, and the impacts of land use on water supplies, all explained in plain English. Quakertown’s situation is not unique. The upper Lockatong basin is just one of several endangered watersheds in northern New Jersey. Most of the other bedrock aquifers that supply drinking water to more than five million people in this part of the state function the same way as ours. Aquifers in the rest of the state and elsewhere are at risk of depletion too. What you will learn here is useful, whether you live in New Jersey or not.

Continuing Story 1, which follows, can help you prevent what has happened to Quakertown from happening near you.

The Technical Evidence consists of testimony from geologist Peter Demicco (Fellow Correspondent) on the environmental impact of what the state has done and plans to do to the Lockatong Creek watershed. If you read Continuing Story 1, when you reach Fellow’s comments you should be equipped to understand what his evidence means.

In Continuing Story 2 Water Works expands its scope to address other subjects important to anyone concerned about water and land use, wherever you live. Continuing Story 1 is not required.

Use the Short Courses to avoid reading either story from the beginning.

You can navigate forward and backward through the series from the first episode you open from the table of contents. Links in the episodes refer you to further discussions of topics in separate browser windows. Links to maps are provided when they will help.

New installments of Water Works are published at intervals ranging from a few weeks to a month or more. If you want to be alerted when they appear, send me an e-mail. Your address will not be used for any other purpose.

The articles in Continuing Story 2 are new in this edition. The articles republished here in Continuing Story 1 have been edited for clarity and precision. No assertions made in those episodes were retracted, and no edited passage was altered beyond what was needed to make it more accurate, easier to understand, or both. The rest appears as it first ran, including things I might have said better.

Water Works has been a work in progress in several ways. Though early versions of this Reader’s Guide traveled the e-mail circuits soon after Water Works 13, I only began giving titles to the episodes at Water Works 28. A PDF version of the guide first appeared in the HC News about when Wilfredo returned, and cross-reference notes arrived at the end of that year. Pointers to episodes in the republished articles were not hyperlinked then. Maps, footnotes and external links are also new.

If you prefer not to read the entire series, you can start at episode 35, 42 or 50 and read through the rest of the Continuing Stories from any of them. Follow the links when you want to learn more. Episodes 2, 31-33 and 46-47 provide essential background if you need it. If you haven’t a moment to spare, you can also start at episode 53 and choose your own course from there on.