New Jersey’s water crisis: A deficit of planning and a drought of action

Pollution, overdevelopment, and years of government inaction are placing a growing strain on the state’s water supply

New Jersey’s drought crisis is no longer simply about a lack of rain. It is about decades of political failure, weak environmental planning, overdevelopment, polluted waterways, and a state government that continues to ignore the growing threat to our water supply.

Today, the entire state is experiencing drought conditions, with nearly half the state under severe drought, and those conditions continuing to expand. Reservoirs remain below normal, groundwater levels are depleted, and stream flows in many regions are running between 75% and 90% below normal. Yet despite these warning signs, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has failed to implement the aggressive conservation measures, planning reforms, and pollution controls needed to protect public health and the environment.

New Jersey has serious water problems and could become the first state on the East Coast to run out of water. This is because we face major issues involving both water quality and water quantity as a result of overdevelopment and a legacy of toxic pollution. The drought is exposing the reality that New Jersey’s water system is badly broken.

A flood of problems that make droughts worse

Nature determines rainfall, but government decisions make droughts worse. In New Jersey, there has been a drought of planning and a deficit of action for decades. On paper, the DEP says we have water. But it is not coming out of our faucets. Their planning puts our water supply at risk by overestimating the amount of water available and using flawed criteria that hide growing water deficits.

Even the state’s own reports admit that we are running out of water in certain regions. Yet little meaningful action is being taken. Instead of curtailing development or limiting new water allocations, the state continues allowing more withdrawals even where the water supply does not exist. Under peak demand and low-flow conditions, areas in Northeast New Jersey, Bergen and Passaic counties, Union and Middlesex counties, the Barnegat Bay region, and parts of South Jersey could face severe water shortages.

The state’s water supply infrastructure, environmental protections, and planning systems have failed to keep pace with climate change, population growth, aging infrastructure, and overdevelopment. Instead of strengthening safeguards, the DEP has repeatedly weakened stormwater rules, sewer regulations, flood hazard protections, and water quality standards.

The result is exactly what we are seeing today: rivers running low, reservoirs under stress, polluted waterways becoming increasingly undrinkable during drought conditions, and millions of residents facing growing threats to their water supply. The impacts on public health and our economy should not be overlooked. New Jersey’s three largest industries are water-dependent: food processing, pharmaceuticals/chemicals, and tourism.

Pollution, sewage, and dirty rivers

New Jersey’s major river systems are increasingly overwhelmed by sewage discharges and nutrient pollution. During drought periods, many waterways become dominated by wastewater flows because natural stream levels drop so dramatically.

The Passaic River — I call “the DeNile River” — receives discharge from close to 100 sewage treatment plants. The Raritan River system receives flows from more than 60 sewer plants. Under low-flow conditions, those rivers become heavily concentrated with nitrogen, phosphorus, and other contaminants that fuel algae blooms, reduce oxygen levels, create foul odors, and threaten drinking water supplies.

At the Little Falls water supply intake on the Passaic River, the river can be more than 90% wastewater discharge, yet people are still drinking that water.

Is the glass half empty or half full? I don’t know, and we probably wouldn’t want to drink what’s in the glass anyway.

In the last 30 years, six New Jersey reservoirs have been closed because of pollution, while thousands of wells have been shut down because of contamination. The state’s planning documents barely acknowledge that more than 3,500 contaminated sites are located near drinking water wells.

Our industrial past and toxic legacy impact our drinking water. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contamination has been detected above health guidelines in 364 water systems, affecting approximately 7.5 million people. Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), dangerous disinfection byproducts, have been found in 496 out of 563 utilities, impacting nearly 8.8 million residents. Trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination has been detected in up to 34% of New Jersey’s groundwater supply sources, while tetrachloroethylene (PCE) contamination affects many industrial-adjacent water supplies.

At the same time, our rivers remain too polluted and too depleted because the DEP has failed to adequately clean up and protect our waterways.

Every year when we have a drought, streams end up looking like lawns because they turn green from algae blooms. The reason is the high level of nutrients entering our waterways.

Instead of aggressively reducing pollution, the DEP has proposed rule changes that would actually weaken oversight of sewage treatment plants and allow additional pollution into already stressed waterways.

The proposed changes to New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NJPDES) rules alter how sewer plant capacity is calculated, allowing facilities to avoid corrective action even when flows regularly exceed safe operational levels. Plants could discharge significantly more pollution during peak periods while still technically complying with annual averages.

Under previous standards, treatment plants nearing 80% capacity were required to address inflow and infiltration problems and begin corrective action. The DEP has increased that threshold to 100% capacity, meaning action would not occur until systems are essentially overloaded.

That is reckless public policy.

While millions of people are under drought conditions, the DEP is rolling back protections on clean water. These changes threaten our waterways by undermining safeguards designed to reduce pollution at sewer treatment plants.

Climate change, overdevelopment, and a broken water system

At the same time, the state continues approving more development in environmentally sensitive regions, including areas surrounding critical water supply reservoirs and groundwater recharge zones.

More development means more impervious cover, more stormwater runoff, less groundwater recharge, greater flooding, and increased pollution entering rivers and streams. Yet the DEP continues weakening stream buffer protections and opening the door for more sewer hookups and sprawling development.

This drought is not simply the result of dry weather. It is the direct consequence of years of bad planning.

Climate change is making the crisis even worse. Scientists warn that rising global temperatures will increase drought frequency, intensify extreme weather, alter precipitation patterns, and increase wildfire risks. Yet New Jersey has failed to properly prepare for these impacts.

Rather than strengthening climate planning, previous administrations dismantled critical climate programs, weakened environmental regulations, and delayed major water supply reforms.

The state’s Water Supply Master Plan itself remained outdated for decades, which continues in recent updates. Without an accurate and modern assessment of water availability, New Jersey has continued approving development without fully understanding whether enough water actually exists to support future growth.

It is shameful that New Jersey went decades without meaningfully updating the Water Supply Master Plan, only to repeat the failures of the past. Without proper planning or science, we do not even know how much water we truly have or the best strategies to preserve it.

Meanwhile, aging infrastructure continues wasting enormous amounts of treated drinking water. In some older cities, leaking pipes lose between 25% and 30% of water before it even reaches consumers. Instead of investing aggressively in repairs and modernization, the state continues to delay desperately needed infrastructure upgrades.

The state has also failed to implement meaningful conservation programs early enough during drought conditions. Conservation measures often are not triggered until a formal drought warning is declared, even though damage to groundwater systems and stream flows may already be severe by that point.

New Jersey should require conservation measures much sooner. Odd-even lawn watering restrictions, rain sensors on irrigation systems, gray water reuse programs, and mandatory conservation standards should become permanent parts of statewide water policy — not temporary emergency measures.

The state also needs stronger drought indicators that include groundwater levels, stream flows, soil moisture conditions, forest health, and agricultural impacts, rather than relying too heavily on reservoir storage alone.

Wanaque, the Passaic, and desperation management

In North Jersey, the crisis surrounding the Wanaque Reservoir and Passaic River Basin demonstrates just how vulnerable the state’s water supply system has become. Billions of gallons of water have been allowed to flow out to sea during drought conditions so certain sewer plants can meet discharge limits. Meanwhile, polluted river water is pumped back into reservoirs to maintain drinking water supplies.

Nutrient levels can become so high that oxygen levels collapse, creating dead zones. At times, the Passaic River is essentially a running stagnant river.

That is not sustainable water management. It is desperation management.

The DEP’s planning horizon is only six years, even though water allocation permits are issued for 10-year periods. New Jersey needs a 30-year planning horizon to fully understand future water demand, water quality impacts, and regional supply needs.

The updated plan references the Pinelands aquifer study — legislation that I helped pass in 1999 — yet although the study was finally adopted in 2026, it was originally supposed to be completed by 2005. Meanwhile, over-pumping has continued to damage the Coastal Plain and the Pinelands aquifer system.

The larger problem is that as we cut down forests and pave over open land, water that once recharged aquifers now runs off as polluted stormwater. We pump groundwater out faster than nature can replenish it, while sewer systems discharge enormous volumes of treated wastewater out to the ocean. Impervious cover prevents recharge, creating a vicious cycle of dropping groundwater levels, declining stream flows, dirtier rivers, and increasingly brackish bays.

The plan also fails to adequately address accelerating sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion. Salty water from the Delaware Bay is already pushing farther into the Delaware River system, threatening groundwater wells and drinking water intakes in South Jersey.

New Jersey’s coastal rules technically prohibit projects that would contribute to saltwater intrusion, yet the state still had to build a desalination plant in Cape May because the problem had already become severe.

The saltwater line is moving up the Jersey Shore faster than the Parkway on a summer Sunday afternoon.

What New Jersey must do now

The larger reality is that New Jersey’s entire water budget is dangerously out of balance. We are allocating more water than ecosystems can safely support while allowing pollution and overdevelopment to steadily degrade the quality of the water we still have.

This is what happens when development interests are prioritized over science and public health.

The DEP needs a completely different approach. New Jersey cannot continue reacting to droughts only after the damage is already done. We need a statewide strategy built around conservation, pollution reduction, watershed protection, and climate resilience.

Under current drought rules, the state can force residents to boil polluted water, yet it still cannot require polluters to significantly reduce discharges during severe drought conditions.

First, New Jersey must overhaul its drought warning and response system. A drought watch — not merely a drought warning — should automatically trigger mandatory conservation measures statewide. Waiting until reservoirs crash and streams dry up before acting is irresponsible and dangerous.

Second, New Jersey needs enforceable, year-round conservation programs. Lawn watering restrictions, rain sensors on irrigation systems, low-flow appliance standards, gray water reuse systems, and aggressive leak detection programs should be mandatory, not voluntary. There is no reason people should be running sprinklers during rainstorms while reservoirs are dropping and streams are drying up.

Third, the DEP must strengthen — not weaken — clean water protections. The state should establish strict numeric nitrogen standards for waterways such as the Passaic and Raritan rivers to reduce algae blooms, protect oxygen levels, and improve drinking water quality. Sewer plants must be upgraded with advanced nutrient-removal technology, including denitrification systems, to reduce pollution during drought periods.

Fourth, New Jersey must stop approving reckless overdevelopment in environmentally sensitive areas. Highlands forests, wetlands, stream buffers, and groundwater recharge zones are natural water storage and filtration systems. Destroying them for sprawling development only worsens droughts, flooding, and water pollution. The state must stop weakening Category One stream protections, adopt stronger stormwater regulations, and impose strict limits on impervious cover near reservoirs and water supply intakes.

Fifth, New Jersey must finally modernize its aging water infrastructure. Some communities lose nearly one-third of their drinking water through leaking pipes before it even reaches homes and businesses. That is treated drinking water literally disappearing underground while residents are being told to conserve. Repairing and replacing century-old infrastructure should be treated as a public health emergency.

The state must also expand water reuse and recycling programs. Treated wastewater can safely be reused for industrial operations, irrigation, cooling systems, and other nonpotable uses, reducing pressure on reservoirs and groundwater supplies. Other states have embraced modern reuse technology, while New Jersey continues relying on outdated systems and outdated thinking.

We also need stronger watershed-based planning. Water supply decisions cannot continue being made in isolation from land-use planning, climate science, and environmental protection. The state should recalculate safe yields based on climate change, increased impervious cover, groundwater depletion, and changing rainfall patterns instead of using outdated assumptions from decades ago.

New Jersey must also prepare for the long-term impacts of climate change. Rising temperatures will increase evaporation, intensify drought conditions, worsen harmful algae blooms, and place even greater stress on water systems. At the same time, stronger storms will create more runoff and pollution while reducing groundwater recharge. Climate adaptation planning must be fully integrated into all water supply, sewer, and development decisions.

Finally, the DEP must stop treating water policy as a political exercise designed to satisfy developers and politically connected interests. Water is not unlimited. You cannot keep weakening protections, approving more sprawl, over-pumping reservoirs, and allowing more pollution into rivers without consequences.

Without serious action, New Jersey’s water crisis will continue getting worse.

Unless we take serious measures to manage and protect our water supply, we could run out. This would devastate public health, the environment, agriculture, tourism, and major industries across the state.

New Jersey likes to call itself the Garden State. But if we continue weakening protections for clean water while ignoring drought planning and climate change, we risk becoming a state where rivers are too polluted to use, reservoirs too depleted to rely on, and drinking water too scarce to sustain our communities.