Rutgers has won the 2007 Clean Water New Jersey award for excellence in local public education on stormwater pollution and clean water initiatives. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recognized Rutgers for its communication efforts to educate the university community and surrounding residents on the importance of stormwater management.

In 2005, Rutgers Environmental Health and Safety (REHS) came together with students at the School of Communication, Information and Library Sciences (SCILS) for a yearlong course in which students developed advertising campaigns, public service announcements, and pamphlets, as well as coordinated events. Since then, the university’s campaign – a product of collaboration across many departments – has been robust and growing.

“This is a perfect example of interdepartmental cooperation at it's best,” said Tony Calcado, vice president for facilities and capital planning at Rutgers. “We all personally win by creating a better environment. I am very happy that the DEP has chosen to acknowledge the hard work of our staff.”

“This was a marvelous example of an administrative group working collaboratively with an undergraduate class in an academic function and coming up with something that is a big asset to the university,” said Michael Quinlan, associate vice president of business services. “It helps educate our students about good environmental protection policies.”

REHS distributes a quarterly newsletter that routinely contains information on the state’s Clean Water Act and Rutgers’ Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program.

REHS, in collaboration with other university departments, held an Earth Day event as well as an annual event at Ag Field Day where they engage the public with quizzes on water pollution and hand out water bottles and T-shirts to reinforce the clean water message.

Prior to the development of the stormwater program, many members of the university community had never heard of stormwater pollution or its impact on the state’s waterways.

Observant members of the Rutgers community also will notice that stormwater sewers across the New Brunswick and Piscataway campuses are labeled with a fish graphic. “No dumping – drains to waterways” reminds people that harmful contaminants dumped in the sewers eventually harms the wildlife in rivers, lakes, and streams. More than 2,000 sewer markers were installed over a two-year period.

The Clean Water Awards are part of the state DEP's comprehensive effort to prevent contaminated stormwater runoff from compromising the quality of New Jersey's water resources. Currently, stormwater runoff accounts for nearly 60 percent of the state's water pollution.

Through the federally mandated New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Municipal Stormwater Regulation Program, the DEP regulates stormwater discharges into the state's waterways from 677 municipalities, counties, state, interstate, and federal agencies, and some 3,000 private entities.