Rutgers to Unveil Sustainable Raritan River Initiative Oct. 7; Collaborative Sponsors Inaugural Raritan River Float Oct. 11

The Sustainable Raritan River Initiative led by faculty and students at Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. The initiative will enlist the cooperation of Raritan River Basin stakeholders from the public and private sectors. Its goal is to foster environmentally sound stewardship of this valuable resource. The initial public event will be the Raritan River Collaborative’s inaugural Fall Float, a gentle, six-mile float from Piscataway to New Brunswick.

Rutgers’ Judy Shaw, initiative project manager, and Karen Lowrie, research associate, National Center for Neighborhood and Brownfields Redevelopment, Bloustein School; Dean James W. Hughes, Bloustein School; representatives/members of the Middlesex and Somerset County Freeholders, including Rick Fontana (Somerset director), Pete Dalina (Middlesex director) and James Polos (Middlesex); Mayors Meryl Frank (Highland Park), James Cahill (New Brunswick), Brian Walher (Piscataway) and Brian Levine (Franklin Township). (All are invited.) Invited collaborators include Debbie Mans (New York-New Jersey Baykeeper), Bill Schultz (Raritan Riverkeeper) and Henry Patterson (New Jersey Water Supply Authority).

The Raritan is a state treasure, but with limited public access; the lower Raritan has 10 access points serving 750,000 regional residents. Over 200 state DEP brownfields sites and over 20 federal Superfund sites are close to the river. There has been improvement but the region still is considered “degraded” by the DEP. Stakeholders have been slow to engage in commercial riverfront development. Rutgers and its partners will promote a regional strategy to raise public awareness and conduct vital research leading to a better understanding of the threats to this resource and the development of strategies to protect it.