Exploring Freshwater Springs In New Jersey

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

We live on a watery planet, or so it would seem. When you compare the volume of all water on Earth to the volume of the entire planet, water is a small fraction of the whole. And liquid fresh water (from rainfall) is a tiny fraction of that.

By some estimates, 99% of liquid freshwater is groundwater, while only 1% of freshwater is in lakes and rivers; however, groundwater accounts for less than 0.7% of all water on the planet. The point is we should never be complacent stewards of our water resources. There is less of it than we think.

Another critical point is that understanding the status and condition of groundwater is essential. Our aquifers are being overdrawn due to rising water demands, thus risking the irreversible collapse of the aquifers. Our wetlands and rain recharge zones are shrinking due to overdevelopment, and chemical pollutants are contaminating groundwater supplies. This is where the importance of freshwater springs begins, because every spring is effectively a sample site for the groundwater below it.

WHAT ARE SPRINGS?

Outflow from the "Great Spring" in Kenvil, New Jersey. headwaters of the Black River

Springs are places where groundwater reemerges above ground, sometimes flowing as surface water. The groundwater source may be an aquifer (an underground river or reservoir) or a localized water table near the surface. Springs can “vent” directly from the ground or rocky fissures, from beneath a water body, or directly into underground storm drains, a result of modern construction practices. Spring water sometimes travels great distances over many years to the place where it emerges, or travels short distances for springs that depend on periods of seasonal rainfall. Streams can flow all year round or intermittently, with water volumes that change in response to seasonal conditions. Terrestrial springs can appear as small independent vents or broad areas of seepage. Their volume can be immeasurably small or very large. Their water temperatures can range from hot to cold. They may discharge clear, pure water or water with high mineral contents.

In some cases, water from certain spring vents effervesces when subsurface pressures are released. In some dramatic cases, spring water shoots into the air in bursts of steam. We call these geysers. On the ocean floor, hot, volcanic water can flow out of sea vents, creating conditions that support abundant and often exotic lifeforms.

WHY ARE SPRINGS IMPORTANT?

The focus here is on terrestrial, freshwater springs, but even these have many variations that make them challenging to categorize and study. In addition to being samples of the groundwater conditions below, they are an essential source of surface water for the environment. It is estimated that groundwater contributes approximately 30% of the total surface water. This contribution helps maintain the baseflow of streams and rivers during dry periods, thereby modulating critical stream volumes and water temperatures for aquatic life. Many springs are also sensitive indicators of the impact of climate change and other environmental stress factors. It is estimated that spring habitats support about 10% of all endangered species, in addition to containing many rare and unique groundwater organisms that are vital to healthy river systems. [See “hyporheic” post]

WHAT IS LACKING IN OUR SPRING STEWARDSHIP?

It is broadly true, and specifically the case in New Jersey, that springs have received insufficient scientific study and attention. Nationally, there is no scientific consensus on spring classifications, nor is there a systematic methodology for comprehensive Spring assessments. There is also no systematic data collection, analysis, or monitoring of springs in this state. The Highlands Region of New Jersey, in particular, is characterized by higher elevations, abundant rainfall, many hills and valleys, and a dense network of brooks, streams, and rivers. Two-thirds of all residents in New Jersey depend on the Highlands for their drinking water, yet the great majority of springs endemic to this topographic region are unmapped. For example, in my three-square-mile town, I am aware of more unmapped springs than all the NJDEP-mapped springs in the county. The DEP’s stream mapping and study efforts have been commendable, but mostly ad hoc until now. This may be changing, and greater public awareness and interest would help.

WHAT IS NEEDED NOW?

The most critical and exciting need right now to promote spring stewardship in New Jersey is to identify all spring locations in the state. Very few springs are currently mapped. The NJDEP’s GeoWeb [https://dep.nj.gov/gis/nj-geoweb/] website is designed to pinpoint spring sites on a map throughout the state. However, the number of officially recognized springs remains small, and the current data provides limited information about each spring beyond its location, despite the fact that a good deal more information is collected at each site. A detailed scientific study of New Jersey springs encompassed fourteen springs. It was published in 2023 in an online publication, The Springs of New Jersey. A more comprehensive database for collecting and sharing spring information with the public is currently under development.

Meeting the need to identify springs in New Jersey requires what a national organization, the Spring Stewardship Institute in Arizona, calls Level 1 monitoring. It is a fieldwork process that specially trained volunteers can accomplish. Here is their description of this work:

“Inventory is a fundamental element of ecosystem stewardship, providing essential information on the distribution and status of resources and processes within ecosystems. Systematic inventory informs and therefore precedes assessment, planning, management action, and monitoring.

We have defined three levels of Survey Protocols:

Level 1:

Involves a general reconnaissance survey of springs within a landscape or land management unit, including brief (15 -20 minute) site visits to record georeferencing data and access directions, photograph the source and microhabitat array, and note the basic features of the springs ecosystem, such as spring type and context. This level of survey is useful for identifying the distribution of springs across a landscape, and determining the need for more rigorous inventories.

Level 2:

Involves a detailed survey of a spring's ecosystem to describe baseline physical, biological, and administrative context variables. These are detailed below.

We developed Springs Online with the capacity to contain and analyze individual or multiple surveys of springs across landscapes. For Level 2 surveys, we focus on six categories recognized by experts as being important to the ecological form, function, and sustainability of springs.

These categories include:

1. Groundwater geochemistry and flow

2. Geomorphology

3. Habitat and soils

4. Flora and fauna

5. Human influences

6. Administrative (legal and managerial) context.


Each Level 2 survey consists of two parts: a Springs Inventory Protocol (SIP) and a Springs Ecological Assessment Protocol (SEAP). The inventory component focuses on the physical characteristics and condition of the springs ecosystem. The SEAP component is a process of evaluating the inventory data to generate a condition and risk score in each of the categories. “

The Remmarkable History of Hercules-Kenvil 1971 to 1995

 

In The Beginning – Our Relationship to God and Creation

A sermon by Brian T. Lynch

(final revision 7/30/2025)

OUR FIRST READING is - Job 12: 7-10

In this passage, Job is debating men who hold him in contempt because they believe Job’s misfortunes are the result of his sins. Job tells them he is “righteous and blameless,” while their wisdom is flawed. He quotes a passage that speaks of God’s superior wisdom reflected throughout creation. Listen to the first reading.

 

Job says, “… but ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”

 

Something troubles me every Sunday. It happens during the call to confession. The discomfort is my awareness that a living species goes extinct every hour. These species aren’t just killed for food; They are erased from the Earth because of our abuse and indifference towards them.

 

Knowing this weighs on me, adding to my guilt for not speaking out. Few people realize how much human activity is stressing the planet. Amid the noise of manufactured controversy, we haven’t heard that small changes in CO2 played a major role in past extinctions, or that the cycle is starting again. Rising CO2 levels are a ticking time bomb… or not, depending on which voices we listen to.

 

But environmental damage isn’t just about global warming. It also results from industrial farming, which my wife (Roz) and I observed firsthand in South Africa. On a bus trip, we saw thousands of acres cleared of every living thing to grow orderly rows of eucalyptus trees destined to become cardboard boxes for our online purchases. Extinctions can occur when farmers overuse petrochemical fertilizers or pesticides that kill all insects to control a few pests.

 

Other extinctions occur when poor indigenous people, who lived in harmony with the land for a thousand years, must now cut down tropical rainforests for money to feed their children. “Forever chemicals”, such as PFAS, pose an extinction risk because these highly toxic substances spread throughout the world, don’t break down naturally, and accumulate in soil, water, and living things, including us. A growing loss of forests and habitats due to overdevelopment also contributes to higher extinction rates. There are other man-made risks as well, such as over-fishing the world’s oceans and the threat of nuclear war.

 

Our disregard of nature— or our “estrangement” from it,— threatens my grandchildren's future. I’m sure this is true because the collective actions of eight billion people have pushed this planet to the brink of an extinction epoch. In biblical times, our small population made the idea that we could destroy God’s creation unimaginable. Some of us may still hold that belief. But today, our technology and growing population size make the risk of harming this planet unavoidable. 

 

Long before humans first appeared and up to about a hundred years ago, our planet experienced a long period of stability. The natural extinction rate was about 5 or 10 species per year. Today, the extinction rate has skyrocketed. It is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher. If that higher estimate is correct, we lose a living species every hour, maybe during this hour of worship. This is not sustainable.

 

When I think about this, I ask myself, “Where is the church?”  

 

Where does Christianity stand on the issue of a dying world? Where do all the Judeo-Christian-Muslim religions stand on the need for global salvation?  Is it a sin against God to cause mass extinctions? If so, why are the pulpits so silent on this spiritual question? Most disturbing of all, how can we be sure of our own salvation if we are estranged from God’s creation?

 

Where do we find answers to these questions?  I believe we can find them in the beginning, starting with the book of Genesis.

 

So, our second reading is from Genesis 1: 1-5

 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

 

Sharing the creation story with people thousands of years ago was challenging. They lacked the knowledge we have today. Earth was the only universe they knew. They believed the firmament, mentioned in Genesis, was a large dome surrounding the Earth from which the stars were hung. We know so much more today. We should use that knowledge to understand what Genesis is telling us. 

 

Based on what we know, the first few sentences of Genesis are about our planet and life on Earth. Yes, God created the heavens, but there is no description of this in the bible. The story begins with the formless, empty darkness of space that our solar system now occupies. With this understanding, verses 1-5 does a good job explaining it in terms that people in any century can understand. 

 

Genesis describes a sequence of creative events that parallel our modern understanding. For example, there was darkness, and then light, clearly a reference to the Sun as our star ignited with a brilliant flash. But there was no day or night until God separated one from the other. Doesn’t this suggest the creation of planets? Isn’t day and night a feature of planets as they spin? The separation of light and darkness on Earth creates evenings and mornings, and literally, there was a first day.

 

How long all of this took is endlessly debatable, but the question isn't relevant. The Genesis story isn’t about how God created everything; it’s an affirmation that it was God who made it all and a narrative about His relationship to, and our place within, creation. Christian churches today seldom emphasize God’s relationship with nature or the role we are meant to play. So, as I read more passages, listen for these relationships. 

 

If I asked you to name God’s first biblical command, some will say, "I am the LORD your God; you shall not have strange gods before me.” 

 

This is the first commandment that God wrote on a tablet given to Moses, but it isn’t God’s first biblical command. Hear this text from Genesis 1:20-23. 

 

“And God said, “Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the skies.” So, God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said be fruitful and increase in number and fill the waters in the seas and let the birds increase on the Earth.”

 

Be fruitful, increase in number, fill the sea and land ...this is God’s first command issued to all living things from the beginning. God clearly wants the Earth to teem with life. This is what pleases Him. God’s creative plans are still unfolding every day as species continue evolving to fulfill this command. We were given this world to love it as God the world, to witness His greatness, and to be stewards for this purpose.

 

What do we know today about “life” that God has created? We know it is a self-sustaining and highly complex web of interdependent organisms. All are living within a narrow inhabitable zone that surrounds the surface of our planet like a halo. Scientists call this halo the “biosphere.” We know that all living things exist within it, and nothing living exists outside of it. 

The complexity of life on our world is far greater and the complexity of the heavens above. Just three pounds of gray matter in our skull alone has 100 trillion neural connections, about as many as the number of stars in the universe.  Life on Earth is clearly God’s crowning glory and our unique ability to perceive this fact makes us His highest Achievement. I believe this because of how life is celebrated in the bible. Here are a few examples:

  

Psalms 96: 11-12 says: “let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.”

 

In Isaiah chapter 55, we read: “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; The mountains and hills will burst forth into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

 

And in Romans 1: 20: “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse.”

  

The Genesis story continues. After God created life in the sea and on land, He made Adam and Eve in his own image so that they could “…rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the livestock, and all the earth.” From the beginning, He intended for us to have some control over the natural world. This god-like power is a gift we call “dominion.” We are the only creatures to have dominion over the Earth, and God saw that we were good and blessed us. 

 

Then, He issued His second command to Adam and Eve, saying, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.” This command is nearly identical to His first command except for the last three words… “and subdue it.”

 

“Subdue” is a troublesome word in its modern connotation. It implies Subjugation. But its original meaning was more positive. We can and often do subdue nature, albeit in positive ways. Our survival depends on it. Science and technology, agriculture, medicine, engineering, and construction are all examples of humans subduing nature. It gives us a measure of control no other species has. Having dominion allows us to perceive the world deeply and stand in awe of God and His creation.

 

In verse 1:29, God says, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit and seed in it; they will be yours for food." 

A few verses later, God also gave us all the beasts, birds, and creatures that move along the ground, making clear that plants and animals are our food. We need to respect them and not abuse them. 

 

Then, in verse 31, we read: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." This tiny planet, with its halo of life, is sacred and beautiful in God’s eyes. From the vantage point of deep space, as the Voyager II spacecraft was leaving the solar system, it was directed to look back at our tiny blue home for one last picture. It captured a single pixel set against the backdrop of the vast expanse of space. The haunting photo is proof that we still live in the Garden of Eden. 

 

Genesis chapter two gives additional details, especially in light of what we know. Verse 4 says:

 

 "… and no shrubs of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plants of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no man to work the ground."

 

This is interesting and significant. It’s interesting because we know there was no rain on Earth for the first half billion years. How did ancient writers come up with that detail? And the words, there was, “... and there was no man to work the ground,” is an affirmation that we are meant to cultivate the land.  

 

Next, in verses 8-9, it says, “God planted a garden in the east as a place for man to live when he was formed… And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food."  This preparation came before Adam was formed. It was possible because life was abundant as God intended.

 

When the garden was ready, “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” 

 

Notice we were not made from nothing. We arose from the dust of the Earth. And what is this dust? We know it consists of elements created in the supernova of long-dead stars, and minerals from the formation and ongoing processes in the Earth, and organic chemicals from the remains of long-dead plants and animals. We are made entirely from ingredients found on Earth. We are not physically exotic in any way. I find this fact humbling.

 

Verse 15, says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Adam was put to work in Eden. He was the gardener and caretaker, a role that is still our’s in this kingdom of life. 

 

But, then the Genesis story takes a turn. Mankind falls from grace. God had warned Adam, saying:

 

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die.”  Genesis 2: 16-17

 

Along come a crafty serpent in Chapter 3:1. It approached Eve saying, “You will not surely die … For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

 

Adam and Eve disobeyed God to be more like Him, but they lost paradise as a result. Now we can regain paradise in the next life by serving God’s will and living as Jesus taught us, rejecting what displeases God in this life. We can either love and care for our neighbors or exploit, neglect, and harm them for selfish gain. Similarly, we can love and care for the web of life around us or neglect, exploit, and destroy nature. But only one of these choices leads to abundant life and spiritual salvation.

Our theology of personal salvation may no longer cover all our sins. Our physical and spiritual connection with God’s creation, along with our relationship to others and the natural world, changed abruptly when the first atomic bomb, ironically named "Trinity," was detonated on July 16, 1945. That was 80 years ago.

From that moment forward, we know we have the power to destroy life on Earth. This power has only grown since then, taking many forms as I outlined from the start. I am afraid we are eating again from the forbidden fruit. Our nakedness is exposed as we hide our guilt from God behind fig leaves of denial and excuses.

We have the power to restore our planet if we choose wisely, or to interrupt the circle of life forever if we don’t. We have yet to accept this responsibility. But we still have time to make it right. It is up to us to try.
In closing, I again ask you, can we gain the kingdom of Heaven while destroying our earthly home? What God wants us to reflect on in answering this is in the prayer Jesus taught us:

“Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

 

The creation story is foundational to three of the world’s great religions. It contains powerful messages that can unite us in a common purpose. It invites us to reconcile with everyone and every living thing. Genesis encourages everyone to love our lives, cherish family, care for neighbors, and look after the abundant life that supports us. Imagine how much better off everything would be if we used our time here to become better stewards. So, have faith in God’s wisdom as our opening scripture says:

 

“… ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”



AMEN!

Does a Legacy of the Neanderthals Still Haunt Us?

 by Brian T. Lynch, MSW 

 

An Image of a Neanderthal Man
Neanderthal humans had larger brains and were as intelligent as we are. They were also physically stronger than we are. However, according to one theory, they may have been less social by nature. This antisocial tendency ultimately contributed to their extinction if the theory is correct. 

Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred, resulting in most humans having 3% Neanderthal DNA in their genomes. While we do not know if antisocial behaviors have a genetic component or if that trait originates from Neanderthal DNA, we know that approximately 3% of the human population has an antisocial diagnosis. 

Regardless of the origins of antisocial tendencies, we often choose government or business leaders who exhibit these traits. We might perceive them as more capable of making difficult moral decisions that we ourselves struggle with.

Regardless of the origins of antisocial behaviors, one current theory about why the Neanderthals became extinct may offer valuable insights for us. Here is a brief summary of that theory:

1. Neanderthals lived in smaller clans, with each spaced further apart than human tribes or clans. There was less interaction and socialization between their clans.

2. Less interaction among clans led to more incestuous relationships, which in turn diminished genetic diversity over time.

3. Genetic diversity is crucial for the survival of any species. It is the foundation from which adaptations emerge and flourish during times of environmental stress.

4. Limited socialization between Neanderthal clans also meant that any innovative tools or technological advancements that could improve a clan's survival were not widely shared within the broader population, preventing other clans from benefiting from these discoveries.

5. Their reduced genetic capacity to adapt to changing environmental conditions and their lack of access to knowledge about tools and technologies that would enhance their chances of survival ultimately led to their extinction.

This theory suggests essential lessons for our own survival. First, we should value and promote diversity of all kinds, whether social, cultural, or genetic. We may not recognize it now, but variations that arise among us may one day prove invaluable for our well-being. Second, we should encourage increased cross-group socialization. Excluding, marginalizing, or ignoring other groups is not a sustainable survival strategy.

In addition to fostering broad socialization across all social groups, we should openly share knowledge and technology with everyone. Finally, we should avoid electing or selecting leaders who find it easy to make difficult moral or social decisions. Their aptitude for such matters may reflect underlying antisocial tendencies, which ultimately contributed to the downfall of our ancient Neanderthal relatives.

Photo credit: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/bringing-neanderthals-life-sculptures-elisabeth-daynes

"AI Employees Are Coming" - A Dystopian Future!

 by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

Dystopia on the rise! 

This advertisement exemplifies the inhumanity, greed, amorality, and sociological ignorance typical of some corporate leaders and wealthy oligarchs. It reflects a shared goal of creating a perfect social order for the financially privileged that leaves a dystopian future for the rest of us. It is sociopathic to see AI replacing human workers as having any positive social value. Even from a practical economic perspective, it makes no sense.

Economies depend on consumption, fueled by the purchase of goods and services. A more even distribution of wealth (including fair wages) ensures broad participation in commerce by most people, thereby maintaining a healthy economy. Conversely, higher unemployment and falling wages decrease consumption, leading to economic decline. Any savings from an "AI employee" benefit the owners of capital at the expense of workers while degrading the national economy.

There are almost ten times as many wage earners as corporate owners and managers combined. Limiting workers' purchasing power only harms the economy. Unlike wage earners, an "AI employee" is not a consumer. Our economic models are biased because they overlook a crucial fact: workers are also consumers. Where are the customers (and employees) in this ad? Look again. How much coffee will AI employees buy from that store behind the sign? Notice there are no pedestrians on the sidewalks or cars on the street. This represents what we should expect if AI replaces people in the workforce. 

We, the majority, can only hope for a happy and productive life if we unite in rejecting the AI narrative being forced upon us.

The Garden State - A Paradise We Are Losing?

My personal perspective on our time in paradise. 

by Brian T. Lynch

My earlier ancestors came and settled in this region of the New Jersery Highlands 400 years ago. It was a pristine wilderness filled with every living plant, fish, and animal they could ever need to sustain themselves, just as it sustained the people who had lived here for 10,000 years before them. It was a garden of Eden… a fresh start for these disposable Europeans. It was creation as God intended. That was just twelve generations ago.

Two generations ago, my grandfather delivered milk by horse and cart. He also dug water wells by hand, finding the best groundwater with a divining rod taken from an apple tree branch. Charlie Taylor was known in Morris County for this gift. Roxbury Township once hired him to find a well for the town when all their efforts failed. He did his thing and found the water.

I was five when I watched him use a divining rod for his last and my first time. It was awesome to see bark peel off the stick in his massively strong hands as he tried to stop the pointer from turning down to the spot where our well would soon be. It was magical!

I know now that the divining rod worked for him not because it was magic or voodoo but because it was a prayer. It was an act of faith. Why has it taken me sixty years to understand this? And why has it taken me seven decades to see what we have done so quickly to our garden since?

HT: Leo for the graphic and Ted for encouraging me to write my grandfather's story

Root Cause of a Second Trump Term

by Brian T Lynch

All of the reasons people give for why Trump’s followers voted for him may be true. Yet, none of the reasons would get Trump elected if greedy rogue billionaires didn’t spend billions every year on social media operations intended to radicalize people's feelings according to their most antisocial proclivities. The MAGA movement is fundamentally a media-driven, culture-based mass hysteria. So, what is the root cause of our democratic problem?

I believe democracy is at risk because of the nearly unfathomable extremes of private wealth and the social power that it confers on individuals. Our economy is rigged to benefit the rich proportional to their private wealth. It is an exponentially growing disaster for democratic principles of human equality and representative government. The vast majority of Americans have not been fairly compensated for decades. As a result, the collective wealth of our middle and working class combined no longer offsets the growing power of private wealth.

We can’t keep a democratic nation if we don’t stand up for a fair and democratic economy that serves our common interests.

Hercules Testimony Never Given at Roxbury Planning Board

My prepared testimony for the open public Roxbury Planning Board hearing on the  Hartz Mountain application to build a warehouse on the Hercules property was never delivered. The application for the 54-acre warehouse was suddenly withdrawn, so no meeting open to the public on the warehouse was held.  Here below is the testimony I didn't give.

My frustration with the planning board meetings is that all public comments after testimony given in the hearings could only relate to the testimony given by the witnesses. The public was able to raise questions or concerns outside of what Hartz Mountain representatives or planning board members presented.

This restriction is understandable and unavoidable for the functioning of the planning board, but it is still very frustrating for the public. I looked forward to an open public planning Board meeting. I wrote my comments to highlight one small example of the larger need for a more scientific environmental study of habitats on the Hercules property. 

Comments by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

Mine Hill, N.J.

May 1, 2024

I am what the Raritan Headwater’s Association (RHA) calls a citizen scientist who volunteers to monitor streams for the organization. This means I have been specially trained by them and certified as a stream monitor by the New Jersey DEP. Since 2018 I have monitored a section of the Black River about 150 yards from where it flows out of the Hercules-Kenvil property. 

I believe the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that Hertz Mountain Corporation prepared as part of their General Site Permit is inadequate for this board’s purposes. The EIS is not sufficiently site-specific to the actual fauna and flora that will be impacted. An adequate habitat inventory and assessment are lacking. My statement here tonight is to provide just one example of why a specific environmental evaluation matters at this site. 

 

A difference of 5 degrees Centigrade, or 9 degrees Fahrenheit, in-stream water doesn’t sound like much. Still, it could be the difference between survival and extinction for the American Brook Lamprey that lives in the Black River between Hercules and Sunset Lake. 

 

American Brook Lamprey are prehistoric freshwater fish that have survived every natural calamity over the past 360 million years. They are essentially unchanged from their earliest fossil records dating back that far. No one knows for how many millennia these “living fossils” have inhabited the Black River in Kenvil, but residents just downstream from Hercules have seen them for the past three years. 

 

This should be good news. The American Brook Lamprey are pollution intolerant. Their presence in the stream is the best proof Ashland Chemical has that an array of toxic chemicals in the soil is staying put rather than migrating into the "Great Spring” in the southern wetlands. These fish are also intolerant of high turbidity, high saltation, manmade barriers such as dams, and water temperatures above 20 degrees Centigrade, or 68 degrees Fahrenheit. 

 

For this reason, the U.S. EPA considers the Brook Lamprey an excellent biological indicator of water quality in our streams.  If the waters flowing from the Great Spring on the Hercules property were tainted with toxins, turbid, salt, or were too warm, the lamprey would not be present at the RHA monitoring site. Some barriers would prevent them from migrating to the monitoring site from below Sunset Lake.

 

I am the New Jersey DEP-certified stream monitor for the Black River site where water exits Hercules. Each year, my volunteer colleagues and I collect samples for laboratory analysis of the macroinvertebrates that live in the stream bed. This section of the stream is not well suited for the HDMI water quality index that is based on the macroinvertebrates analysis because the stream flows over a smooth bed of glacial sand. There are no cobbles or riffles to add oxygen to the water. Because cold water holds more oxygen than warm water, the coolness of this water iscritical for all the aquatic life in this part of the stream. Ialso measure the stream's temperature, volume, and turbidity every year. On the warmest June monitoring day in 2022, after three-quarters of an inch of rain fell 18 hours prior, the water temperature was just at 20 degrees Centigrade (68 degrees F). This is the upper limit beyond which the American Brook Lamprey cannot survive. Also, the water was only slightly turbid after a substantial rainfall that day. 

 

This observation matters because, up until a few weeks ago, I had never seen an unusual amount of turbidity after a rainstorm at the monitoring site. High turbidity after a rain event often signals that an abundance of soil or other sediments is entering the stream. 

 

On April 13, 2024, I observed substantial turbidity at the monitoring site after a significant rainstorm. I photographed the stream and then went to each accessible location where water entered the property. No significant inflow of turbid water was observed at this location. I photographed those sites as well. This suggests that the soil causing this excess turbidity may be coming from the bioremediation area where acres of soil have been excavated and exposed. If so, this raises the possibility of toxins in the soil migrating off-site. For the lamprey, increased turbidity and the possibility of toxins entering the water puts them at risk. 

 

Why Else should the Lamprey’s survival matter?

Among the many good reasons, these ancient survivors have one of the most robust immune systems on the planet. Scientists are convinced that lampreys hold genetic secrets that might someday unlock ways to enhance our immunity from diseases. There is an urgency among scientists to study these fish because their numbers are dwindling. They are already listed as an endangered species in several nearby states. In New Jersey, they will soon be listed as a “species of interest.” This will allow the DEP to study them more carefully and determine if they need to be protected. 

 

My comments here highlight just one example of where the EIS falls short of assessing the potential environmental impacts of the proposed development on the aquatic habitat at Hercules. I would ask this board to take this information into consideration as you make your decision regarding the General Site Plan approval.

POST SCRIPT:  Since I wrote this the NJDEP Fish and Game took an interest in the lamprey in the Upper Black River, conducted a fish survey, and discovered that the stream is also home to first-of-the-year brook trout. The stream categorization will be upgraded to C1-TP which is the highest level of protection.