TOMS RIVER – A package of bills sponsored by Senate Environment and Energy Committee Chairman Bob Smith and Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee Chairman John McKeon which would establish several new environmental rules in an effort to reverse decades of environmental neglect and contamination of the Barnegat Bay was approved by both committees at a joint meeting today at the Jersey Shore.
“The Barnegat Bay is a major environmental asset for this region of the State, bringing in millions of dollars in tourism and eco-tourism each year,” said Senator Smith, D-Middlesex and Somerset. “Unless we’re willing to examine our impact on the bay’s ecosystem and do something about it, the water quality and sustainability of the bay will continue to deteriorate and deteriorate until it becomes a lifeless cesspool of pollution. We owe it to the residents of the shore and the thousands of people who flock to the Barnegat Bay each year for vacation to try to reverse course on decades of misuse and neglect.”