Jersey Water Works approaches its agenda through collaboration and communication among its members and outside partners.

Our committees plan, implement and manage the strategy efforts of the collaborative through their annual work plans. The Jersey Water Works 2018 Work Plan will advance best practices, better stakeholder engagement, and affordability for all ratepayers, among other goals.

Our members, at the third annual Jersey Water Works Conference in December 2017, made nearly 20 commitments to implement water infrastructure solutions through new projects, initiatives and activities over the next year.

In Dec. 2016, the collaborative proposed an aspirational measurement system to track the progress it’s making towards accomplishing the shared goals. In Dec. 2017, launching the organization into its second phase of work, the collaborative released a new report, Our Water Transformed, identifying three consensus-based solutions to upgrade and transform the state’s water infrastructure.

Past Work:

2017: The Jersey Water Works 2017 Work Plan outlines the steps the collaborative’s committees took towards accomplishing the shared goals. View JWW 2017 accomplishments.

2016: The Jersey Water Works 2016 Work Plan outlines the steps the collaborative’s committees took towards accomplishing the shared goals. View JWW 2016 accomplishments.

2015: The 2015 Objectives were adopted by the group that formed Jersey Water Works, the Urban Water Solutions Working Group.

Why Water Infrastructure Matters to New Jersey 

We all consume water and create waste, but seldom think about the underlying pipes, sewers, and utilities that sustain our water usage. Yet our lives depend upon clean drinking water, and robust wastewater and stormwater infrastructure systems support local economies, create strong communities, and protect our environment. Learn more about why water infrastructure matters to New Jersey, what this means for New Jersey’s communities, how smart water investments expand economic opportunities and how common-sense innovations can lower costs.

People Care About Water Infrastructure

People in New Jersey and across the nation prize clean water, they share a concern about their water systems and they are willing to pay more to improve and modernize their water systems. A number of polls reveal people care about water infrastructure.

91 percent of New Jerseyans prioritized protecting the drinking water supply, which outranked nine other issues including improving education and reducing property taxes. (2011, Monmouth University Polling Institute)

62 percent of New Jersey residents said water pollution was a very or somewhat serious problem. (2016, Rutgers-Eagleton Poll)

71 percent of Americans deemed it very important to improve and modernize the water infrastructure system, after being queried as to their assessment of the nation’s and local water infrastructure. (2016, The Value of Water)

90 percent of New Jerseyans believe that investing in water infrastructure should be a priority for the Legislature and Governor. (2018, Jersey Water Works and New Jersey Future)

Many of the collaborative’s efforts involve working with communities and utilities that have combined sewer overflows (CSOs), a problem caused by aging combined (sanitary and stormwater) sewer systems and exacerbated by increasingly intense rainfall events.  Early on, the collaborative identified CSOs as the most immediate driver for action given new federal and state regulatory requirement for cities and treatment plants to control them.

Sign up for the JWW monthly newsletter to receive updates on the collaborative’s efforts to upgrade New Jersey’s water infrastructure.

Newsletter archive: May 2018, April 2018, March 2018, February 2018, January 2018, December 2017, November 2017, October 2017, September 2017, August 2017, July 2017, June 2017, May 2017, April 2017, March 2017, February 2017, January 2017, December 2016, October 2016, September 2016, August 2016, July 2016, June 2016, May 2016, April 2016, March 2016, February 2016, January 2016, December 2015, October 2015, September 2015, August 2015, July 2015, June 2015, May 2015, April 2015, March 2015, January 2015

Image credit: RLSmedia.com