The ground could be bone dry until, one day, a tiny, wet splotch shows from an underground spring.
That splotch is followed by another and another and they merge with other streams or lakes to create a river system that becomes an invaluable life resource: drinking water.
Such are the streams and tributaries of the New Jersey Highlands Region, part of a tri-state habitat of environmentally sensitive land on which is birthed the headwaters for numerous rivers that, collectively, nourish some 800,000 people, or about 70 percent of the Garden State’s population, according to the New Jersey Highlands Council.
Those rivers include the Raritan River and the Passaic River, rivers that quench the thirst of those in urban areas to the east.
Of course, it’s imperative those headwaters be pristine, and as droughts – or floods – alter water tables the need to ensure high drinking water quality, especially in that watershed region, for all is a double imperative.
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