Lake Hopatcong & Greenwood Lake Grants Just a “First Step” Toward Saving NJ Lakes

“Much More is Needed to Protect These Natural Public Gems”

Parsippany – Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce said today the state’s $500,000 grant to the Lake Hopatcong Commission and $53,000 grant to the Greenwood Lake Commission are a “first step” toward preventing harmful algal blooms (HABs) from destroying yet another summer in the region, but the state must invest much more annually to preserve state-owned waterways.

“I’m encouraged that Lake Hopatcong and Greenwood Lake were provided a share of the $2.5 million in matching funds Governor Murphy and the state Department of Environmental Protection made available to combat the harmful algal blooms before the start of a new summer season,” Assemblywoman DeCroce said. “But we know much more is needed to protect these natural public gems. We need to establish an annual funding stream to undertake the basic long-term management of these lakes, and we need an immediate investment of millions of dollars to deal with the stormwater management and septic problems causing the harmful algal blooms.”

The state has historically neglected both Lake Hopatcong and Greenwood Lake, which are state-owed assets, she said.

Greenwood Lake has never been provided an annual allotment of state funding for lake maintenance and, while Lake Hopatcong has been getting about $500,000 annually, the money is depleted quickly on annual weed harvesting. Additionally, the Governor’s proposed 2021 budget shows no annual allotment itemized for Lake Hopatcong in the new fiscal year.

“The grant funding being made available to Lake Hopatcong this week will mean nothing if Lake Hopatcong gets cut off from its annual allotment from the state, and Greenwood Lake will not be able to successfully combat HABs going forward if it also cannot anticipate annual support from the state,” Assemblywoman DeCroce said.

She has introduced legislation to allow constitutionally dedicated corporate business tax (CBT) revenues in the “Watershed Management Fund” to be used for grants to local governments to fund sewer and stormwater infrastructure projects that reduce pollution pouring into waterways. The bill also will explicitly allow these grants to be used as matching funds for other state and federal grant programs designed to keep lakes clean.

Called the “NJ Lake Aid for Algal Blooms” legislation, A-2864 also will allow constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues in the “Preserve New Jersey Green Acres Fund” to be used for grants to local governments to fund projects for the development of lands for recreation and conservation purposes _ particularly if they are undertaken for the management of and maintenance of lakes and reservoirs with the aim of preventing or mitigating HABs. The bill also allows these grants to be used as matching funds to secure grants from other state and federal sources.

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