New Jersey Community Water Watch

Program/Organization Name: New Jersey Community Water Watch

Address: 119 Somerset Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Phone: 732-247-4606

Fax: 732-220-1179

Academic Department Affiliation: NJPIRG (New Jersey Public Interest Research Group) Student Chapters

Contact Name: Allison Cairo

Title/Position: Program Director

E-mail Address: acairo12@juno.com

Purpose: The goal of NJ Community Water Watch is to give communities the resources to have a clear and measurable impact on improving water quality and to clean up waterways in urban areas of New Jersey.

Community Service Area(s): Education, Health, Environment

Target Population: Youth, Adults, Senior Citizens

Service Providers: Undergraduate students, Staff

Fee: No

Program(s)/Organizations Worked With, Within Rutgers:: Rutgers University-New Brunswick Campuses : In the past, we have also worked with the Interfraternity Council, various sororities, student governments, and other social and cultural groups on campus (i.e., Latino Student Council, LUEP, RU N.O.W.)

Current Community Service Projects in New Brunswick: AmeriCorps Members and volunteers work to organize students and community members in the New Brunswick area around their local waterways. We work on serveral local projects:

Stream Surveying: AmeriCorps members and volunteers monitor the Raritan River and several of its tributaries, including the Mile Run Brook, the Lawerence Brook and the Ambrose Brook. The waterways are surveyed for pollution sources.

River Cleanups: AmeriCorps members and volunteers work to pull out unsightly trash from local waterways. Our last cleanup on Oct. 26th generated 100 people from Rutgers University and the surrounding community to remove several tons of trash from the Raritan River.

Community Education: Americorps members and volunteers consuct presentations with local schools and community groups to educate people of all ages about local water quality problems. We show them how to take the first steps in remediating these problems.

Water Watch Groups: AmeriCorps members also train and certify local residents of all ages as Water Watch groups. We teach them how to be independent stewards of their waterways.

Program(s)/Organizations Worked With, Within the New Brunswick Community: RU-IFC, RCGA, NJPIRG Student Chapters, New Brunswick Environmental Commission, Clean Communities in New Brunswick, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences

Government and Foundation Grants Successfully Acquired For Community Projects: The Corporation for National Service, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Resources Available For Community Service in New Brunswick: Knowledge of community contacts, Volunteers

Additional Information: We are interested in further analyzing the effects of environmental problems on the health of New Brunswick residents. We also want to inform the community about local environmental problmes. We also seek to work more closely with any organizations who have an interest in community service and/or environmental issues.

Recent Handbooks/Guides: Water Quality Monitoring Handbook (pending), NJ Community Water Watch Project Guide (the "how-to's" of organizing service projects)