GSWA Corporate Council Creates Adopt-A-Stream Program

In an unprecedented display of corporate cooperation, Great Swamp Watershed Association’s recently formed Corporate Council has created the first Adopt-A-Stream program, which will focus on Loantaka Brook.  Atlantic Mutual, Wyeth, and Schering Plough, all located in Giralda Farms in Madison, will help fund this program.

According to Bonnie Gannon, Development Director of the Watershed Association, “We are so excited about this new program because Loantaka Brook is the most polluted of the five watershed streams flowing into the Great Swamp.  (Five streams flow into the Great Swamp and exit as the Passaic River, providing drinking water for 1.2 million New Jersey residents.) Thanks to our corporate sponsors, we will identify and measure the levels of pollutants now found in Loantaka Brook, identify the sources of those pollutants, and identify strategies to reduce pollution.  Since Giralda Farms is in the Loantaka Brook sub-watershed, it lends itself to corporate-sponsorship of this program.  It is wonderful that these companies are forward-thinking enough to take responsibility for protecting the local environment.”

Gannon also said, “These corporations can have, over time, a positive and tangible environmental impact because pollutants in the streams flowing into Great Swamp severely threaten the area’s fragile ecosystem.  When excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorous, the primary pollutants of concern here, enter the Great Swamp, they disrupt the natural cycle of plant growth and decay.  Over years, this can seriously disrupt the ecological balance of the Great Swamp, diminishing its capability to provide essential habitat for a wide variety of plant and animal species.”

Although it may take years of sustained effort to restore Loantaka Brook to healthier conditions, thanks to Atlantic Mutual, Wyeth, and Schering Plough, we’re off to a good start.  If you or your employer would like to contribute to this clean-up effort, call Bonnie Gannon at (973) 966-1900.

Great Swamp Watershed Association was created in 1981 to protect the Great Swamp watershed basin.  Celebrating more than 20 years as a non-profit organization, the Watershed Association relies solely on membership and contributions to protect the continued health of our watershed’s area.  If you’re not already a member, become one today.  For more information, call (973) 966-1900, or visit their website at www.greatswamp.org.