Integrated Communications "Adopts A Stream"

One of the Great Swamp's neighbors in Parsippany, NJ has announced its support for the Great Swamp Watershed Association's "Adopt-a-Stream Program" to improve the quality of local streams. Integrated Communications Corp (ICC), a Lowe Healthcare Company has given the Great Swamp Watershed Association a grant to help remediate Loantaka Brook, one of the most polluted of the five major streams in the Great Swamp Watershed region. Loantaka Brook runs through parts of Morristown, Morris Township, Harding, Chatham and Madison before flowing into the Passaic River. "ICC's grant will help Adopt-a-Stream to identify and measure the level of a broad variety of pollutants in the Loantaka Brook," said Bonnie Gannon, Development Director of the Watershed Association.

Healthy wetlands in stream corridors perform a number of critical functions. They nourish bio-diversity and cleanse and replenish drinking water supplies. High levels of pollutants, however, interfere in these natural processes. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus in a stream disrupt the cycle of plant growth and decay, throwing its ecosystem out of balance. 

ICC joins fellow Watershed Association Corporate Council members Atlantic Mutual, Maersk Sealand, Schering-Plough, and Wyeth in sponsoring the Adopt-a-Stream project. Other Corporate Council members include Briarpatch, Honeywell, Kings Super Markets, Peapack-Gladstone Bank, Pharmacia, and PSE&G.

"The Watershed Association is a membership-based organization, but we also rely on corporate support for big projects like Adopt-a-Stream," Gannon continued. "Identifying pollutants in Loantaka is only the first step in accomplishing Adopt-a-Stream's goals. Long-term, the program aims to reduce pollution levels in all five streams in the watershed, to propose and implement solutions, and to continually monitor them."

The Great Swamp Watershed Association was founded in 1981 to protect the Great Swamp watershed basin. Celebrating more than 20 years as a non-profit organization, the Watershed Association relies on membership and contributions to help protect the continued health of the 55-square-mile watershed area. For information on becoming a member, and to learn about upcoming events, visit the Watershed Association website at www.greatswamp.org.

Photo caption: Sal Perreca, CEO of Integrated Communications Corporation, 
a Lowe Healthcare Company, presents a check to Watershed Association 
Membership Director Patricia Clew.