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Water Quality

All of the water in the Watershed is of exceptional quality. The City of Newark will be augmenting filtering capacity to its water works soon which means that the water in the watershed will have a little more tolerance for human activity than before, if all other precautions are taken. One of the most important of these is to maintain a buffer strip 500 to 1000 feet wide between all streams and bodies of water in the Watershed and centers of human activity even if that is only a tent and campfire.

If the soil in the Watershed were a more effective filter of water running through, it might be possible to make the buffer narrower under some conditions, or to be a little less strict about the prohibition on human activities within the buffer. But given the soils clay and highly erodible nature, a wide buffer is required to provide the maximum possible filtering and to insure the maintenance of vegetation which will keep the soil in place and prevent it from polluting the water.

The New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection has classified the water throughout the Watershed as either FW-1 or FW-2, the highest classifications possible. It is the intent of the proposed plan to retain these classifications and therefore the quality of water currently found in the Pequannock.

Surface Water

Charlotteburg is the last reservoir in Newark's water supply system; the water in it has little opportunity for natural filtering before it reaches the City's faucets. Surface water flowing directly into Charlotteburg, therefore, must be given maximum protection from contamination with silt or pollutants.

Oak Ridge is the first of the other reservoir to be tapped to keep up the water level in Charlotteburg. The water level in Oak Ridge accordingly fluctuates substantially.

When Oak Ride cannot meet the needs of keeping Charlotteburg up to the required level, Clinton Reservoir is drawn down next. Its level does not fluctuate nearly as much as Oak Ridge.

Canistear Reservoir is drawn down third and tends to be very stable except in times of drought.

Echo Lake is theoretically drawn down when needed. However, its water holds a large volume of suspended soil particles and has not been considered of high enough quality to enter the Charlotteburg Reservoir for several years. It is for all practical purposes out of the system and is well suited to recreational purposes.

Canistear, Oak Ridge, and Charlotteburg Reservoirs are all connected by the Pequannock River from which the Watershed takes its name. The river is ideal for fishing in many spots and has a naturally regenerating trout population. It has been channelized along its approach to Oak Ridge reservoir as a result of the construction of Route 23.

Among other streams in the Watershed are Clinton Brook and Kanouse Brook, which also have a naturally regenerating trout population. Both of them flow continuously and are tributaries of the Pequannock River. Clinton Brook is especially beautiful as it leaves the Clinton Reservoir and flows over a fall toward hemlock grove near the Clinton Furnace. All the streams in the Watershed are important to the wildlife population there.