Tonight, we're revisiting a multimedia project we started producing and reporting two years ago called Water's Edge, Trials and Tributaries of the Delaware River Watershed.

It looked at the transformation of what was once a highly polluted body of water to one that's now frequented by both boaters and bald eagles.

It's arguably our region's most important watershed.

NJ Spotlight News explored the threats to the Delaware, but also steps that have been taken to protect it.

I spoke with founding editor John Mooney earlier today about what our reporters found.

John, good to have you on the set today in the studio.

So this has been a long time coming.

What were the areas that you all decided to revisit to sort of check up on how things have progressed?

Yeah, I mean, two years ago when we did the main project, Water's Edge, we focused in on sort of several of the hot spots in terms of the pressures on the watershed.

On the New Jersey side.

Obviously, the watershed spans four states, New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania as well.

But on the New Jersey side, the key areas we determined were the highlands in western New Jersey, the pinelands in southern New Jersey, massive, the bay shore along the Delaware Bay, and then the urban estuary from Camden up to Trenton.

So the reporters who did that reporting two years ago, we said, go back, see if things change.

I mean, these are problems that took years to happen and to surface, and obviously, there's not gonna be a ton of things.

But it turned out to be a pretty eventful last two years, in literally all of them.

Yeah, because part of it was not just to point out all of the history and the challenges, but also some of the ways that these challenges were being solved.

And so we rarely get an opportunity to go back and check things like that.

- As a journalist, that's fun.

I mean, I've done a lot of projects in my time, and rarely do I go back a couple years later.

And so this was a real opportunity to do that.

And the big change that we've seen in virtually all of them has been the federal administration, the Trump administration, and the potential threats in terms of environmental protection, in terms of all kinds of ways.

And they're evolving now.

So to be honest with you, we could do this, we could go back in two years further.

So it's really been an interesting project for us.

- Is there a sense that any of that progress will be rolled back because of the changes coming at the federal level?

- Oh, sure, yeah.

I mean, there's a real worry on a few of them.

The Highlands is a really interesting story in terms of what's happening, in terms of some of the state pressures, because we also have in Highlands is beautiful, pristine areas out there, but also have some affordable housing issues.

So the state has these requirements for these towns to build housing, yet at the same time, they also have requirements through the Highlands Council to not build housing.

So you see these conflicting things.

And Colleen O'Dea, our reporter, just did that piece.

And it's really interesting.

Another one is we're seeing PFAS, the forever chemicals, and fixing that is gonna require some plumbing and some pipes, which under the Highlands Council, you can't do.

So those kinds of conflicts are really emerging.

- And how are they navigating around that?

I mean, because this is a really important body of water as we've talked about.

- Yeah, I mean, that is the challenge.

I think they are being allowed to do it, but there's some things that are gonna be coming down the pike.

I think next week, even the EPA is putting out some new standards for oxygen in the urban estuary around Camden and Trenton.

And it'd be very interesting how strict those are gonna be, especially under this administration.

- So what's next?

What's ahead for this project?

And also just generally for some really important work that needs to be done.

- Well, for the project, we have a couple more stories to still come out.

And then on Monday, we're bringing the gang back together, and we're gonna do a virtual round table at noon.

And you come to our site and you can register for it or just sign into it.

And that will be hour long conversation among reporters.

It'll be interesting.

It's sort of like the reporters round table, talking a little bit about what we found over the course of time.

And then, not that we'll stop covering the watershed by any means.

I mean, we do a lot of environmental reporting and these reporters are dedicated to all kinds of watershed issues.

But we probably won't give it the same treatment that we've been giving it over the last couple of years.

I mean, it's been a real pleasure to do it.

Big thanks to the William Penn Foundation, which largely funded it and made it possible.

But there's other projects to do and we have done.

But who knows?

We certainly, the pressures aren't dissipating at all.

- Yeah, there's always more stories to tell.

- There's always more stories.

- All right, well, you can sign up for that virtual event on Monday or check out any of the articles in this series, Water's Edge, on our website, njspotlightnews.org.

John Mooney, thanks for coming in.

- Brianna, pleasure.

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