The higher ridges separating drainage basins define watershed boundaries. The Barnegat Bay Watershed is roughly 660 square miles, stretching from Point Pleasant to Millstone to Plumsted to Little Egg Harbor, and including most of thirty-seven municipalities. The Barnegat Bay Watershed is bounded on the east by barrier islands. There are many streams and rivers that flow into Barnegat Bay, establishing subwatersheds, The watershed is home to over 450,000 people and the population more than doubles during the summer season. It is the cumulative results of seemingly innocuous everyday activities throughout the watershed that are slowly degrading the environmental quality of Barnegat Bay.
Polluted runoff includes many things that get into our water supply.
With each rainfall, pollutants generated by these activities are washed from streets and lawns into stormwater drains that flow into our waterways and the ocean. And there are few laws that control it. Rain, groundwater, and runoff are the primary routes through which nonpoint source pollution enters our drinking water. However, by far the greatest source of nonpoint source pollution entering surface waters is runoff. Rainwater or snowmelt flows over land, streets and highways and into waterways.