Having a river near the University can offer an assortment of activities. That is, unless the river happens to be the one of the most polluted in the country, such as the Raritan.
Water Watch for years led river cleanups with University students, as part of a program of the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group Student Chapters. And this year, it hopes to lead the New Jersey community in an effort to clean up the state's water, according to its organizers.
"By sparking interests in the surrounding towns, we hope to instill our principles and aspirations," said Holly Lewis, secretary of the NJPIRG executive committee.
New Jersey's water is currently ranked as having the worst quality in the nation, and the Raritan is the 16th most polluted river in the country, said Emilie Rabbitt, a campus organizer with Water Watch.
The College Avenue division plans to help clean up the area behind Loews Movie Theater in New Brunswick, which has become a huge dumping ground for trash and old furniture, according to Rutgers College Water Watch organizer April Putney.
Livingston Water Watch has three river cleanups planned for the spring semester, including work with the Highland Park community, Lewis said.
"Over the past year, we have been meeting regularly with the Highland Park Environmental Commission, teaching water quality lessons in their schools, cleaning their parks," she said.
Last spring the group helped transform the Valley Place Ravine into a park. The area was once a trash dump for surrounding apartments.
This spring, it plans to have an Earth Day festival to get Highland Park residents excited about and committed to keeping their community clean and safe, Lewis said.
Rabbitt also said 80 percent of New Jersey's natural bodies of water are undrinkable and unsafe to eat fish from.
The group looks to improve water quality in three main areas - through maintaining streams, education on pollution, and physically going down to the banks of the river to pick up trash.
Water Watch media coordinator Eyal Wellisch said a main reason the river is so polluted is the population density in New Jersey, which is the highest of any state.
Wellisch, a Livingston College senior, also pointed to runoff from the streets - which includes salt and car fluids - as well as industrial waste being dumped into the river, as heavy contributors to the problem.
The New Brunswick division of Water Watch encompasses three divisions dealing with different areas. Each division offers several opportunities for the community to participate.
"It's incredibly easy to get involved, and it doesn't take a lot to conserve," said Maggie Kindschuh, NJPIRG organizer for Livingston and Busch campus activities. "The energy bill for the University is in the millions. If we turned off our lights, we could easily save 10 percent."
"Those brave enough to actually go down to the Raritan can see firsthand how just how bad the pollution is," Putney said.
The river clean up will be held in six sites along the Raritan, each in a different city.
"We try to bring as many people as we can along the banks of the Raritan to clean up the river banks," said Livingston College sophomore Kevin Heater, a river cleanups intern with Water Watch. "It's so disgusting. You will be amazed at how much trash there is [in the Raritan], and it stinks!"
Holly Lewis, secretary of the NJPIRG executive committee, highlighted the huge role the Raritan River plays in the lives of University students.
"All our drinking water, the water we shower in, the water we brush our teeth with, all comes from the Raritan," Lewis said. "At times the Raritan can be 50 percent sewage."
Lewis said the water is filtered several times over before it reaches city residents' faucets, and is completely safe to drink.
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