Welcome to Clean Water on the Move, your monthly update from Clean Water Action and Clean Water Fund in New Jersey. While every day is Earth Day to us at Clean Water Action, we had a great Earth Month. Hope you found events and activities to engage in during this special time of the year when we honor Planet Earth - a place we call home. Check out our latest updates from New Jersey!
Zero Emissions & Warehouse Organizer Tolani Taylor tabling at community public forum event at Rutgers Law School, Newark, NJ on March 24, 2026.
Environmental Justice, Equity & Fighting for Better Freight and Goods Movement
On March 24, 2026, Clean Water Action co-sponsored and tabled at Women Who Never Give Up’s community public forum exploring how mass incarceration intersects with environmental harm, health inequities, and racial injustice within the state's carceral system. This event was a part of our Safe Water Safe Lives Campaign.
At our information table, community members and advocates learned more about how other facilities, like warehouses and ports, attract thousands of diesel trucks every day and are mostly concentrated in overburdened communities. Similar to NJ’s carceral system, there is no regulation at the moment on reducing air pollution from warehouses and ports and/or other facilities that attract diesel trucks.
Lack of regulation to water infrastructure at NJ’s prisons has cost many lives for those that are incarcerated. Lack of regulation for NJ’s warehouses and ports towards emissions reductions, is costing many lives as well for our goods movement workers, port-adjacent communities, those living close to warehouses and even the loved ones of those incarcerated.
Everyone, whether incarcerated or not, has the right to clean water, air and a healthy environment. That’s why Clean Water Action is a lead advocate of NJ’s Indirect Source Review legislation (A2740/S2339) which would transition ports and warehouses towards zero emissions faster.
Join us and send a message NOW to your NJ State Senator and Assemblyperson. Tell them to ADVANCE A2740/S2339 immediately. Getting this bill to the finish line would be a critical step in making sure all communities have access to a thriving environment and clean air!
New Jersey Gets Educated on Skip the Stuff
New Jersey’s Skip the Stuff law goes into effect on August 1, 2026. Clean Water Action continues to lead the coalition, now with a public education campaign. Thank you to all who attended NJPIRG’s event at Rutgers on April 11 where Marta Young, our Zero Waste Specialist (now NJ Deputy Director), shared her knowledge about the law. People’s understand the many environmental, financial, and health benefits of reducing plastic is critical to its success. Offering cutlery and condiments only upon customer request is a simple method of saving businesses and municipalities thousands of dollars. While it is not a ban, it will significantly reduce upstream and downstream effects from plastic pollution.
ReThink Disposable: National Parks
Plan a trip to the National Parks this summer and support Clean Water Action’s national ReThink Disposable program! They are making great strides to reduce plastic pollution in three National Parks: Mammoth Cave, located in central Kentucky, and Petrified Forest, located on Navajo and Apache lands in Arizona, along with two beach clubs located within Gateway National Recreation Area in the New York harbor. Nearly a dozen new water refill stations have been installed, and single use foodware is being replaced by reusables. Education is underway in each location so that visitors understand the many benefits of plastic reduction. Stay tuned in the coming months for more updates and do your part by using reusables!
Making Polluters Pay Before New Jerseyans Do!
In April, Clean Water Action’s Environmental Advocate, Molly Cleary, spoke at the State Senate Budget Committee FY ‘27 Hearing at NJIT in Newark. During the hearing, she emphasized the need to create new budget tools to address the growing cost of climate change, how it shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of the people of New Jersey, but rather on those who caused this climate crisis.
She articulated that the best remedy was passage for the Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey More Affordable Act (previously the Climate Superfund Act), which would bring in around $50 billion paid over the next 20 years. Cleary also mentioned climate resiliency projects that would greatly benefit from this fund, specifically transit, energy and water infrastructure, flooding safeguards, and more. We are pushing for bill passage before June 30th when state legislators take a summer break. Make your voice heard!
Forever No More to Forever Chemicals
Clean Water Action’s NJ State Director, Amy Goldsmith, was one of the Distinguished Keynote Presenters at NJIT’s Center for Translational Research conference on PFAS technology Innovations for PFAS Decontaminations. There were over 300 attendees – academic, water and sewer utilities, health professionals, inventors, policymakers, and more. We found common ground on a number of issues including the need to stop using forever chemicals wherever possible. While Clean Water Action has been successful on this front in many states including NJ, new threats are proliferating in the form of data centers. PFAS is ubiquitous – used in cables, semiconductors, equipment, refrigerant and more. Workers are routinely exposed to PFAS during operations and leaks into the environment and contaminates water supplies. We are working with other groups across the state to call on Governor Sherrill to establish a moratorium on data centers. Keep an eye out for our next update or alert!
Civic Engagement and Democracy
Nationwide, Clean Water Fund was the only environmental organization that received funds from Battleground Alliance for non-partisan voter education and mobilization. Clean Water Fund focused its efforts in Minnesota and NJ’s 7th Congressional District. We stressed environmental protections, polluter pays and affordability issues. Let Congressman Kean Jr. know how you feel. Take action today!
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