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About the Watershed

The Metedeconk River, which flows from the forested wetlands in its headwaters through a densely populated area, provides drinking water from ground and surface water sources to about 100,000 homes in Ocean and Monmouth Counties, New Jersey. Ground and surface waters are closely linked, with 80 percent of the rivers baseflow coming from groundwater.

In general, over 50 percent of the watershed is presently classified as open space and 27 percent as residential. Commercial and industrial uses represent about 4 percent of the land. Brick is the most developed of the townships in the watershed with only 18 percent open space, and Wall, Freehold and Jackson (all over 50% open space) have the least development.

About 53 percent of the land is wetland, much of which is in the headwaters. According to 1995 NJ DEP land cover estimates, the watershed is about 60 percent forest and wetland (30% each), 35 percent development and 4 percent agriculture, with total impervious cover at 17 percent. The percent of developed land has likely increased since 1995, with a resulting loss of forests and wetlands. Research in watersheds around the country has shown that if impervious cover exceeds 10 percent or if forest cover declines below 75 percent there can be a measurable decline in water quality.

Urbanization has led to the loss of forests and small wetlands across the watershed. With only 7 percent of the watershed permanently protected, growth will continue to be at the expense of critical forests and wetlands. Most of the new development in the central and eastern portion of the watershed has occurred on relatively small patches of forest, barren lands, or wetlands that were already surrounded by residential, commercial, and industrial land. By contrast, new residential subdivisions in the western portion of the watershed have converted larger areas of forest and farm land into low and medium density house lots.

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