Caroline Snyder '21

Intern with Save Barnegat Bay, Summer 2020

This summer I had the privilege to work for Save Barnegat Bay, a non-profit environmental group focused in protecting the Barnegat Bay Watershed in Ocean County, New Jersey. Save Barnegat Bay's mission is to restore and protect Barnegat Bay and its ecosystem. Save Barnegat Bay does this with effective educational programs and targeted advocacy campaigns that engage over 3,500 Save Barnegat Bay members who cherish the Bay as a natural, recreational, and economical resource for the community and all of New Jersey.

I specifically worked with the Executive Director of Save Barnegat Bay, Britta Wenzel, and local New Jersey ArcGIS professionals to create a water impairment map of the Barnegat Bay Watershed. Our impairment map was targeted toward local bay residents who recreationally enjoy the bay, however do not understand the hazards of local pollutants, atmospheric deposition, runoff, and fertilizers. Our map is displayed on the Save Barnegat Bay website in an ArcGIS ESRI story map format, where local residents can log on and use the tool to find their location and consequent water rating. This web page cleanly describes in easy-to-understand language the history of the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the Environmental Protection Agency's involvement in rating certain
pollutants as hazards for fishing, swimming, and other recreational uses for the bay.