Welcome to the sjrcd-eZine, first edition. We’ll distribute this online news vehicle monthly, updating friends and stakeholders who share a passion for conserving our environment and properly utilizing its natural resources. We draw your attention to worthy projects and fascinating developments. And encourage dialog among you and our professional staff and dedicated team of volunteers.

The sjrcd-eZine is a work in progress and will evolve to meet the needs of you, our readers. If you have a great idea for a new eZine name then please send it to us. We welcome any and all constructive comments.

Steve Quesenberry, South Jersey RC&D Coordinator for the past 17 years, retired in June and returned to California with Lola, his lovely bride of 33 years. California is Lola’s home and Steve’s adopted home.

Steve’s greatest accomplishments were in the areas of water conservation and wildlife habitat improvements. Having worked in the deserts of California, Steve brought his expertise in irrigation water management to South Jersey. He developed a system of 20 weather stations located throughout South Jersey that record hourly rainfall, temperature, wind, relative humidity, and solar radiation. This information is uploaded daily to the South Jersey RC&D website, where over 20 daily reports are stored. These reports can be accessed by farmers and homeowners to accurately schedule irrigation. This system is called RISE for Resource Information Serving Everybody. In addition to irrigation scheduling, RISE data has been used by engineers and planners to develop watershed and stormwater management plans.

Another passion of Steve’s was wildlife habitat improvement. He worked with state and federal wildlife agencies, non-profit wildlife conservancies, individual landowners and other groups to improve wetland habitats and provide grassland habitats. This partnership was called Team Habitat and includes four government agencies, seven non-profits, plus for profit businesses and individuals. Team Habitat obtained equipment to perform wildlife habitat projects such as phragmites control in wetlands and the establishment of grasslands for endangered grassland birds. Team Habitat established a 125-acre grassland savanna at Buckshutem Wildlife Management Area.


During Steve’s tenure the council replaced a degraded dam and spillway at Rowand Pond. This converted the mosquito habitat back into an attractive lake for the area residents and wildlife. The spillway structure used plastic woods to demonstrate how discarded plastics can be recycled and used in place of woods and metals. These recycled plastics were also used to build a picnic shelter at the Dudley Grange Park in Camden. The Council also received grants to improve the park’s landscaping. Additionally, Steve and the Council stabilized a number of critically eroding sites on schoolyards, beaches, and river shorelines.
Perhaps his most important venture was the establishment of a permanent solution to the Repaupo flood control situation. While not yet there, the local residents continue to resolve this 250-year old problem.


Though Steve is retired, he continues to spend time with RC&D. He regularly provides advice and guidance to the new coordinator, Ken Taaffe, and other coordinators throughout the country. Steve and Lola are enjoying their retirement, and look forward to hearing from their many friends in New Jersey. Steve can be reached at steveq@koakonnect.com.

The SJRCD Council thanks Steve and Lola for all their endeavors and wishes them a

“Happy Retirement!”

By Ken Taaffe

The Resource Information Serving Everyone (RISE) system is a network of 20 weather stations installed throughout South Jersey that record temperature, wind speed and direction, rainfall, relative humidity, and solar radiation. Data is collected on an hourly basis and uploaded daily at midnight to the RISE section of http://www.sjrcd.org. Users of this network receive this information to assist with irrigation water scheduling, pest management, storm water modeling and water-company pumping. The data is utilized by almost every county in the South Jersey region.

The 2002 US Environ-mental Protection Agency report to the United States Congress states that over 70% of the lakes, ponds, reservoirs, streams, bays and estuaries are impaired. The Council seeks to address the issues of water quality and water quantity to assist in managing the state’s natural resources through identifying and controlling the sources of pollution.

The RISE system of weather stations grew out of the need to conserve water in South Jersey. South Jersey contains 126,000 acres of irri-gated cropland. Much of this acreage can benefit from improved irrigation water man-agement. Improved irrigation scheduling alone can reduce irrigation water usage by 5% or approximately 25,000 gallons/acre/year.

In addition, South Jersey contains around 700,000 acres of developed lands, including lawns and landscaped areas irrigated on a regular schedule. The Council developed a program for suburban users in the Barnegat Bay watershed. Access to this program was free to the public and realized water savings of 500,000 gallons per day. The Council would like to see similar success throughout the rest of South Jersey.

The Council proposes to update the RISE System to provide a more user-friendly graphical format, provide real time data, and develop new software programs to encourage water conservation. New pages will be developed describing the RISE system enhancements and their utilization and delineating SJRC&D water conservation accomplishments. This project will improve the region’s watershed resources by providing the public an effective tool to implement water conservation on a grand scale.

Look for a new and improved RISE System in 2006!

By KP Kilpatrick

E85 has many additional advantages over gasoline:

Burns cleaner, reducing ozone-forming pollution by 20% and greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 30%
Less toxic, reducing the emission of harmful gasoline compounds into the environment – like benzene, toluene, and xylene.
105 octane rating, providing a boost in engine horsepower.
Burns cooler, and keeps your engine clean.
Priced lower, typically, than gasoline.
Degrades quickly in water, reducing the threat from gasoline spills and leaks.

Cleaner air
Less foreign oil
$ to local farmers!

No, we’re not tipping at the still.

“Moonshine,” used in our cars, will lead to cleaner air, less foreign oil, and increased income to American farmers. To the chemist, moonshine is the common alcohol called ethanol. Ethanol can be made from any starch feedstock, although most is produced from corn -- a renewable resource. Something our American farmers can grow.

Ethanol can power many cars on the road today. Those that can fuel up with high percentages of ethanol are called flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). First, though, the ethanol must be mixed with gasoline. A popular blend is E85, as profiled above, and is available at many mid-western filling stations. We would like to see it available here in South Jersey and will encourage its adoption.

You may be driving an FFV now – the list is fairly extensive and includes the following models:

Daimler Chrysler 2.7/3.3/4.7 liter-engine cars manufactured between 1998 and 2006, including Town & Country, Voyager, and Caravan minivans; Sebring convertibles and sedans; Dodge Stratus sedan; Dodge Ram Pickup 1500 Series and Dodge Durango.

Ford Motor 3.0/4.0/4.6/5.4 liter-engine cars manufactured between 1999 and 2006, including Taurus sedans, Explorer and Explorer Sport Trac; Lincoln Town Car, F-150, and Crown Victoria (2006 model year only, excluding taxi & police units).

General Motors 2.2/3.5/5/3 liter-engine cars manufactured between 2000 and 2006, including Sonoma GMC/Chevrolet S-10 pickup 2WD; Vortec-engine Avalance, Suburban, Tahoe, Yukon & Yukon XLS; Chevrolet Silverado & GMC Sierra half-ton pickups 2WD/4WD; Chevrolet Monte Carlo (LS/LT models) and Impala (LS, 1LT/2LT).

The above listing is not comprehensive; many other FFVs are available from Isuzu, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mercury, Nissan and others. To ensure your car’s compatibility, check the owner’s manual or visit www.E85fuel.com under “E85 Vehicles.”

Coming to a station near you?

At least one program is being proposed to encourage ethanol’s use in South Jersey: the E85 Fuel Adoption Pilot Project. The goal is to fuel certain government vehicles with E85, subsidized with grant money to fund the purchase, installation and operation of E85 fuel tanks at Co-located USDA and Soil Conservation District offices. The pilot project will test the feasibility of switching from gasoline to E85 at some locations, beginning with the Columbus field office serving Burlington, Ocean, and Camden counties. If successful, we expect this pilot will expand to other South Jersey locations.

Stay tuned for updates and progress reports!

By Lance Lindstrom

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Please mail your donation check to:

South Jersey RC&D Council
854 S White Horse Pike, Suite 3
Hammonton, NJ 08037

All donations are tax deductible.
Online donation capability in 2006.