Clean Water Campaign pushes for more water infrastructure spending with new poll

The Clean Water, Healthy Families, Good Jobs Campaign, continuing its fight for more water infrastructure spending in this year’s state budget, released a new poll this morning that the campaign says demonstrates the broad support for water infrastructure in New Jersey.

According to the poll, which was conducted by the polling firm Publitics, 77% of New Jersey voters said that they had concerns about water quality in New Jersey, and 51% said they’d support the state spending more on water infrastructure to limit drinking water contamination, flooding, and leaks.

Gov. Phil Murphy said in his budget address last month that he intends to invest more federal money into water infrastructure, a proposal that 86% of poll respondents said they support (though it seems unlikely that most of them had heard of the proposal before the poll informed them about it).

“Governor Murphy and the state legislature have taken important steps in closing the clean water funding gap in New Jersey,” said Ed Potosnak, the executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, in a statement accompanying the poll. “As the polling shows, few issues garner as nearly universal agreement across party lines as water quality.”

The Clean Water campaign is pushing for even more spending: $700 million, to be exact, which the campaign says would create over 13,000 jobs and $2.9 billion in economic benefits.

“An additional $700 million investment in water infrastructure would have a truly transformational impact that will create a healthier, more affordable future for New Jersey families,” said Diane Schrauth, the water policy director for New Jersey Future.

The Publitics poll was conducted from March 30-April 2 with a sample of 700 New Jersey voters and a margin of error of +/- 3.7%.