OCEAN CITY – Oct. 11, 2016, Clean Ocean Action (COA) awarded a Municipal Blue Star Certification to Ocean City, NJ, at a Town Hall ceremony to recognize their efforts to improve water quality.
“We feel blessed in Ocean City to live on the water, and the protection of our marine environment is vitally important,” said Ocean City MayorJay A. Gillian. “We’re proud to have achieved Blue Star Certification and thankful for Clean Ocean Action’s continued stewardship.”
The Blue Star program launched in September 2014, and more than 20 towns have expressed interest in obtaining the certification.
“The Blue Star Program was established by Clean Ocean Action to encourage towns along the coastal regions and beyond to prioritize water quality protection measures while achieving the Sustainable Jersey Certification, which harnesses the best of both programs,” said Clean Ocean Action Executive Director Cindy Zipf. “The Award is in recognition of a town taking significant and meaningful actions to improve and protect water quality.”
The municipal Blue Star program combines the visionary Sustainable Jersey Initiative with Clean Ocean Action’s focus on water quality protection. The program encourages communities to promote healthy waters, resilient communities and environmentally-sound practices. This is done by completing various projects that protect community watersheds and climate mitigation. Ocean City went above and beyond the necessary 75 points, reaching 100 points for the Municipal Blue Star certification. Examples of the actions completed include Education for Sustainability Programs, Natural Resource Inventory, Community Forestry Plan and Tree Cover Goal, and Recycling Education and Enforcement.
In addition to Sustainable Jersey projects, towns are required to choose one of COA’s additional actions. Ocean City completed an Innovative Water Quality Project that consisted of a bioswale installation with corresponding educational and outreach components to help engage community members in stormwater related issues and possible solutions.
Other actions completed included offering bulky rigid plastics recycling program, prescription drug safety and disposal program, conducting a natural resource inventory, and passing a habitat conservation ordinance. The Sustainable Jersey and Blue Star programs improve and protect our economy, reduce costs and increase municipal funds, promote healthy waters and environmentally sound practices, showcase communities as statewide role models, and increase community pride and participation.
We encourage Ocean City to continue on their quest towards water quality improvements through the Municipal Blue Star program.
Any municipality registered or certified in the Sustainable Jersey program is eligible to work toward the Blue Star certification. For more information about COA’s Blue Star Program, please contact 732-872-0111.
The development of the program was made possible by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
Avalon – It absolutely makes sense for means testing for Social Security. We need to trim benefits for anyone 50 or younger, and give them better savings options. Anyone 50 or older should be grandfathered….
