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Challenge: Submit Your Solutions

Updated: Apr 22


🎥 Solutions Challenge: Join In


This is a community submission challenge.


Create something that shares your best suggestions for the average person to contribute to clean, readily available water resources using ideas from the Clean Water Solutions Action Menu below.


All quality submissions will be recognized and rewarded.


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How to Participate

Start with one question:

What actions can the average person take to support clean, readily available water?


Then:

  • Highlight at least 5 meaningful actions

  • Or introduce an idea we didn’t include

  • Pick a medium

Submission formats:

  • Video

  • Visual (infographic, poster, slides)

  • Written (concept or guide)

  • Real-world (projects, builds, or implementations)

  • Mixed formats


Real-world entries should include simple documentation (photos or video with explanation of what was done and why).


Simple, practical ideas and small-scale implementations are just as valuable as larger projects.


Think:

"How can I inspire others who view my submission?"


Create something and submit it to submissions@njcwc.org before the deadline.


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The Solutions Action Menu (start anywhere)

No order. No rules. Just different ways to approach the same goal.


🌧️ Keep Water Where It Lands (Recharge / Infiltration)

  • Replace sections of lawn with deep-rooted native plants

  • Add compost or leaf mulch to improve soil infiltration

  • De-compact soil (aerate and add organic matter)

  • Disconnect downspouts to infiltration areas where appropriate

  • Install rain gardens, bioswales, or similar systems

  • Use permeable pavers, gravel, or porous surfaces for paths and driveways

  • Create soak zones at low points in your yard

  • Use terracing or contouring on slopes to slow water movement

  • Plant natives to intercept rainfall and stabilize soil with deeper roots

  • Reduce bare soil with groundcovers to prevent runoff


🌱 Slow and Hold Water (Runoff and Erosion)

  • Maintain vegetation buffers along ditches and streams

  • Stabilize slopes with deep-rooted plants (not just mulch)

  • Add simple flow controls like check dams or level spreaders

  • Use drip irrigation instead of high-pressure spraying

  • Use erosion controls during yard or construction projects

  • Control runoff with features like dry streambeds, swales, and permeable paths to reduce erosion


📍 Keep Water Clean at the Source (Pollution Prevention)

  • Minimize or eliminate synthetic fertilizers

  • Test soil before applying fertilizer or lime

  • Avoid phosphorus unless soil testing shows a need

  • Spot-treat weeds instead of broad herbicide use

  • Keep leaves, grass clippings, and fertilizer off hard surfaces and out of drains

  • Wash cars at facilities that treat wastewater

  • Pick up pet waste

  • Store fuels and chemicals properly and fix leaks promptly

  • Use de-icers responsibly and choose less harmful options

  • Maintain septic systems and avoid flushing harmful substances


🗾 Limit Algae Growth (Nutrients and Conditions)

  • Reduce nitrogen and phosphorus inputs

  • Maintain vegetation near water to provide shade and cooling

  • Install buffer zones or no-mow areas near water

  • Prevent sediment runoff that carries nutrients

  • For private ponds, consider aeration and beneficial non-invasive plantings


🧪 Reduce PFAS (Forever Chemicals)

  • Test private wells where appropriate and retest as advised

  • Use certified filtration if PFAS is present

  • Dispose of hazardous household waste properly

  • Avoid unnecessary PFAS-containing products where alternatives exist

  • Support local testing and transparency efforts


🐝 Strengthen Natural Systems (Ecosystem Health)

  • Plant native species with bloom succession from spring through fall

  • Include host plants that support full insect life cycles

  • Leave some natural material (leaves, stems) for overwintering habitat

  • Reduce or eliminate broad-spectrum pesticide use

  • Provide safe, shallow water sources

  • Convert underused areas into habitat patches

  • Include plants that support beneficial insects (pollinators and pest predators)


🏘️ Strengthen Community Decisions (Community Action)

  • Contribute to shared understanding through efforts like the Well Data Project

  • Participate in local planning and zoning discussions

  • Support green infrastructure in community projects

  • Encourage public education through schools and libraries

  • Help maintain clean stormwater systems

  • Support community efforts that improve land use, water management, and long-term planning



Some connections are direct.

Some actions affect surface water immediately.

Others work more slowly through the ground.

Some support living systems that influence both.


All of it matters for water quality and availability.


Some connections may take a step or two to see, but they all contribute to clean and readily available water. We’d especially enjoy seeing contributions that connect those dots.

Exploring these connections is part of the challenge.



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What Happens Next

As submissions come in:

  • Some ideas may be featured (with participant approval)

  • Some will be expanded into resources after the challenge ends

  • Some will help shape future projects or discussions

  • Standout contributions will receive meaningful rewards.

  • All efforts move clean water initiatives forward.



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Prizes

In honor of America’s 250th birthday, standout contributions will be recognized with meaningful rewards.


  • Top Submission receives a $250 cash award presented on America’s 250th birthday, along with a large handmade, tailored-to-the-winner garden accessory

  • Runner-Up Submissions receive medium-sized custom-crafted items

  • All Quality Submissions will be recognized with a custom token from CWC



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Your Turn

So, what do you think?

What are the most important actions everyday people can take to support clean, reliable water resources?


Recap: Jumping In

Explore the Solutions Action Menu.

Build your ideas.

Submit your contribution.


Your Voice Matters

Our voices shape our actions, our actions shape our world, and those impacts carry forward for generations.



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Hope grows where action flows.



 
 
 

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