History of Raritan Headwaters Association

Raritan Headwaters Association (RHA) was formed by the 2011 merger of two effective nonprofit conservation groups, the Upper Raritan Watershed Association (URWA) and the South Branch Watershed Association (SBWA), both founded in 1959 to engage New Jersey residents in safeguarding water sources and natural ecosystems.

URWA and SBWA were established at a time when few laws existed to protect clean water and air. The first Earth Day and the federal Clean Water Act were more than a decade away, and the Clean Air Act was several years in the future.

The momentum to create the two organizations grew out of a series of grassroots meetings in local living rooms. Our founders were concerned that the area’s natural resources were being destroyed by the fast pace of development, and they were looking for a way to preserve the local environment and quality of life.

Over the course of 50-plus years, URWA and SBWA successfully fought battles over issues like inappropriate land use proposals and threats to stream and groundwater quality. Both groups preserved key properties that protect rivers and streams, and both were pioneers in offering environmental education programs. SBWA’s signature Community Well Test Program was established to allow citizens to test their drinking water for contaminants.

In 2010, the trustees of the two organizations met to explore the idea of a merger. Combining staffs and resources, they concluded, would produce a stronger organization that could assume a larger role as an environmental watchdog and advocate for science-based planning.

Today, Raritan Headwaters is known as a state leader in environmental education and outreach, and for our work in water quality monitoring, ecological research, habitat restoration, land preservation and stewardship.

URWA was the first non-profit environmental group in New Jersey to obtain and implement geographic information systems (G.I.S.) technology.

Our founders

Hermia Lechner

Helen Woodman

Both SBWA and URWA were established as purely voluntary organizations in their early years. Each group benefitted from the visionary leadership of energetic women. SBWA was led by Hermia Lechner, an environmental trailblazer who operated a summer day camp in Hunterdon County. At URWA’s helm was Helen Woodman, a tireless environmental advocate from Somerset County. Read more about these incredible women.

Some of our early successes

In 1963, Richard D. Goodenough, a recent graduate of the University of Maine was hired as URWA’s first executive director. He embarked on the Association’s first great battle when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey proposed the location of a metropolitan jetport in Readington Township that would have significantly degraded the region’s natural and community environments. After a bitter fight, the proposal was abandoned. Also, in that period, SBWA was promoting the creation of the Hunterdon County Park Commission and was actively working to promote the establishment of environmental commissions to ensure that natural resources would be protected as municipal leaders created local policies and plans.
In 1967 URWA completed the first watershed-wide natural resource inventory in the state evaluating 23 environmental factors such as geology, soils, aquifer yields, water quality, and open space. This pioneering work formed the basis for many of the planning and zoning decisions made throughout the watershed region.
In the early 1970’s, SBWA produced natural resource inventories for each municipality and created model ordinances for the protection of critical environmental areas. SBWA’s signature Community Well Test Program was also established at this time to understand the health of ground water supplies while giving citizens an opportunity to test their drinking water.
In 1980, URWA first identified surface and ground water pollution leaching from a hazardous landfill located in Washington and Chester Townships. The Combe Landfill contained 60 different chemicals, eight heavy metals and radioactivity. Under URWA’s leadership, the municipalities and a group of citizens successfully closed the site, listed it on Superfund and “watch-dogged” the $23 million clean-up effort.
In cooperation with other environmental groups throughout the state, SBWA and URWA worked to ensure passage of the Water Supply Bond Act of 1981. This effort remains the cornerstone of water supply planning in New Jersey.
Recognizing the importance of land preservation to watershed protection, in 1993 URWA conducted a study to explore the feasibility of expanding its efforts to preserve open space. The results indicated the need for a Conservation Easement Program, augmenting its existing preserves that had been donated for safekeeping by conservation-minded landowners.
In 1994 SBWA created a Volunteer Stream Monitoring Program to collect benthic macroinvertebrate data that would help assess water quality. This program continues to foster citizen stewardship of the region’s waterways and we provide our scientific data to the state and to municipalities, which use it as they consider natural resource policies and land use decisions.

1959-2019: Protecting the Watershed for 60 Years

Sometimes in life we take simple things for granted. We expect our drinking water to be clean, our air free of pollutants and the ground untouched by toxins. We expect our rivers to spawn trout, our landscapes to be sustained and our wildlife to run free.

For over 60 years, Raritan Headwaters Association has been working to protect and preserve the simple things in life. The Association has accumulated acres that are now permanently preserved and open for your use. It has assisted in the preservation of thousands more for park land. It has taught children how fragile our environment is and how they can help take care of it. The Association has advocated for sound environmental policies to local and state decision-makers and scientifically monitored our surface and ground water supplies over decades.

When we stop to think about our world, we can see something simple, right before our eyes is a treasure worthy of profound appreciation and careful protection. The Raritan Headwaters Association works for you to preserve and protect the precious natural resources of this special place where we live, work and play.

View our 2019 Commemorative Book.