New Jersey Section of American Water Resources Association (NJ-AWRA)
Join NJ-AWRA to Visit the Nation's First Fish Exchange Program in Newark, NJ
NJ-AWRA members and guests have the opportunity to take a tour of the nation's first-ever fish exchange. As part of the Rutgers Veterans Environmental and Technology Solutions (VETS) program, this groundbreaking initiative reduces immediate health risks to families of subsistence fishermen who eat fish caught in the Lower Passaic River. Veterans are learning how to farm fish through an aquaponics program and work with fisherman in a pound-for-pound exchange of contaminated fish for clean fish.
The VETS program mission is to improve the lives of unemployed veterans in Essex County, NJ and to work with them to protect the Lower Passaic River and its watershed. The VETS program provides local, unemployed veterans with environmental training and new green job skills. It promotes trainees’ civic engagement and leadership by working with a broad cross-section of the Essex County community to revitalize distressed neighborhoods through green infrastructure projects and increases healthy eating lifestyles for families and children in Newark through an active greenhouse and community garden.
The lecture and tour of greenhouse, garden, and aquaponics system will be conducted by Dr. Amy Rowe, the Environmental and Resource Management Agent for Essex and Passaic Counties.
About Dr. Amy Rowe
Amy Rowe joined Rutgers in 2010 and is the Environmental and Resource Management Agent for Essex and Passaic Counties. Her background is in water chemistry with a concentration on the fate and transport of contaminants. Amy has worked in stormwater management for more than 10 years and her outreach programming focused on green infrastructure in urban environments and green jobs training programs. Amy earned her Ph.D. from Rutgers in Environmental Sciences.
