BergenSwan.org
Title
Bergen Save the Watershed Action Network
Description
The History of Bergen SWAN
Bergen SWAN has had a long history of activism in the Upper Watershed. Our organization was established in early 1988 in response to mounting public opposition against plans by our water company's subsidiary, Rivervale Realty, to develop many of the wooded areas bordering the reservoirs in Bergen County. As directed by a 1984 order of the Board of Public Utilities, some 700 acres of this previously protected reservoir buffer land had been allowed to be transferred from the regulated Hackensack Water Company (HWC) to the unregulated River Vale Reality (RVR).
In 1989, having attained representation by the Environmental Defense Fund, Bergen SWAN engaged in several successful legal battles, culminating in the 1993 negotiated settlement with HWC/RVR which resulted in the return of approximately 390 of the original 700 acres to non-developable status and the placing of permanent deed restrictions enforcing maximum impervious cover and other environmental controls on three golf courses totaling 300 acres.
