New Jersey Highlands CouncilThe Highlands Council has determined Prime Ground Water Recharge areas (PGWRA) based upon a method known as GSR-32, which was developed by the New Jersey Geological Survey to map ground water recharge areas. Prime Ground Water Recharge Areas are those areas that most efficiently provide 40 percent or more of the total recharge volume for each HUC14 subwatershed, using the GSR-32 with land use/land cover data. This is a composite layer of PGWRA based on Land Use Ordinance (LUO), Plan Conformance and Stormwater Ordinance adoption. The following seven towns adopted LUO's before May 2016 and have adopted the PGWRA as it appears in the RMP (using the 2002 LULC): Bethlehem (9/2014) High Bridge (2011) Lebanon Twp (5/2014) Tewksbury (10/2015) Montville (1/2014) Mount Olive (12/2013) Vernon (7/2014) The following three towns adopted LUO's and adopted an updated PGWRA with then current data (2012 LULC, finalized Warren County Soils): Holland (11/2017) Chester Boro (6/2017) Byram (6/2017) There are several towns that have adopted Municipally Important Groundwater Recharge Areas (MIGWRA) in place of PGWRA. The PGWRA for these towns has been replaced in this dataset for the adopted version of the MIGWRA. Lopatcong (2019) Lebanon Boro (2020) Mahwah Twp (2022) Parsippany - Troll Hills (2022) Clinton Twp (2023) The default for the remainder of the Highlands is the 2025 PGWRA (fully updated to the 2020 LULC) with the understanding that towns that adopted the Highlands Referral Ordinance are bound by current data and that the towns who have not adopted anything will adopt through the Highlands Plan Conformance Ordinance using the 2025 PGWRA. U pdated 8/4/2025ArcGIS FeatureLayerhttps://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/ff0322f9dd504c39a09343e6741bb422_1engNew Jersey Geographic Information Network (NJGIN) Open Data PortalPublicPrime Groundwater Recharge [New Jersey]Web servicesNew JerseyLast Modified: 2025-08-04