I am currently looking to put in a bigger pond. right now i have a prefab 90 gallon with a plastic waterfall. I am wondering what laws in NJ that i hafta to look in to. I haven't been able to find anything. any help would be great

When I was starting my liner pond I called my City Hall. I think I got routed to the Permits department ( sorry, dont' remember for sure ). But I know my city is crazy about having permits for everything. In my case it turned out that anything over 2 foot depth needed a permit. A pond is treated as a pool. Call your local City Hall ( or Town Hall ), they should be able to answer your size/depth questions.

Usually, it's only ponds over a certain depth like 2 feet that need a permit and may require fencing. Your local development may have its own covenants and prohibitions so you'd have to check into that. You also may need to check with the electric, phone, and gas companies as to where any buried lines are.

I searched the internet. Here's a story about a rich guy in NJ who had problems with getting permission/permits for his pond. It mentions contacting the Army Corps of Engineers but I don't know if that's only if you're building a pond in wetlands which is dumb anyway because it will flood.

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=9866