TRENTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fired back at the Christie administration for comments made last week about protections enacted in 2008 to protect the state's precious supply of drinking water.



At an event in Ocean Township on Thursday, state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin told reporters that the protections were put in place under former Gov. Jon Corzine and then-state environmental commissioner Lisa Jackson knowing they would not work.



"Jon Corzine and (DEP commissioner) Lisa Jackson put in water quality management plans that they knew would never get approved," Martin said, according to the Asbury Park Press. "All building would stop in the state of New Jersey."



That statement caught the attention of the EPA, now headed by Jackson, on Friday.



"The commissioner's quote is both unfortunate and factually inaccurate," said Judith Enck, administrator for the EPA's regional office overseeing New Jersey. "Jackson worked hard to put clean water policies in place in New Jersey."



Enck said there was every intention that the protections would be implemented, and noted that the federal government gave New Jersey $1.6 million to help that effort along. She said the state was "quick to deposit the check."



Her comments came in response to a bill moving through the Legislature's lame-duck session that would delay and, in some cases, circumvent Jackson's rules, which were intended to curtail development in areas near the state's water supplies.



Corzine vetoed a similar bill to delay the rules in 2009 as one of his last actions before leaving office.



"If (Martin's) theory was anywhere close to reality, it would not have made sense for former Gov. Corzine to have vetoed the bill," Enck said.



Larry Ragonese, a spokesman for Martin, said Friday that the regulations were "completely unworkable" and that the department was working with the Legislature to help counties comply with the water requirements in a more reasonable way.



"So Judith Enck may not understand the requirements in this plan," Ragonese said. "If those rules were so good, some really intelligent county planners would have had them completed by now."