As the most densely populated state in the US with ~1,267 people per square mile, the Garden State relies on strict surface water quality standards to ensure that our freshwater resources are protected against degradation. The NJDEP Bureau of Freshwater and Biological Monitoring's Ambient Macroinvertebrate Network samples streams across the state for macroinvertebrates to determine if they meet the standards set for Aquatic Life Use, and each site is scored using one of three different multi-metric indices that assign a rating of “Excellent”, “Good”, “Fair”, or “Poor”. Generally, sites that score “Excellent” or “Good” are considered as attaining surface water standards, and scores of “Fair” or “Poor” are not attaining. To determine if there is a relationship between land uses and the impairment rating of the AMNET sites, we calculated the land use percentages of the contributing watersheds for 730 sites. We then determined the percentage of ‘disturbed’ land in each watershed by combining the ‘Urban’ and ‘Agriculture’ land uses. Sites were grouped into 5 different regions within the state and by the multi-metric index with which they were scored to investigate differences in disturbed land use across the groups. Two-way ANOVAs and subsequent Tukey’s tests showed a significant relationship between the percentage of disturbed land use and the impairment ratings when grouped by region (p < 0.000), and between percent disturbed land use and impairment rating when grouped by both region and multi-metric index (p= 0.03). Additionally, there was a positive relationship between the percentage of disturbed land uses and impairment ratings, with nearly all regions demonstrating an increase in disturbed land use as impairment worsened. The same relationship exists for the multi-metric indices. These relationships can be used by NJDEP to inform management and regulation in areas that fail to attain surface water quality standards, support antidegradation designations, and restoration activities.