By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor
At a combined hearing of the state legislature’s Senate and Assembly environmental committees yesterday in Toms River, state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette warned:
“…climate risks facing New Jersey will only worsen in the years ahead, with devastating impacts to our communities, economy, public health, and the daily lives of our residents if we are not prepared. All levels of government must act with concerted urgency to help communities adapt to the realities of climate change.
LaTourette offered events within the last two months to show that New Jersey “is struggling to reckon with the reality of climate change: (1) sudden floods that struck Bergen County amid pre-drought conditions last month, (2) arid conditions that are diminishing crop yield in farm-rich Salem County right now, (3) the largest wildfire in over a decade that destroyed over 15,000 acres in the Pinelands this June, and (4) the nine-mile-long harmful algal bloom that is infecting the Millstone River and complicating drinking water supplies in Central Jersey.”
The commissioner said the state’s climate resilience efforts must focus on four key areas:
- Engineered & Natural Resilience Infrastructure.
- Climate Resilience Planning.
- Blue Acres Buyouts, and
- Modernizing Flood Standards and Stormwater Management.
Click here to read the details of his presentation
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