Dead Christmas trees: Recycling gifts from a thousand strangers that helped a NJ community rebuild its dunes

When Hurricane Sandy sent its battering and devastating storm surges through scores of New Jersey shore towns just before Halloween last October, the tiny private community of Midway Beach, comprising mostly older, one-floor cottages, emerged with only minor damage.

Was it a miracle?  A miracle of advance planning, perhaps. Because community leaders in the South Seaside Park enclave had spent years of time and effort arming their beachfront with an impressive stretch of protective sand dunes, up to 120 feet wide and 20 feet high.

In Sandy’s wake, 50 feet of the natural battlement had been swept away. Midway Beach Homeowners Association leaders knew they had to act to rebuild their dunes quickly before another storm might arrive.

What they did was to utilize a state DEP-approved but unorthodox method of capturing natural sand drifts and anchoring them in position for a spring planting of dune grass.

      They used social media sites like Facebook to put out an APB to New Jersey towns and residents asking them to donate their used Christmas trees when the upcoming holiday season had ended.

What happened next was so successful–and so inspiring–that the Association of New Jersey Recyclers invited Dominick Solazzo, a Midway Beach association trustee, to the organization’s recent Annual Forum where he provided details about the community’s tree-recycling operation.


              Dominick stayed behind after the event to tell us more. We think you’ll enjoy his video above.


Related environmental news stories:
What a difference a dune makes and how to build one
Sea Isle City gets $9.2 million for beach and dune work
Three shore towns moving to seize dune easements
After Sandy, only a lucky few getting buyouts

GM’s hopes you’re ready for a new fracking car  

Dead Christmas trees: Recycling gifts from a thousand strangers that helped a NJ community rebuild its dunes Read More »

Frustration vented at final Sandy recovery hearing in NJ

                                                                                       EnviroPolitics photo

Updated at 9:44 p.m. to add Star-Ledger story

A full year after, Hurricane Sandy is still an ill wind blowing through the lives of  
New Jersey shore residents and state political leaders, too.
The fourth in a series of joint public hearings held yesterday by the state legislature’s
Senate and Assembly environmental committees exposed the level of frustration felt
by many–especially home owners who still are stuck in a paperwork and funding
morass, unable to elevate or repair their homes.

A few quotes reported today by the Asbury Park Press‘s Michael Symons:

"Diane Mazzucca of Beach Haven West told lawmakers her flood insurance bill went from roughly $600 a year to more than $5,000 and that her coverage was reduced.

“Our money is tied up trying to get back in our homes, fighting with the insurance companies, fighting with FEMA, fighting with the townships,” said Mazzucca, who said she’s been hospitalized twice for high blood pressure and her husband had a heart attack. “We are done. We are up to our limits.”

Steven Gwin of Silverton said the rebuilding settlement from his insurance adjuster offered less than half the money per square foot than is needed in New Jersey. “To say the last year has been a living hell for us is an understatement.”

Vincent Giglio of Ortley Beach said, “Last week, I was told that if we started any procedure in the elevation process, we would not be eligible. I realize that these programs are intended to help. They’re not. They are just putting one more obstacle in our way. After a year, for any authors of these grants to expect people to just sit around and do absolutely nothing is absolutely unconscionable.” 

At one point during the hearing, Republican Senator Jennifer Beck of Red Bank, who has assumed the job of defending the Christie administration’s Sandy recovery program against criticism from Democrats, clashed with Senate committee chairman Bob Smith, a Democrat, and Republican Assemblyman Gregory McGuckin of Toms River tilted swords with NJ Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel.

On a positive note, the Democrats said they expect soon to introduce legislation that
would provide funds to help homeowners front the money needed to draw down federal
home-elevation aid. 

Read the full story:  State could provide loans to help Sandy victims elevate homes
Star-Ledger story added at 9:40 p.m. State program to release funds for Sandy victims

Related environmental news stories:
Fourth NJ legislative hearing today on Sandy recovery
NJ Sandy stories: Stingy insurers, bungling bureaucrats
Third NJ hearing today on hurricane recovery problems
North Jersey also felt Superstorm Sandy’s punch 
Lawmakers hear other side of NJ’s Sandy recovery story  
New Jersey environmentalists on what Sandy taught us

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GM’s hopes you’re ready for a new fracking car 
Residents sue FirstEnergy over coal-ash impoundment

Frustration vented at final Sandy recovery hearing in NJ Read More »

NJ's gubernatorial candidates mum on the environment

Christie & Buono

"The state’s open-space preservation program is broke. Electric and gas transmission projects may soon traverse the New Jersey Highlands and the Pine Barrens, forested land previously set aside for protection. Questions abound on where and whether to pull back from the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy along the Jersey Shore," environment reporter Tom Johnson writes today in NJ Spotlight.

“Not that many years ago, those issues and others likely would have emerged as top concerns and would have been hotly debated in a gubernatorial contest. Not this year: The economy apparently trumps the environment.

“In the race between Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic challenger state Sen. Barbara Buono of Middlesex County, the environment rarely has been raised as a topic. Silence prevails, though some say the differences between the two candidates on this issue are as stark as they have ever been in a gubernatorial election.”

Why the apathy?  Tom explores some answers in The Sounds of Silence.  

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Fourth NJ legislative hearing today on Sandy recovery

 
Elevated house - Ortley Beach - Aug 2013 - Frank Brilll photo 1 0 00 01-24
EnviroPolitics photo The New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee and the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee are meeting together late this afternoon in Toms River to receive testimony from members of the public and invited guests on the state’s Hurricane Sandy rebuilding and recovery efforts.

It is the fourth and final hearing held jointly by the environment committees to hear from residents, business owners, advocates and others as the one-year anniversary of the storm approaches. Hearings were held on Aug.15 in Atlantic City, Sept. 16 in Jersey City, and September 27 in Trenton.

As was the case for each of the previous hearings, the committees have invited Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Richard E. Constable III and Marc Ferzan, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Recovery and Rebuilding, to speak on the recovery efforts. To date, neither member of the Republican administration of Gov. Chris Christie has chosen to make an appearance before the Democrat-controlled committees, claiming they were too busy with the recovery efforts.

Today’s hearing was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. in the LMH Room, Toms River Town Hall, 33 Washington Street, Toms River, NJ.

The Senate Committee is chaired by Senator Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) and the Assembly Committee is chaired by Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer (D-Essex).

Videos and news stories from the previous Sandy hearings:
NJ Sandy stories: Stingy insurers, bungling bureaucrats 
Third NJ hearing today on hurricane recovery problems 
North Jersey also felt Superstorm Sandy’s punch
Lawmakers hear other side of NJ’s Sandy recovery story
New Jersey environmentalists on what Sandy taught us

Fourth NJ legislative hearing today on Sandy recovery Read More »

The liberal Star-Ledger endorses Buono, right? Uh…

There’s been no love lost between New Jersey’s Republican Governor Chris Christie and the state’s leading daily newspaper,The Star-Ledger, since Christie took office.

Chief editorial writer Tom Moran frequently takes the governor to task, with Christie-like bluntness, for a host of alleged shortcomings. Christie, in turn, berated Moran at a news conference and has refused to meet with the paper’s editorial board.

The governor’s supporters had good reason to expect that the Newark-based daily would recommend the election of Christie’s Democratic gubernatorial opponent, Barbara Buono,
in its anticipated endorsement editorial published yesterday 

As expected, the top half of the piece set up readers with observations like these:

"The property tax burden has grown sharply on his (Christie’s) watch. He is hostile to low-income families, raising their tax burden and sabotaging efforts to build affordable housing. He’s been a catastrophe on the environment, draining $1 billion from clean energy funds and calling a cease-fire in the state’s fight against climate change.

"The governor’s claim to have fixed the state’s budget is fraudulent. New Jersey’s credit rating has dropped during his term, reflecting Wall Street’s judgment that he has dug the hole even deeper. He has no plan to finance transit projects and open space purchases now that he has nearly drained the dedicated funds he inherited from Gov. Jon Corzine.

Christie.JPG  Photo: Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger

Then, the paper yanked out the rug, by recommending that voters give the governor a second term.

Why? We won’t spoil it for you. Read the full editorial here and the tirade it set off in the public comment section that followed the endorsement.

Care to voice your opinion on the endorsement? Feel free. Use the opinion box below.


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GM's hopes you're ready for a new fracking car

An Impala?  Maybe not what you had at the top of your list. But how about one getting 500 miles-per-gallon?  Oh, so, now you’re interested?

Here’s the deal. GM announced yesterday that it will build a Chevrolet Impala sedan that can operate on either regular gasoline or compressed natural gas (the fuel that comes from all those fracking wells in Pennsylvania, Ohio and maybe, someday, New York) and travel up to 500 miles between fill-ups.

Forbes reports:
The Impala’s bi-fuel powertrain is engineered to switch seamlessly from CNG to gasoline, which should reassure consumers worried about finding a place to refuel. For business fleet customers, whose drivers return to a central location, CNG refueling shouldn’t be a problem. GM did not announce the new car’s price, which is likely to be higher than the standard gas model, but savings at the pump could offset that extra payout quickly.

The 2015 Impala can run on natural gas or regular gasoline

Natural gas produces about 20 percent less carbon dioxide than gasoline-powered cars, according to the California Air Resources Board. It is also significantly cheaper. CNG sells for an average of $2.11 per gallon of gasoline equivalent, and as little as $1 in some parts of the country. The national average for unleaded regular gasoline is $3.36.
For those in states like California, Oklahoma and Utah who have been converting older vehicles to CNG for years, the new bi-fuel Impala offers an opportunity to upgrade to a modern vehicle with navigation, Bluetooth and advanced safety systems. Said Eric Ibara, another Kelley Blue Book analyst: “There is a lot of buzz around CNG right now. With more infrastructure, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an increasing number of CNG vehicles on the road.”
Some environmental-minded folks will be hesitant to drive a vehicle that depends on a fuel that comes from fracking wells that many blame for air and water pollution. But CNG vehicles emit lower levels of air pollution than regular-gas vehicles and, at least in this case, promise to be much more energy efficient.  Would you consider buying a car like this? Share your thoughts in the box below.  

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