EnviroPolitics Blog

Yo, DEP, How much wood could a wood-chipper stack?

With all the downed tree limbs and branches that are being chewed up an spit out (mechanically, of course) following Superstorm Sandy, the Garden State is looking
more like the Wood Chip State.

How much you ask? So darn much that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (even under the regulation-adverse administration of Republican Gov. Chris Christie) has found it necessary to promulgate a Wood Chip Management Guidance document.

Fortunately, the Department’s three-page Compliance Advisory appears to rely heavily on common sense (the Republican influence?) It tells you what you can use wood chips for
(lots of things) and what you can’t (just a few–like clean fill).

Spreading 4-6 inches of the stuff under play equipment is permitted. Piling it up around
your tomato plants at four-foot depths is not encouraged.

Wood chips can be used as part of an approved soil-erosion plan. You also can add them
to your favorite sewage-composting recipe. The suggestion we like best is that you can
use them to create a garden path. We’ve always wanted a garden path. Maybe Sandy has forced our hand.

In fact, the advisory details quite a few permitted uses–a good thing, post-Sandy. And the DEP isn’t getting heavy handed on the thou-shalt-not side, either. (Sorry, Sierra Club).

“If no other viable means of recycling/reuse is available,” you can burn them in a resource recover plant, send them to a Class B wood recycler, or to an approved compost facility. If all else fails, you can even cart them off to a sanitary landfill (DEP cautions: ‘as a last resort’).

We note with interest that wood chip piles should not exceed 20 feet in height nor remain stockpiled for more than a year. In fact, piles that sit static for 6 months or more may be viewed as “abandoned.”

If only that would apply to the piles your son left behind when he moved in with his girlfriend.

You can read the full doc here. Still have questions? DEP’s taking calls at: (609) 292-6305.

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Yo, DEP, How much wood could a wood-chipper stack? Read More »

Newspaper offers Superstorm Sandy photos in new book

Newspapers don’t usually publish books, but the Asbury Park Press is capitalizing on its daily coverage of Superstorm Sandy by publishing a soft-cover book containing 150 photos
of the punishment that the historic storm inflicted on the New Jersey Shore.

Sales have been overwhelming and the newspaper is donating all profits from the book to
the American Red Cross Jersey Coast Chapter and Jersey Shore Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

Copies can be ordered online at Sandy.TheStormBook.com at $14.95 (a $5 savings off the retail price which expires on Dec.13) or by calling 732-643-3154.

The newspaper plans a second book in early 2013 that will tell the further story of Sandy and efforts to rebuild the Jersey Shore.

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Prescribed burning bill clears NJ Assembly committee

Prescribed Burn at Schiff Nature Preserve Feb 27 2012

Sometimes the best way to fight fire is with fire.

That’s the proven thinking behind prescribed burning or controlled burning. It’s the tool
used by the New Jersey State Forest Fire Service to burn, in advance, sections of forest undergrowth to remove the fuel that would allow a wildfire to build power and spread.

Yesterday, both environmentalists and farmers testified in support of A-329 (Dancer), legislation that would encourage the use of the practice by giving landowners, prescribed burn managers and state employees protection against liability for damages or injury possibly resulting from a prescribed burn.

The bill does so by declaring that properly conducted prescribed burns are deemed to be
in the public interest and thus would not constitute arson, trespass, or a public or private nuisance nor would they be considered to be air-pollution violations.

To learn more about the subject, view our interview below with Jaclyn Rhoads, Director for Conservation Policy at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance and Bill Cutts, a New Jersey cranberry grower.

Here’s a copy of A-329 before amendments were added yesterday in committee.
The amendments were not available at the time that this story was posted.

Disclosure: Our government relations firm, Brill Public Affairs, represents
the New Jersey Farm Bureau which supports A-329.

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Rutgers gets a not so five-and-ten-cent climate grant

Kresge’s 5&10-cent employees in the 1900s

A public-private alliance at Rutgers University that seeks to build climate change preparedness in New Jersey is getting a two-year $400,000 grant from
The Kresge Foundation.

The award is being made to the
New Jersey Climate Adaptation Alliance (NJCAA), an initiative of the School of Environmental and
Biological Sciences and the Edward
J. Bloustein School of Planning
and Public Policy at Rutgers.

In a news release announcing the grant, the university says the alliance was “formed in response to the work of a diverse group of stakeholders who came together in November 2011 at Rutgers University to participate in the conference “Preparing New Jersey for Climate Change: A Workshop for Decision Makers.”

It describes the NJCAA as a “network of policymakers, public and private sector practitioners, academics, and NGO and business leaders designed to build climate change preparedness capacity in New Jersey.”

“The funding from The Kresge Foundation will help the Alliance develop important public policy recommendations for state and local climate change preparedness that will serve as a model outside of New Jersey,” said Robert M. Goodman, executive dean of Rutgers’ School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. “These recommendations will also help identify and facilitate emerging innovative projects and partnerships that address key gaps in climate change preparedness.”

The NJCAA will study the impacts of precipitation, temperature, storm surge, sea-level rise, drought, inland flooding and temperature extremes on six targeted sectors: agriculture, built infrastructure, coastal communities, the natural environment, public health and society, and water resources.

A conference on Climate Change Preparedness in New Jersey: Leading Practices and Policy Priorities, is planned for May 22, 2013, at Rutgers’ Cook Campus Center. The conference will identify efforts underway in New Jersey to prepare for climate change impacts as well as about the leading practices outside New Jersey and the state and local public policies that will enhance New Jersey’s preparedness for climate change.

See the full news release here.

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‘Radio Times’ examines NJ chemical train derailment

The Philadelphia-based NPR-radio program Radio Times today examines the Nov. 30 freight derailment in Paulsboro, NJ that sent four tank cars carrying toxic vinyl chloride into the Mantua Creek.

The event has raised questions about railroad safety, regulations regarding the shipment
of hazardous materials, and the responsibilities of freight railroads to maintain and inspect their rail lines.

Show host Marty Moss-Coane will ask if this train derailment was avoidable and what lessons it
offers for the future as we increasingly rely on the freight railroad system
throughout the U.S.?

Joining her to answer questions about this accident
and the safety and regulation of freight railroads are Philadelphia Inquirer
reporter Paul Nussbaum and Penn State professor Peter Swan.

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New Jersey Assembly energy, environment bills – Dec 10

NJ Assembly Agriculture Chair
Nelson T. Albano

The Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m., Monday, Dec. 10, in Room 14 of the State House Annex, to take testimony and vote on:

A-329 Dancer, R.S. (R-12); Conaway, H. (D-7)

Authorizes prescribed burning in certain circumstances.

A-1538 Burzichelli, J.J. (D-3); McHose, A.L. (R-24)

Authorizes deer hunting with firearm on Sundays on
private property.

(View entire bills by clicking on bill numbers)

A-2930 Wagner, C. (D-38); Eustace, T.J. (D-38);
Wisniewski, J.S. (D-19)

“Blue Acres Floodplain Protection Bond Act of
2012,” authorizes bonds for $100 million, and appropriates $5,000. Related Bill: S-1919

A-3019 Wilson, G.L. (D-5); Lampitt, P.R. (D-6)

Authorizes public schools to serve to students certain
produce grown in community garden.

Dec 10, 2012 – Posted: Assembly Agriculture
and Natural Resources

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Assembly Environment
Chair L. Grace Spencer

Also meeting at 2 p.m.,next door in Room 9, the

Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee

will take testimony and is expected to vote on:

A-1154 Lampitt, P.R. (D-6); Vainieri Huttle, V.
(D-37)

Requires BPU to establish Energy Efficiency Leadership
awards program.

The committee will hear (but take no vote) on:

A-1912 Rumana, S.T. (R-40)

Requires State to use pervious concrete whenever
appropriate.

You can follow both committee meetings live (or later in archived broadcasts).

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Yo, DEP, How much wood could a wood-chipper stack?

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