This Saturday, help sweep a Jersey beach–any one of 70!

A sure sign that Spring has arrived in New Jersey is Clean Ocean Action‘s massive Beach Sweep project that organizes thousands of volunteers in a day of beach cleaning.

The program has grown from 75 people at one site in 1985, to 5,163 volunteers at 115 sites in 2008.  Volunteers gather from Raritan to Delaware Bays and along the ocean to clean beaches and waterways, as well as underwater sites.

Participants join as groups (community, school, business, and organization), families, or individuals. In addition to picking up the stuff that shouldn’t be on anyone’s beach, they also collect and record data about debris, which COA uses in annual reports to advance federal, state, and local programs to reduce litter.

Keeping pace with the times, the event this year has its own Facebook page–a clever bit of social marketing by COA to get its supporters to spread the news far and wide. 

Here’s a list of beach sweep locations. If you’re participating on Saturday (9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.)  in a group of 10 or more, use COA’s registration page.

To stay on top of all kinds of environmental events–workshops, seminars, webinars and other educational and networking opportunities, sign up for complimentary email or RSS updates at our free Enviro-Events Calendar.  

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The early bird gets the Jersey Fresh asparagus

Today, April 23, is the first day of the year that New Jersey grown asparagus should start appearing at roadside farm markets and retail stores.

The asparagus harvest is most active between May 1 and May 30, but you can still find some New Jersey asparagus as late as June 25. After that, it’s wait till next year.

How do I know this?  I’m cribbing from the Harvest Dates Availability Chart on the state Department of Agriculture’s Jersey Fresh page.  
Take a peek and you’ll see that Jersey’s early spinach crop also should be hitting the farm stands right about now. 

Here ‘s how to search for a roadside market in your area or a pick-your-own farm.

Fresh asparagus, fresh spinach, yum!   

 

Jersey Fresh Coming Attractions 
Lettuce – May 20 – July 15
Strawberries – June 1 – June 10
Cabbage – June 10 – Oct. 31
Peas – June 15 – June 25
Onions – June 25 – July 31
Snap beans – June 20 – July 20
Squash – June 25 – September 1
Beets – July 1 – Oct. 31

Are you an asparagus or spinach lover? What’s your favorite way of preparing them?
Mine is to have someone else do it. And yours? Tell us in the comment box below.
If one isn’t visible, click on the tiny ‘comments’ line to activate it.   

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No shale driller wants to rank high on this list

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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette performed a public service yesterday in publishing data from a
PADEP list of violations and fines imposed on Marcellus Shale drilling companies between 2005 and Feb. 1, 2011.

We call it a public service because such disclosure (perhaps even more so than the size of the fines) motivates companies to pay closer attention to their operations and quickly address problem areas.

Every smart company wants to claim that it is vigilant when it comes to environmental protection. Consistently ranking high on such lists provides ammunition to those who would argue that such claims are bogus.

That’s the theory, at least, and former DEP Secretary John Hanger said he saw it proven in the case of Chief Oil & Gas.

When the company landed near the top of several lists — including the most fines of any Marcellus Shale drilling company in Pennsylvania — its leadership requested a meeting. Hanger recalls that they flew up from Dallas and told him they were “taking steps taking steps to improve their environmental performance, improving their control of water, improving their command and control on site.”

“No one wants to be on a list,” Chief’s spokeswoman Kristi Gittins told the Post-Gazette. “We’ve been drilling shale for 15 years and we’re good at it, so, we were surprised by the list of violations and fines we received” in Pennsylvania.

Following its meeting with Hanger, Gittins says Chief conducted a review of its operations, fired some employees and subcontractors, and began lining its entire site with plastic to help contain any spill. The company implemented a closed-loop system to contain drill pit water, which was the cause of four of its nine fines.

Is potential public shame enough to get drillers to perform properly?  Some environmental groups think that higher fines would help as well.
“A fine for environmental drillers really should hurt the pocketbook,” said PennFuture president Jan Jarrett. “Even that $24,000 average [fine], in terms of the cost of putting up one of those multimillion dollars wells, that’s just so much background noise to these companies.”

State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, has a bill that would increase fines in the Oil & Gas Act that regulates the Marcellus Shale industry. His bill would increase the maximum fine from $25,000 to $100,000, and the fine for each day of continual violation from $1,000 per day to $10,500 per day.

Former DEP Secretary Hanger said he believes the state’s Clean Streams Law, which is applied if well spills make their way to state waterways, also should be increased. Currently, a violation of the streams law is punishable by up to $10,000-per-day fine.

You may not be surprised to learn that industry representatives disagree.

“The way I hear the issue is it’s not the amount of the fine, it’s how do we improve performance to avoid them in the first place,” said Kathryn Klaber, executive director of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group representing the state’s operators.

Read the entire story: What fines reveal about drilling in state

Related articles


What do you think?  Are violation lists effective?  Should fines be increased?  Why?
Let us know in the comment box below.  If one isn’t visible, click on the tiny ‘comments’ line to activate it.

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Black Bear gets easy pass out of tree along NJ Turnpike

The New Jersey Turnpike is the scene of plenty of news events–lengthy traffic jams, multi-vehicle accidents and an occasional police pursuit. But the big Turnpike news today was really, really big–at least a couple of hundred pounds worth.

Startled motorists watched a black bear cross the high-speed roadway early this morning and then climb some 20 feet into a tree off Exit 8.

It’s difficult to excite New Jerseyans, but the appearance of such a big hunk of nature in a section of the state better known for housing developments and warehouses set off a bit of a frenzy.

Hearing the news, some local residents grabbed their cameras and jumped into their cars. The media, of course, sped to the scene, and a FOX  News copter caught it all on the video (see below).

It’s hard enough to get a kitten out of a tree but a big black bear–wow!  Our hats are off to the firemen and state wildlife men who managed to get the bear safely to ground.  In a genuinely human gesture, a number of those burly guys sneaked up after the tranquilized bear was loaded into a truck, to give the bruin a reassuring pat. Well done, all!

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Is Pennsylvania rubber-stamping gas drilling permits?

Concerned about the environmental impacts of shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania? Here’s one more cause for worry.

The Associated Press reports that DEP staffers spend as little as 35 minutes reviewing each of the thousands of applications for natural gas well permits they process each year.

And the regulators say they do not give any additional scrutiny to requests to drill near high-quality streams and rivers even though the waterways are protected by state and federal law.

The news agency reports:

“Staffers in the state Department of Environmental Protection testified behind closed doors last month as part of a lawsuit filed by residents and environmental groups over a permit that DEP issued for an exploratory gas well in northeastern Pennsylvania, less than a half-mile from the Delaware River and about 300 feet from a pristine stream.

“Reporting by the AP suggests that applications are rubber-stamped, rushed through with little scrutiny and rarely rejected. The staffers’ statements indicate that DEP regulators are overburdened — and possibly ignoring environmental laws — as they struggle to deal with an unprecedented drilling boom that has turned Pennsylvania into a major natural gas player and raised fears about polluted aquifers and air.”

Read the entire story here.  

Want to stay on top of all the environmental news from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware?  Try our 30-day, no obligation, no-hassle trail subscription to EnviroPolitics.

Our most recent blog posts:
New study re-ignites natural gas vs. coal enviro debate
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Is Pennsylvania rubber-stamping gas drilling permits? Read More »

New study re-ignites natural gas vs. coal enviro debate

If you’re following the controversy surrounding natural gas drilling and its hydrofracturing (fracking) technique, you’ll want to read about a new study that’s guaranteed to heighten that debate while also firing up the quarrel between gas and coal.

Subscribers to our daily EnviroPolitics newsletter learned yesterday about a Cornell University study which concluded that so much methane is escaping from gas wells and distribution lines that the fuel’s accepted environmental benefit over coal is now questionable.

Poking holes into natural gas’s credentials as environmentally preferable to coal is bad news for the
gas industry but should be warmly embraced by coal producers who have seen their market share steadily erode as more and more utilities switch over their power plants to burn natural gas.

It’s not surprising that the gas industry reacted immediately with a detailed web rebuttal.

And this is just the start. Can you imagine the number of fervent calls going out from both sides today to PR and lobbying firms?

Expect an avalanche of white papers, special web sites and talking points to follow. 

What do you think?  Are you surprised by the Cornell study?  Think it’s biased?
How do you see it shaping the ongoing national energy debate or shale drilling in PA?

Share your views in the comment box below. If one isn’t visible, click the ‘comments’ line.  


Related stories:
Studies Say Natural Gas Has Its Own Environmental Problems
Methane Losses Stir Debate on Natural Gas
More Reasons to Question Whether Gas is Cleaner than Coal
Shale gas ‘worse than coal’ for climate
Five Things to Know about the Cornell Shale Study  

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