EnviroPolitics Blog

War, Defense, LSRPs and Hurricane Sandy

What’s the connection between the terms in the headline?

They’re all events posted this week posted in our Enviro-Events Calendar.

And they’re just a few of the large number of educational forums, seminars, webinars, business-networking and social gatherings listed on the calendar, starting today and
running through the end of 2013.

Here’s a sample of events taking place this week :

June 12, 2013
The New Jersey Pinelands & the Revolutionary War
7 p.m.
Pinelands Preservation Offices 17 Pemberton Road
Southampton, NJ Joe Laufer, Burlington County Historian will chronicle the people, places and events of the New Jersey Pinelands that played critical and strategic roles in the nation’s war for freedom. Learn about the privateers and smugglers at Little Egg Harbor along the Mullica River and the October 1778 clash at Chestnut Neck; the roles of Count Casimir Pulaski and Benedict Arnold, the Osborn Island Incident and other stories. Cost is $10/person. Space is limited, registration required, call Tom at 609-859-8860 x14 or email tomdunn@pinelandsalliance.org. You can also register online here

June 13, 2013
Conference on the Impact of the Defense Industry on New Jersey
8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Enterprise Center at Burlington County College Mt. Laurel, NJ
The US military is the second largest employer in the state (after only the state itself) and is critical to the state’s economy. The Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst alone boasts 44,000 jobs spread over 42,000 acres in Burlington and Ocean Counties. JBMDL’s economic impact is a whopping and arguably irreplaceable $7.9 billion annually. And yet planners, economists and policy wonks rarely consider policies that may be needed to support this important sector of New Jersey’s economy. This PlanSmart NJ conference will bring together experts for a half-day event to discuss what policies are working and what policies are needed to retain and bolster New Jersey’s defense industry. PlanSmart NJ Member: $50. Non-Profit/Government: $60. Non-Member: $85 Register here

June 13, 2013

LSRP Professional Judgment: Concepts and Applications

8 a.m. Registration
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Program
Eatontown Sheraton
6 Industrial Way East
Eatontown, NJ 07724
The New Jersey Water Environment Association’s Site Remediation Committee presents a full day course on the LSRP program at which key NJDEP managers and private sector attorneys and practicing LSRP’s will make presentations and participate in panel discussions. Pending the LSRP Board’s approval, you will receive 3 Regulatory and 3 Technical Continuing Education Credits for attending this course. You may also receive 6 Training contact Hours to satisfy other certification training requirements. Download the flyer and registration form by following this link : NJWEA Site Remediation Committee web page which includes the course announcement and a link to the flyer and registration form. Please join us for the course as well as the post course networking and discussion where refreshments will be served.

June 14, 2013
Building a Sustainable Infrastructure After Sandy

A NJ Spotlight Conference
8:45 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Trenton War Memorial Building
Trenton,NJ
Lunch will be served/Seating is limited
Hurricane Sandy was a wake-up call to New Jersey, one that the state’s electric utilities and water companies have heeded. But as they move ahead with plans to build a more robust, reliable power grid and water infrastructure, what options are being considered and what will be its price tag? The conference will tackle those and other tough questions. NJ Spotlight’s first extended-format event, this all-day conference gives panelists and participants the time they need to delve into details. Former NJ Gov. James Florio will be the guest speaker.

See dozens of events that you may want to attend on our Enviro-Events Calendar Use the form in the site’s upper-right corner to get free alerts when new events are added.

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Our most recent posts:
New Jersey’s #2 largest employer? Can you guess?
Cleanup site owner: Does your LSRP have your back?
Opponents pack hearing on fracking in Pa state forest
Environmental bills in committee today in Harrisburg
Senator Frank Lautenberg, environmental champion, dies at 89

War, Defense, LSRPs and Hurricane Sandy Read More »

New Jersey's #2 largest employer? Can you guess?

After state government (which is #1), the largest single employer in New Jersey is not
a casino, pharmaceutical company, hospital or grocery store chain. It’s the military.

Are you surprised? We were until PlanSmartNJ made us aware that:

“The Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst alone boasts 44,000 jobs spread over 42,000 acres in Burlington and Ocean Counties. The Joint Base’s economic impact is a whopping and arguably irreplaceable $7.9 billion annually.”

PlanSmart concedes that planners, economists and policy wonks rarely consider policies that may be needed to support this important sector of New Jersey’s economy.

What as a State should we be considering to support the defense and related industries?
Is there enough housing in the right location to house defense industry workers? Can our transportation network move goods and people to the places they need efficiently and economically? Do we have reliable utility networks? What types of related industries
cluster geographically around the Joint Base and other military installations in NJ? Many of these questions presumably will be addressed next Thursday (June 13) at a conference that PlanSmart will hold from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the The Enterprise Center
at Burlington County College. Details on this and many of other interesting educational, and social opportunities are available on our continuously updated Enviro-Events Calendar.

While you’re there, use the form in the upper-right column to receive email alerts
when new events are added.

And please tell your friends and colleagues about this great, free service

———————————————————————————————————————————-For thorough coverage of environmental news, issues, legislation and regulation in NJ, PA, NY & DE, try a FREE subscription to EnviroPolitics. Our daily newsletter also tracks NJ & PA environment and energy bills–from introduction to enactment
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Our most recent posts:
Cleanup site owner: Does your LSRP have your back?
Opponents pack hearing on fracking in Pa state forest
Environmental bills in committee today in Harrisburg
Senator Frank Lautenberg, environmental champion, dies at 89
EPA finalizes lead cleanup plan for Raritan Bay NJ site

New Jersey's #2 largest employer? Can you guess? Read More »

Cleanup site owner: Does your LSRP have your back?

In an article in the March 4, 2013 edition of the New Jersey Law Journal, attorneys
Jeffrey M. Casaletto and Edward A. Hogan caution that New Jersey’s revised site remediation program, which utilizes the Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP), changes the dynamic of how the interest of a person or company responsible for a site cleanup is represented.
"The design of the old site remediation program required that the attorney and the environmental consultant coordinate and cooperate to best advocate the client’s interests. Rarely was there a clear distinction between these players as to which was applying case law, technical rules and regulations, statutes and guidance documents to advance the client’s site remediation plan. This blurred line was never an issue since these players were working on the same team to achieve the same goals. "Enter SRRA [the Site Remediation Reform Act], which replaced and redefined the players and their roles in performing site remediation by creating the LSRP. At first glance, the LSRP role might not appear to be any different from the role of the environmental consultant in the old site remediation program. Upon closer examination, however, nothing could be further from the truth. The LSRP is not an advocate of or for the client’s interest." The full article is available, with permission, at: The New Dynamic of Site Remediation in N.J.

Casaletto and Hogan are members of the environmental law group at Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus, P.A.in Bridgewater, NJ.

Our most recent posts:
Opponents pack hearing on fracking in Pa state forest

Environmental bills in committee today in Harrisburg

Senator Frank Lautenberg, environmental champion, dies at 89

EPA finalizes lead cleanup plan for Raritan Bay NJ site

Questions about fracking in a Pa forest? Ask ’em quickly

Cleanup site owner: Does your LSRP have your back? Read More »

Opponents pack hearing on fracking in Pa state forest

Attendees express opposition to drilling – StateImpact photo

All of the more than 300 people who attended last at last night’s public meeting at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa. spoke in opposition to a proposal, under review by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), for natural gas exploratory drilling in Loyalsock State Forest.

DNCR Secretary Rick Allan and other officials addressed issues surrounding the Clarence Moore Lands in northern Lycoming County where Anadarko Petroleum Corp. owns half of the subsurface oil and gas interests on the 25,000-acre tract and Southwestern Energy Corp. is believed to hold the lease for the other half of the property.

The industry’s plan reportedly calls for the installation of 26 well pads, and four compressor stations over a 25,000 acre swath known as the Clarence Moore lands.

Many who spoke expressed concerns about drilling near Rock Run, an exceptional value stream and trout fishery running through the state forest.

Gary Metzger, of the Lycoming Audubon Society, said drilling is simply not compatible to the wild land. "It’s industrialization of rural Pennsylvania," he said. "You can’t safely drill in Pennsylvania. Exercise your control on those 18,000 acres."

Jeff Schmidt, director of the state Sierra Club, said DCNR should consider tapping the state’s oil and gas fund to purchase the mineral rights.

Allan stressed that Anadarko’s plans are still preliminary and have not been approved. But he also said there are no plans for additional public meetings.

Our latest posts:
Environmental bills in committee today in Harrisburg

Senator Frank Lautenberg, environmental champion, dies at 89

EPA finalizes lead cleanup plan for Raritan Bay NJ site

Questions about fracking in a Pa forest? Ask ’em quickly
NJ Senate panel urged to move bill closing local landfill

Solar’s savings not adding up for some NJ schools

Opponents pack hearing on fracking in Pa state forest Read More »

Environmental bills in committee today in Harrisburg

Members of the House Environmental Resources and Energy committee were
scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. today in Room 39, East Wing, to consider two bills.

HB 343 (Ron Miller, R-93) would authorize the Environmental Quality Board to establish statewide private well construction standards through the adoption of rules and regulations
of the DEP that are generally consistent with the National Groundwater Association construction standards.

The sponsor notes that some 20,000 new water wells are drilled each year in Pennsylvania, but the Commonwealth is one of the few states without private well regulations. More than
3 million Pennsylvanians rely on about 1 million private wells for drinking water. Improperly constructed water wells can lead to poor water quality by providing pathways for bacteria and contaminants such as naturally occurring shallow methane gas to migrate into water supplies. Ensuring that the well is constructed properly from the start will help to prevent water quality problems in the future.

Miller notes that his legislation would establish construction standards, including the decommissioning of abandoned wells, to be followed by water well drillers and owners.
He stressed that the legislation does not require the metering of homeowner wells.

HB 1414 (Garth Everett, D-84) aims to assist landowners in obtaining information from gas operators pertaining to deductions from royalty check pay stubs.

The sponsor says that Pennsylvania law, currently, does not require gas operators to list all deductions from monthly payments to royalty owners. The bill would require natural gas operators to show on each stub, attachment to a payment form, or other remittance, specific information concerning the amount of the royalty and any deductions.

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For thorough coverage of environmental news, issues, legislation and regulation in NJ, PA, NY & DE, try a FREE subscription to EnviroPolitics. Our daily newsletter also tracks NJ & PA environment and energy bills–from introduction to enactment

———————————————————————————————————————————-

Our latest posts:

Senator Frank Lautenberg, environmental champion, dies at 89
EPA finalizes lead cleanup plan for Raritan Bay NJ site

Questions about fracking in a Pa forest? Ask ’em quickly
NJ Senate panel urged to move bill closing local landfill

Solar’s savings not adding up for some NJ schools
PADEP considers expansion of Lake Erie coastal zone
DRBC publishes online commission meeting highlights

Environmental bills in committee today in Harrisburg Read More »

EPA finalizes lead cleanup plan for Raritan Bay NJ site

Posted notice of health risks at Raritan Bay Superfund site – NJ.com photo
EPA regional administrator Judith Enck announced today that the USEPA has finalized a plan to clean up lead contamination at the Raritan Bay Slag Superfund site in Old Bridge and Sayreville, NJ.

The remediation will be conducted in three sectors that contain lead slag, a byproduct of metal smelting. The lead slag was used to construct a seawall in the 1960s and a jetty
along the southern shore of the Raritan Bay in Old Bridge and Sayreville.

The first sector includes the Laurence Harbor seawall adjacent to the Old Bridge Waterfront Park in the Laurence Harbor section of Old Bridge Township.The second sector consists of the western jetty in Sayreville and extends from the Cheesequake Creek Inlet into Raritan Bay.The third sector is approximately 50 acres of Margaret’s Creek and has elevated lead levels along with areas of slag and battery casings.

The estimated cost of the cleanup plan is $79 million.

The EPA explained in a news release that:

For both the Laurence Harbor seawall and the western jetty sectors, contaminated soil, sediment and waste including slag and battery casings will be dug up or dredged, and the material will be disposed of at facilities licensed to handle hazardous waste. Excavated areas will be restored with clean material.

Within the Margaret’s Creek sector, the EPA will remove slag and battery casings, along with areas of contaminated soil associated with these materials. Clean material will be placed as needed in the excavated areas. Throughout the cleanup, monitoring and testing will be conducted to ensure that public health and the environment are protected.

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The NJ/NY Baykeeper, which had served on an EPA advisory committee for the site, supported the federal decision. In a news release, the environmental organization said:

"EPA’s recommended plan best protects the health of local residents and the many people who fish, boat and recreate along this stretch of Raritan Bay. It also protects the rich diversity of waterfowl, songbirds, fish and other wildlife in the area from ingesting these toxins and moving them up the food chain. It removes and properly disposes of lead and other contaminants that otherwise NL Industries, which is responsible for this contamination, has pushed hard for a quick, cheap plan to pile and cover contaminants on-site along the Margaret’s Creek floodplain. Such a plan threatens the environment with re-contamination and the property values of local residents who would end up living adjacent to a toxic dumpsite."

“Lead can cause serious health problems, especially in young children, which makes it so important to clean up this area where children regularly play,” Enck said. “The cleanup plan announced today is a major step that brings us closer to a restoration that will make it possible for everyone to enjoy the beach safely. No one should have to worry about being exposed to toxic substances when they visit a public beach.”

More information on EPA’s Raritan Bay Slag Superfund Site can be found here.

Our latest posts:
NJ Senate panel urged to move bill closing local landfill

Solar’s savings not adding up for some NJ schools
PADEP considers expansion of Lake Erie coastal zone
DRBC publishes online commission meeting highlights
Whew! PADEP’s missing nuclear gauge has been found

EPA finalizes lead cleanup plan for Raritan Bay NJ site Read More »