NJ preserving 544 acres in Barnegat Bay watershed

Barnegat Bay – New Jersey Future photo


Agreement on ways to combat the environmental degradation of New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay is not easy to come by, but the preservation of relatively undeveloped watershed land is a priority on almost everyone’s list.


The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) made a nice contribution
to that effort today with the purchase of a conservation easement for a 544-acre tract from the Jersey Shore Boy Scout Council and the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.


The $1.1 million agreement will preserve the Joseph A. Citta Boy Scout Reservation Camp in Ocean Township, which contains camping facilities used by the Boy Scouts and many other outdoor user groups.


The Pine Barrens property, which also offers public hiking trails, is located in the headwaters of the Oyster Creek, a tributary to Barnegat Bay.

An NJDEP news release reports that the land will link:

“…Ocean County’s Wells Mill Park to other preserve land in the Forked River Mountains, an ecologically unique area of rolling forests in the Pinelands National Reserve. The Scouts will be able to continue to own and manage the camp for camping and recreational use, and in turn have extinguished their development rights on the property while agreeing to providing a public trail system linking other open space.

As part of the 544-acre preservation deal, the Conservation Foundation assigned to the DEP an 84-acre conservation easement that it held since the 1970s on a portion of the Citta Camp. This acreage was included in the purchase agreement at no cost to the state.

This 544-acre easement acquisition brings the state’s total of preserved land in the Barnegat Bay watershed to 2,895 acres since Governor Christie announced his comprehensive 10-point Barnegat Bay restoration plan in December of 2010.


The easement purchase is financed by $1.1 million in voter-approved state Green Acres Program funds. Ocean County provided funding for the survey work needed for the acquisition. 

Stewardship of this easement will be provided by DEP’s Green Acres Program and the Division of Parks and Forestry as part of Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. The trails through the Boy Scout Camp will be an expansion of the trail system at Wells Mill County Park and open for public use.

Related environmental news stories:
Are Barnegat Bay fixes ignoring an overriding problem?
NJ’s largest paper wants more action on Barnegat Bay 
Rutgers prof warns: Action needed to save Barnegat Bay

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NJ preserving 544 acres in Barnegat Bay watershed Read More »

Are Barnegat Bay fixes ignoring an overriding problem?

The recent Rutgers University report on the deteriorating health of New Jersey’s
Barnegat Bay focused media attention, once again, on the decades-old
environmental problem that continues to elude a solution. 

That’s not to say that numerous ‘fixes’ haven’t been implemented, negotiated or proposed.

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For  thorough coverage of environmental news, issues, legislation and regulation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, try a FREE subscription to EnviroPolitics, our daily newsletter that also tracks environment/energy bills–from introduction to enactment
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New Jersey now has the toughest fertilizer law in the nation restricting the amount of nitrogen and phosphates in that bag of stuff you use to green-up your lawn.

The state has negotiated an early closure of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, the facility that continues to raise the Bay’s temperature.

And several bills have been introduced in the state legislature to stem the flow into the Bay of nutrients that lower the Bay’s oxygen, spur algal blooms, and chase away clams, barnacles and sea grass while attracting stinging jelly fish.


Governor Christie has responded with his own 10 Point plan, and environmental organizations have held listening sessions to stimulate discussion and among bay area residents and commercial interests. 


Despite all this positive activity, a nagging question persists.

Do all the proffered solutions work busily around the edges of an happily ignored 500-pound political and economic gorilla of a problem? 

In an Op-Ed today in NJ Spotlight, American Littoral Society Executive Director Tim Dillingham, writes that a 

“side-by-side comparison of problems and proposed solutions — whether in the governor’s plan, DEP initiatives, legislative proposals, or the land use and environmental policies of Ocean County and local municipalities — shows a significant disconnect between the fact that overdevelopment and urbanization are the primary drivers of the Bay’s problems.” 


Care to share your thoughts on Barnegat Bay’s problems and cures? Use the opinion box below. If one is not visible, activate it by clicking on the tiny ‘comments’ link.

Are Barnegat Bay fixes ignoring an overriding problem? Read More »

PADEP: You take our numbers, you take your chances

In Pennsylvania, the Department of Environmental Protection is the public source for information on how much natural gas is being extracted from the Marcellus Shale. Their biannual reports are eagerly anticipated by market investors and drilling companies.

Which is why the agency’s latest report has created somewhat of an uproar. 


It turns out that the state failed to include any production numbers from Chesapeake Energy, a large producer.

Worse, the DEP report failed to note the absence.


 “This is totally unprofessional. Fadel Gheit, an oil and gas analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York City, told the Associated Press.

Gheit said that DEP at least had the responsibility to let investors and industry know the posted production totals were incomplete, since financial markets and energy companies use them for long-term decisions involving billions of dollars
And what was DEP’s reaction?  Shock? Embarrassment? Contrition? 
Not a bit. 
“Any analysis is incumbent upon the user to make his own interpretations,” DEP spokesman Kevin Sunday said in a statement Monday.
Caveat emptor, PADEP style.
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Federal court strikes down EPA cross-state air limits

Updated at 11:45 p.m. to add additional stories
Reuters reported Tuesday morning:

A federal court on Tuesday vacated an Environmental Protection
Agency’s rule that set strict limits on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide
emissions – pollutants that cause acid rain and smog – in 28 mostly Eastern
states and Texas.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
D.C. Circuit sent the rule back to the agency for revision and told it to
administer its existing Clean Air Interstate Rule in the interim.

The rule was designed to reduce
sulfur dioxide emissions by 73 percent and nitrogen oxide by 54 percent at
coal-fired power plants from 2005 levels, according to the EPA.

U.S. natural gas futures dropped
more than 10 cents after the ruling was announced as traders bet it would mean
less demand for the cleaner fuel over the coming months.

The EPA and environmental groups
contended that the rule would improve air quality for 240 million people across
the Eastern United States.

The EPA’s rule aimed to control
emissions from sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide — pollutants that cause acid
rain and smog — from power plants in 28 mostly Eastern states. The reasoning
is that unhealthy emissions from those plants cross state lines.

The rule, known as CSAPR, also
established a cap-and-trade system that enabled power producers to comply with
the emission limits by buying, trading and selling pollution permits.

Power generators, such as
Southern Co and Energy Future Holdings Corp, had argued that the Jan. 1
implementation date was too soon and allowed too little time to design and
install pollution control equipment needed to comply.

The state of Texas, along with
the National Mining Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers, also challenged the EPA. They said the rule caused undue financial
burden on power producers and could make the power market less reliable by
forcing companies to shut some older plants.


The Associated Press reported:

WASHINGTON
– A divided federal appeals court Tuesday overturned a regulation clamping down
on power plant pollution that contributes to unhealthy air in neighboring
states.


In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit said the Environmental Protection Agency’s cross-state air
pollution rule exceeded the agency’s statutory authority. The court faulted the
EPA for imposing “massive emissions reduction requirements” on upwind
states without regard to limits imposed by law.


In adopting the regulation a year ago, the EPA sought to reduce downwind
pollution from power plants in more than two-dozen states. The rule was
scheduled to go into effect in January, but several large power companies and
some states sued to stop it. The appeals court agreed last December to suspend
the rule pending its review.


“Our decision today should not be interpreted as a comment on the wisdom
or policy merits of” the EPA rule, wrote Judge Brett Kavanaugh, in a
decision joined by Judge Thomas Griffith , both appointees of Republican
President George W. Bush. “It is not our job to set environmental policy.
Our limited but important role is to independently ensure that the agency stays
within the boundaries Congress has set. EPA did not do so here.”

In a dissent, Judge Judith Rogers, an appointee of Democratic President Bill
Clinton, said that the court had disregarded “limits Congress placed on
its jurisdiction, the plain text of the Clean Air Act, and this court’s settled
precedent interpreting the same statutory provisions at issue today. Any one of
these obstacles should have given the court pause; none did.”


Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution from power plants can be carried
long distances and the pollutants react with other substances to form smog and
soot, which have been linked to illnesses. The cross-border pollution has
prevented many cities from complying with health-based standards set by law.

EPA spokeswoman Alisha Johnson said the agency is reviewing the decision, and
will determine what steps to take after the review is complete.

“EPA remains committed to working with states and the power sector to
address pollution transport issues as required by the Clean Air Act,” she
said.  

For  thorough coverage of environmental news, issues, legislation and regulation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, try a FREE subscription to EnviroPolitics, our daily newsletter that also tracks environment/energy bills–from introduction to enactment

Related news stories:

Daniels praises ruling overturning EPA rule 
 Court Sides With Texas, Overturns EPA Rule


Other recent energy and environmental news posts: 
CBS says NY will approve fracking after Labor Day
Take heart, environmental attorneys, litigation rebounds


Federal court strikes down EPA cross-state air limits Read More »

Manko Gold attorneys drilling for Marcellus Shale work

Marc E. Gold

Looking to capitalize on some of the legal work generated by natural gas drilling companies in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale region, environmental law firm Manko Gold Katcher & Fox has opened a satellite office in Williamsport, Pa.

Jeff Blumenthal reports in today’s Philadelphia Business Journal that the new location, at 25 W. 3rd St., will be the 29-lawyer firm’s third
office, adding to its Bala Cynwyd, Pa., headquarters and Cherry Hill,
N.J., site.

“Manko Gold name partner and Marcellus Shale Coalition liaison Marc E. Gold
said with the variety of environmental programs that apply to the
natural gas industry and the significant growth of shale gas development
in that region, the firm was spending more time in the Williamsport
area.

“Gold will be joined by Manko Gold partners Todd D. Kantorczyk and Jonathan E. Rinde as well as Michael M. Meloy and Michael C. Gross
in the Williamsport office. They will split their time in the new
office allowing them to spend the majority of their time in Bala Cynwyd.”



Other recent energy and environmental news posts: 
CBS says NY will approve fracking after Labor Day
Take heart, environmental attorneys, litigation rebounds


For  thorough coverage of environmental news, issues, legislation and regulation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, try a FREE subscription to EnviroPolitics, our daily newsletter that also tracks environment/energy bills–from introduction to enactment 

Manko Gold attorneys drilling for Marcellus Shale work Read More »

CBS says NY will approve fracking after Labor Day



CBS News says it has learned that New York is about to okay fracking,
and will issue guidelines after Labor Day. (Click on arrow to play video)

Related: 
Fracking in New York: How will Gov. Cuomo proceed?

CBS says NY will approve fracking after Labor Day Read More »