EnviroPolitics Blog

UPDATE: NJ political power broker Norcross pleads not guilty

A close-up portrait of George Norcross, who wears a suit and looks off to the side, smiling slightly. — *Though he never held elective office, George E. Norcross III gained notoriety as a powerful Democratic fund-raiser. Credit…Hannah Beier for The New York Times*

By Jeremy Roebuck, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 9, 2024, 11:16 a.m.

George E. Norcross III entered a not guilty plea Tuesday morning to racketeering charges alleging he illegally muscled rivals out of property deals in Camden to take advantage of millions of dollars in state tax breaks.

Smiling as he arrived in Mercer County court, the 68-year-old Democratic power broker sat silently throughout a brief hearing before Judge Peter E. Warshaw as his attorney, Michael Critchley, entered his plea.

Repeatedly during the proceedings, Norcross turned toward news media cameras arrayed in the jury box offering a clenched smile.

In a statement, Critchley maintained his client had done nothing wrong and that he expects Norcross will be fully exonerated.

“As will be shown, everything he and his codefendants did was for the benefit of the city of Camden and Cooper University Health Care,” the attorney said, adding: “Anyone reviewing the indictment will see these are charges in search of a crime.”

Read the full story here

Earlier story below

By Elise Young, New York Times July 9, 2024, 3:00 a.m. ET

George E. Norcross III, a longtime kingmaker in New Jersey politics, is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday morning to face charges that he manipulated property deals to benefit from millions of dollars in government tax breaks.

Mr. Norcross and five co-defendants were named in a 13-count racketeering indictment unsealed last month. They are accused of unlawfully obtaining property and development rights along the Delaware River waterfront of Camden, a Philadelphia suburb that for decades ranked among the nation’s poorest and most violent cities.

Mr. Norcross, 68, a career insurance executive, emerged as a powerful Democratic fund-raiser in the early 1990s, without ever holding elective office. Backed by a network of political allies whom he helped send to the state legislature, Mr. Norcross cast himself as Camden’s savior. Upon a landscape of industrial blight, he envisioned gleaming campuses for the life sciences, biotechnology and manufacturing industries in the city of his birth.

At the heart of Mr. Norcross’s advocacy, though, wasn’t high-minded civic duty, but a 12-year scheme of personal greed, according to Matthew J. Platkin, the New Jersey attorney general. Together, the defendants conspired to influence government officials, develop the Camden waterfront and collect government-issued tax breaks that shaved millions of dollars off project costs, state prosecutors have said.

Also charged with racketeering in the first degree were: Mr. Norcross’s brother, Philip A. Norcross, 61, of Philadelphia, the chief executive of a Camden-based law firm; Dana L. Redd, 56, of Sicklerville, N.J., a former Camden mayor; William M. Tambussi, 66, of Brigantine, N.J., George Norcross’s longtime personal lawyer; Sidney R. Brown, 67, of Philadelphia, the chief executive of NFI, a trucking and logistics company; and John J. O’Donnell, 61, of Newtown, Pa., an executive of the Michaels Organization, a residential development company.

The crime is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Read the full story here –

This is a developing story and will be updated later

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UPDATE: NJ political power broker Norcross pleads not guilty Read More »

A greener Avenue of the Arts is in the works for Philadelphia

Starting with Broad Street in 2026, a decadelong $100-million project is expected to be set in motion

*Looking north to City Hall, a digital rendering from OJB Landscape Architecture shows the proposed new Avenue of the Arts streetscape between Pine and Spruce Streets.*

By Peter Dobrin, Philadelphia Inquirer, Jul 9, 2024

A greener, art-infused streetscape is expected to debut on a single block of South Broad Street in 2026 — setting the stage for a more ambitious, decadelong $100-million makeover of the entire stretch of Avenue of the Arts south.

“It’s moving along, it’s going to happen,” said Avenue of the Arts, Inc. executive director Laura Burkhardt of the beautification initiative, to be announced Tuesday.

More than three decades have passed since Broad Street from City Hall to Washington Avenue was branded as the Avenue of the Arts, bringing retro light poles, planters, and checkerboard pavers along with hundreds of millions of dollars in new arts facilities.

Now (left) and Render (below, right)

A perspective of the proposed streetscape looking north on Broad Street from a spot in front of Dorrance Hamilton Hall at the former University of the Arts. The Broad Street overhang of the Kimmel Center is seen on the left.

The new streetscape proposes next-generation concepts like traffic-calming devices and lush plantings, but the overarching objective is the same as the first:

“To get more people excited about South Broad and to attract more economic development,” said Burkhardt. “That’s the goal — to make it more beautiful and livable, to support the arts and to give people a reason to come down and visit.”

Read the full story here

A greener Avenue of the Arts is in the works for Philadelphia Read More »

Sediment-laying aims to add ground for Intercoastal Roadway

Scientists hope a sediment-laying strategy can help preserve the marine highway while restoring marshlands

By Mac Carey, Undark

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along with other experts, hopes that placing a thin layer of dredged sediment over the top of the marsh will help them gain ground, literally, in the fight to save the saltwater marshes that flank the Intracoastal Waterway. The 3,000-mile water passage runs along the East and Gulf Coast, and it’s one of the busiest inland waterways in the United States.

“It would be a benefit for both worlds,” said Army Corps of Engineers biologist Erica Janocha, who helped manage the project. She was referring to the two-fold opportunity: find a use for sediment dredged from the increasingly shallow Intracoastal Waterway to ensure it’s deep enough to navigate, and build up the drowning marshlands surrounding it.

*Material dredged from Jekyll creek is discharged into the adjacent salt marsh, with the goal of raising the marsh by 15 to 20 centimeters. Visual: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District*

Salt marshes like the one along Jekyll Creek serve as buffers between water and land, putting them on the frontlines of climate change; over the last century, salt marsh habitats lost half their global coverage, due in part to rising seas. And in Georgia, the state’s low shoreline geology means some marsh areas may soon get overtaken by the sea.

After dredging and TLP is complete, the salt marsh is covered in a mixture of fine-grain sediment called pluff mud. Visual: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District

Dredging itself can exacerbate the erosion of marsh edges, since it encourages faster and more extreme tidal changes. However, the biggest challenge with dredging is where to put all the resulting sediment. As government funding has increased for the waterway— the Corps has devoted roughly $150 million to operating and maintaining the southern portion since 2022, according to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association — so has the amount of sediment.

Read the full story here

Sediment-laying aims to add ground for Intercoastal Roadway Read More »

Pa. legislators back to work after email threats and evacuation

By Gillian McGoldrick, Philadelphia Inquirer

HARRISBURG — Members of the Pennsylvania legislature returned to work Monday, following two email threats made over the weekend that led the Capitol building to be evacuated on Saturday.

An anonymous email address sent a bomb threat “in the name of Palestine” to every member of the state legislature on Saturday evening, according to the email shared with The Inquirer. It came ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to Harrisburg on Sunday.

Capitol Police evacuated the building, which was largely vacant as lawmakers had gone home for the weekend while legislative leaders continue to negotiate a budget deal. The threat was also made against the Pennsylvania Judicial Center, which houses the state’s appellate courts and was closed for the weekend.

“I plan on triggering one device every few hours until Joe Biden goes on national television and publicly denounces the illegitimate state of Israel,” the email to lawmakers stated. “Keep in mind I am inside one of the 2 buildings armed w/ a knife, and plan on remaining here to my dying breath!”

Pa. legislators back to work after email threats and evacuation Read More »

Fireworks caused Pinelands blaze that is still raging

By Jean Mikle, Asbury Park Press

Fireworks have been identified as the cause of a wildfire that has torched 4,000 acres of pinelands in Burlington County and was about 65% contained on Sunday afternoon, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.

A firework device lighted inside the forest ignited the fire late Thursday, July 4, and the Apple Pie Hill Fire Tower discovered the fire shortly after 9 a.m. Friday, July 5, according to the forest fire service, which led the investigation into the origin of the fire, assisted by the New Jersey State Park Police, the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety, and the Burlington County Fire Marshal’s Office.

The Tea Time Hill fire in Wharton State Forest started in Tabernacle. It is located in the area of Batona Campground and Apple Pie Hill, the forest fire service said.

The fire led to the evacuation of the Batona Campground, but no residences have been evacuated, and no structures are threatened, officials said.

Anyone with further information about the fire that could aid in the investigation should call the New Jersey State Park Police tip line, 844-PARK-TIP (844-727-5847).

Road closures in the area of the fire include Carranza Road from the Carranza Memorial to Speedwell Road at Friendship Field. There are also local road closures in Wharton State Forest.

What’s the Carranza Memorial? ‘Mexican Lindbergh’ crashed in the Pine Barrens

Read the full story here

Previous fire coverage:
Wild fire continues to spread in South Jersey Pinelands
Pinelands wild fire continues to spread in Burlington County, NJ

Fireworks caused Pinelands blaze that is still raging Read More »

Milestone reached in Gowanus Canal cleanup

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it has amended its administrative cleanup order for the Gowanus Canal Superfund site in Brooklyn, New York on June 27, 2024, to address the middle segment of the canal – known as Remediation Target Area (RTA) 2.

“Dredging and capping of the upper segment of the Gowanus Canal started in late 2020 and will be completed in July. This is a major milestone in cleaning up the canal and improving water quality,” said EPA Regional Administrator Lisa F. Garcia. “Together with the extensive dredging, capping, and bulkhead repair work that has already been completed, this order will ensure the cleanup of the next portion of the heavily contaminated Gowanus Canal, which will be a huge benefit to the Gowanus and Red Hook communities.”

Dredging and capping of RTA 1, the upper segment of the Canal, started in late 2020 and will be completed in July. Initial RTA 2 work, which began in late June, includes access dredging to facilitate the mobilization and use of equipment needed to conduct work in this portion of the canal, followed by debris removal and bulkhead construction. The full-scale dredging and capping required by the newly amended order will follow. That work is estimated to cost $369 million and will take several years to complete. The detailed engineering and design work for RTA 2 was performed in parallel with the RTA 1 work to accelerate its progress. RTA 3, the lower segment of the Canal, is expected to be implemented after the completion of RTA2.

EPA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) are closely coordinating the cleanup of the Gowanus Canal and the surrounding area. EPA, NYSDEC, and the New York State Department of Health have been and will continue to oversee the work, which includes plans for community health and safety monitoring. The order amendment has been issued to six parties that EPA determined have the largest shares of responsibility for the contamination at the Gowanus Canal site: Brooklyn Union Gas Co. d/b/a National Grid New York; the City of New York; Consolidated Edison Co. of New York, Inc.; Hess Corp.; Honeywell International Inc., and The Brooklyn Improvement Co.

More than a dozen contaminants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals, including mercury, lead, and copper, are present at high levels in the Gowanus Canal sediments. The 2013 cleanup plan for the Gowanus Canal Superfund site includes dredging to remove contaminated sediment from the bottom of the Canal that has accumulated because of industrial and combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges.

Following dredging, construction of a multilayer cap in dredged areas will isolate and prevent migration of any remaining chemicals in the deep native sediment. Certain areas of the native sediment, below the original canal bottom, that contain mobile liquid tar and are too deep to excavate, will be mixed with cement and solidified to prevent the spread of the tar into the water of the Canal. Two CSO retention tanks are being constructed by the City of New York will prevent the hazardous substances found in CSO solids from re-contaminating the Canal. The current cost of the overall cleanup plan is estimated to be over $2 billion, including both the in-Canal work and CSO controls.

Visit the Gowanus Canal Superfund site profile page for additional background and site documents.

Milestone reached in Gowanus Canal cleanup Read More »

UPDATE: NJ political power broker Norcross pleads not guilty

A greener Avenue of the Arts is in the works for Philadelphia

Starting with Broad Street in 2026, a decadelong $100-million project is expected to be set in motion

Sediment-laying aims to add ground for Intercoastal Roadway

Scientists hope a sediment-laying strategy can help preserve the marine highway while restoring marshlands

Pa. legislators back to work after email threats and evacuation

Fireworks caused Pinelands blaze that is still raging

Milestone reached in Gowanus Canal cleanup

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