EnviroPolitics Blog

Proposed NJ settlement over Ciba Giegy site faces court challenge

By Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News

State environmental authorities announced a settlement agreement with chemical giant BASF earlier this year to restore natural resources damaged by decades of pollution at the Ciba-Giegy Superfund site in Toms River. Now, Toms River and the local environmental advocacy group Save Barnegat Bay have gone to court to block the settlement deal.

The settlement would preserve 1,000 acres of the site and calls for BASF to pay the state $500,000 and make parts of the land available for public access, with new park amenities. The deal also allows BASF to pursue future development on 250 acres at the site.

But the deal has been heavily criticized in the local community, where the original pollution is widely speculated to have been the cause of a rash of childhood cancer cases in the 1980s and 1990s. They argue the state is failing to uphold strict environmental protections, and is essentially selling out the local community by making a weak deal with BASF instead of taking the company to trial.

Al Telsey, an attorney representing Save Barnegat Bay in the new litigation, says experts hired by the environmentalists have estimated nearly $1 billion worth of natural resource damages to have been caused at the site, far more than the $192 million estimated by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The DEP declined to comment; a spokesperson cited a policy against commenting on pending litigation.

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Indicted NJ Sen. Menendez’s worst nightmare? Pa’s John Fetterman

Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.)

By Jonathan D. Salant, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WASHINGTON — Indicted U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez’s worst nightmare in Congress is a fellow Democrat from a neighboring state: John Fetterman.

The freshman Pennsylvania Democrat was the first senator in either party to call for Mr. Menendez’s resignation after his indictment last month.

And he hasn’t stopped. Since then, Mr. Fetterman:

• Likened Mr. Menendez to Tony Soprano, the fictional New Jersey mob boss.

More. Pa. Democrats are calling on New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez to resign

• Refused to attend a Senate Democratic caucus meeting to hear Mr. Menendez’s side of the story.

• Suggested Mr. Menendez learn about former Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, who maintained his innocence after being convicted of trading city contracts for campaign donations.

“It’s on brand for his style of politics,” Democratic political consultant Modia “Mo” Butler said.

Mr. Fetterman, the hoodie-and-shorts-wearing senator whose sartorial style caused a furor on Capitol Hill last month, hasn’t minced words since returning to the Senate in April following treatment for depression.

He described the far-right House Freedom Caucus as “losers” and “peckerheads” during the recent fight over shutting down the government.

Bud Light has been under fire from conservatives, including some congressional Republicans, for partnering with a transgender woman, Dylan Mulvaney, who has more than 10 million followers on TikTok.

And he sent a case of Bud Light to House Oversight Committee chair James Comer, R-Ky., who launched impeachment hearings against President Joe Biden even as House Republicans admit there is no evidence yet of wrongdoing on his part.

Read the full story here

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Judge to rule on NJ town’s Sunday beach closings

By Charles Daye, Asbury Park Press

NEPTUNE – Access to the beach from the boardwalk in Ocean Grove is closed on Sunday mornings in the summer. According to the state, that’s not supposed to happen. So now, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, the private group that owns the land in Ocean Grove, wants a judge to decide.

In August, the state Department of Environmental Protection issued a warning to the association stating it cannot limit access to its beaches on Sunday mornings, which the group said the closure does as a “quality-of-life-benefit” to the community. A chain blocks access to the stairs leading to the beach from the boardwalk on Sunday mornings from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend.

The state Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Coastal and Land Use Compliance and Enforcement sent a warning letter to the association informing it that the Sunday morning closures of the beach violate state regulations regarding beach access to sand and surf.

But the association continued to do so, prompting a group of residents opposed to the closure to show up anyway, beach chairs in hand. Subsequently, a counter-protest in support of the association began.

Read the full story here

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BillyPennGram for Oct. 6, 2023

#BILLYPENNGRAM OF THE DAY
Art imitating life in Center City
(Photo by @billlent)

Want to see your photo here? Tag #billypenngram on Instagram

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Free WasteWise session highlights successful recycling programs

Join the New Jersey WasteWise Business Network for a Zoom webinar, on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, from 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

Cost: There is no fee charged to attend this webinar or any of our WasteWise events!

Agenda:

10:00 a.m. Welcome – Steve Rinaldi, Chair, New Jersey WasteWise Business Network/NJDEP, Bureau of Sustainability

10:10 a.m. Booksmiles Donation Program – Advancing the Causes of Reading and Reuse – Larry Abrams, Founder and Executive Director, Booksmiles

10:30 a.m. Innovative Reuse and Recycling Programs Emanating from the Plastic Bag Ban – Reusable Bag Program – Renee Lundahl, Co-Founder, GOATOTE; and Plastic Film Recycling Program – Stuart Newman, Union County Recycling Coordinator

10:55 a.m. “TerraCycle Home” and TerraCycle’s Cigarette Waste Recycling Program – Eric Ascalon, Global Director of Community Development & Strategic Partnerships for TerraCycle

11:15 a.m. Bergen New Bridge Medical Center’s Food Waste Reduction Initiatives and Other Successful Waste Reduction and Recycling Initiatives – Scott Kolvek, Director Environmental Health and Safety, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center and Sabyn Matli, Director Food and Nutrition, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center

11:35 a.m. Q&A

11:45 p.m. Adjourn

Note for NJ Certified Recycling Professionals– Those individuals who are NJ Certified Recycling Professionals will earn 1.5 recertification credits for attending this meeting! FYI, the webinar’s 1.5 credits will be split 50-50 between meeting and classroom credits.

Register here After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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Cash-saving break for NYC landlords not pleasing anyone

The city’s carbon footprint won’t shrink as fast as advocates would like after the DOB’s latest tweak to the landmark climate legislation

BY AARON SHORT, Commercial Observer, Oct. 4, 2023

New York City’s most wasteful high-rises won’t have to sweat paying hefty fines next year thanks to what is effectively a last-minute rule change to a landmark climate law.

Still, many landlords aren’t satisfied by the lucky break. Many environmentalists aren’t, either.

The city Department of Buildings (DOB) announced in early September it will allow a two-year grace period for towers to demonstrate they are on track to meet the city’s new carbon emissions standard set by Local Law 97, part of climate legislation the City Council passed in 2019.

“We believe that the decarbonization plan will be an attractive option for buildings that have done little or nothing so far to comply with the law, and are significantly over their carbon emissions limit, as it gives them additional time to start these retrofit projects,” Andrew Rudansky, a spokesperson for the Buildings Department, said in an email to Commercial Observer.

The city’s move came after condo and co-op associations complained for months during several DOB-led working group meetings that they could not line up the financing to replace boilers, swap out windows or make other upgrades to lower greenhouse gas output by the department’s January 2024 deadline.