Neighbors protest NFL owner’s plan to cut down 30 acres of trees 

By Nyah Marshall | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

When a sudden downpour swept through West Orange this summer, Roy Oser stood at his front door and filmed what he called a “rushing river” of water pouring past his walkway.

Flooding is nothing new for the 300-home West Essex Highlands condominium community, which sits at the edge of the Watchung Mountains and backs onto Essex County’s last remaining forests.

But with Zygmunt Wilf, a billionaire developer and co-owner of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, proposing to clear part of the forest to make way fora 496-unit apartment complex, residents fear the flooding will only get worse.

“I’ve lived in New Jersey long enough to know you don’t see undeveloped woods just sitting there,” Oser said. “Any increase in flooding would be devastating.”

Oser, a retired lawyer, and his wife moved into their condo in 2018, in a unit that borders the woods.

At the time, he was told wetlands protections would prevent large-scale construction. But two years later, he learned the condo board had quietly signed a settlement with the Wilf family’s company and the township to allow development — without homeowners’ input.

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Fears of massive battery fires spark opposition to energy storage

Chris Linsmayer, Key Capture Energy Public Affairs Manager, discusses the company’s large lithium battery energy storage system on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Blasdell, N.Y., which can power 15,000 homes for two hours during outages or periods of high demand. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

By The Associated Press

Increasingly, large arrays of lithium-ion batteries are being connected to the electrical grids around the U.S. to store power that can be discharged during periods of high demand.

However, as more energy storage is added, residents in some places are pushing back due to fears that the systems will catch fire, as a massive facility in California did earlier this year.

Proponents argue that state-of-the-art battery energy storage systems are safe; however, more localities are enacting moratoriums.

“We’re not guinea pigs for anybody … we are not going to experiment, we’re not going to take risk,” said Michael McGinty, the mayor of Island Park, New York, which passed a moratorium in July after a storage system was proposed near the village line.

Michael McGinty, the mayor of Island Park, New York, which passed a moratorium in July after a storage system was proposed near the village line.

At least a few dozen localities around the United States have moved to temporarily block the development of big battery systems in recent years.

Long Island, where the power grid could get a boost in the next few years as offshore wind farms come online, has been a hotbed of activism, even drawing attention recently from the Trump administration. Opponents there got a boost in August when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited New York to complain that the state was rushing approvals of sites to meet “delusional” green power goals — a claim state officials deny.

Battery growth spurt

Battery energy storage systems that suck up cheap power during periods of low demand, then discharge it at a profit during periods of high demand, are considered critical with the rise of intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar.

Known by the acronym BESS, the systems can make grids more reliable and have been credited with reducing blackouts. A large battery system might consist of rows of shipping containers in a fenced lot, with the containers holding hundreds of thousands of cells.

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Stymied: Farmers attempt to make EPA regulate PFAS in biosolids

The ruling comes amid ongoing questions about how to handle contamination from upstream sources.

By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Monday that attempted to force the U.S. EPA to regulate contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in sewage sludge. The suit, brought by farmers and public health groups last year, is one of several seeking to address growing concerns about contamination from the family of chemicals collectively called PFAS.

More than half of sewage sludge produced in the U.S. is applied on agricultural land as fertilizer, according to EPA data. The rest is composted with other organic material or sent to landfills and incinerators for disposal. The question of what to do with the material, which can be contaminated by upstream sources such as manufacturing plants and mills, has become more pressing as farmers fear that contaminated sludge can ruin their livestock or crops.

In Johnson County, Texas, farmers allege that their land was contaminated by the spreading of biosolids on a neighboring plot. The farmers, who brought the case against the EPA, allege that some of their animals had tested with PFAS levels hundreds of times the limits set by states like Michigan and Maine to protect public health. They argued that the EPA has a responsibility under the Clean Water Act to regulate harmful PFAS chemicals in sewage sludge, and that it has avoided doing so despite being aware of health risks. 

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Bankrupt recycling company sticks Pa with tons of artificial turf

By Barbara Laker and David Gambacorta, Philadelphia Inquirer

It was supposed to be Pennsylvania’s Green Dream.

Re-Match, a Denmark-based recycling company, had planned to open what it said would be the first artificial turf recycling facility in the United States — in a Schuylkill County factory by the end of 2024.

Environmentalists were overjoyed. Lab tests have shown that artificial turf has contained PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, for decades. The so-called forever chemicals — which are found in an array of products, including firefighting gear and nonstick cookware — don’t break down in the environment and have been linked by the EPA to cancer, asthma, thyroid disease, and decreased immunity to fight infections.

But Re-Match’s recycling dream will never be realized in Pennsylvania, and as a result, tons of chemical-laden turf pose an ongoing environmental threat with no easy solution.

In June, the company filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, bringing to an end to a company whose arrival in Pennsylvania was once celebrated by top elected officials.

Re-Match had, in recent years, stored 11,000 tons of decaying turf rolls in three locations across the state, including a farm in Nicholson, Wyoming County, where nearly 6,000 tons of old turf sit on dirt fields. The turf, once meant to be recycled, now faces an uncertain future.

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63 million pounds! That’s a lot of scraps diverted to NY food banks

NEW YORK (WBNG) — In recognition of Hunger Action Month and New York Climate Week, Governor Kathy Hochul announced a milestone for a program that helps feed New Yorkers while reducing pollution that contributes to climate change.

The Feeding New York State network reached a record 63 million-pound collection milestone, as part of an ongoing New York State Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law.

Feeding New York sources food for New York food banks in several ways, including salvaging perfectly edible food that may be slightly damaged, such as cans or boxes with dents or superficial cosmetic damage.

The Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling law helps reduce waste and climate-altering emissions caused by decomposing food in landfills.

According to the Law, starting Jan. 1, 2027, all businesses and institutions that generate an annual average of 1 ton of wasted food per week must:

  • Donate excess edible food
  • Recycle all remaining food scraps if they are within 50 miles of an organics recycling site.

Feeding New York also receives funding from the Department of Environmental Protection to encourage public participation and assist with food collection efforts.

Since 2018, the DEC has provided over $10 million in funding to the food banks.

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On again, off again Trump is off again on 2 NJ offshore wind projets

By Wayne Parry, Associated Press

The administration of President Donald Trump, which halted an offshore wind farm in New York and New Jersey, then allowed it to resume, is moving against it again.

In a federal court filing Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it intends to reconsider the prior approval of the Empire Wind 2 offshore wind project granted under the Biden administration.

Empire Wind, located off the coast of Long Branch in New Jersey and Long Beach in Long Island, New York, is the only offshore wind project being built off New Jersey’s coast following a string of project cancellations or indefinite postponements over the past two years.

Save Long Beach Island press release

And the same agency says it is reconsidering approval of the Atlantic Shores offshore wind project in New Jersey, which is all but dead in the water after the federal government revoked a critical clean air permit, without which the project cannot be built.

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