EnviroPolitics Blog

She Helped Bring Long-Gone Wild Oysters Back to the Jersey Shore

She’s also working to protect 160 crucial islands in the Barnegat Bay watershed.

Angela Andersen is the sustainability director for Long Beach Township on LBI. She recently secured an $87,000 grant to fund the restoration of habitats on New Jersey’s bay islands—and she’s happy to take you on a kayak tour of it all. Photo: Dave Moser

By Jon Coen | New Jersey Monthly | June 23, 2023

Angela Andersen wears many hats. They include a full, brimmed sun hat and a beanie, depending on the season when she is out on the bay.

Andersen, 54, is the sustainability director/field station manager for Long Beach Township on Long Beach Island.

Her career has included roles with the American Littoral Society, which promotes the study and conservation of marine life and habitat, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, as well as coproducing three locally based documentaries.

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Of all her work, Andersen’s legacy will likely be her role in the return of the wild oyster, a staple harvest of our Shore waterways, long since erased. It’s been an overwhelming ecological success story.

“Oysters grow on hard structures, traditionally on the back of their dead ancestors,” Andersen says. “As we were filming our documentary The Oyster Farmers, the ecosystem told us it was healthy enough to support a renewed industry of sustainable shellfish growth and harvest, but also complete habitat restoration. That cycle can’t happen in an unhealthy system.”

Andersen was integral in building oyster reefs by implementing a system that brings together environmental, municipal, academic, business and aquaculture groups to collect oyster shells from restaurants, introduce them to millions of oyster larvae (called spat), and then place them into lease areas on the bay floor.

Oysters are now growing on the reefs, as well as in an increasing number of commercial oyster farms, and have even been found in the wild for the first time in 50 years. The reefs filter microplankton and absorb carbon from the bay—both dangerous in overabundance. Moreover, the well-publicized projects educate residents and create jobs for a new generation of bayworkers.

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The sweet smell of java over Freehold NJ, may waft away with the threatened closing of Nestle plant

UPDATE: Nestlé to close Freehold coffee plant

By TED GOLDBERG, NJ Spotlight

For decades, a Nestlé instant coffee factory in Freehold has kept a faint scent of coffee in the air and hundreds of local people employed. But that could soon change. Workers at the plant rallied on Tuesday to protest the rumored closure of the facility, a move that would mean the elimination of 200 union jobs.

“We want a decision. We obviously want a favorable decision that the factory stays open. But the uncertainty is really hard to live with because you don’t know what plans you can make. You don’t know what the future holds,” said Craig Slininger, who has worked at the plant for 26 years.

Freehold Mayor Kevin Kane said he has reached out to state and federal legislators to see what can be done about protecting those jobs and the people who depend on them. “There’s a lot of residual impact, you know, with the closure of a plant like this for this immediate area. We have great restaurants right on Route 33 here. And, you know, a closure of a plant like this will have a direct effect on restaurants, our downtown businesses and things like that,” said Kane.

Nestlé told NJ Spotlight News in a statement that the company is having ongoing discussions with the local union and elected officials about the possible closure, but hinted that the facility is outdated and no longer cost-effective in the company’s eyes. “Decisional bargaining with the union has concluded, and our leadership team will now make a final decision regarding the factory,” a Nestlé spokesperson said. “We are committed to giving our Freehold employees updates in a timely manner.

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BOEM’s Atlantic Shores public sessions dilute, but don’t deter criticisms

The Atlantic Shores offshore wind project would build up to 200 turbines, rated at a maximum 1,510 megawatts, off Long Beach Island, N.J. BOEM graphic.

By Kirk Moore, Ntional Fisherman Mid-Atlanic News

Local groups opposing New Jersey offshore wind projects hoped this week’s public meetings on the Atlantic Shores development would be a platform for voicing their strenuous objections.

But the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held the first session Wednesday evening in a highway Holiday Inn hotel in Manahawkin, N.J., in the style of an informal informational session, rather than a formal public hearing on its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on Atlantic Shores.

Dozens of visitors, many of them seaside residents from nearby Long Beach Island, made a circuit of poster presentations. Presentations on how turbines will be visible from the beach – and the project’s impact on marine mammals – attracted the most attention.

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Some visitors went toe-to-toe debating with BOEM staffers and agency contractors about the DEIS findings. Others, who had hoped for publicly making their cases before an audience, were dismissive of the proceedings.

“Typically BOEM. Totally tone-deaf,” said Greg DiDomenico, a fisheries management specialist with Lund’s Fisheries in Cape May, N.J.

“It’s supposed to be all about dialogue,” said Cynthia Zipf, executive director of the Clean Ocean Action environmental group, which has been critical of BOEM’s planning for large wind energy developments in the New York Bight.

On arrival visitors were directed to a reception desk where they could sign up to present formal comments on the DEIS.

“The goal of these meetings is to help attendees provide written comments for the record,” according to email notifications from BOEM. “Comments can be provided by meeting with a court reporter at the meeting, by submitting comments to www.regulations.gov or by sending written comments to BOEM.”

BOEM released the draft environmental impact statement May 15 and is taking public comments for 45 days ending July 3. Four public meetings – the Wednesday session in Manahawkin, another Thursday at the Atlantic City Convention Center and online sessions June 26 and June 28 – will inform the final EIS, the agency says.

The two-phase project could build around 200 wind turbines off Long Beach Island, Brigantine an Atlantic City, an array with a nameplate capacity for generating up to 2,800 megawatts. It’s a 50/50 joint venture between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF-RE Offshore Development, LLC, a subsidiary of EDF Renewables North America.

Export cables carrying energy from the project would come ashore at landfall sites in Atlantic City, and another about 60 miles north in Monmouth County.

Passions have run high among anti- and pro-wind power groups, since whale strandings on New Jersey beaches last winter that project opponents tied to survey work on project sites.

Read the full story here

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New headaches for NJ Gov. Murphy’s offshore wind energy plans

From NJ Spotlight

Groups that have been at the forefront of the effort to halt plans for hundreds of electricity-generating wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean have taken their campaign to court.

The groups — Save LBI, Defend Brigantine Beach and Protect Our Coast NJ — say state officials ignored evidence the massive structures will harm the offshore environment in their approvals.
The legal action — naming the state Department of Environmental Protection and company developing the offshore wind project — was filed with the state Appellate Division, the normal venue for challenging the decision of a state agency.
A lawsuit filed by wind-power opponents was rejected by a federal judge earlier this year.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4) said that the Government Accountability Office told him it had agreed to investigate the potential role preliminary work on the offshore wind project might be playing in numerous marine mammal deaths.
See NJ Spotlight News for a video report.

If you like this post you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

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Arizona Governor rejects new rules for wind and solar power

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX — Calling it a potential barrier to renewable energy, Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed legislation Monday which would have imposed new requirements on solar and wind generating plants.

HB 2618 contained a list of what cities, towns, and counties could adopt in zoning standards, site-specific conditions, and permitting requirements on such facilities.

Potentially more significant, it would have required owners to not only have a decommissioning plan in place but also to post a bond — essentially insurance — to cover the costs if the company goes bankrupt or otherwise tries to walk away. And it even would mandate restoring and re-establishing soils and vegetation using native seed mixes.

It also included requirements for liability insurance to protect the community from any financial obligations due to injuries or other damages caused by the plant.

Rep. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, said counties already have some oversight of such projects. What this would do, she said, is provide some basic standards.

The governor, however, said all that is too much.

“HB 2618 encourages an inconsistent statewide patchwork of regulations for renewable energy projects and would have a deep chilling effect on renewable energy development in Arizona,” Hobbs wrote in her veto message. “It creates additional regulatory confusion for businesses, negatively impacting Arizona’s ability to attract, retain, and grow a renewable energy ecosystem in our state to create good-paying jobs for everyday Arizonans.”

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Time to nominate your favorites for NJDEP recycling awards

From the NJ Deparment of Environmental Protection

Pull out those Gucci work boots! Warm up that curbside collection limousine! Watch out for the recycling paparazzi! It’s almost time to walk down the “Green” Carpet to show off to the New Jersey recycling community, so nominate either yourself or others for the annual 2023 DEP Recycling Awards!

The DEP is looking for outstanding institutions, governments, businesses, and residents that go beyond the norm to advance recycling. Our goal is to highlight the success of those who promote recycling practices, waste reduction, and recycled product procurement to present them as examples available to others who may emulate them.

July 21 submission deadline

The categories are: Institution, Business, Government, Leadership, Volunteer Citizen, Retail Merchant, Rising Star, Outstanding Educator/Educational Program, Recycling Industry, Source Reduction/Resource Management/Sustainability, and Recycled Products Procurement Star.

Nominees will be judged by a panel from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and the Association of New Jersey Recyclers. Winners from the previous three years are not eligible for an award. With just one month remaining in the nomination period, don’t wait to send in a submission!

Application and additional information

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