Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission selects officers Komjathy, Janvey, Grace, and Laurenti

As the new chairman, Komjathy replaces Michael B. Lavery, who had served as chairman since December of 2015.​
As the new chairman, Komjathy replaces Michael B. Lavery, who had served as chairman since December of 2015.​ (Shutterstock)

By John Fey, Patch staff

YARDLEY, PA — The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission has announced its panel of officers that will serve for the next 12-month period, according to a statement from the commission.

Aladar G. Komjathy, a Lambertville, New Jersey resident, U.S. Navy veteran, and one-half of business management consultant Komjathy & Kean, LLC., was elected chairman of the commission. His oath of office was administered by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas E. Arpert, a childhood friend of his.

As the new chairman, Komjathy replaces Michael B. Lavery, who had served as chairman since December of 2015. Lavery worked as an attorney out of Hackettstown, New Jersey.

Pamela Janvey of Upper Moreland was re-elected as Vice Chairwoman. Daniel Grace of Feasterville was re-elected as Secretary, and Yuki Moore Laurenti of Trenton, New Jersey was re-elected as Treasurer

Komjathy’s 40 years of experience in public services and business made him an excellent candidate for the position. His firm, which works in government affairs, offers services to a host of national corporate brands, including Amazon, Comcast, GlaxoSmithKline, and Anheuser-Busch. He also serves on the New Jersey State Board of Mortuary Science.

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Central Park’s Climate Lab Is a Window Into the Future of Urban Green Spaces

Parks are an important climate solution—but warmer temperatures and storms put them at risk.

Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain after Hurricane Ida. Credit: Central Park Conservancy

By DANIELLE RENWICK Popular Science

When Hurricane Ida dumped more than 3 inches of rain on Central Park in a single hour, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) called it a “1-in-500 year rainfall event.” 

The downpour broke the park’s previous rainfall record, set just 11 days earlier. It damaged scores of trees, flooded the Loeb Boathouse, transformed the area surrounding Bethesda Fountain into a massive pool, and rendered much of the park inaccessible for days. It illustrated just how vulnerable the city’s parks are to the effects of climate change—and how little is understood about the relationship between parks and shifts in weather patterns.

“We have been witnessing the increasing impacts of climate change throughout Central Park for some time now,” said Michelle Mueller Gamez, manager of climate change research at Central Park Conservancy, the nonprofit that manages Central Park. Those impacts include harmful algae blooms during the summer, extreme and frequent heat waves, and intense rain over short periods of time that cause flooding, she said. “The damage that’s caused to Central Park during these extreme events makes it increasingly harder for our staff to maintain and care for all 843 acres.”

An aglal bloom in Central Park’s Turtle Pond. Credit: Central Park Conservancy

Earlier this year, the Central Park Conservancy, together with the Yale School of the Environment and Natural Areas Conservancy, launched the Central Park Climate Lab. The goal, Mueller Gamez said, is to collect data on ways in which the park is changing so its custodians can care for it accordingly. “Other urban parks are facing similar challenges,” she said. “We hope our findings can be a resource to exchange and share information with other urban landscapes.”

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Energy Transfer ends appeals of air permit for Marcus Hook (Pa) Terminal 

The Marcus Hook Industrial Complex.

From the Clean Air Council

PHILADELPHIA, PA (May 24, 2022) – On Monday, a six-year saga over air pollution from the Energy Transfer natural gas liquids processing plant and terminal at Marcus Hook ended with a legal settlement in which Energy Transfer agreed to drop its appeals of two air pollution permits. The settlement ensures that stricter air pollution standards will apply at the facility.

Energy Transfer had appealed the two permits to the Environmental Hearing Board (Board) on March 12, 2021, arguing that the emissions from the plant should be considered separately rather than together. One of the two permits was issued as a result of the Clean Air Council’s successful April 29, 2016 appeal of an earlier version of the permit. In that appeal, the Board on January 9, 2019, had required the emissions to be considered together because the separate permit applications were really for one project: building the processing plant to handle liquids arriving on the Mariner East pipelines. By breaking the project into pieces, Energy Transfer had tried to avoid having to comply with more stringent air pollution regulations. Clean Air Council intervened in Energy Transfer’s 2021 appeals to prevent Energy Transfer from undoing the Board’s decision.

“The end of these appeals preserves Clean Air Council’s 2019 victory, which has resulted in an air permit being proposed that will better protect residents in Marcus Hook and surrounding areas,” said Joseph Otis Minott, Executive Director and Chief Counsel of Clean Air Council.

The settlement allows Energy Transfer to argue in the future that it should be able to permit projects piecemeal, but the dispute over this aspect of the Marcus Hook Terminal permitting is over. Energy Transfer had appealed Plan Approval 23-0119E as revised after the 2019 Board decision (at EHB Docket No. 2021-030-L) and Plan Approval 23-0119J (at EHB Docket No 2021-031-L).

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They’re great for importing vehicles, lumber, and machinery, but how about living inside a shipping container?

In 2016 Zack and Brie Smithey built their dream home in St. Charles, Missouri: a 3BR, 2.5 bath, 3,000 sq. ft., two-story structure made out of eight shipping containers. Now, they’re helping other people build container homes. Sunday Morning correspondent Luke Burbank talks with homeowners who refuse to be boxed into traditional notions of home construction. (Click arrow in center of photo above)

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Plastics industry, facing crackdown, targets Democrats with mailers deemed deceptive

A mailer shows a harried parent with the header "The Cost of Living is Skyrocketing in California."


BY SUSANNE RUSTSTAFF Los Angeles Times (May 23)

Cheryl Auger was stunned this month when one of her Pasadena neighbors and friends received a flier in the mail featuring her state assemblyman, with a line stating, “Higher taxes on plastic products will enrich corporate interests with no guarantee of reducing plastic waste.”

Although she didn’t know it at the time, Auger’s friend was on the receiving end of a plastics industry campaign to pressure California state lawmakers into weakening proposed restrictions on single-use containers, which legislators are mulling in bill form and which could become a November ballot measure.

Related news: New Jersey’s single-use bag ban goes into effect

“What is surprising to me is a lack of culpability,” said Auger, a plastic waste activist.

The mailers, sent by a group calling itself the Environmental Solutions Coalition, assert without attribution that bans on single-use plastics “will have a devastating impact on working families” by driving up costs for consumers. Unmentioned in the mailings is that plastics manufacturers and other industries are financing the coalition.

The fliers are all aimed at Democrats, largely in Southern California, possibly an attempt to pressure them into derailing the November ballot measure by enacting watered-down legislation the industry can accept.

“I interpret it as a message, as a warning to members of the Legislature,” said Assembly Member Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), whose constituents received one of the mailers. “If that’s the intent, it’s backfired because it’s made us even more committed to trying to pass meaningful legislation to crack down on plastic pollution.”

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