Record-high COVID-19 cases for 2nd straight day in NJ, with 5,673 positive tests and 48 new deaths confirmed

By Matt Arco | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

New Jersey on Friday reported a record number of coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day, announcing 5,673 more positive tests and an additional 48 newly confirmed deaths as hospitalizations increased for the sixth straight day, reaching the highest number of patients since May.

The state’s seven-day average for new coronavirus cases increased Friday to 4,367, up 4% from a week ago and 147% higher than a month ago. That’s the highest seven-day average of the outbreak, though testing was scare in the spring and the extent of the infections was likely undercounted.

“The end is of the pandemic is not upon us with the news of the first shipments of a vaccine, but it is getting closer with each day,” Murphy said during his latest COVID-19 briefing in Trenton. “Let’s do all we can to make sure our entire New Jersey family is intact when that end comes.”

The positivity rate for tests conducted Monday, the most recent day available, was 10.42%, meaning 1 in 10 people who sought tests were infected. That’s based on 49,845 tests reported to the state for Monday so far and that also doesn’t include rapid tests, which are not being reported by state health officials. The positivity rate has been over 10% for six days — since Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving.

“Trust me, there are more cases than 5,673 when you add in the antigen tests,” Gov. Phil Murphy said.

He warned the state isn’t likely to start seeing the Thanksgiving-effect — the potential for new cases from holiday gatherings — for several days due to incubation times for infections and the multi-day turnaround for test results.

Positivity rate
New Jersey’s positivity rate for tests conducted on Monday, the most recent day available, was 10.42%. The rate has been above 10% for six days.

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NJ industry needs tighter regulation to prevent chemical leaks, water watchdog says

Warning comes as water quality panel weighs new standards for pollutants

File photo: Testing water after a chemical spill

BY JON HURDLE, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, NJ SPOTLIGHT

The head of New Jersey’s drinking water watchdog said Thursday that industry should be required to take responsibility for any contamination of air and water that’s linked to its operations.

Dr. Keith Cooper, chairman of the Drinking Water Quality Institute, said existing regulations have not done enough to prevent pollution by industry, and they may now need to be strengthened so that corporations do more to ensure contaminants do not escape their plants.

“If you can instill within the industries themselves that if they are required to maintain their chemical footprint within their own industry, within their controlled environment, then you will have their responsibility for maintaining that,” Cooper said during a public meeting of the panel of scientists and water company executives that advises the state Department of Environmental Protection on safe levels of certain chemicals in drinking water.

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“But unfortunately, historically, we have not put that requirement,” he said, offering his personal opinion. “We have allowed the chemicals to escape off of sites either through gas or the utilization of wastewater treatment plants, and I think that in the future, we have to start looking at putting the onus back on industry.”

Environmental regulators are faced with a need to set health standards for a range of chemicals, some of which were listed by the water quality panel on Thursday for possible investigation. They include cyanotoxins, which have led to harmful algal blooms (HABs) at many New Jersey lakes over the last two summers, and radon, which is linked to cancer.

The list also includes replacements for the toxic PFAS (Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl substances) family, also known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment even after their use or manufacture has ended.

New-generation chemicals may be just as toxic

Scientists have warned for years that the unregulated replacement chemicals may be just as toxic as the compounds they are designed to replace, some of which are now subject to strict health limits set by states including New Jersey.

Concern about the risks of the new generation of chemicals grew in recent months with reports from two national scientific journals that Solvay Specialty Polymers, a chemical company in Gloucester County, has been using a substitute for PFNA (perfluorononanoic acid), a type of PFAS chemical that is now regulated by New Jersey. The company confirmed that it has been using a substitute for PFNA as a “process aid.”

In late November, Consumer Reports said it had obtained documents from the DEP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showing that the replacement chemicals were found in the blood of Solvay workers, and that the company had known about the chemicals’ health risks for at least 15 years.

Last month, New Jersey sued Solvay, accusing it of discharging both the old and new chemicals into the environment for years, and not doing enough to clean them up.

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JCP&L gets green light to sell off its share in tainted plant, home to nation’s worst nuclear power disaster

NJ customers off the hook for cleanup at Three Mile Island reactor site

Credit: (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)File photo: Three Mile Island nuclear power plant

By Tom Johnson, NJ Spotlight

Forty-one years after Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 partially melted down, customers of Jersey Central Power & light are almost off the hook for any liability stemming from the decommissioning of that nuclear reactor.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on Wednesday approved the sale of JCP&L’s 25% interest in the plant to Energy Solutions, a Utah-based company, for $10,000. As part of the deal, customers of New Jersey’s second-largest utility will be absolved of any liability in cleaning up from the accident in 1979, the nation’s worst accident at a nuclear power plant.

The board approved the purchase with scant discussion. Ratepayers already have paid $900 million — $239 million by JCP&L customers — to decommission the plant, although the current owner projected earlier this year it could cost $1.3 billion to dismantle the plant.

“This will end all liability from JCP&L ratepayers to TMI-2,’’ said Stacy Peterson, director of BPU’s Division of Energy. “All liabilities are done.’’

In the petition, JCP&L asserted the transfer of the TMI assets for the $10,000 purchase price is appropriate consideration based upon an assessment of the assumed liabilities and estimated cost of decommissioning.

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Amid political strife in Kashmir, fear of attacks from wild animals

Kashmiri girl Muskan, 14, displays outside her home an axe that the family carries with them when they go outdoors at night to protect themselves from wild animals, at Dardkhor village, outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. Amid the long-raging deadly strife in Indian-controlled Kashmir, another conflict is silently taking its toll on the Himalayan region’s residents: the conflict between man and wild animals. According to official data, at least 67 people have been killed and 940 others injured in the past five years in attacks by wild animals in the famed Kashmir Valley, a vast collection of alpine forests, connected wetlands and waterways known as much for its idyllic vistas as for its decades-long armed conflict between Indian troops and rebels. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

By MUKHTAR KHAN Associated Press

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Amid the long-raging deadly strife in Indian-controlled Kashmir, another conflict is silently taking its toll on the Himalayan region’s residents: the conflict between man and wild animals.

According to official data, at least 67 people have been killed and 940 others injured in the past five years in attacks by wild animals in the famed Kashmir Valley, a vast collection of alpine forests, connected wetlands and waterways known as much for its idyllic vistas as for its decades-long armed conflict between Indian troops and rebels. Above, Saleema Bano, 58, a Kashmiri woman who survived an attack by a wild bear, poses for a photograph inside her house at Ladhoo village, south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Monday, Aug . 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

The Himalayan black bear is at the heart of this trouble. Experts say over 80% of the deaths and maulings are due to attacks by black bears.

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Solar systems, enviro-funding before NJ panel

The New Jersey Assembly’s Environment and Solid Waste committee will meet at 1 p.m. on Monday, December 7 to consider the following bills:

A4397 – Allows installation of residential solar energy systems prior to obtaining construction permit or interconnection approval during COVID-19 emergency.

S2606 – Allows installation of residential solar energy systems prior to obtaining construction permit or interconnection approval during COVID-19 emergency.

A5053 – Amends list of environmental infrastructure projects approved for long-term funding for FY2021 to include new projects and modify estimated loan amounts for certain projects; modifies terms and conditions for certain loans utilizing federal funds.

A5054 – Authorizes NJ Infrastructure Bank to expend additional sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2021; modifies terms and conditions for certain loan utilizing federal funds.

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Catherine McCabe, NJDEP’s commissioner, retiring on Jan. 15

NJDEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe will be retiring on Jan. 15, 2021.

By Tom Johnson, NJ Spotlight

Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Catherine McCabe plans to retire effective Jan. 15, ending a three-year stint during which she sought to spur more aggressive action by the agency in fighting climate change and tackling problems faced by environmental justice communities.

McCabe announced her departure Tuesday in an early morning e-mail, telling staff she had advised Gov. Phil Murphy of plans to retire early next year. “As with all personal milestones for me, this was a family decision,’’ the note said, while expressing an interest to spend more time with her children and grandchildren.

In a news release by the governor’s office, Murphy said he will announce a successor in the coming weeks. The odds-on favorite appears to be Shawn LaTourette, a deputy commissioner and chief of staff at DEP, who sources said has had a key role in running the agency over recent months.

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Other McCabe coverage:
DEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe to Retire (NJ Business Magazine)
LaTourette may be early front runner for Environmental Protection cabinet post (NJ Globe)
Catherine McCabe, the state’s top environmental regulator, to retire (NorthJersey.com)

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