With the state in the middle of what Gov. Phil Murphy called “a big week” for reopening steps, New Jersey on Wednesday reported 11 more deaths attributed to the coronavirus and 329 new cases.
Meanwhile, the state’s rate of transmission increased for the fifth straight day but remained below a key benchmark measuring how the virus is spreading.
And hospitalizations related to COVID-19 topped 500 for the first time in 18 days.
Murphy announced the figures during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton as the state is kicking off a new school year “unlike any other.”
The governor announced 434 districts will start, many next week, with a hybrid model or in-person and remote learning, 68 will start with all in-person classes, 242 start all-remote, and 22 will start with “some combination of all-of-the-above,” Murphy said.
In addition, indoor dining, movie theaters, and indoor performing arts venues in New Jersey will be permitted to reopen with restrictions starting Friday. That’s after Gyms were allowed to reopen to limited indoor capacity Tuesday.
“This virus is not done with us yet, not by a long shot,” Murphy said. “But today we can say that New Jersey is one of the safest states in the nation.”
Still, the governor cautioned, “our numbers continue to be moving around — I would say sideways.”
Report comes after huge increase in the deficit this year as government attempted to limits coronavirus fallout
By Jeff Stein, The Washington Post
The amount of debt held by the U.S. government will roughly equal the size of the entire American economy, as the nation’s fiscal imbalance surges in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday.
By the end of 2020, the amount of debt owed by the U.S. will amount to 98 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product, the highest level since the end of World War II, the CBO said. Total government debt will surpass the U.S. economy’s size next year, CBO said.
Fueling this rise is a big jump in the government’s annual budget deficit, which is projected to widen to $3.3 trillion by the end of this fiscal year, more than tripling since 2019. The deficit was already on track to be very elevated because of recent tax cuts and spending increases, but the government’s response to the pandemic changed things markedly.
Already 20 states are suing. Now Sierra Club and tribal groups challenge move that could let them block pipelines
Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight
The Trump administration is facing a new lawsuit challenging a rule that hampers state and tribal efforts to block unwanted fossil-fuel projects — specifically, those that could adversely impair water quality within their jurisdictions.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal appeals court in northern California, is the latest seeking to block the rule adopted by the federal Environmental Protection Agency this summer. In July, New Jersey and 19 other states filed a challenge to the agency rule, saying it unlawfully prevents the state from preventing its waters from being polluted.
In New Jersey and elsewhere, the rule narrows the authority of states to impose conditions for approving energy infrastructure projects under Section 401 of the federal Clean Water Act. The provision has prevented New York and other states from blocking pipeline projects they concluded would impair water quality, denying certification for the projects to move forward.
Best chance to block PennEast
Opponents of the PennEast pipline, one of the most controversial pipeline projects pending in New Jersey, view the Section 401 process as perhaps their best tool for blocking the $1 billion, 120-mile project that begins in Pennsylvania and ends in Mercer County.
In the latest litigation on the issue, Earthjustice, the group representing a handful of tribes in the west, and the Sierra Club argue many of the same issues raised by the 20 states in their challenge to the rule, but with a focus on tribal lands in western states.
In its 28-page brief, the parties argued the new rule strips away a crucial tool that the tribes and states had used to protect waters within their jurisdiction, with the aim of prioritizing “environmentally ruinous’’ fossil-fuel infrastructure.
The EPA admitted its primary motivation in proposing and finalizing the rule is a desire to facilitate the construction of fossil-fuel infrastructure, according to the brief. “This purpose is entirely divorced from Congress’ intent in passing Section 401 and the CWA,” it says.
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Investing in natural-water infrastructure makes sense for economic health, racial and social equity, and environmental sustainability. Just look at the Delaware River
Our country is in the midst of a devastating public health crisis combined with a critical, and long overdue, conversation about racial justice. Working for real equity must be at the forefront of how we respond to both crises, and many leaders have observed how intertwined they are. One unexpected connection that interweaves the threads among health, racial equity, and the clean water that sustains us: the Delaware River.
The Delaware is the lifeblood of our region, providing drinking water, swimming, paddling and green space for millions of people in South Jersey, metro Philly, and beyond. It also needs protection to keep doing all of this, which is why our friends at American Rivers named the Delaware the River of the Year for 2020. And now, more than ever, our communities are in need of clean water, good jobs, and healthy rivers.
The connection goes like this: let’s up our game to coordinate federal, state and local spending on the kind of natural-water infrastructure that creates good long-term jobs, while netting us cleaner water, more green space, and long-term climate resilience. Let’s do this first and most in the coastal and riverfront low income and communities of color that are the most impacted by racial injustice, a changing climate, and threats to drinking water quality. In this time of increased focus on equity in all aspects of American life, we must focus on water equity, as well. A person’s zip code should not determine whether they have safe drinking water, sewage in their basement when it rains, or clean waterways.
Natural-water infrastructure like rain gardens, innovative wastewater treatment, and green stormwater management projects can directly address these challenges. It can help prevent the overflowing combined sewer systems that threaten our homes, our health, our rivers, and our drinking water. As rains get heavier with a hotter climate, these threats need more, rather than less, investment. Natural water infrastructure absorbs rain, reduces flooding, prevents sewer overflows and provides parks and green space all at the same time. Done well, natural infrastructure can also boost economic growth by beautifying neighborhoods and properties, and drawing residents and tourists to the riverfront.
Community impact in Hoboken and Camden
Both of us have seen first-hand the community benefits of natural-water infrastructure, Lee in my statewide work, and Andy as a former wastewater utility leader from Camden and current leader of a national program to scale these approaches.
In Hoboken, for example, climate-resilient parks absorb polluted stormwater, prevent sewer overflow events, and manage the heavier rains we are getting as the climate changes, preventing floods. Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars combined with local water pollution-prevention money is making this possible, and the approach can and should be scaled elsewhere.
Read the full story
Lee Clark is the environmental justice policy manager at NJ League of Conservation Voters and a former council member of Phillipsburg. Andy Kricun is a senior fellow at US Water Alliance, managing director at Moonshot Missions, and former executive director at the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority.
Electroplating is the process of plating one metal onto another by hydrolysis, most commonly for decorative purposes or to prevent corrosion of a metal. There are also specific types of electroplating such as copper plating, silver plating, and chromium plating.
New Jersey is home to more Superfund sites — the nation’s most polluted locations — than any other state in the country.
It could soon have one more.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it is proposing to add the Pioneer Metal Finishing, Inc. site in the Franklinville section of Gloucester County’s Franklin Township to the national Superfund list.
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The site is a former electroplating facility that began operations in 1955. For the first couple of decades, until the late ’70s, the facility discharged untreated waste containing metallics salts and sludge into an adjacent wetland. Today, soil in the area is contaminated with chromium, copper and nickel at levels that threat human health, as well as cancer-linked polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs.)
Electroplating work at the site stopped around 2005, according to the EPA. Today, the facility continues to be used for powder-coating operations.
“Proposing to add the Pioneer Metal Finishing Inc. site to the National Priorities List is an important first step toward protecting human health and the environment in affected communities,” said EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez.“By elevating our focus on the Superfund program, we are making tremendous progress to accelerate cleanups and return sites to safe and productive use.”
Pioneer Metal’s inclusion on the Superfund list was requested by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection due to the scope of the contamination and the complexity of the required cleanup, DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said.
(Reuters) – The Trump administration on Monday issued a proposal that would make it easier to permit oil and gas drilling operations in national forests, angering environmental groups who said the move would harm wildlife and increase greenhouse gas emissions.
The U.S. Forest Service, an arm of the Department of Agriculture that oversees 192 million acres of national forests and grasslands, released proposed rules that would speed timelines for approving drilling leases and permits and for determining which lands are available to lease.
The proposal is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, but a version was posted on a government website on Monday.
Forest Service officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Forest Service first said in 2018 that it planned to rewrite some of its rules to expedite oil and gas permits on forest lands. The moves are part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to boost fossil fuel production on public lands and waters.
The changes would make the leasing and permitting processes more efficient by reducing redundant procedures and would better align Forest Service regulations with those of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is primarily responsible for managing oil and gas drilling on public lands, the document said.
Environmental groups said the new rules would sidestep environmental reviews and reduce public involvement in the leasing process.
“This proposal would basically make the Forest Service a rubber stamp for the fossil fuel industry,” said Michael Saul, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.
