EnviroPolitics Blog

Coronavirus deaths approach 4900 in Pennsylvania with cases exceeding 65,000

Daniel Patrick Sheehan reports for The Morning Call

The state Department of Health on Thursday reported 980 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 65,392.

The death toll rose by 102 to 4,869.

The state reported 303,514 people have tested negative for the coronavirus, which has killed more than 93,600 Americans and about 330,000 people worldwide since emerging in China late last year. The first Pennsylvania cases were reported March 6.

In Lehigh County, 192 people have died of the illness. Northampton County has recorded 186 deaths.

The age breakdown of positive cases:

Nearly 1% are ages 0-4;
Nearly 1% are ages 5-12;
Nearly 2% are ages 13-18;
Nearly 6% are ages 19-24;
Nearly 37% are ages 25-49;
Nearly 26% are ages 50-64; and
Nearly 29% are ages 65 or older.

Most of the patients hospitalized are 65 or older, and most of the deaths have occurred among patients in that age category.

Nursing and personal care homes report 14,113 resident cases of COVID-19, and 2,306 cases among employees, for a total of 16,419 at 570 distinct facilities in 44 counties.

Of total deaths, 3,234 have been residents from nursing or personal care facilities. Approximately 4,871 cases are in health care workers.

Non-life-sustaining businesses in the red phase are ordered to be closed and schools are closed statewide through the remainder of the academic year. Currently, 37 counties are in the yellow phase of reopening; 12 more will move to the yellow phase Friday.

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New York coalition pushes back on $28M budget cuts to organics recycling

The image by Tdorante10 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

E.A. Crunden reports for WasteDive

New York City Council members are under pressure from constituents to salvage the city’s organics recycling programs, a victim of budget cuts due to fallout from the new coronavirus.

During an hour-and-a-half long committee meeting last week on the city’s sanitation budget, multiple council members questioned the decision to cut the curbside organics collections and other efforts, arguing they are key to achieving 2030 “zero waste” goals aimed at combating climate change.

“I’ve received the most amount of emails and calls relating to organics recycling,” said Council Member Antonio Reynoso, chairman of the sanitation committee, who pushed Kathryn Garcia, commissioner of New York’s Department of Sanitation (DSNY), on the decision.

Garcia called the choice to suspend curbside collection until June 30, 2021 “just really awful,” but asserted the program generates only $50,000 annually at present and doesn’t pay for itself.

Belinda Mager, DSNY’s director of communications, confirmed to Waste Dive the department “is dealing with changing budget realities.” Out of $106 million in cuts to DSNY programs, $21.1 million is hitting curbside organics collection. Seven city compost project partner organization efforts — part of the 27-year-old New York City Compost Project — have also been suspended for the 2021 fiscal year, freeing up $3.5 million, along with $2.9 million in annual recycling outreach funding for GrowNYC. Those cuts discontinue funding to GrowNYC’s zero waste programs, resulting in a loss of 32 full-time jobs and 50 part-time jobs.

“The Department of Sanitation has long supported our recycling partners – they play a crucial role in their communities and helping the city move towards zero waste,” wrote Mager via email. “While our budget cuts were painful, and not taken lightly, we do look forward to a day in the future when funding for all Sanitation-related programs can be restored.”

A new campaign to save compost

Organics recycling proponents hope they can lessen the impacts from some of the cuts. A coalition consisting of a number of local groups have banded together under #SaveOurCompost, which includes support from the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, ALIGN NY, Big Reuse, and the solid waste advisory boards for Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.

The coalition has had some success so far, garnering more than 15,000 signatures on a petition arguing organics recycling is essential for the city. And the group is supporting efforts such as the Community Organics and Recycling Empowerment (CORE) Act, which would create 177 drop-off sites for organics and electronics waste. The coalition is seeking to preserve around $7 million for community organics recycling and curbside e-waste, focusing on the smaller cuts suggested to the budget.

That relatively small amount of funding would, proponents argue, go a long way towards filling the void left in the wake of the curbside cuts. It would also help GrowNYC continue to operate its 76 food scrap drop-off sites, which provide the feedstock for six community composting facilities.

“It’s not going to replace tonnage that curbside was doing, but [it’s] going to give people an option,” said Justin Wood, director of organizing and strategic research for NYLPI.

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Dow Chemical complex and a Superfund cleanup threatened by Michigan dam failures

Water overrunning the Sanford Dam on Tuesday, one of two dams in central Michigan that failed because of heavy rains.
Photo credit…TC Vortex, via Reuters

Hiroko Tabuchi reports for The New York Times

Floodwaters from two breached dams in Michigan on Wednesday flowed into a sprawling Dow chemical complex and threatened a vast Superfund toxic-cleanup site downriver, raising concerns of wider environmental fallout from the dam disaster and historic flooding.

The compound, which also houses the chemical giant’s world headquarters, lies on the banks of the Tittabawassee River in Midland, where by late Wednesday rising water had encroached on some parts of downtown. Kyle Bandlow, a Dow spokesman, said that floodwaters had reached the Dow site’s outer boundaries and had flowed into retaining ponds designed to hold what he described as brine water used on the site.

The Superfund cleanup sites are downriver from the century-old plant, which for decades had released chemicals into the nearby waterways. The concern downriver, according to Allen Burton, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan, is that contaminated sediments on the river floor could be stirred up by the floodwaters, spreading pollution downstream and over the riverbanks.

“You worry about the speed of the current, this wall of water coming down the river,” he said. “It just has a huge amount of power.”

[Read more on why a third of Michigan’s Dams are still at risk.]

Mr. Bandlow of Dow said the company was “implementing its flood preparedness plan, which includes the safe shutdown of operating units on site,” which still manufactures plastics and other chemical products. He said only essential Dow staff remained on site to monitor the situation and “manage any issues as a result of the flooding.”

Mr. Bandlow did not provide information on the status of the cleanup sites.

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Over the years the Dow complex has manufactured a range of products including Saran Wrap, Styrofoam, Agent Orange and mustard gas. Over time, Dow released chemicals into the water, leading to dioxin contamination stretching more than 50 miles along the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers and into Lake Huron. Research has shown that dioxins can damage the immune system, cause reproductive or developmental problems, and cause cancer.

[Read about the new crisis Michigan is facing: flooding.]

There is also a tiny nuclear research reactor on the site, used to create material that can be used in product experiments. Overnight, Dow filed an “unusual event” report with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission warning of potential flooding at the site. But the reactor had already been shut down because of the coronavirus crisis, and there were no indications of flood damage on Wednesday.

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NJ Assembly Speaker comes on board with Gov. Murphy’s emergency borrowing plan

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin at Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2021 Budget Address in Trenton on Feb. 25, 2020. — Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin at Gov. Phil Murphy’s 2021 Budget Address in Trenton on AARON HOUSTON photo

By: Daniel J. Munoz, NJBIZ
May 21, 2020 7:48 am

The top lawmaker in the state Assembly is now on board with Gov. Phil Murphy’s plans for borrowing at least $5 billion to plug gaping holes in the state budget, as the COVID-19 pandemic slams the global economy and wrecks the state’s finances.

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-19th District, said on Wednesday that he will schedule the borrowing proposal – known as the COVID-19 Budget Recovery Bond Act – for a floor vote on June 4.

That puts him at odds with his counterpart in the upper house, Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-3rd District – an often-times political rival of the governor, who has reacted coolly to the borrowing scheme.

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Murphy’s plan calls for borrowing at least $5 billion from the Federal Reserve under a bond program meant to shore up state and local governments that have seen their finances hit by the pandemic.

Under New Jersey’s constitution, the state is fairly limited in its ability to use borrowing as a means to cover its annual budget. But it does include a carveout for “purposes of war, or to repel invasion, or to suppress insurrection or to meet an emergency caused by disaster or act of God,” and the proposal calls for triggering those powers.

“While not ideal, I will support the borrowing of necessary funds through bonding, provided the sacrifice is spread evenly and that proper legislative oversight is included, to ensure our economic position is strengthened for both the present and future,” Coughlin said on Wednesday evening.

Sweeney has maintained that he is not necessarily opposed to the borrowing proposal, but rather, it’s scant on details.

“I want to know what taxes have to go up, what’s the governor talking about cutting?” he told NJBIZ in a May 12 editorial interview. “I have not ever said I was opposed to borrowing. I just need to know what I’m going to borrow, how I’m going to pay it back, so I’m walking into this with my eyes wide open.”

New Jersey is slated to see a $10 billion budget hole through the end of June 2021, the state treasury said last week.

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Defiant New Jersey gym shut down by state, owners vow to sue Governor Murphy

By Allison Pries | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A gym in Bellmawr that reopened Monday, violating an executive order from the governor, was shut down Thursday morning by the state and county health departments.

“Alright guys, so we arrived at the gym this morning to Governor Murphy’s dirty tricks, playing with his power in the health department,” the gym’s owners posted on its Instagram page Thursday. “For right now, the gym will be closed. We have a full cleaning crew inside, once again going above and beyond.”

PREVIOUS: N.J. gym owner defying shutdown order faces backlash over fatal drunk driving crash

Orange stickers from the Camden County Health Department declaring an embargo and a four-page notice from the state Department of Health were taped to the door.

The signs were placed on the storefront overnight “with no inspection of the building or anything,” Co-owner Frank Trumbetti told FOX 29.

Trumbetti said he doesn’t know what the embargo means and the state health department notice referred to a statute involving infectious disease.

A call to an attorney for the gym was not immediately returned.

The county and state department of health spokespersons also could not be reached immediately.

Atilis Gym in Bellmawr allowed a limited number of members to use the facility beginning Monday. Their temperatures were checked as they entered and they were required to wear face coverings and follow other rules. Co-owner Ian Smith said they were limiting capacity to 20% or about 44 people at a time.

Murphy was asked Monday during his coronavirus briefing about the gym’s reopening and he suggested the efforts to enforce the closure order may ramp up.

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Real estate sales, activities resume in Pennsylvania

Agents from Keller Williams Realty Group of Limerick participate in a recent Zoom meeting. Real estate agents from across the region can perform sales and other activities now that Gov. Tom Wolf has issued an order allowing the activities to resume, with limitations.

By Donna Rovins The Times Herald

Many real estate professionals got back to work within hours after Gov. Tom Wolf reversed himself and issued an executive order allowing the industry to reopen immediately.

Real estate sales and related activities can resume in areas that are still in the red zone, as long as steps are taken to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.

The executive order followed the governor’s earlier veto of legislation on the same issue — making Tuesday a bit of a “roller coaster,” according to Terese Brittingham, broker/owner of Keller Williams Realty Group in Limerick.-

“The reopening was much-needed,” she said, adding that real estate is an essential service. “These agents rely on their commissions as income. This is an opportunity to let them get back and what they do — which is sell houses.”

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Seth Lejeune is a team leader/associate for RE/MAX HomePoint in Royersford. He said he was “excited” when the news came on Tuesday.

“My reaction? I went to my wife and said ‘It’s go time,’” he said. “I do believe in my bones real estate is no more hazardous than other things. However, I spent most of my time being cognizant of how scared people were.”

“I was shocked in a good way,” said Meredith Jacks, broker/owner of Styer Real Estate in South Coventry. “I think I was anticipating some parts of real estate would reopen or there would be some kind of change. Just as quickly as we shut down we were reopened.”

Christopher Benedict is the broker/owner of RE/MAX HomePoint in Royersford and owner of BIG Realty Property Management. He said he didn’t have a problem initially with taking a pause to get a sense of the coronavirus issue, but added the governor’s order should have come three weeks ago.

“When everyone started to open as an essential service — we were the only state in the country, then the only couple of counties that were still closed,” he said.

Jacks said the part of her job she enjoys the most is dealing with people, which has been missing since March.

“I was never opposed to portions of the job being done virtually but the human element was missing for me,” she said. Facetime and Skype didn’t deliver the same quality of service real estate agents want to provide.”

Brittingham said with the region remaining in the red phase, there will still be uncertainty, adding that her agency will continue to perform many things virtually to protect the agents and clients.

In-person real estate sales and activities have been prohibited since mid-March, which has caused problems for many home buyers and sellers.

Lejeune said that has been one of the drivers for getting back to work.

“It wasn’t about getting out to make another commission. I have some people with real problems,” he said, including one client that inherited a house she can’t afford, and a rental tenant with roommate problems but couldn’t move. “I’m pumped and excited to go and solve problems.”

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