EnviroPolitics Blog

NJ Governor Establishes Statewide Climate Change Resilience Program

From the law firm of Cullen and Dykman

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW UPDATE – October, 2019

Governor Murphy Establishes Statewide Climate Change Resilience Program

On October 29, 2019, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed Executive Order 89 establishing a Statewide Climate Change Resilience Strategy. The Executive Order establishes a “Climate and Flood Resilience Program” within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and directs DEP to deliver a Scientific Report on climate change within six months of the Order’s effective date.

The Report is to address current and anticipated environmental effects of climate change, including but not limited to increased temperatures and sea-level rise, increased frequency or severity of storms, rainfall, and flooding and increased frequency and severity of forest fires and droughts through at least the year 2050. The Order also establishes a Chief Resilience Officer within DEP, to be appointed by the Commissioner.

Finally, the Order establishes an “Interagency Council on Climate Resilience” to include representatives from 16 state agencies. The Council, together with DEP’s Chief Resilience Officer, is charged with delivering a Statewide Climate Change Resilience Strategy to the Governor by September 1, 2020. The Strategy is to include a coastal resilience plan that recommends a specific long-term strategy for resilience and adaptation in the coastal areas of the state.

It is likely that the Climate Change Resilience Strategy, once it is complete, will have significant implications for land use development practices and patterns throughout the State. Property owners, the development community and local government should, therefore, keep track of its progress.

The Executive Order can be viewed in its entirety at: https://nj.gov/infobank/eo/056murphy/pdf/EO-89.pdf

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California wildfire: 1st update for 10/29 from major news sources

CBS News: Powerful winds could fan devastating wildfires

Powerful new winds could bring more devastation to parts of California already ravaged by wildfires. Crews battling the massive Kincade Fire in Northern California’s wine country fear the wind could fan the flames.

The wildfire has burned an area more than twice the size of San Francisco and destroyed nearly 60 homes. Six days after the fire first ignited, firefighters were scrambling to put out hot spots in hopes of getting an upper hand before wind gusts reaching as high as 50 mph kick up again, CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti reports.

“The wind will carry burning materials sometimes miles ahead of the fire,” Cal Fire spokesman Rhett Pratt said, “so we’re having to go around and one by one deal with those and mitigate those dangers as they pop up, which is always a difficulty, it being dynamic and not just a set fire line.”

In Southern California, where high winds fueled the Getty Fire in the early morning hours Monday, authorities are manning their fire lines with additional personnel. Their concern is predicted gusts of up to 80 mph.

“I’ve asked my command staff to do everything possible to ensure that the line is as cold as possible before those winds kick up,” Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said. With the wind expected to pick up in Northern California, California’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, warned it could conduct its third power cut in less than a week; nearly 4 million people could be in the dark.

Read the full story

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ABC News:
Getty Fire: Firefighters continue efforts to prevent rekindling

BRENTWOOD, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A day after the Getty Fire erupted along the 405 Freeway near the Getty Center, firefighters remain on guard to prevent the blaze from rekindling ahead of a major Santa Ana wind event Tuesday.

Firefighters worked overnight to spray homes in the Brentwood area and other neighborhoods to stamp out any existing embers. Many homes in Brentwood were seen red-tagged, charred and unrecognizable.

Fire officials said it’s critical to get ahead of the coming Santa Ana wind event, which is expected to arrive in the Southland Tuesday night. Forecasters say this round of wind may be the strongest of the season so far.

At a Tuesday morning press conference, Mayor Eric Garcetti said the fire had increased slightly in size to 656 acres and remained at 5% containment.

LAFD Chief Ralph Terrazas, who also spoke at the press conference, said crews are on alert ahead of the wind event.

“Our goal today will be to increase containment as much as possible. That is our primary objective,” he said. “Embers are known to travel for miles…We are very concerned about tonight’s wind event.”

The Getty Fire erupted at 1:30 a.m. Monday along the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass, prompting the mandatory evacuation of thousands of residential and commercial structures. The blaze destroyed at least eight homes – North Tigertail Road – and damaged multiple structures.

MORE: See full list and map of evacuation area, road closures due to the Getty Fire

“We know we’re going to have a major wind event tonight at about 11 o’clock that’s going to last until Thursday. We’re doing everything we can to wrap our arms around this fire to be able to prevent a potential of those strong gusty Santa Ana winds, pushing this fire, rekindling a lot of the fire and blowing embers a mile to two miles down range,” said Assistant Chief Jaime Moore with Los Angeles Fire.

PHOTOS: Getty Fire burns in West Los Angeles

[EP Editor: Check back later today for the latest coverage]

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California Wildfires Updates: Getty Fire Rages as 405 Jams

Up and down the state, wildfires are driving residents from their homes. About 180,000 in Sonoma have been ordered to leave, and part of Napa is under a warning.

The fast-growing Kincade fire north of San Francisco and the Getty fire in West Los Angeles are causing evacuations and destruction in California. Credit…Kyle Grillot for The New York Times

Thomas Fuller and Tim Arango report for the New York Times

High winds are expected to return to much of the state on Tuesday, fanning the flames and prompting more blackouts.

Here’s what you need to know:

Forecasters warn of more extreme weather on Tuesday.

The worst kind of weather for wildfires — strong, gusty winds and very low humidity — will return on Tuesday after a relative respite on Monday, the National Weather Service said, raising the prospect of more fire outbreaks and rapid growth of the blazes that are already burning.

The agency has posted “red flag” warnings for most of Northern California and much of Southern California, taking effect at various times on Tuesday.

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Winds gusts of up to 60 miles an hour could be expected beginning in the morning over a vast stretch of the state from the Sierras to the Pacific and from the southern fringes of the Bay Area north nearly to the Oregon border, except for coastal areas north of Sonoma County.

Similar conditions will develop Tuesday night from Santa Barbara south to the Mexican border and well inland, other than coastal areas south of Anaheim, and would persist into Thursday, forecasters said.

Red-flag weather has played an important role in driving the growth of the Kincade, Getty and other fires, and has prompted pre-emptive blackouts by utility companies hoping to keep wind-damaged power lines and equipment from touching off more blazes.

Before one blackout ends, another looms.

The power may still be off for millions of Californians when the next blackout comes, state officials said on Monday.

Roughly 587,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers remained without power on Monday afternoon because of intentional blackouts meant to limit the risk of wildfires.

Read the full story

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California wildfires continue to rage. New blaze, the Getty Fire, erupts in Los Angeles

CBS News reports at 5:44 p.m.:

A dangerous wildfire that broke out early Monday in Los Angeles was threatening hundreds of homes near the world-famous Getty Center. Strong winds were spreading the fast-growing fire that was burning along a major freeway west of downtown.

Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas told reporters firefighters were overwhelmed. “They had to make some tough decisions on which houses they were able to protect,” Terrazas said. “Many times it depends upon where the ember lands.”

In Northern California, improving conditions could help crews gain ground on wildfires that have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick told reporters Monday morning that authorities weren’t yet allowing people to reenter areas burned by the so-called Kincade Fire, the state’s largest.

In Los Angeles, the fire department said the Getty Fire burned over 600 acres. Several neighborhoods were under evacuation orders, and at least eight homes were destroyed, Mayor Eric Garcetti said.

A video posted on social media by a motorist shows one side of Highway 405 was turned into a towering inferno, CBS News correspondent Carter Evans reports. Fire officials called it a dynamic situation.

The flames were being fanned by high winds, which seemed to have calmed down a little before dawn, Evans reports. One of those displaced from his home by the several fires burning near Los Angeles was Lakers star LeBron James.

He tweeted Monday morning he had to evacuate his home suddenly and was driving around trying to find a place to go with his family. He followed up later saying he finally found a safe place.

Senator Kamala Harris also said that her family in California has evacuated due to the wildfires.

Read the full story

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A New Jersey town finds PFAS in its public drinking water

Camden County town discovers water contamination, putting to use a state limit for PFAS — **ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER**

Justine McDaniel reports for the Philadelphia Inquirer

A potentially toxic chemical that has run off former military bases and manufacturing sites to contaminate drinking water in parts of suburban Philadelphia and South Jersey has shown up in a Camden County borough’s water supply.

Bellmawr Borough ordered one of its two water treatment facilities shut down Thursday, three weeks after the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection notified the borough of the contamination. It marked one of the first times New Jersey’s newly established drinking-water standard for a chemical known as PFNA set off alarm bells for a municipal water authority.

The testing measured PFNA at an average level higher than the state’s limit by about 6 parts per trillion, the borough said in a letter to residents. The borough has a population of about 11,500.

At that low level, the water was still safe to drink, the DEP told Bellmawr, the borough said in a statement. The contamination does not pose a health emergency for residents.

Local officials must bring the water system into compliance with the state standard within a year, but “in an absolute abundance of caution,” the borough decided to immediately shut down the contaminated water supply.

The chemical is a type of PFAS, a large family of substances that have been linked to cancer and other health problems and have been found in the drinking water of millions of Americans. It cannot be boiled out of water and requires costly treatment systems to remove.

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Elsewhere in New Jersey, officials have pointed to former Solvay, DuPont, and 3M manufacturing sites as the culprits of PFAS contamination in areas including Gloucester, Passaic, Middlesex, and Salem Counties. In Pennsylvania, the chemicals poured off military bases in Bucks and Montgomery Counties.

This year, New Jersey became the first state in the country to set a drinking-water standard for one of the PFAS chemicals with its 13-part-per-trillion limit on PFNA. New Jersey plans to regulate two other types; Pennsylvania and a handful of other states are working on their own standards.

Read the full story

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California wildfires-Sunday Update #2 Governor declares a statewide emergency

Mass evacuation continues

Embers fly across a road as the Kincade Fire sweeps through the community of JImstown in Sonoma County
AP Photo by Noah Berger

By Courtney Teague, Lea Donosky, Derek Hawkins and Kayla Epstein for the Washington Post – Oct. 27, 2019, at 4:10 p.m. EDT

California’s governor declared a statewide emergency Sunday as wind-fueled fires spread across Sonoma County and prompted mass evacuations.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) pledged to deploy “every resource available” as authorities fought blazes on both ends of the state and weather conditions threatened to exacerbate fire threats.

In Sonoma, one of the largest evacuations in the county’s history was underway as ferocious winds and dry air fueled a wildfire that has raged in the region for days. The county sheriff’s office estimated that 180,000 people had been ordered to flee the Kincade Fire, which has spread to 30,000 acres and was only 10 percent contained. Officials rapidly expanded the number of areas under mandatory evacuation orders in the early hours of the morning as gusts as high as 93 mph swept through the hills and valleys north of the San Francisco Bay area.

California Wildfire Update from earlier today

The fires outside of Healdsburg, Calif., appeared to rapidly intensify overnight, according to the National Weather Service, turning State Route 128 into a hellish gauntlet and consuming the local Soda Rock Winery, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Kincade Fire consumes a car in Jimstown in Sonoma County. Noah Berger AP photo

In a flurry of predawn alerts, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office told residents in the northern portion of Santa Rosa, as well as areas southwest and northeast of the city, to evacuate immediately. About 200 patients were evacuated from two medical centers in the area, Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, and relocated to safer facilities, according to hospital and local fire officials.

Patricia Blanchard said she lost power Saturday night around 8 p.m. Saturday in her small town of Monte Rio. The outage was soon followed by a visit from a Sonoma County deputy who ordered her to leave immediately. She left her ID and credit cards behind in the rush.

Read the full story

From CBS News:
Kincade Fire: 180,000 under evacuation orders in Sonoma County

From USA TODAY
Double-whammy: Amid blackouts, massive fire forces nearly 200,000 to flee homes

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