The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) collected 320 pounds of pharmaceutical medications during DEC’s annual Long Island Pharmaceutical Take Back event, Region 1 Director Carrie Meek Gallagher announced today.
A total of 27 long-term healthcare facilities from Nassau and Suffolk counties participated in the program, which collects and responsibly destroys unused or expired pharmaceuticals. More than two tons of pharmaceuticals have been collected since the program began in 2014.
“Health care facilities like nursing homes and other long-term care facilities sometimes resort to flushing unused medications,” said Director Gallagher. “DEC will continue our efforts to prevent unused and expired medications from entering our waterways and we are grateful to all of the facilities that chose to participate in this year’s take-back day.”
The DEC program is in its fifth year and is designed to reduce the number of pharmaceuticals that are flushed or unsafely disposed by facilities and can end up in Long Island’s groundwater, bays, and estuaries. Pharmaceuticals have been detected at low levels in New York waterways and Long Island’s shallow groundwater.
Twenty-seven facilities made up primarily of nursing, extended care, and rehabilitation centers, participated in this year’s collection. Each facility stored unused and expired medications until DEC Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs) visited on Wednesday, March 27, in Suffolk County, and Thursday, March 28, in Nassau County. The stored medications were brought to the Covanta Waste-to-Energy Plant in Huntington, which volunteered its services to incinerate the products.
“Covanta is proud to provide the safe disposal of drugs which assists in the prevention of drug abuse and in the protection of water on Long Island,” said | Paul Stauder, president, Covanta Environmental Solutions.
“The work the Department of Environmental Conversation is spearheading throughout the state is critical to ending the practice of flushing drugs by residents and institutions. By destroying medication at our Energy-from-Waste facilities, the state is also ensuring the secure destruction of these drugs in an environmentally sound manner.”
In addition to collection events, DEC encourages New Yorkers to use medication collection box locations, which can be found by visiting DEC’s website and clicking on the NYS Medication Drop Box Locations map.
DEC launched its Pilot Pharmaceutical Take Back program in May 2018, and installed 250 medication collection boxes at retail pharmacies, hospitals, and long-term care facilities all across New York State.
Since May 2018, DEC has collected and destroyed 15,229 lbs. of unwanted medications through the pilot program. DEC plans to install an additional 230 medication collection boxes under Phase 2 of the pilot program. Prior to these initiatives, many facilities flushed unwanted or waste drugs. With technological advances in analytical techniques, it is now possible to detect very low levels of drugs in surface water and groundwater. Some drugs pass largely unaltered through wastewater treatment plants and enter rivers and other waterways. Flushed medications have been found in New York lakes, rivers, and streams, which can negatively affect the waterways. A nationwide study conducted by the United States Geological Survey found low levels of drugs such as antibiotics, hormones, contraceptives, and steroids in 80 percent of rivers and streams tested. Medications adversely affect fish and other aquatic wildlife and increase the development of drug-resistant bacteria.
Legislators were hashing out the details, but the agreement was expected to be enshrined in the state budget, which lawmakers aim to pass by April 1.
The measure would likely take effect next year to give stores time to prepare, said Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D–LI), a sponsor of the plan.In its current form, the proposal bars retailers from handing out plastic bags but does not outlaw newspaper-delivery bags, dry-cleaner garment bags or the kind of baggies dog-owners use to clean up after their pooches.
Cities and counties can opt into the paper-bag fee. If they do, they would take 40 percent of the revenues, while the remaining 60 percent would got to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund.
Localities must use the revenue to offset the impact on low-income communities by disseminating reusable bags, Albany officials said, adding that food-stamp recipients would be exempt from the fee.
Reactions from shoppers were a mixed bag.“I have two thoughts: It’s obviously environmentally sound. And it’s just another tax. This money will just go to the economic black hole. Next thing, there will be a tax on breathing,” Shane McAteer, 54, groused as he lugged an armful of plastic bags out of a Key Foods on Queens Boulevard in Sunnyside Thursday.
Another shopper, who gave her name as Esther and said she was 100 years old, gasped at the plan.“They better not!” she said as she hauled two double-bagged plastic bags out of an Upper East Side Gristedes. “I know [plastic bags are] a problem, but we have to worry about the present as well as the future.”
New York Association of Convenience Stores President Jim Calvin said, “If someone needs ice but there’s no plastic bags offered, either they’re going to drip all the home, or they will skip that purchase.
”Others cheered the plan.“
I’m from Poland. In my country, they charge me like $1 per plastic bag. Now everybody uses the reusable bags. “It’s a very good idea,” said Gristedes shopper Anna Sufflo, 44.
Seattle imposed a similar measure in 2011, and the volume of plastic bags in the waste stream fell 78 percent, a city report said.
Mayor de Blasio sought a plastic-bag ban in 2017 but was stymied by a Republican-controlled state Legislature. His office was reserving judgment on the latest effort.
“We’ll take a close look at whatever the final details are. I’ll decline to comment beyond that,” said mayoral spokesman Eric Phillips.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) collected 320 pounds of pharmaceutical medications during DEC’s annual Long Island Pharmaceutical Take Back event, Region 1 Director Carrie Meek Gallagher announced today.
A total of 27 long-term healthcare facilities from Nassau and Suffolk counties participated in the program, which collects and responsibly destroys unused or expired pharmaceuticals. More than two tons of pharmaceuticals have been collected since the program began in 2014.
“Health care facilities like nursing homes and other long-term care facilities sometimes resort to flushing unused medications,” said Director Gallagher. “DEC will continue our efforts to prevent unused and expired medications from entering our waterways and we are grateful to all of the facilities that chose to participate in this year’s take-back day.”
The DEC program is in its fifth year and is designed to reduce the number of pharmaceuticals that are flushed or unsafely disposed by facilities and can end up in Long Island’s groundwater, bays, and estuaries. Pharmaceuticals have been detected at low levels in New York waterways and Long Island’s shallow groundwater.
Twenty-seven facilities made up primarily of nursing, extended care, and rehabilitation centers, participated in this year’s collection. Each facility stored unused and expired medications until DEC Environmental Conservation Police Officers (ECOs) visited on Wednesday, March 27, in Suffolk County, and Thursday, March 28, in Nassau County. The stored medications were brought to the Covanta Waste-to-Energy Plant in Huntington, which volunteered its services to incinerate the products.
“Covanta is proud to provide the safe disposal of drugs which assists in the prevention of drug abuse and in the protection of water on Long Island,” said |Paul Stauder, president, Covanta Environmental Solutions.”The work the Department of Environmental Conversation is spearheading throughout the state is critical to ending the practice of flushing drugs by residents and institutions. By destroying medication at our Energy-from-Waste facilities, the state is also ensuring the secure destruction of these drugs in an environmentally sound manner.”
In addition to collection events, DEC encourages New Yorkers to use medication collection box locations, which can be found by visiting DEC’s website and clicking on the NYS Medication Drop Box Locations map.
DEC launched its Pilot Pharmaceutical Take Back program in May 2018, and installed 250 medication collection boxes at retail pharmacies, hospitals, and long-term care facilities all across New York State.
Since May 2018, DEC has collected and destroyed 15,229 lbs. of unwanted medications through the pilot program. DEC plans to install an additional 230 medication collection boxes under Phase 2 of the pilot program.
Prior to these initiatives, many facilities flushed unwanted or waste drugs. With technological advances in analytical techniques, it is now possible to detect very low levels of drugs in surface water and groundwater.
Some drugs pass largely unaltered through wastewater treatment plants and enter rivers and other waterways. Flushed medications have been found in New York lakes, rivers, and streams, which can negatively affect the waterways.
A nationwide study conducted by the United States Geological Survey found low levels of drugs such as antibiotics, hormones, contraceptives, and steroids in 80 percent of rivers and streams tested.
Medications adversely affect fish and other aquatic wildlife and increase the development of drug-resistant bacteria.
Ratepayer watchdog contends utility overestimated how cost effective six-year program would be, recouping costs contrary to Clean Energy Act
Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight
The New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel is urging the state to reject a $2.78 billion proposal by Public Service Electric & Gas to invest in new energy-efficiency projects across its territory.
In filings with the state Board of Public Utilities, Rate Counsel’s experts argued the utility overstated how cost-effective the proposed six-year program would be. They also contended a provision to recoup revenues PSE&G would lose due to its energy-saving actions is contrary to the Clean Energy Act (CEA) signed by Gov. Phil Murphy last May.
PSE&G submitted the petition last September, part of a $4 billionfiling, seeking to align its spending with the clean-energy bill signed only a few months earlier. The utility argued the money spent on 22 energy-efficiency programs would save customers more than $5.7 billion over the 20-year life of the program.
NJ’s national energy-efficiency ranking
New Jersey currently ranks 29th nationwide in energy savings, according to the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. PSE&G contends its energy-efficiency filing is the right thing to do for its customers and the state, according to Karen Johnson, a spokeswoman for the utility.“The programs we have proposed will save customers billions of dollars in energy costs, create thousands of green jobs in New Jersey, improve air quality, and drastically reduce the state’s carbon footprint,’’ she said.
But Rate Counsel and its consultants argued the company’s filing is premature, since the BPU has yet to wind up its own proceeding regarding the interpretation of the clean-energy law and its requirements.
“PSE&G does not have the authority to impose its own interpretation of the CEA in order to direct billions of dollars of ratepayers’ dollars to its proposed programs,’’ Erza Hausman, a consultant for Rate Counsel argued in a filing.
No exclusive for PSE&G
The Rate Counsel’s consultants also urged the BPU to reject the utility’s bid to become the exclusive agent for regulated energy-efficiency projects within its territory, a controversial proposal given that a competitive private market exists that could offer customers more varied choices in how to reduce energy use.
“I wouldn’t want to see it monopolized,’’ said Rate Counsel director Stefanie Brand. “That’s not good for consumers. There’s a role for utilities, but it’s not necessarily the only game in town.’’
New Jersey requires details of manufacture, use, and discharge of the chemicals
Jon Hurdle reports for NJ Spotlight
New Jersey stepped up its nation-leading efforts to curb toxic PFAS chemicals on Monday by ordering five industrial companies to pay for the investigation and cleanup of contaminated sites and hand over details on their manufacture, use, and discharge of the chemicals.
The Department of Environmental Protection said the companies are responsible for “significant contamination” of New Jersey’s water and air with the chemicals and have understood their toxic nature for decades even as scientists raise increasing concerns about health risks. Now, the companies are being directed to compensate the DEP for its testing and remediation of the sites so far and to take responsibility for cleanup going forward.
“Respondents are responsible for the significant PFAS contamination across New Jersey and the costs the Department has incurred and will incur, responding to this threat to public health, safety, and the environment,” the DEP said in a 16-page directive.It named Solvay Specialty Polymers and Solvay Solexis; E.I. Dupont de Nemours and DowDupont; Dupont Specialty Products; Chemours, and 3M as the responsible parties.
New health limits on two of the chemicals
It also announced long-awaited health limits on two of the chemicals — PFOA and PFOS — that will be formally adopted for drinking water on April 1. The new maximum contaminant limits (MCLs) of 14 parts per trillion and 13 parts per trillion, respectively, will match new state groundwater standards for the chemicals.
Last September, New Jersey became the first state in the country to regulate another PFAS chemical, PFNA, and is setting tough new standards in the absence of federal regulation.
The chemicals, formerly used in consumer products like non-stick cookware and flame-retardant fabrics, are linked to some cancers and other complaints including low birth weights, immune-system problems, and elevated cholesterol.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which has been under pressure from advocates to set national standards on PFAS, said in February that it would begin the process of regulating PFOA and PFOS but didn’t specify limits nor say how long it would take to implement them.
Catherine McCabe, DEP commissionerDEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe said any EPA regulation could take years to implement and so it was incumbent on states to act.“Now is the time for action at the state level,” said McCabe. “The current EPA plan leaves millions of Americans exposed to harmful chemicals for too long by choosing a drawn-out process that will delay establishing a federal maximum contaminant level for PFAS.”
First in the nation
McCabe said the directive was the first of its kind in the nation and takes its authority from state laws on air and water pollution and spill compensation.
Ed Lloyd, an environmental law professor at Columbia University, said the department has the clear legal authority to issue the directive, which he said is certainly the first initiative of its kind on the PFAS chemicals.
“This is the use of comprehensive department authority to solve a problem in a comprehensive and complete way,” he said. “They have clear statutory authority to do this, and they are exercising it in an appropriate and legal manner.”
The Environmental Working Group, a national nonprofit that advocates for tougher PFAS standards, said New Jersey’s latest move shows that it is far ahead of the EPA in curbing the chemicals.
“New Jersey is taking real steps to address the statewide contamination of PFAS chemicals, and importantly ensure that the polluters are held responsible for funding the cleanup,” said EWG senior scientist, Dr. David Andrews, in a statement. “New Jersey should serve as a model for collecting information about past and ongoing PFAS use.”
‘…lack of federal action’
With its new move to hold manufacturers responsible, New Jersey confirmed its position as a leader in governmental efforts to protect public health from the chemicals.
“This is much-needed forthright action by New Jersey in the face of the expanding PFAS water crisis and the lack of federal action by the Environmental Protection Agency,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, an environmental group that has long campaigned for strict regulation of the chemicals.
“The directive today and the proposal to adopt PFOA and PFOS safe drinking water standards on April 1 are providing the protection so urgently needed across the state, where PFAS contamination is amongst the highest in the nation.”
DEP tests of public water systems in all but one of New Jersey’s counties during 2009 and 2010 found up to eight PFAS chemicals in 70 percent of samples. In 2018, officials placed consumption advisories on some fish after they were found to contain the chemicals at 10 sites.
By March 19 this year, about a fifth of public water systems sampled were found with as many as three PFAS chemicals at or above the official health limits, the DEP said. Some private water wells are also contaminated.
By June 2018, 284 private wells out of 992 sampled had PFOA at above the health limit, while 40 exceeded the limit for PFOS.
Richard Isaksen has been clamming and crabbing in Raritan Bay and fishing lower New York Bay for 50 of his 63 years. It’s a hard life, but it’s the only one he knows, and all he wants for himself and his fellow fishermen is to be able to keep plying those waters.
“We ain’t asking for nothing,” said Isaksen, of Middletown, who’s the skipper of the 65-foot fishing boat Isaetta and president of the Belford Seafood Coop in Monmouth County. “We just want to make a living.”
But that could much tougher, Isaksen said, if state regulators join federal counterparts in approving the so-called Raritan Loop, a 23-mile underwater natural gas pipeline that would run along the sea floor across Raritan Bay and Lower New York Bay to Brooklyn.
___________________________________________________ Editor’s Note: As the New Jerseyans were opposing the pipeline, an opposite lobbying effort was taking place on the New York side of the bay. Grid steps up pressure for undersea pipeline approval ___________________________________________________
“They’re going to interrupt everything in the bay,” said Isaaksen, whose Monmouth County fishing cooperative belongs to a coalition of environmentalists, fishermen and elected officials opposed to the project. “They’re going to rip up the clam beds. They’re going to destroy the crab beds where the crabs bed down. And then it goes out to Brooklyn, south of the Rockaways, right? That’s where we do our fluke fishing.”
The Williams Companies, Inc., a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company, has already been granted permits by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the Raritan loop, part of Williams’ Northeast Supply Enhancement project, a $1 billion expansion of the 10,000-mile Transco Pipeline network stretching from Texas to New York.
The Raritan Loop is a 26-inch pipeline that would form a loop with an existing gas pipeline, built in 1951 and operating at capacity, that also stretches across the Raritan and New York bays. The existing pipeline was meant to serve a much smaller market.
A Williams spokesman, Chris Stockton, said the new stretch of the pipeline would serve a dual function: provide redundancy, or “reliability,” for the existing 1.8 million gas users in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and other parts of Long Island; and increase capacity to that market, which is expanding through new development and through some 8,000 customers converting each year from oil heat to natural gas.
Stockton added any disruption to shellfish beds or fisheries would be temporary.
Following completion of a final environmental impact study by Williams, FERC issued a finding on Jan. 25 that the project would not have a significant environmental impact, though the agency did conclude that it “may affect, and is likely to adversely affect, right whale, fin whale, and Atlantic sturgeon.”
The project still needs approvals from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which is now weighing its decision following a public hearing on March 18 in East Brunswick.
The coalition has asked the DEP to hold another public hearing, this time somewhere along the Raritan Bayfront, and to extend the comment period, now set to expire April 17, in order to let those most impacted by the project voice their concerns. Asked Tuesday whether it would grant those requests, the DEP said no.
“DEP has held two public hearings on this, including one last week,” a DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said in an email. “The DEP is under a statutory deadline to render a decision by (around) May 19. As part of its review, the DEP will consider public comments received both in writing and during the public hearings.”
