Newark claims employee tampered with lead sample

Rebecca Panico reports for TAPinto Newark:

NEWARK, NJ – A city official yesterday claimed that one home in the East Ward once showed elevated levels of lead because a former city employee tampered with the testing.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and other city officials have repeatedly said those in the East Ward need not worry about elevated lead levels. But a group that is suing the city over the issue claims officials are “misleading” East Ward residents about which areas are affected. 
Newark Department of Water and Sewer Utilities Deputy Director Kareem Adeem today said that a former disgruntled employee may have had a vendetta against the city, and caused an East Ward’s sample to spike. He declined to name the person when asked.
“We had a former employee that used to conduct samples who was terminated,” Adeem said. “He fought us in court, he lost his case. We still had him on the list to give us samples. He spiked the samples. To this day, he’s never allowed us to come back into the house to re-sample.”
The fabricated lead levels could have been done with a pencil, Adeem added.
The unnamed employee was brought up during a wide-ranging press conference today that was meant to address what the city has called “misinformation” circulating in the media.
TAPinto Newark last month reported on federal court filings from the Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), which is suing Newark. The group filed several briefs in court shortly after the city began to distribute lead filters to residents. The NRDC claimed the information put out by the city may not have been accurate. 
“Plaintiffs are deeply troubled that Newark and its representatives continue to minimize the geographic scope of the problem,” lawyers for the NRDC wrote in an Oct. 15 court filing. “Newark residents rely on these assurances in making critical decisions about whether and how to protect themselves and their families. The City’s public announcements must not contain misleading information; if they do, Newark residents will continue to be harmed.”
Newark began distributing filters to residents in October after it received preliminary results of a study that investigated what was causing elevated lead levels. The study was commissioned by the city and conducted by CDM Smith, an engineering firm based in Edison.
The report found the chemical the city put in its Pequannock water supply that prevented lead from dissolving into pipes had stopped working.
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Head of troubled Newark, NJ water system has died

Rebecca Panico reports for Tapinto Newark:


NEWARK, NJ – The head of the city department that has been addressing elevated levels of lead in residents’ water died Wednesday night, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said today.
Andrea Hall Adebowale worked in the city’s Department of Water and Sewer Utilities for about 30 years and spent the last five years as its director. She was a Newark native and graduate of Newark Public Schools, according to the city website.
“She’s probably the most informed person about all of these things outside of our experts,” Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said at the start of a press conference to address elevated levels
of lead in the city. “We’re going to miss her and it’s unfortunate.”
Adebowale spoke to reporters at an Oct. 12 press conference, when the city first announced  it would distribute lead filters. She came up to the lectern in a wheelchair before standing. An oxygen tube she was using was visible.
Baraka said she lived in the West Ward, where elevated levels of lead were found. The mayor said lead was one of the last things
she spoke to him about.
“Two days ago I spoke to her in the hospital and what she wanted
to talk to me about while she was laying there was this issue,” Baraka said. “So it is deeply felt by the people here in Newark.”
The deputy director of the city’s water department, Kareem Adeem, took questions today from the media during the city hall press conference on the topic of lead. 
Related: Assured water was safe, Newark residents outraged after test


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BPU hiring consultant to help overhaul solar program

Existing program has cost utility ratepayers more than $2.8 billion over a decade. Board of Public Utilities is under pressure to cut costs for utility customers

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

The state Board of Public Utilities this week said it is planning to hire a firm to help it redesign its solar-energy program, a policy it is under pressure to overhaul and make less costly to utility customers.
The consultant, yet to be approved by the New Jersey Department of Treasury, will help determine how the state will end its current system of incenting solar development by June 2021.
Under the current system, New Jersey has vaulted into one of the nation’s leading solar states with nearly 100,000 arrays installed. It is the fastest growing segment of the clean-energy sector in the state.
But the system’s cost to ratepayers has spurred legislation to revamp the program. New Jersey’s solar program is currently financed through solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs). A tradeable commodity, the certificates are sold by owners of the solar systems to electricity suppliers, based on the power they produce. Costs are then passed on to the suppliers’ ratepayers.

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Looking for a cheaper option

Over the past decade, those costs have exceeded $2.8 billion, leading policymakers and legislators to seek a less costly option. While many developers in the solar sector agree the system needs to be overhauled, they fear the market could collapse if a smooth transition to a new framework is not designed.
Industry leaders have argued recently that such a collapse could cause massive layoffs in a sector that now employs more than 7,000 in New Jersey. It also could leave many solar projects — including those undertaken by school systems, municipalities, hospitals, and others — without sufficient revenues to repay the bonds used to finance them.

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Christie rumored to be Trump’s next Attorney General

New Jersey's former governor is on a shortlist of people to replace former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to a new report.
New Jersey’s former governor is on a shortlist of people to replace former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to a new report. (Andy Mills/NJ Advance Media)
Matt Arco reports for NJ.com:
Former Gov. Chris Christie is on President Donald Trump‘s short list of less than a half-dozen people to be the nation’s next attorney general, according to multiple reports..
New Jersey’s 55th governor has coveted the position. Now that Trump has pushed former Attorney General Jeff Sessions out of as the country’s chief law enforcement officer Wednesday, Christie’s name has emerged as a possible replacement.
The White House confirmed to NJ Advance Media Christie was there Thursday and that he met with Trump adviser Jared Kushner to discuss prison reform. It was a previously scheduled meeting, according to the White House.
Christie, along with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, outgoing Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Attorney General William Barr, who served under President George H. W. Bush, are being considered, CBS News and CNN reported.
CBS News predicted the list of names is likely to grow in the coming days.

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Not too late for Murphy to overhaul Pinelands Commission


 Yesterday, the Times of Trenton Editorial Board wrote: 


The million-plus acres of pinelands sprawling across 56 communities and seven Garden State counties represent one of the most highly protected environments in the country. And for good reason.
Rare species of plants and animals flourish in its leafy expanses, trillions of gallons of water flow under its sandy soil.
But many of the state’s environmental activists are rightfully concerned – if not downright angry – that the men and women charged with the stewardship of this precious jewel have bungled the job.
They’re calling on Gov. Phil Murphy to overhaul the New Jersey Pinelands Commission, the 15-member panel charged with preserving, protecting and enhancing the natural and cultural resources of the vast parcel of land that more than 40 years ago became the country’s first National Reserve.
At a fiery rally in front of the annex of the State Capitol last month, speaker after speaker urged Murphy to undo damage inflicted by his immediate predecessor, whose appointments to the commission often seemed driven less by protection than by politics. 
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Seven of the members are appointed by the governor. Seven others are named by freeholders from the counties within the Pinelands – Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Ocean – while one is appointed by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
Under the watch of former Gov. Chris Christie, the panel has repeatedly approved gas pipeline measures, such as the New Jersey Natural Gas Southern Reliability Link Pipeline, and has fallen short on protecting the supply of fresh water that lies beneath the Pinelands. 
Moreover, rally speakers pointed out, individuals and environmental organizations have been repeatedly shut out of the decision-making process, leaving the commission without a full understanding of the facts before members make critical decisions.
Doug O’Malley, director of the watchdog organization Environment New Jersey, took aim at Christie’s appointments, individuals he charged were part of a “clear attempt to undermine the Pinelands.”
And he decried the firing of several long-term commissioners, among them Bob Jackson, the only African-American on the panel, whose only “crime” was to stand up for the ideals of preservation and the future of the Pines.
“Gov. Christie played Bridgegate-like politics with the Pinelands, and with Pinelands commissioners,” O’Malley charged.
All seven of the commissioners chosen by the Republican governor are now serving under expired terms. They include its chairman, Sean W. Earlen, the mayor of Lumberton and a vice president of a Pennsylvania construction firm.
We’re not sure why Murphy, with all his progressive zeal, has failed to put his own stamp on the commission 10 months into his tenure. But it’s not too late.
The coalition that rallied in Trenton last month was so right. It’s time for new leadership to assure that this remarkable gem within our borders remains an ecological wonder, and not a developers’ playground.

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Mystery bridge under drained Lake Hopatcong water


David M. Zimmer reports for North Jersey.com:


Every five years, a mysterious stone causeway of unknown origin emerges as the waters of New Jersey’s largest lake drain.

Jutting from the shallows of Lake Hopatcong’s northern shore, the strip of stacked stones connects a preserved stretch of the mainland with uninhabited Liffy Island. Only when the lake is lowered is the bridge exposed.

That the bridge is typically hidden below water is curious. However, its height is explained by another typically submerged artifact: an ore loading dock off Nolan’s Point.

Who built the bridge remains a mystery. Though, there are a few suspects, said Marty Kane of the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum.



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