Enviros on separate pages when it comes to fracking bans

Fracking wastewater being dumped into a holding pool.

Tom Johnson reports
for NJ Spotlight:

Same groups that previously backed prohibition want to focus instead on fracking ban coming before Delaware River Basin Commission

State lawmakers are moving once again to ban the dumping of fracking waste in New Jersey. But, not so fast, say some of the environmentalists who have pushed the proposal for years.
Legislation (S-678) that would ban the practice, a bill previously twice vetoed by former Gov. Chris Christie, won approval earlier this month from the Senate Environment and Energy Committee.
But the same groups that backed a prohibition in the past now want to hold off sending it to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk. Instead, they want to press the governor, one of the five members of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC), to focus on another fracking ban pending on that agency’s agenda.
The DRBC is expected to vote this fall on a new rule that would ban the practice of fracking, the process of injecting massive amounts of water, sand, and chemicals into shale formations to extract natural gas, within the basin.


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‘Corrupt’ Menendez just faced ‘Trump clone’ Hugin in their only debate. Here’s how it went.

Republican challenger Bob Hugin (left) and Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (right) debate at NJTV's studios in Newark on Wednesday night. It was the only debate of their race.
Republican challenger Bob Hugin (left) and Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (right) debate at NJTV’s studios in Newark on Wednesday night. It was the only debate of their race. (Julio Cortez | AP  Pool)

By Brent Johnson and Jonathan D. Salant 

NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

In their first and only debate in New Jersey’s contentious U.S. Senate election, Democratic incumbent Robert Menendez and Republican challenger Bob Hugin continued the name-calling that has characterized their unexpectedly close race.
Squaring off at NJTV’s studios in Newark on Wednesday night, the two Union City natives, both 64, swapped some of the same insults they have been tossing at each other.
The debate was a lot more civil than the campaign has been, except when Hugin defended his advertisements resurrecting the unproven charges that Menendez slept with underage prostitutes.
Highlights from the New Jersey U.S. Senate Debate 2018
The commercials were roundly criticized by nonpartisan fact-checkers and no evidence ever surfaced to support the allegations.
“The people of New Jersey deserve all the information,” said Hugin, a former CEO of Summit-based pharmaceutical company Celgene Co.
“It’s a lie, Bob,” Menendez shot back. “You know it’s a lie.”
The debate took place as polls show Hugin remaining within single digits of Menendez, less than two weeks before Election Day — despite New Jersey’s Democratic lean and the unpopularity here of President Donald Trump, a fellow Republican whom Hugin supported in 2016.

Highlights from the New Jersey U.S. Senate Debate 2018

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Hotly contested stormwater utilities bill inches forward

                                                                                             Chesapeake Bay Magazine


New Jersey has been talking about overhauling decrepit stormwater systems for a good 10 years. Is real progress finally in the offing?

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

A decade-long legislative push to overhaul the system that controls runoff from storms that pollute New Jersey’s waterways and increases flooding is edging closer to becoming law.
By a narrow 5-3 vote, the legislation (S-1073) won approval from an Assembly committee this past Monday. The bill, debated in one form or another for years, aims to fix a $15 billion problem — repairing and replacing aging, and in many cases failing, stormwater systems.
Those systems end up fouling a large portion of the state’s waters anytime it rains heavily, an occurrence that is becoming more common with climate change already impacting New Jersey. Aging infrastructure, much of it poorly maintained, fails to adequately control runoff from parking lots, streets, and farmland.
The result? A wide range of contaminants, including heavy metals, oil, and fertilizers wind up in streams, rivers, and bays — a major reason why only 5 percent of New Jersey’s waterways meet federal standards for being fishable, swimmable and drinkable.

Taxing impervious surfaces

The way to tackle the problem, advocates say, is to do what up to 40 other states have done: create stormwater utilities and give towns and other governmental entities the ability to impose fees on parking lots and other impervious surfaces to fund improvements to failing systems.
Critics, however, have dubbed the fees another “tax,’’ and another expensive expansion of government bureaucracy.
“I know people get offended at this, but it is a rain tax,’’ said Assemblyman Hal Wirths, a Republican from Sussex County, who voted against the bill in the Assembly Telecommunications Committee.

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Some of Philly’s recyclables are being burned, not reused

reports for Action News ABC 6:

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) —

You collect it, sort it, and think it is being recycled.

But instead of being reused, some of the recyclables in the City of Philadelphia are being burned.

The reason comes down to money. In the past, municipalities actually made money getting rid of recyclables.

Not anymore.

In recent years, the price to get rid of bottles and other recyclables has skyrocketed, leaving budgets in tatters.

Why is the price going up? China, which used to be a dumping ground for much of America’s recycling, has tightened its standards.

They’re now turning away some foreign garbage.

“I would say we’re in a bit of a crisis given what’s going on in China with their strict regulations banning certain materials,” said Commissioner Carlton Williams of the Philadelphia Streets Department.

China is now keeping a close eye on what, in recycling parlance, is called contamination. It’s when the potential recyclables come in wet, or still contain food or residual waste.

All of those things play a big role in what they can accept and process.

In 2012, Philadelphia took in $6 million getting rid of its recycling. That was the last profitable year.

It now pays between $3 million and $4 million annually, and that number is climbing. The city’s recycling contract with Republic Services expired at the end of September.

Commissioner Williams says, last year, the city paid Republic on average $16 per ton to get rid of recycling.

When the contract expired last month, Republic wanted $170 per ton until a new contract was reached. The city refused.

Waste Management stepped in and is now taking half of the city’s recycling at a cost of $78 per ton.

The other half is being incinerated with other trash at a Southwest Philadelphia Covanta facility.


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NJ food-waste recycling bill blocked; changes coming

Cole Rosengren reports
for Waste Dive:

New Jersey State Sen. Bob Smith now recognizes his efforts to
pass a commercial organics diversion mandate, S1206, have essentially stalled. “I’m going to have to go at
it another way with them,” Smith told Waste Dive, referring to a group of
counties who operate landfills and have opposed the bill. “They really
should be out of the food waste business.”
Smith expects to do this through two new amendments. One will
tighten methane emissions regulations for landfills, with penalties for failure
to meet those standards. The second will open up new funding opportunities
for anaerobic digestion or other systems via the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust (EIT). “I’d like to see the EIT not finance
methane recovery in a landfill. That should be stopped because it’s the wrong
way to go,” said Smith.
S1206 is currently in the Senate’s budget and
appropriations committee, following a February vote out of the environment
committee. Smith expects it will stay there for the foreseeable future given
the upcoming holiday season. He now expects to have a new version ready by the
spring of 2019
Smith first introduced a version of this
bill back in 2015. Its
successor, S771, moved further
along and prompted a range of comments from
counties and industry representatives. That bill received the endorsement of
the National Waste & Recycling Association’s local chapter. Though because
New Jersey’s disposal network is largely owned by counties, the majority of which have some
form of flow control, many are still opposed to the concept.
This has remained the case even with key
amendments, such as reducing the coverage radius for generators near a facility
from 35 miles to 25 miles and making landfills with gas capture systems
eligible sites. That latter point had the additional effect of bringing Covanta
into the mix, as waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities would essentially be some of
the only non-compliant sites left. The New Jersey-based company signed on to a letter with
two organics processors that called for an end to the landfill gas exemption.

Because
language is still being drafted, Smith was unclear on whether landfills with
gas capture systems would be taken back off the list of compliant sites, or
whether there might be a phase-out period as other sources have indicated is a
possibility. He did note there could be leeway for existing relationships
between counties and generators, with some type of “grandfather”
provision.


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A great day in the life of the Hudson River and Harbor

Elementary students line up in waders to seine at Kingston Point Beach







Hudson RiverNet  News from the Hudson River Estuary Program
Students in Yonkers look at an Atlantic silversides. Rebecca HouserOn October 16th, waterfronts up and down the Hudson River and the piers of New York Harbor were bustling with activity. Nearly 6,000 students and teachers armed with seine nets, minnow pots, and water-testing gear collected data and studied some of the Hudson River’s 200-plus species of fish and myriad invertebrates, tracked its tides and currents, and examined water quality and chemistry.


During A Day in the Life of the Hudson and Harbor, schools partnered with environmental education centers and DEC using hands-on field techniques to capture a snapshot of the river’s ecology at more than 90 sites. Participating classes represent the diversity of the school population in urban and rural communities along the estuary.

These northern pipefish were caught in the East River at Ferry Point in the Bronx. Photo by Chris BowserFluctuations in fish catches and ranges are due to many factors including weather, tides and salinity. Most are young fish, evidence of the Hudson’s importance as a nursery habitat. One of the more unusual fish caught during the day was the northern pipefish, which blends in perfectly with long seaweed and debris. Like its cousin the seahorse, the male pipefish takes a major role in taking care of its eggs until they hatch.
A Day in the Life of the Hudson and Harbor is sponsored by DEC’s Hudson River Estuary Program and organized with assistance from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.


Watch a clip about this year’s A Day in the Life of the Hudson and Harbor and check out other clips on the NY Department of Environmental Conservation’s YouTube Channel.


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