NJ Assembly committee to consider energy bills on Jan. 7

The New Jersey’s Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee will meet on Thursday, February 7, 2019, at 10:00 AM in Committee Room 9, 3rd Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ.

The following bills will be considered:

A2469 (DeAngelo / Mukherji) – Concerns installation and maintenance of solar panels in common interest communities.

A3315 (Vainieri Huttle) – Requires electric, gas, and water public utilities to provide bill credits to volunteer fire companies, first aid, rescue, and emergency squads, and nonprofit homeless and domestic violence assistance organizations.

A4010 / S604 (Pinkin / Smith) – Provides that electric power supplier license issued by BPU may be renewed without expiring if certain conditions are met.

A4012 / S605 (Pinkin / Smith) – Provides that natural gas supplier license issued by BPU may be renewed without expiring if certain conditions are met.

AR107 (Dancer) – Affirms the importance of modernizing and replacing certain natural gas pipelines in this State.

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Trump wall opponents await bulldozers in a cemetery

Environmentalists, veterans of the Standing Rock protests and Carrizo/Comecrudo tribal members are vowing to stare down the president’s bulldozers.

Activists raise their fists atop the levee overlooking the Eli Jackson Cemetery, the exact
location of Trump’s impending border wall.

Gus Bova reports for the Texas Observer:

The 154-year-old Eli Jackson Cemetery sits about a mile from the Rio Grande, south of the Hidalgo County town of San Juan. Encompassing just a single acre, it hosts the remains of some 150 South Texans. Just a few feet north rises a sloped earthen river levee, which the Trump administration soon plans to transform into a 30-foot concrete and steel border wall. South of the wall, the feds plan to clear a 150-foot “enforcement zone,” raising fears that bodies will be exhumed, and most of the cemetery razed. But the dead have new company: a small group of Native American activists and allies who say they’ll stand in front of the bulldozers and refuse to move.

On Wednesday, about 15 people milled about a makeshift campsite at the cemetery where they’d recently erected 10 tents. Over the last three weeks, they’d cleared out Johnson grass and other weeds that had overgrown many of the graves. As I approached the site, Juan Mancias, a long-time environmental and Native American rights activist, came out to welcome me to what he called “Yalui Village.” Mancias, 64, is the tribal chair of the Carrizo/Comecrudo, a group Indigenous to South Texas and Northern Mexico that claims about 1,500 members but isn’t recognized by the federal government. “Yalui” means “butterfly” in the Carrizo/Comecrudo language.

Juan Mancias during a prayer song at the Eli Jackson Cemetery. GUS BOVA

Last month, Mancias met with descendants of those buried in the cemetery and hatched the encampment idea. Now, he’s leading a coalition of Carrizo-Comecrudo members, Valley residents and allies hailing from South Dakota, Colorado and Missouri in a last-minute bid to stop the border wall. Mancias, who grew up in North Texas but whose family is from the Valley, believes that unmarked graves of Native Americans would be unearthed during wall construction. He’s also a distant descendant of some buried in the cemetery. Around seven people are currently camping overnight at the site, while more come during the day. The group has pledged to engage in civil disobedience if necessary. “We’re here, ready to protect the environment and our rights as the original people of this land,” Mancias said. “What are they gonna do? Run us over?”

Some of the activists are veterans of the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. One Lakota/Dakota activist, DuWayne Redwater, came from South Dakota to join the Texas encampment. On Wednesday, Redwater led the group twice in prayer songs. Asked why he traveled so far, he rebuffed the question. “Being from where I’m from, it’s kind of our job,” he said, “to be landlords and caretakers of this land.” Others are locals, like Patricia Rubio, who works as a plant nursery technician at the nearby National Butterfly Center, which is also threatened by the wall. Rubio said she plans to grow plants near the cemetery to attract bees and butterflies. The group also plans to set up camps on other properties in the area, depending on how wall construction advances.

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Governor Murphy signs funding, other environmental bills

     TRENTON – Today, Governor Phil Murphy signed the following environmental bills into law:

     A2732 (Andrzejczak, Dancer / Van Drew) – Clarifies that use of propane-powered noise making device is allowed as a non-lethal method of wildlife control on farmland.

A4579 (Lopez, Pinkin / Sweeney, Oroho) – Appropriates $28,883,557 in 2003 and 1992 bond act monies for loans for dam restoration and repair projects and inland waters projects.

     A4733 (Taliaferro, Houghtaling, Downey / Gopal, Cruz-Perez) – Appropriates $15,000,000 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for municipal planning incentive grants for farmland preservation purposes.

     A4735 (Houghtaling, Verrelli, Taliaferro / Cruz-Perez, Gopal) – Appropriates $1,591,000 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for grants to certain nonprofit organizations for farmland preservation purposes.

     A4736 (Armato, Freiman, Murphy / Oroho, Gopal) – Appropriates $8,896,229 to State Agriculture Development Committee for farmland preservation purposes.

     A4748 (Pintor Marin, Chiaravalloti, Quijano / Greenstein, Bateman) – Authorizes NJ Infrastructure Bank to expend additional sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2019.

     A4751 (Freiman, Tully, Murphy / Codey, Bateman) – Appropriates $15.696 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to DEP for State acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects.

    S679 (Bateman, Smith / DeAngelo, Mukherji, Danielsen) – Increases civil penalties for certain natural gas or hazardous liquid facility safety violations.

     S3186 (Codey / Mukherji, McKnight, Schaer) – Amends list of environmental infrastructure projects approved for long-term funding for FY2019 to include new projects and remove certain projects.

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Nearly $570,000 announced in NY Ocean Research Grants

DEC and New York Sea Grant Announce Nearly $570,000 in New York Ocean Research Grants

In partnership with New York Sea Grant (NYSG), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced nearly $570,000 in ocean research grants awarded to investigative teams at Stony Brook University (SBU), CUNY York College, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The teams will work to identify the biodiversity of the offshore ecosystem of the New York Bight and investigate the species and uses of New York’s ocean environment.

“The ocean research grants announced today support the research work necessary to better understand of the impacts of climate change to marine resources, including ocean acidification and rising sea temperatures,” said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos. “It is vital that we work together with our partner agencies, researchers, and investigators to proactively protect our natural resources from changing ocean chemistry and safeguard the long-term sustainability of our fisheries.”

Through New York State’s 10-year Ocean Action Plan (OAP), supported by the Environmental Protection Fund’s Ocean and Grant Lakes funding, the state has prioritized dedicated research to inform long-term monitoring programs and to improve science-based understanding of how interrelated components of the ocean ecosystem function off New York’s coast.

The 2019 – 2021 grant awarded projects will begin in March and represent the first of two rounds of requests for proposals (RFP) from a five-year, $1.1 million cooperative agreement between DEC and NYSG. A second RFP will fund projects in 2021-23. Goals for the research outlined below will assist in defining the relationship between human use of the ocean and the natural processes that drive the offshore environment:

Ocean acidification in the New York Bight: Associations with eutrophication processes and implications for shellfish populations – $195,000
Researchers Chris Gobler, Michael Frisk, Lesley Thorne, SBU School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), will investigate the impacts of ocean acidification on shellfish, crustaceans, fish, and zooplankton in the New York Bight and possible connections to oceanic eutrophication. Ocean eutrophication begins with the increased load of nutrients to coastal waters and can stimulate an explosive growth of algae (algal blooms) that depletes the water of oxygen when the algae die and are eaten by bacteria.
Effects of current and projected climate conditions on Atlantic Surfclam (Spisula solidissima) – $200,000
Investigators Bassem Allam, Robert Cerrato, Emmanuelle Pales-Espinosa, Kamazima Lwiza, SBU SoMAS, will study environmental impacts to this shellfish fishery, as well as the implication for other marine life species regime shifts occurring in the New York Bight with an increase in global temperatures and potential ocean acidification.
Applying environmental DNA analysis to biodiversity assessment and long-term ecological monitoring across New York’s marine waters – $174,000Assessing the rich and biodiverse marine life of the New York Bight and the submarine Hudson Canyon will begin to characterize the offshore ocean ecosystem and the creatures that inhabit or visit New York ocean waters. An additional focus on outreach to communicate these findings at the New York Aquarium is the focus for researchers Elizabeth Alter, CUNY York College; and Howard Rosenbaum, Merry Camhi, Wildlife Conservation Society.

New York State Ocean Action Plan
New York’s long-understudied inshore and offshore ocean waters contain a wealth of information on the health, biodiversity, and resiliency of marine organisms and their ocean habitat. To achieve New York’s goals in ensuring the ecological integrity of the ocean ecosystem and the goods and services it provides, the state must first explore the questions pertaining to the ecosystem and collect data needed to inform future decisions on how we use the ocean environment.

Maritime commerce, commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, and other recreational business are key components to New York’s economy that rely heavily on the health of the state’s ocean and estuarine ecosystems. Understanding the current baseline conditions of the ocean ecosystem and how these are changing is a key factor as new and traditional uses of the offshore area expand with new technologies and new resources. It is imperative to measure environmental changes occurring with ocean ecosystems to understand the scope of climate change in the New York Bight, as well as the new uses designed to reduce those impacts.

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Massive fire turns Marcal Paper plant into an icy skeleton

Drone video captures the charred and smoldering remains of the historic Marcal Paper plant in Elmwood Park Bergen County. (Video by Andre Malok | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

‘Amazing’ no one hurt battling 10-alarm fire that devastated iconic building

Anthony Attrino reports for NJ.com:

Firefighters continue to douse hot spots in the smoldering remains of the Marcal Paper plant in Bergen County on Thursday after a wind-swept 10-alarm inferno collapsed the building, forced evacuations and closed nearby schools.

But miraculously, no one – not a firefighter, not a single worker – was injured in the massive blaze, Elmwood Park officials said in an update Thursday morning.

“No injuries reported to me, which is amazing with a fire of that magnitude, the weather conditions as they are and were,” Elmwood Park police chief Michael Foligno, who noted the significance of the company that employs 200 people in the town.

“Devastating,” Foligno said. “That was the main hub for employment for a lot of people for a lot of years – generations, families.”

The facility that has been a longtime community landmark with its red neon sign, he said.

“That’s an iconic building,” Foligno said. “You’ll see a lot of people talking about coming home from a long trip and seeing the Marcal sign lit, letting you know you’re home. It’s going to be hard for everybody.”

Firefighters battled gusty winds and freezing temperatures, bringing the blaze under control by 2 a.m. If it hadn’t been for the wind, Foligno said he expected the fire would have been relatively minor.

“All of a sudden the winds really started blazing,” Foligno said. “The fire just took off from there.”

The fire is not believed to be suspicious, though investigators and the arson squad won’t be able to examine the scene until firefighters finish picking apart rubble and dousing hot spots. A demolition crew is on standby for when it’s deemed safe. About 90 percent of the footprint of the plant was destroyed, Foligno said.

“We’re trying to get the scene as safe as possible before we go in,” Foligno said.

Foligno said some firefighters are being sent home as officials reduce the size of the perimeter.

Five homes were evacuated for a couple of hours. Some residents stayed at the recreation center, which has been used as a warming center while others stayed with family members.

“When the fire was really blazing and the structure was still standing because of the height and the wind it was (shooting) burning embers onto those properties.”

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Inside the Northeast’s largest food-waste recycler

Photo credit: Cole Rosengren

The company recently opened its latest farm-based anaerobic digester, with more on the way. CEO John Hanselman explains why his business works where others have failed.

Cole Rosengren reports for Waste Dive:

Up a steep dirt road in Haverhill, Massachusetts, past a set of old farm buildings, sits one of the newest anaerobic digesters in the country. It’s the fourth facility of its kind from Vanguard Renewables, with many more on the way.

On a bright and brisk December afternoon, a tanker truck has pulled up to empty its liquefied organic contents into the underground receiving pit. The system can process up to 120 tons per day, but it will take multiple days for the slurry to actually make it into the adjacent digester domes.

First, it will be held in a 15-foot-deep tank and screened for contaminants, adjusted for acidity and “blended” before getting fed into the system. Keeping the colony of methnoagenic bugs that feast on it even-keeled is key to the operation’s success — a crash could result in extended downtime.

Photo credit: Cole Rosengren

Walking around the site, you can barely perceive odors — and that’s by design. Following the expensive downfalls of other sites around the country, Vanguard has taken extra precautions.

“We may be overzealous, but you can’t underestimate the impact of food waste,” said CEO John Hanselman.

It also helps that Vanguard’s “farm-powered” model is designed to come with automatic community benefits. While Hanselman said the six-year-old company’s original plan was to focus on energy production, their scope has since expanded to include much more.

A small adjacent building contains a 1 MW engine capable of generating up to 7,700 MWh of electricity per year from the resulting methane. In addition to a 20-year power purchase agreement with the city of Haverhill, Vanguard is providing free heat to the multigenerational family business — Crescent Farms — that hosts it on their land. The AD facility also handles all of their manure, creates enough liquid fertilizer for them to swear off synthetic material entirely and makes an animal bedding byproduct that has reportedly led to higher quality milk yields among the cows.

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Vanguard was named “Organics Recycler of the Year” by the NWRA in 2018 and enjoys growing regional recognition. However, it still has a relatively low profile on the national scale — something sure to change once the company opens a new digester in Vermont, three more in Massachusetts, three in New York and five de-packaging facilities throughout the Northeast.

Following the tour, Waste Dive sat down with Hanselman to discuss expansion plans, his outlook on industry competition and how Vanguard’s approach fits into broader national trends.

Read Waste Dive’s Q&A here

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