NY/NJ Baykeeper honorees at annual award reception

Baykeeper's honorees Oct 2018

NY/NJ Baykeeper Board. Chair Judge John D’Amico, Jr., NJDEP Dep. Debbie Mans, Aberdeen Enviro. & Shade Tree Advisory Board. Chair Paul Rinear, NY/NJ Baykeeper COO Meredith DeMarco & CEO Greg Remaud
RED BANK, NJ – It was an evening of environmental advocacy at NY/NJ Baykeeper’s Annual Award Reception & Wine Tasting as the Matawan-based nonprofit organization honored its former Baykeeper and Executive Director Debbie Mans, who was recently named Deputy Commissioner at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).
Also honored was Paul Rinear, Chair of the Aberdeen Environmental and Shade Tree Advisory Board.
The event, held Thursday, October 11, at the Monmouth Boat Club in Red Bank, celebrated the environmental efforts and advocacy of both award recipients.
Before taking the helm of NY/NJ Baykeeper in 2008, Mans served as the Environmental and Energy Policy Advisor to former Gov. Jon Corzine and was later appointed to the New Jersey State Planning Commission. She also served as NY/NJ Baykeeper’s Policy Director from 2002-2006.
Mans has worked with the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association and has served on the boards of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters and New Jersey Future.
Rinear, who serves as Director of Information Technology at CMI in Tinton Falls, is a member of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Alliance and is involved in local environmental groups including the Bayshore Watershed Council, Sierra Club, and Sustainable Jersey.

NY/NJ Baykeeper honorees at annual award reception Read More »

Plastics in 2018: Should I save or should I throw?






Wayne DeFeo breaks down your recycling vs. garbage questions in a video interview below with The North Jersey Record’s Environmental Reporter Scott Fallon.

By Frank Brill, Editor, EnviroPolitics 
 
 How did it get so complicated?

Years ago, a limited amount of milk began appearing on grocers’ shelves in gallon-size plastic jugs. Then, soda and peanut butter and jelly followed. Then all product heck broke loose.

 Seemingly overnight, plastics conquered the grocery shelves without firing a shot. Every consumer who ever suffered the anguishing moment when a glass bottle of ketchup or maple syrup slipped through their grasp can recall the exact moment that they moved to plastic. Cleanup in Aisle 4! 

I remember that I feared that good old Coke might not taste the same when poured from a plastic bottle. But, when I discovered the weight differential in my shopping bag, I figured I’d get used to it.

Still, it didn’t seem quite right, eating or drinking from a plastic container.  But, just as quickly, didn’t our liberal quibbles fade when we learned that those plastic milk jugs and plastic soda bottles were good for the environment?

Yes, they could be recycled into brand new milk cartons and soda bottles, the ones that, empty, whistled past the landfill on their way to the local collection station, not only saving disposal costs but returning nifty sums to local recycling programs.

 Ah, those were the days. Now we are learning the too-good-of-a-good-thing lesson. Product manufacturers who loved the weight-savings in transporting these lighter products (and additional savings from less breakage) started to experiment with newer types of plastic that the boys and girls were cooking up in the chemistry lab. Plastics for wrapping, preserving and displaying their products.

 Like I said, now it’s complicated. Today, we are awash in plastics of multi-chemical denominations. Some are recyclable, many not. Too many, non-biodegrading, are showing up as troublesome particles in streams, rivers, oceans, and fish. 

Are plastics good or evil?   

We think we know where whales would weigh in on that one. For today, however, let’s just focus on what plastics you should place or throw (remember, they don’t break) into your recycling container.

 Environmental reporter Scott Fallon of The North Jersey Record made it easy for us by conducting a video interview with recycling expert Wayne DeFeo, a longtime, member of the Association of New Jersey Recyclers (ANJR) and president of DeFeo Associates. (Disclaimer: Wayne is a friend of mine. ANJR is a client of our sister organization, Brill Public Affairs).

 Take it away, Scott and Wayne!

Like this? Click to receive free updates

Plastics in 2018: Should I save or should I throw? Read More »

Energy Department announces $11.4 M for seven geothermal drilling research projects; One in NY

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the selection of seven projects totaling nearly $11.4 million to advance geothermal energy development. The projects will focus on accelerating the research and development (R&D) of innovative geothermal energy technologies in America.

    “Geothermal energy is a clean and efficient base-load energy resource, making it an important part of our nation’s diverse energy portfolio,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said. “Developing new, efficient drilling technologies will reduce these costs and increase the availability of this domestic renewable energy resource.”

    Currently, American geothermal electricity production is located solely in the western states, where conventional geothermal resources put about 3.8 gigawatts (GW) of electricity on the grid. It has the potential to expand through hydrothermal and enhanced geothermal systems, which could tap into an estimated 100 GW of currently inaccessible resources and remove the geographic barriers of conventional geothermal resources.

    Technological innovation is necessary to economically convert these resources into cost-effective energy resources. The awardees will focus on early-stage R&D projects exploring innovative technologies for drilling geothermal wells that show the ability to reduce non-drilling time, improve rates of penetration, and identify methods to accelerate the transfer of geothermal drilling and related technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.

    The selected projects include: 

    Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, IL): Developing more advanced, low-cost materials using superhard nano-composites combined with ultrafast surface treatment to create new drill bits with tunable properties capable of doubling rates of penetration (ROP) for drilling geothermal wells.

General Electric Company, GE Global Research (Niskayuna, NY): Developing and testing a new directional drilling orientation sensor capable of operating at 300°C for 1000 hours; this will enable measurement-while-drilling (MWD) at the significantly higher temperatures needed for geothermal drilling than current tools.
Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK): Developing a new detailed model for common drill bits (PDC) based on tracking cutter wear from rock/bit interactions and then design a system to optimize geothermal drilling based on real-time data from that model.

Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM): Developing sensing tools, algorithms, and actuators for an intelligent drilling architecture which optimizes how deep the drill cutter goes in real-time, leading to longer life for down-hole drilling components, reduced unplanned trips, and more consistent drilling rates.

Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM): Developing and testing a new all-metal down-hole motor that turns drilling fluid flow into torque; this motor will remove current temperature limitations, reduce vibrations, and enable directional drilling into high-temperature geothermal reservoirs.

Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (College Station, TX): Developing and testing a new drill bit system that uses nanosecond micro-plasma discharge to create localized shock waves which initiate micro-cracks ahead of the bit, making it easier to cut rock; this system is capable of doubling ROP for drilling in geothermal wells.

University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK): Developing and testing smart lost circulation materials (LCM) that use shape memory polymers activated by geothermal temperature to prevent the loss of fluid into fractured rock next to the drilled wellbore; the smart LCM expands within the fractures to reduce non-drilling time (NDT) and strengthen the wellbore in high-temperature geothermal drilling operations.



Energy Department announces $11.4 M for seven geothermal drilling research projects; One in NY Read More »

Food scrap recycling failing NYC sniff test, so far

(AP Photo/Stephen Groves)

Stephen R. Groves reports for the Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — New Yorkers are so far turning up their noses at the city’s ambitious organics collection program, which has stalled because not enough people are participating in the often-smelly chore of separating out all those table scraps, spoiled meat, rotted vegetables and cut grass.Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced his pilot program five years ago, hoping hundreds of thousands of tons of the city’s leftovers and yard waste would be churning their way through the system by now to be turned into compost, gas or electricity.But expansion has been put on hold because not enough people are pitching in to make it cost-effective. The city collected only about 13,000 tons from residents last year and found that the 3.5 million people currently in the voluntary program are only separating 10.6 percent of their potential scraps.”Honestly, I think it’s a complete waste of time,” says Anselmo Ariza, who maintains the trash and recycling bins for several blocks of apartment buildings in Brooklyn. “Some people use them, but most of them just put trash and plastic bags in there.”Marzena Golonka complained that the city’s once-a-week pickup at her apartment building in Brooklyn is not frequent enough to keep the odors and rats away.”It’s vile,” she says. “Until sanitation starts doing their job effectively, I’m not going to have a brown bin.”De Blasio’s goal of sending zero waste to landfills by 2030 depends on residents and businesses separating their organic waste, which currently makes up a third of the trash that ends up in landfills and is a major producer of greenhouse gases.But when not enough people use the service, the city’s trucks devoted to such waste are not filled, increasing the costs per ton. And without a steady stream of scraps, the expensive infrastructure that needs to be built to process the waste into compost, gas, or electricity is not worth it.The city is still committed to expanding the program to all 8.5 million New York City residents at some point but right now is focused on making the system more efficient, Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia said last week.One budget watchdog group estimates that collecting organics costs over five times more than collecting normal garbage. Ana Champeny, the Director of City Studies at the Citizen’s Budget Commission, calculated the collection cost for organics at around $1,700 a ton, compared with $291 for regular refuse. That only adds to the overall cost of a program the commission estimates at $177 million to $251 million every year.Sanitation officials are trying to get more people to use the service by going door to door and even putting thank-you notes on the brown bins they gave residents for organics.And the city is trying to address the smell issue by reminding people that the brown bins, unlike many recycling bins, can be sealed tight.Read the full storyLike this? Click to receive free updates

Food scrap recycling failing NYC sniff test, so far Read More »

Ireland warned that it faces a landfill-capacity emergency



In 2011, Ireland had 127 working landfill sites. Now there are just four, with two taking the bulk of the country’s waste. 


Christina Finn reports for The Journal.ie


Ireland is approaching zero capacity in its landfills, Minister Denis Naughten was expected to tell an environmental conference yesterday.
In his address to the Environment Ireland event in Croke Park, Naughten planned to say that Ireland is approaching an emergency waste situation if the country exceeds projections.
In 2011, Ireland had 127 working landfill sites. Now there are just four, with two taking the bulk of the country’s waste. 
Last year, in a bid to move away from the reliance on landfill sites, the minister rolled out the use of household brown bins.
At the time, he warned that in just three years, there is going to be a 17% shortfall in landfills.
“Effectively meaning we will have no landfill capacity for two months of the year,” he explained.
Naughten said too much food and organic waste is ending up in the regular black bins.
In order to ramp up recycling, all waste collectors were required to start rolling-out food and organic brown bins to all localities nationwide with a population greater than 500 people.
In his address to the conference today, the minister will outline that Ireland is still producing too much waste. The months up to Christmas are the busiest time of year for waste production. While Naughten states that Ireland is currently managing, there are fears we could be approaching crisis point. 
The minister will also outline new plans to tackle plastic waste. 
The latest figures show that Ireland is the largest producer of waste plastic in Europe — totaling 61kg per person per year, according to Environment Ireland. 
Naughten will shortly bring a memo to Cabinet outlining a zero-tolerance approach to single-use plastics in government and State-funding buildings. 

Ireland warned that it faces a landfill-capacity emergency Read More »

Study finds PFAS levels at Dix/McGuire/Lakehurst military bases 24,000 times higher than proposed federal standard

Data also shows some PFAS levels exceed EPA health advisory

Maguire-Dix-Lakehurst









Jon Hurdle reports for NJ Spotlight:
Water sources at New Jersey’s Joint Base Maguire-Dix-Lakehurst contained levels of toxic PFAS chemicals that were up to 24,000 times higher than a health limit recommended by a federal agency this year, according to a new national analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The nonprofit compared the results of Defense Department testing with the limits proposed by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and found that the presence of some PFAS (perfluoroalkyl sulfonate) chemicals exceeded the agency’s proposed levels at the base by even more than they did when compared with looser standards advocated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Previously reported DOD testing in 2016 found two of the chemicals, PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid), as high as 264,300 parts per trillion (ppt) among many sites tested in and around the sprawling South Jersey military base. That was 24,027 times higher than the 11 ppt recommended by the ATSDR as the upper limit for safe human consumption, the Union of Concerned Scientists said.
It also sharply exceeded an EPA health guideline of 70 ppt for the two chemicals combined.

Nearby population at risk?

Using DOD data, the analysis also noted that 27,879 people live within three miles of the base, potentially exposing them to hazardous levels of the chemicals that are linked to illnesses including kidney and testicular cancers, ulcerative colitis, and thyroid disease. The study covered 131 bases nationwide, and found the highest PFAS concentrations, at up to 1 million times the ATSDR level, at bases in Louisiana, California, Florida, and Delaware.
In New Jersey, the DOD found three private wells near the Maguire base contained the two chemicals at a level that exceeded the EPA’s recommendation. It provided homeowners there with bottled water until filtration systems were installed.
The report also compared PFOS and PFOA contamination at the former Naval Air Warfare Center in Trenton and found it was 2,527 times above the ATSDR’s safe health level.

Study finds PFAS levels at Dix/McGuire/Lakehurst military bases 24,000 times higher than proposed federal standard Read More »