Residential lead water line replacement bill signed in NJ

(TRENTON) – Legislation authorizing municipalities to levy special assessments, and issue bonds, to replace certain lead-contaminated water service lines, has been signed into law by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.


The bill (A4120) was sponsored by sponsored by Assembly Democrats Eliana Pintor Marin, Cleopatra Tucker and Wayne DeAngelo 


“This law will put us one step closer to ensuring that our drinking water is safer to drink and lead-free,” said Pintor Marin (D-Essex). “In Newark alone, there are approximately 15,000 homes in which the water service lines connecting the property to the city’s main water line are lead. This can lead to contaminated home drinking water.”

“Clean drinking water is essential,” said DeAngelo (D-Mercer / Middlesex). “This will help municipalities finance projects that will help replace lead-contaminated pipes to ensure the quality and safety of our drinking water.”

Under current law (R.S.40:56-1), if a municipality engages in a project that is categorized as a “local improvement,” the municipality may assess the cost of the project on local property owners in the vicinity who benefit from the project. 
The new law adjusts language in R.S.40:56-1 to ensure that the replacement of certain lead-contaminated home service connections fall within this category, allowing those projects to be assessed as local improvements. 


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The law also amends a section of the local bond law to allow municipalities and counties to issue 30-year bonds to fund the replacement of lead-contaminated house connections to publicly-owned water systems. Specifically, these bonds will fund replacement of lead-contaminated house connections from the distribution main onto privately-owned real property, and into the privately-owned structure.

The law also amends the County and Municipal Water Supply Act, and the municipal and county utility authorities law to provide that the public entities operating under those laws are not prevented from undertaking projects to replace lead-contaminated service connections, regardless of possible private service connection ownership.

 The provisions of this law will only apply to service line replacement projects that are: (1) undertaken as environmental infrastructure projects; and (2) funded either by loans from the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank, or by loans issued through the Department of Environmental Protection.


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Energy companies are turning the law against protesters









In at least 31 states, legislators and governors have introduced bills and orders since Standing Rock  that target protests, particularly opposition to pipelines


Nicholas Kusnetz reports for Inside Climate News:


The activists were ready for a fight. An oil pipeline was slated to cross tribal lands in eastern Oklahoma, and Native American leaders would resist. The Sierra Club and Black Lives Matter pledged support.

The groups announced their plans at a press conference in January 2017 at the State Capitol. Ashley McCray, a member of a local Shawnee tribe, stood in front of a blue “Water is Life” banner, her hair tied back with an ornate clip, and told reporters that organizers were forming a coalition to protect native lands.

They would establish a rural encampment, like the one that had drawn thousands of people to Standing Rock in North Dakota the previous year to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The following week, an Oklahoma state lawmaker introduced a bill to stiffen penalties for interfering with pipelines and other “critical infrastructure.” It would impose punishments of up to 10 years in prison and $100,000 in fines—and up to $1 million in penalties for any organization “found to be a conspirator” in violating the new law. Republican Rep. Scott Biggs, the bill’s sponsor, said he was responding to those same Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

The activists established the camp in March, and within weeks the federal Department of Homeland Security and state law enforcement wrote a field analysis identifying “environmental rights extremists” as the top domestic terrorist threat to the Diamond Pipeline, planned to run from Oklahoma to Tennessee. The analysis said protesters could spark “criminal trespassing events resulting in violence.” It told authorities to watch for people dressed in black.



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Dramatic news break during NJ hearing on plastic bag bills

At a public hearing on plastic bags, Senator Bob Smith makes a dramatic announcement. (Frank Brill photo)



By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor


In the middle of hours of testimony yesterday on what the New Jersey Legislature should do to curb environmental damage from throwaway plastic shopping bags, Styrofoam cups, and soda straws, Senator Bob Smith interrupted the testimony to deliver a news flash.

Gov. Phil Murphy, he was just informed, has decided to veto a bill (A-3267/S-2600) that would impose a 5-cent fee on plastic grocery bags. It had been, until that moment, the Legislature’s preferred solution to the problem of plastics.

The audience at an Aug. 23, 2018, legislative hearing on plastics n Toms River, NJ.  (Frank Brill photo).

The announcement resulted in applause from dozens of environmentalists who packed the meeting with signs and costumes and murmuring from a cadre of lobbyists for business trade associations and chemical and related industries.


** Video interviews below**Murphy’s decision had turned the plastics debate upside down. Bills to limit the disposal of plastic bags by charging consumers to use them were dead and the momentum immediately swung to bills that would outlaw them.

Smith, the author of the primary Senate ‘ban’ bill, S-2776, pounced on the opportunity, announcing that his committee would hold a hearing on his legislation in September and vote on the measure in October. Smith is chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee.  


An identical bill, A-4330, is sponsored by Nancy Pinkin who chairs the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee.


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The ‘fee bill’ that’s been sitting on Murphy’s desk for weeks, was heavily lobbied but made it through both houses. A ban bill might be a tougher sell since political heavyweights like the NJ Chemistry Council, the Business and Industry Association, NJ Chamber of Commerce, and some retailers, are likely to join in opposing it.


It’s too early to predict the outcome, but plastics surely will be a hot topic when the legislature returns from its summer recess.


After yesterday’s joint hearing in Toms River by the environmental committees of both houses, we spoke with Amy Goldsmith, state director of Clean Water Action, an environmental group that favors an outright ban on plastic bags. (The state’s enviro-organizations have been fractured on the choice between fee and ban bills). 

We also interviewed Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle who sponsored the about-to-be vetoed fee bill.




Related news coverage:

Is 5-cent fee for plastic bags headed for the trash? 

Murphy signals intent to veto proposed plastic bag fee 

News of pending bag tax veto hailed (Video)

What do YOU think?  Click on over to our Facebook page where we welcome your comments not only on plastic bag fees vs. bans but on the wider issue of plastic packaging.


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These NJ towns aren’t waiting for Gov. Murphy to decide whether to sign bill charging fee for plastic shopping bags

plastic grocery bag carried by shopperMichael Sol Warren reports for NJ.com:After a rapid push through Trenton at the end of the last legislative session, a bill to place fees on single-use shopping bags is sitting on Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk.But some Garden State towns aren’t waiting for the governor to take action.Communities across the state, though mostly along the Shore, have either banned plastic bags or put fees on plastic bags and other single-use items. Even if Gov. Murphy signs the bill to create a statewide fee, communities with stricter rules will be grandfathered in.Here are 13 New Jersey towns, and one county, where plastic bags,and in some cases,  straws, forks and styrofoam containers are shunned.Types of regulationsThe local ordinances apply to businesses and so far range from outright bans on single-use plastic bags to fees. Some towns have gone beyond bags as well: Plastic straws, plastic utensils and Styrofoam food containers have been targets by new regulations.Monmouth BeachIn Monmouth County, the tiny borough of Monmouth Beach has been lauded by environmental groups for passing perhaps the strictest plastic regulations in New Jersey. The community enacted a total ban on plastic bags, plastic straws and polystyrene (like Styrofoam) food containers; the regulations went into effect on June 1. The borough’s ordinance includes fines of up to $2,400.Jersey CityJersey City has banned single-use plastic bags, after passing an ordinance in June. The ban, which passed unanimously, goes into effect next summer. Retailers that violate the new rule can be fined up to $100 for each infraction.HobokenHoboken moved almost in lockstep with Jersey City to ban single-use plastic bags, also unanimously passing a ban in June. Hoboken’s ban goes into effect this coming winter; once it is in place, violators will face fines up to $500.Long BeachLong Beach’s ban on plastic bags became effective in May.The Long Beach ordinance makes an exemption for bait shops, according to a Patch report.BelmarBelmar’s ban on plastic bags, which was passed in May, goes into effect next spring. Businesses that get caught handing out single-use plastic bags can be fined up to $2,500 for each violation, with a limit on $10,000 in fines. According to a TAPinto report, the ordinance had the support of Belmar’s business community.Point Pleasant BeachPlastic bags have been banned in Point Pleasant Beach since the borough’s ordinance went into effect on on May 15, the day it was passed.Harvey CedarsThe smallest community on this list, with only 22 businesses according to the Press of Atlantic City, Harvey Cedars’s ban on plastic bags took effect on June 1.Read the full storyLike this? Click to receive free updates

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Microsoft roots out Russian hackers targeting U.S. politics


A Microsoft storefront last month in New York. (Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg News)
By Elizabeth Dwoskin
, Washington Post’s Silicon Valley reporter
Craig Timberg
, Reporter

SAN FRANCISCO — A group affiliated with the Russian government created phony versions of six websites — including some related to public policy and to the U.S. Senate — with the apparent goal of hacking into the computers of people who were tricked into visiting, according to Microsoft, which said Monday night that it discovered and disabled the fake sites.
The effort by the notorious APT28 hacking group, which has been publicly linked to a Russian intelligence agency and actively interfered in the 2016 presidential election, underscores the aggressive role Russian operatives are playing ahead of the midterm congressional elections in the United States. U.S. officials have repeatedly warned that the November vote is a major focus for interference efforts. Microsoft said the sites were created over the past several months but did not go into more specifics.
Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit took the lead role in finding and disabling the sites, and the company is launching an effort to provide expanded cybersecurity protection for campaigns and election agencies that use Microsoft products.
Among those targeted were the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank active in investigations of corruption in Russia, and the International Republican Institute (IRI), a nonprofit group that promotes democracy worldwide. Three other fake sites were crafted to appear as though they were affiliated with the Senate, and one nonpolitical site spoofed Microsoft’s own online products.
The Senate did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday.
Microsoft said Monday that it had found no evidence that the fake sites it recently discovered were used in attacks, but fake sites can carry malware that automatically loads onto the computers of unsuspecting visitors. Hackers often send out deceptive “spear-phishing” emails to trick people into visiting sites that appear to be authentic but in fact allow the attackers to penetrate and gain control of computers that log on, allowing the theft of emails, documents, contact lists and other information.

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A Great Way to Explore the Environmental Field

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is seeking candidates to apply to its AmeriCorps NJ Watershed Ambassadors program marking 19 years of continuous stewardship protecting water quality in NJ.  Twenty members are selected each year to raise public awareness about water and watershed issues and to promote stewardship through direct community involvement.

 Ambassadors are placed with host agencies in each of New Jersey’s twenty Watershed Management Areas and work with local non-profit organizations, government agencies, schools, utilities authorities, and citizens to improve water quality through education and restoration projects such as stream cleanups, invasive species removal, rain barrel workshops etc. 

The NJ Watershed Ambassadors Program was recognized as an honoree at the 2018 NJ State Governor’s Jefferson Awards for their service to the public through their Green the Scene 2018! Regional Tree Planting Project.

The Department is actively recruiting for the 2018-2019 term which runs September through July. To apply, visit the Department’s web page at https://www.state.nj.us/dep/wms/bears/recruitment.htm

Application review process is currently underway. Candidates are especially needed in Watershed Management Areas (WMA) 9 Lower Raritan/Lawrence Brook and 10 Millstone River Watershed both of which are within the Raritan Water Region. 

The WMA 9 ambassador will serve out of dual host agencies, the New Jersey Water Supply Authority office in Clinton and Duke Farms Hillsborough Township and the WMA 10 ambassador will serve out of The Watershed Institute in Pennington.  

The program will review all potential candidates and reach out to those who are best qualified to serve. For questions regarding the application process, please call Amanda Lotto, Program Manager, Trish Ingelido, Program Supervisor or Kim Cenno, Bureau Chief at 609-633-1441.

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