EnviroPolitics Blog

NJ Senate enviro & energy bill's for June 21

The following bills are scheduled for votes in the New Jersey Senate on Thursday, June 21.

S1073 – Authorizes municipalities, counties, and certain authorities to establish stormwater utilities.
S1074 – Provides for protection of public’s rights under public trust doctrine.
S2129 – Authorizes electric and gas public utility assistance grants funded from societal benefits charge revenue for qualified households.
S2167 – Dedicates $500,000 annually in revenues from vessel registration and renewal fees to NJ Greenwood Lake Fund.
S2307 – Creates Garden State Growth Zone at Atlantic City International Airport and surrounding area.
S2645 – Makes various changes to New Jersey Infrastructure Bank’s enabling act.
S2646 – Appropriates funds to DEP for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2019.
S2647 – Authorizes NJ Infrastructure Bank to expend certain sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2019.
S2662 – Limits liability for persons who deliver heating oil to unregulated tanks for discharges from that tank under certain circumstances.
S2728 – Appropriates $15,294,000 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to DEP for State acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects.
S2729 – Appropriates $9.703 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for recreation and conservation purposes to DEP for State capital and park development projects.
SCR122 – Approves FY 2019 Financial Plan of NJ Infrastructure Bank.
S879 – Amends definition of “existing major hazardous waste facility” in “Major Hazardous Waste Facilities Siting Act.”

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Did you take the bribe? I sure did, admits Jersey pol

Thomas Moriarty reports for NJ.com:

NEWARK — Bloomfield First Ward Councilman Elias Chalet pleaded guilty Tuesday to a second-degree bribery charge, admitting he solicited and accepted $15,000 from a resident trying to sell his property to the township.

Former Bloomfield, NJ
First Ward Councilman Elias Chalet. (File photo)

Asked by defense attorney Peter W. Till whether he accepted the payments, Chalet, standing before the court in a dark suit, responded: “I sure did.”

Chalet, a Democrat, was arrested in November 2015 by investigators with the state Attorney General’s Office, which later obtained an indictment against him on charges of official misconduct, bribery, evidence tampering and hindering apprehension.

Chalet, who previously faced a recall attempt, was ordered to give up his council post and faces a lifetime ban on public employment. Speaking to reporters outside court, Till said Chalet’s forfeiture of the council seat was in effect as of the plea.

Click here to learn about ‘the flushing‘

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Heavy agendas as NJ lawmakers hear the beaches calling

By Frank Brill
EnviroPolitics Editor

With the summer break looming at the end of the month, New Jersey Senate and Assembly committees have scheduled meetings for tomorrow, June 14, and Monday, June 18, to act on the following environment, energy and agriculture bills:

Assembly Agriculture and Natural Resources

Thursday, June 14, 2018 – 1:00 PM

Committee Room 15, 4th Floor, State House Annex

A3810 (Andrzejczak / Houghtaling / Dancer) – Establishes “Value-Added Dairy Farming Program” and associated revolving loan fund in EDA.

A4136 (Andrzejczak / Land) – Permits commercial fishing vessels to possess more than daily trip limit of black sea bass and summer flounder, under certain conditions. (pending intro and referral)

A4157 (Andrzejczak) – Revises standard for warrantless seizure of animal at risk due to violation of law concerning necessary care and tethering of animals. (pending intro and referral)

AJR113 (Dancer / Andrzejczak / Houghtaling) – Designates last full week of June of each year as New Jersey “Dairy Week.”

AR156 (Taliaferro / Dancer / Houghtaling) – Urges increased exportation of NJ dairy products to other nations.

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Assembly Environment and Solid Waste
Thursday, June 14, 2018 – 2:00 PM
Committee Room 12, 4th Floor, State House Annex A2697 (McKeon) – Requires public water systems to compile, and submit to DEP, lead service line inventories. A3373 (Conaway / Pinkin) – Requires DEP to adopt Statewide plan to reduce lead exposure from contaminated soils and drinking water. A4121 (Pinkin / Pintor Marin / DeAngelo) – Requires DOE and DCF to establish online reporting systems for schools and child care centers to report lead testing results. A4169 (Pintor Marin / Mukherji / Lampitt) – Authorizes NJ Infrastructure Bank to expend certain sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2019. (pending intro and referral) Like this? Click to receive free updates A4170 (Taliaferro / Carter / Caputo) – Appropriates funds to DEP for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2019. (pending intro and referral) A4173 (Pinkin / McKeon / Reynolds-Jackson) – Makes various changes to New Jersey Infrastructure Bank’s enabling act. (pending intro and referral) ACR178 (Murphy) – Approves FY 2019 Financial Plan of NJ Infrastructure Bank. (pending intro and referral) AJR137 (Pinkin) – Designates month of July of each year as “Smart Irrigation Month.” (pending intro and referral) FOR DISCUSSION ONLY: A4122 (Pintor Marin / Mukherji) – Concerns disclosure by homeowner of lead plumbing prior to home sale. Like this? Click to receive free updates MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2018 Senate Environment and Energy Committee Monday, June 18, 2018 at 10:00 AM Committee Room 10, 3rd Floor, State House Annex S607 (Smith / Greenstein) – Exempts solar energy systems from building fees. S1821 (Singleton) – Establishes procedure for removal of certain abandoned flood control structures causing property erosion. S2292 (Smith) – Requires environmental sustainability plan for State House Complex. S2552 (Bateman / Smith) – Provides corporation business tax and gross income tax credits to farmers who develop qualified native pollinator habitat on farms. S2689 (Cryan) – Revises effective dates of various provisions of P.L.2017, c.331 concerning animal cruelty law enforcement. S2716 (Smith / Greenstein) – Establishes uniform alternative assessment for commercial renewable energy systems and limits municipal construction permit fees for non-commercial renewable energy systems. S2728 (Codey) – Appropriates $15,294,000 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to DEP for State acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects. (pending intro and referral) S2729 (Greenstein) – Appropriates $9.702 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues for recreation and conservation purposes to DEP for State capital and park development projects. (pending intro and referral) Like this? Click to receive free updates

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A change of name, not mission, for NJ’s clean-water ‘bank’

Under its new name, the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank will still loan money to stem pollution from sewage treatment, upgrade drinking-water systems

water pollution

Tom Johnson reports
for NJ Spotlight:
It is operating under a new name, but its mission remains the same — helping fund scores of clean-water projects aimed at curbing pollution from sewage-treatment plants and upgrading drinking-water systems across the state.

In the next few weeks, the Legislature is expected to approve a four-bill package that would appropriate state and federal dollars to more than 100 facilities from what was formerly called the Environmental Infrastructure Trust but is now the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank.

This year, the bank is projected to fund $810 million undertaken by local governments and others for an assortment of environmental projects intended to improve water quality and drinking water.

For more than three decades, the entity has provided low-interest loans to municipalities to help finance expensive improvements to wastewater treatment plants, drinking-water supplies, and stormwater systems. Since its inception in 1985, it has provided more than $7 billion in loans to local governments, according to Frank Scangarella, assistant director of the bank.

In fiscal year 2018, the projects run the gamut from improvements to sewage treatment plants, projects to control stormwater runoff, and replacement of lead lines in some municipalities.

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PUC urged to shut down entire gas line project in Pa

Jon Hurdle reports for StateImpact:
Opponents of the Mariner East pipelines urged Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and the Public Utility Commission on Saturday to permanently shut down the troubled project, extending a current halt in one Chester County township to the entire 350-mile line. About 150 people rallied outside Chester County Courthouse in West Chester five days before the PUC is expected to decide whether to uphold a judge’s ruling to suspend construction of the Mariner East 2 and 2X lines in West Whiteland Township, as well as to halt operation of the existing Mariner East 1 pipeline in the same location. The protest seized on the May 24 ruling by Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Barnes to urge the authorities to shutter Sunoco’s multibillion-dollar project, which critics say threatens public safety, environmental quality and property rights. And they said a water contractor’s strike on the buried Mariner East 2 line near an elementary school in Delaware County last month is the latest evidence that Sunoco is building the pipeline with little regard for regulation or safety. Authorities confirmed last week that an excavator scraped the line some three feet above the depth that Sunoco had told the contractor, according to PA OneCall, a nonprofit that informs contractors about existing underground infrastructure. “They have now been confronted with a new crisis,” said state Sen. Andy Dinniman, a Chester County Democrat who is an outspoken opponent of the project. “If Sunoco told them nine feet and they hit a pipe, that means the whole OneCall system is potentially compromised, which is an inherent danger to everyone including the workers of these other companies.” Dinniman said the pipeline strike makes it more likely that the PUC, which is responsible for pipeline safety in Pennsylvania, will uphold at least some of Judge Barnes’s order granting his emergency petition for construction to be halted until officials confirm the line’s safety in the township. Read the full storyLike this? Click to receive free updates

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Pa. top court disallows gas drilling in residential zone

P.J. D’Annunzio reports in the Legal Intelligencer:

The states Supreme Court has overturned a ruling allowing the construction of “unconventional” natural gas wells in an area zoned for residential and agricultural use in Lycoming County.

In the court’s majority opinion, Justice Christine Donahue wrote that the record did not reflect sufficient evidence to allow for conditional use of the wells in the zone. Justice Kevin Dougherty dissented, arguing that the opposite was true.

Inflection Energy petitioned the Fairfield Township Board of Supervisors to drill on the property in question, which the township allowed. The case was appealed by the landowners and a Lycoming County judge ruled in their favor. However, the Commonwealth Court later reviewed the case and held the township’s zoning ordinance permits drilling in R-A zones.

The dispute centered on whether Inflection satisfied a section of the ordinance that stated conditional use may be granted if it could show the requested purpose is “similar to and compatible with the other uses permitted in the zone where the subject property is located.”

“In its application, Inflection did not identify any use allowed in the R-A district that it considered to be ‘similar to’ the drilling and operation of industrial shale gas wells,” Donahue said.

Deeper into the opinion, she added, “In reversing the trial court’s decision, the Commonwealth Court, without explanation or citation, insisted that the record contained ‘detailed findings of fact.’ As noted, however, the board’s decision contained no findings of fact whatsoever with respect to similarity of use. The Commonwealth Court further maintained that the trial court … improperly acted as the fact-finder and substituted its credibility determinations for those of the board. We must again respectfully disagree.”

Donahue reasoned, “Inflection’s proposed gas wells use provides no public or essential services to the residents of the R-A district, and provides no infrastructure that supports and promotes residential and agricultural development in Fairfield Township. Inflection’s proposed use is intended solely for Inflection’s own commercial benefit, and not in any respect for the benefit of furthering the expressed goals of Fairfield Township’s R-A district.”

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