Puerto Rico entirely without power as Hurricane Maria hammers island with force not seen in ‘modern history’

Samantha Schmidt and Sandhya Somashekhar report for The Washington Post:



SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Maria raked across Puerto Rico Wednesday as the most powerful storm to strike the island in more than 80 years, ripping roofs off buildings and filling homes with water, and knocking out power to the entire population.
“Definitely Puerto Rico — when we can get outside — we will find our island destroyed,” Puerto Rico’s emergency management director, Abner Gomez, said at a midday press conference, adding that 100 percent of the island is without electricity. “The information we have received is not encouraging. It’s a system that has destroyed everything it has had in its path.”
The storm first slammed the coast near Yabucoa at 6:15 a.m. as a Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds — the first Category 4 storm to directly strike the island since 1932. By midmorning, Maria had fully engulfed the 100-mile-long island as winds snapped palm trees, peeled off rooftops, sent debris skidding across beaches and roads. By afternoon, the intense gusts had become less frequent and the lashing rains eased, giving residents their first glimpse of the storm’s wake.
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NJ soil and water conservation grants for preserved farms

New Jersey’s Agriculture Secretary Douglas H. Fisher today announced that $500,000 is available in cost-sharing grants to farmers and landowners to help them implement soil and water conservation projects on preserved farms.
Soil and water conservation projects include those designed to control and prevent soil erosion and sediment damages; control pollution on farmland; impound, store and manage water for agricultural purposes, and improve management of land and soils to achieve maximum agricultural productivity.
Examples of eligible projects include terrace systems; diversions; stream protection; water impoundment reservoirs; irrigation systems; sediment retention, erosion or water control structures; drainage systems; animal waste control facilities; agrichemical handling facilities, and forest tree stand improvement.

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will provide technical assistance to applicants and will assist landowners in planning and implementation of conservation practices in support of the Soil and Water Conservation Grant program.

Landowners should apply for soil and water conservation grants at their local NRCS office. Completed applications will be forwarded by NRCS to the State Soil Conservation Committee, which will approve and recommend eligible projects to the SADC for funding.

The State Agriculture and Development Committee (SADC), the grants administrator, will provide 50 percent cost-sharing for eligible projects. Maximum grant amounts will be determined by acreage under common deed ownership. 

The grants are funded by legislation recently signed into law by Governor Christie that appropriated $65.3 million for farmland preservation, including $1.5 million for soil and water conservation grants and other stewardship activities on preserved farms.

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NJDEP updates remediation standards for 16 contaminants

                                                                Keltbray.com photo

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has changed the soil remediation standards for 19
contaminants based on revisions to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s carcinogenic dose database for
the compounds.

The updated soil
remediation standards are operative as of September 18, 2017. 


A copy of the Notice of Administrative Change can be found here. 


The NJDEP also published a separate correction for two of the contaminants: Hexachloroethane and 1,1,1-Trichloroethane. which can be found here 

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Is the Delaware River Watershed at a tipping point?

Tom Johnson reports
for NJ Spotlight:
“You hear about the Hudson, you hear about the Chesapeake, the (Delaware) river is doing okay. It doesn’t have some of the problems of the others,’’ said Carol Collier, a former executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission, “but it can be at a tipping point if we don’t get people’s attention.’’
Last week, the Delaware River Basin Commission, an interstate agency that oversees water management of the 330-mile river and basin, got some people’s attention when it announced it would begin drafting rules to address natural gas development in the watershed. It sparked a new round in the debate over drilling, also known as fracking.
With plentiful supplies of the fuel in Marcellus Shale formations in Pennsylvania and other states, the agency said it would consider imposing a ban on drilling within the basin. But the DRBC also will look at imposing new regulations for allowing the transfer of water for drilling outside the basin — and how wastewater from those drilling operations is handled in the watershed.

Tim Dillingham of the American Littoral Society and
Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper
Both environmentalists, who long have lobbied for such a ban, and industry officials panned the announcement. At a seminar on the watershed, sponsored by NJ Spotlight and StateImpact on Friday in Camden, Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, called “wholly inappropriate’’ any move to transfer water from the basin for drilling for the fossil fuel.
If the water resources are to be protected, others on the panel argued more focus needs to be placed on what is happening on land located within the 13,539 square-mile basin, particularly in its upper portions where its headwaters are.

Perpetual sprawl

“We know what the problems are,’’ said Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society. “Fundamentally, it comes down to physical changes in the landscape. We are seeing, unfortunately, perpetual sprawl and all the problems that come with that.’’
That means protecting the forests and open spaces that have not been lost to development, panelists said. There was some agreement that the DRBC should be more aggressive in overseeing land-use decisions that affect water quality, but some questions about how effective that might be. “It could do it beautifully if they chose to do it,’’ van Rossum said. “The reality of the DRBC embracing it though is rather slim.’’
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Picture this: The DRBC wants to see your fall photos

In Fall, the air is crisper and the colors are richer, all making for great photos. 


To celebrate the season, the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) today announced its Fall 2017 Photo Contest, highlighting amateur and professional photography representing the water resources of the 13,539-square-mile Delaware River Basin.

This photo competition seeks “to inspire the creation and publication of images that convey the beauty and importance of a national treasure on which 15 million people rely for drinking water.”


 “From the headwaters to the ocean and everywhere in between, the water resources of the Delaware River Basin provide a backdrop for our environment, our economy and our lives,” said DRBC Executive Director Steve Tambini.  “This contest provides an opportunity to capture, share and showcase the complexity, diversity, and significance of our shared water resources through your photographs.”
The winning image, to be selected by a panel of judges at DRBC, will be published in the commission’s 2017 annual report, as well as in a prominent location on its website.  All entrants will receive a certificate of appreciation from the commission.
Interested persons can visit http://www.nj.gov/drbc/basin/photo/photo-contest.html for complete contest details, including instructions on how to submit photographs.  The deadline for entries is Nov. 1, 2017.
The DRBC is a federal/interstate government agency responsible for managing the water resources within the Delaware River Basin without regard to political boundaries. Its five commission members are the governors of the basin states (Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania) and the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ North Atlantic Division, who represents the federal government.
To learn more about the commission, click here or follow DRBC on Twitter at @DRBC1961.

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Residents try to save last working farm in Middletown, Pa

Stone Meadows Farm sits on Route 413 across from the George School in Bucks County, Pa.
Tyler Miles reports for the Bucks County Courier-Times:

A group of Middletown residents are trying to intervene in an agreement of sale to preserve the last remaining parcel of active farming land in the township.
While Wyomissing-based Metropolitan Development Group wants to build 124 single-family homes on the 168-acre Stone Meadows Farm near the intersection of Route 413 and Fulling Mill Road, the residents say they have raised “more than $500,000” in their efforts to secure the land.
Chances are they will need significantly more, as one township officials puts the price of the acreage at more than $10 million.
The residents, however, don’t seem deterred.
“Once it was known the property was going to be developed, the residents around here just panicked because this has been a beautiful farm for as along as any of us have lived here and way before,” said Jenny Ornsteen during a recent interview in her home.
Linda Mead, Ornsteen’s friend in the fight, said the farm is unique.
“If it was just another farm in a rural area, it wouldn’t have the same sense of urgency and importance, but the fact that it’s developed all around it means that it really is the last remaining farm in Middletown Township,” she said.
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