School evacuation plans demanded near pipe ‘blast zone’

           Pipes wait to be installed on the Mariner East 2 pipeline in Washington County  Photo: Clem Murray

Kathy Boccella reports for The Philadelphia Inquirer:

The Middletown Coalition for Community Safety, which continues to add members in Delaware and Chester Counties, through which Mariner 2 will soon pass, formed in August after parents learned the pipeline would come within 650 feet of Rose Tree Media’s Glenwood Elementary, attended by 430 children.

The group tried to stop Middletown Township from granting easements near the school, but lost. Since then, it has pressed Rose Tree Media and the West Chester Area School District for answers about student safety, while sounding the alarm at other schools along the route.
‘Blast zone’

According to risk assessments commissioned by the coalition, a vapor-cloud leak can spread 1,800 feet in three mintues, and ignition of the gas can produce a fireball with a blast radius up to 1,100 feet that would burn until the pipeline is fully purged.

As many as 40 Pennsylvania schools would be in the potential “blast zone” if the line were to explode near them. Thousands of houses and facilities such as nursing homes also adjoin the route, but coalition founder Eve Miari said that worries about the schools have trumped other issues.

“An elementary school is sort of like the heart center of the community,” she said. “It’s where we send our babies.”

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NJ has bobcats? Yep – and here’s a way to save them

James M. O’Neill reports for The Record:

When Jack Branagan left Bergen County in 1976 and built a log cabin in an undeveloped, forested area of Sussex County, he soon discovered that a developer planned to raze trees and disturb wetlands right across the street to build a complex of 170 townhouses.

Branagan jumped into action, buying up the 55 acres in Stillwater Township. .”No way was I going to let a developer get his hands on that land,” he said. “It takes people like us to say you don’t have to pave everything.”

Now, four decades later, the property has become one of the first puzzle pieces in The Nature Conservancy’s bid to create a “Bobcat Alley” so the state’s endangered wild cats can roam unimpeded across northwestern New Jersey.


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EP Podcast: #21 – Toxics in military water – Part 2

Episode #21 is the second half of our interview with Kyle Bagenstose and Kristina Nasuti, investigative reporters for the Bucks County Courier-Times and the Burlington County Times.

Kyle and Kristina are part of a team that has been researching and reporting on toxic groundwater pollution at military bases in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that now threatens public drinking water.

This episode focuses on the potential impact of the contamination on property owners with private drinking wells near the Army, Air Force and Naval bases in Burlington and Ocean Counties in New Jersey.

If you have had a history with the bases or live near them, this episode should be of interest to you. Please consider sharing it with other potentially involved associates, friends and family.


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Hear all previous episodes 


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Your pick for a Sustainable Raritan award would be…?

If you know of  a person, organization, business, or governmental group has gone above and
beyond the call for a more Sustainable Raritan River, Basin or Bay, consider nominating them for one of the 2017 Sustainable Raritan Awards.


The awards will be presented at the 9th Annual Sustainable Raritan River Conference and Awards Ceremony on June 9 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.


Awards will be presented in these categories:
 Government Innovation
 Leadership (individual) 
 Non-Profit Innovation 
 Public Access
 Public Education  
 Remediation and Redevelopment 
 Stewardship 
 Sustainable Business Award 
 Citizen Action


Deadline for nominations is May 31, 2017


More information and nomination form here.

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Sounding the alarm on region’s crumbling infrastructure

Hudson river tunnel construction in 1905
Hudson River tunnel construction in 1905 

Brenda Flanagan reports for NJTV NEWS:


“This is a national disgrace,” said former Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden exhorted the movers and shakers at the 27th annual Assembly of the Regional Plan Association to sound the alarm about crumbling infrastructure, especially the century old train tunnel under the Hudson River. Biden noted, this crowd needs to push the Gateway Project and replace that tunnel.

“Congress is now totally led by one party. They don’t like to spend money. I get it. But folks, they have to hear from you or nothing’s going to change,” he said.

Biden keynoted a day of panels that actually sounded multiple alarms: from trains to buses, rails to terminals, our mass transit’s old and broken and so are the agencies charged with operating and maintaining these systems. That’s why trains recently derailed twice at New York’s Penn Station and got stuck in the Hudson tunnel on Good Friday, said RPA Chair Scott Rechler.

“After years of paying more and more for less and less, are we surprised that the public has lost faith in government’s ability to get things done?” he asked.

Ralph Cramden busdriver
Ralph Kramden era bus


Rechler — who just stepped down from the Port Authority — criticized the bi-state agency as disorganized and dysfunctional. He claimed it’s so backward, the proposed new bus terminal’s designed for “Ralph Kramden era buses.”


He also said New Jersey Transit would do a better job running PATH trains and questioned whether the Port Authority even needs its own police force.

“Virtually no elected official in either state is accountable for the agency’s success or failure,” he said. “The current Port Authority structure will continue to fail to fully meet the demands of either state or the region, unless there is change.”

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NJDEP hearing May 5 on proposed standard for PFNA


Kristina Scala Nasuti reports for the Burlington County Times:
If the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection approves a proposed groundwater limit for perfluorononanoic acid, it would be the first time the state’s environmental regulator has formally adopted a final groundwater standard for an unregulated chemical found in firefighting foam that has tainted several sites on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.
Earlier this month, the department announced that its seeking public input for a recommendation that would permanently establish a level of 10 parts per trillion of perfluorononanoic acid, or PFNA, that is allowed in groundwater.
*******************************************************************
See our video interview with Kristina Scala Nasuti  and
Kyle Bagenstose  who are covering the developing story
of groundwater pollution at regional military bases–
pollution that threatens nearby public drinking water 
*******************************************************************
The proposed limit mimics an interim standard that was established by the department in 2015 to regulate how much of the chemical can exist in groundwater before it becomes hazardous to human health.
The DEP is also recommending that the chemical be placed on a list of hazardous substances under the Spill Act, which would require owners and operators of facilities that handle chemicals with PFNA to be responsible for discharge prevention and discharge control.
In its proposal, the department is also looking to amend the Groundwater Quality Standards to set interim standards for 23 chemical components found in groundwater.
Before a decision is made, the department has 60 days from the time the recommendation was posted on April 3 to collect and review public comments. They have another 30 days to adopt it.
A public hearing is set for Friday, May 5, from 10 a.m. to noon in the state’s public hearing room on the first floor at 401 E. State St. in Trenton.
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