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While we spend zillions on security at Mar-a-Lago and shuttling Trump children around the world and leaving Melania’s son in private school in Manhattan, the President is cutting money to check if we’re all swimming in fecal swamps.
 
Yes, his budget would eliminate the funding that pays to test the water at our beaches every week for nasty bacteria. Namely, “enterococcus,” the sign of fecal contamination – causing maladies from gastrointestinal illness to ugly rashes.
 
This is the result of raw sewage overflows that are the worst after heavy rain. Last summer, our beaches were either under advisory or closed 134 times for that reason, the Asbury Park Press reports. It was the worst season in five years.
 
One week of testing found 19 beaches in Monmouth and Ocean counties had water teeming with so much bacteria, it wasn’t safe to swim in. Read the full Star-Ledger editorial Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
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State agency hopes to preserve critical tracts of privately owned woodlands by requiring professional stewardship for program participants

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

The state is proposing broad new rules governing stewardship of privately owned forested land, a measure aimed at keeping more of New Jersey’s woodlands intact.

The program, mandated by a law passed in 2009, encourages the conservation of privately held land as forests, tracts viewed as critical to protecting water supplies, preserving critical habitat for wildlife, and providing recreational opportunities for residents.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is proposing the forest stewardship program at a time when there is an ongoing dispute over management of state-owned land and other forests and whether those activities are enhancing the natural resources there.

Read the full story

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Cruise line ordered to pay a record $40 million for illegal dumping of oil contaminated waste and falsifying records Eric Haun reports for MarineLink:

Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. was sentenced to pay a $40 million penalty – the largest-ever for crimes involving deliberate vessel pollution – related to illegal dumping overboard of oil contaminated waste and falsification of official logs in order to conceal the discharges. The sentence was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Acting U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Seitz in Miami, who also ordered that $1 million be awarded to a British engineer, who first reported the illegal discharges to the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), which in turn provided the evidence to the U.S. Coast Guard. The newly hired engineer on the Caribbean Princess reported that a so-called “magic pipe” had been used on August 23, 2013, to illegally discharge oily waste off the coast of England without the use of required pollution prevention equipment. The evidence gathered by the whistleblower, including photographs of the magic pipe, led to an inspection of the cruise ship both in England and then when it reached New York on September 14, 2013. During each of the separate inspections certain crew members concealed the illegal activity by lying to the authorities in accordance with orders they had received from Caribbean Princess engineering officers. Read the full story here Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
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