Pa. court allows refiling of flood-deaths suit vs. engineers

Scene of deadly flooding on Aug. 19, 2011, where four people were killed Rebecca Drake/Post-Gazette

Paula Reed Ward reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled today that the families of four people killed in Washington Boulevard flooding in 2011 can refile their complaint against the Moon engineering firm that contracted with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority as their consulting engineer and construction manager.
The families of Kimberly Griffith, 46, her daughters, Brenna, 12, and Mikaela, 8, all of Plum, and Mary Saflin, 72, of Oakmont, who were all killed on Aug. 19, 2011, filed a lawsuit in 2013, alleging that there had been the potential for serious flooding on the low-lying section of Washington Boulevard in Highland Park and none of the agencies responsible for the roadway did anything to prevent motorists from becoming trapped there.
The families settled the lawsuits with PWSA, the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in 2015. Because the defendants were government entities, the damages were limited under the Pennsylvania Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act.
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The claims against Chester Engineers Inc, though, were dismissed by Common Pleas Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr., who found that the plaintiffs’ attorneys failed to plead causation and failed to allege sufficient facts to establish that Chester had a “duty” to provide information to the governmental agencies about the maintenance of the water and sewer systems.

In its opinion issued on Friday, the state Superior Court disagreed with Judge Wettick regarding causation and further said that the families of the victims should have been given the opportunity to amend their claims against Chester to address his concern over the company’s duty.
Attorneys for the victims’ families said they will refile an amended complaint.


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**UPDATED** Enviro and Ag committees,Trenton – Dec 12


ASSEMBLY ENVIRONMENT AND SOLID WASTE
12/12/16 1:00 PM
Committee Room 9, 3rd Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-261  McKeon, J.F. (D-27); Spencer, L.G. (D-29)
Prohibits installation and sale of wheel weights containing lead or mercury; prohibits sale of new motor vehicles equipped with wheel weights containing lead or mercury.
A-1373  Spencer, L.G. (D-29); Eustace, T. (D-38); Quijano, A. (D-20); Wimberly, B.E. (D-35)
Requires paint producers to implement or participate in paint stewardship program.
Related Bill: S-986 
    
A-4152  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Mazzeo, V. (D-2); Land, R.B. (D-1); Burzichelli, J.J. (D-3)
Limits application of DEP shellfish habitat rules for certain dredging activities.
Related Bill: S-2369 
_________________________________________________________

ASSEMBLY AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
12/12/16 2:00 PM
Committee Room 15, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-123  Space, P. (R-24); Phoebus, G. (R-24)
Provides that farm, farmstand, or other agricultural operation selling firewood obtained from property other than seller’s shall not be considered a lumber yard.
    
A-696  DiMaio, J. (R-23)
Permits sale of raw milk under certain conditions and establishes raw milk permit program.
    
A-772  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Diegnan, P.J. (D-18); Land, R.B. (D-1); Benson, D.R. (D-14); Holley, J.C. (D-20)
Establishes process for recovering cost of caring for animals involved in animal cruelty violations.
Related Bill: S-1168 
    
A-1974  Prieto, V. (D-32); Benson, D.R. (D-14); DiMaio, J. (R-23)
Permits sale of home-baked goods under certain circumstances.
__________________________________________________________

SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS
12/15/16 11:00 AM
Committee Room 4, 1st Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-1649  Schaer, G.S. (D-36); Spencer, L.G. (D-29); Pintor Marin, E. (D-29)
Requires local governments and authorities to obtain financing cost estimate from NJ Environmental Infrastructure Trust for certain projects.
Related Bill: S-853 
    
S-853  Stack, B.P. (D-33)
Requires local governments and authorities to obtain financing cost estimate from  NJ Environmental Infrastructure Trust for certain projects.
Related Bill: A-1649   
________________________________________________________

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ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS
12/15/16 1:00 PM
Aide: (609) 847-3835
Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-963  Wolfe, D.W. (R-10); McGuckin, G.P. (R-10)
Requires DOT, NJTA, and SJTA to use only native vegetation for landscaping, land management, reforestation, or habitat restoration.  Related Bill: S-227 
    
A-2463  Eustace, T. (D-38); Vainieri Huttle, V. (D-37); Caride, M. (D-36)
Requires owner or operator of certain trains to have discharge response, cleanup, and contingency plans to transport certain hazardous materials by rail; requires NJ DOT to request bridge inspection reports from US DOT. Related Bill: S-806 
    
A-3539  Muoio, E.M. (D-15); Spencer, L.G. (D-29); Chiaravalloti, N. (D-31) 
Requires public and nonpublic schools to test for and remediate lead in drinking water, and disclose test results.  Related Bill: S-2082 
    
S-227  Holzapfel, J.W. (R-10); Allen, D.B. (R-7)
Requires DOT, NJTA, and SJTA to use only native vegetation for landscaping, land management, reforestation, or habitat restoration.  Related Bill: A-963 
    
S-806  Weinberg, L. (D-37); Gordon, R.M. (D-38)
Requires owner or operator of certain trains to have discharge response, cleanup, and contingency plans to transport certain hazardous materials by rail; requires NJ DOT to request bridge inspection reports from US DOT. Related Bill: A-2463 
    
S-2731  Greenstein, L.R. (D-14); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Authorizes New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust to expend additional sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure projects for FY2017.   Related Bill: A-4326 
    
S-2732  Codey, R.J. (D-27); Gill, N.H. (D-34)
Amends list of environmental infrastructure projects approved for long-term funding for FY 2017 to include new projects and revise allowable loan amounts.  Related Bill: A-4327 

___________________________________________________________


ASSEMBLY REGULATORY OVERSIGHT
12/15/16 2:00 PM
Committee Room 14, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
The committee will receive testimony from invited speakers on the State’s paid family temporary disability leave benefits program.
For consideration:
ACR-192  McKeon, J.F. (D-27); Spencer, L.G. (D-29); Muoio, E.M. (D-15) 
Determines that DEP’s proposal to amend septic system density standards in Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act Rules is inconsistent with legislative intent.

___________________________________________________________

Pennsylvania General Assembly


The House will reconvene on           
Tue. Jan 3, 2017 at 12:00 PM              
House Calendar
The Senate will reconvene on
Tue. Jan 3, 2017 at 12:00 PM    


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If clean energy is left to the states, will NJ lead or lag?

Donald Trump has named Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA 

President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be nation’s next EPA administrator is a dark day for clean energy and the environment.

Pruitt is a climate denier and a leader in a multi-state legal action to overturn President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.

His selection, however, should be no surprise. Trump clearly promised throughout his campaign to dismantle the EPA, to weaken regulations, to favor the coal and oil industries, and to pull the country out of the Paris Climate Accord.

Some thought it was all just campaign rhetoric. The fact that Mr. Pruitt has been given the job of setting and enforcing the nation’s environmental agenda should end all hopeful thinking. It is more than sobering. It’s disturbing.

R. William Potter

Princeton energy and environment attorney R. William Potter says it now will be up to so-inclined states to continue to implement clean-energy policies and fight the alarming prospects of climate change.

A recent vote at the state’s Board of Public Utilities makes Potter question whether New Jersey is up to the challenge.

He writes in NJ Spotlight:

On November 30, the Board of Public Utilities voted by the narrowest of margins (3-2) to approve the stripped-down plan by Public Service Electric & Gas, one of the “greenest” of electric utilities in the nation, to expend $80 million to develop a mere 33 megawatts of solar electric facilities on former garbage dumps and brownfields.
As the plan was originally filed, PSE&G called for spending $276 million to build 100 megawatts of brownfields electric capacity, essentially solar farms covering abandoned industrial sites and closed landfills.
But heated opposition led by a coalition of industrial energy users helped to reduce the PSE&G plan by nearly two-thirds, as set forth in a lengthy stipulation approved by the BPU.


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Opponents of the PSE&G initiative asserted that the cost to ratepayers of the so-called solar subsidy was becoming excessive, even though financing the program comes to a nearly invisible 4 cents a year before maxing out at 24 cents annually.
That’s right: Two cents per month for the average residential user to keep the state moving on track to advance solar projects and jobs, and to put formerly polluting landfills and industrial sites to “socially beneficial use,” as BPU President Richard Mroz wisely pointed out.
This wringing of hands over feared impacts of the PSE&G program included opposition to the utility’s plan to “rate base” its cost. This would allow PSE&G to profit from the undertaking with costs embedded in consumer rates, which is how almost all of the region’s large power plants were financed and built.
Those objecting to the plan included two BPU commissioners who argued that PSE&G should have used an unregulated affiliate competing in the solar marketplace, not the regulated utility, even though recent legislation expressly authorizes the rate-base approach to spur utilities to invest more of their “patient capital” in renewable energy projects.
Those objections, however sincere, miss the point:
President-elect Trump campaigned on a promise to unshackle the coal and oil industry and to reject the Paris Climate Accord signed by some 200 nations. His appointment of Pruitt to head if not to dismantle the EPA dashes whatever hope was briefly raised by Trump’s 90-minute meeting with Al Gore.
The states must step into the leadership vacuum in battling global warming, perhaps our last hope for achieving meaningful limits on greenhouse gases despite Trump’s retrograde policies and regulatory appointments.
So instead of pushing against PSE&G’s latest solar initiative, BPU regulators and consumer protectors alike should call for still more solar development by whatever legitimate means, until literally every available rooftop and brownfield is covered in solar panels and offshore wind turbines to distract and delight vacationers at the Jersey Shore.

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**UPDATED** Enviro and Ag committees,Trenton – Dec 12


ASSEMBLY ENVIRONMENT AND SOLID WASTE
12/12/16 1:00 PM
Committee Room 9, 3rd Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-261  McKeon, J.F. (D-27); Spencer, L.G. (D-29)
Prohibits installation and sale of wheel weights
containing lead or mercury; prohibits sale of new motor vehicles equipped with
wheel weights containing lead or mercury.
A-1373  Spencer, L.G. (D-29); Eustace, T. (D-38);
Quijano, A. (D-20); Wimberly, B.E. (D-35)
Requires paint producers to implement or participate in
paint stewardship program.
Related Bill: S-986
   
A-4152  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Mazzeo, V. (D-2);
Land, R.B. (D-1); Burzichelli, J.J. (D-3)
Limits application of DEP shellfish habitat rules for
certain dredging activities.
Related Bill: S-2369
_________________________________________________________

ASSEMBLY AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
12/12/16 2:00 PM
Committee Room 15, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-123  Space, P. (R-24); Phoebus, G. (R-24)
Provides that farm, farmstand, or other agricultural
operation selling firewood obtained from property other than seller’s shall not
be considered a lumber yard.
   
A-696  DiMaio, J. (R-23)
Permits sale of raw milk under certain conditions and
establishes raw milk permit program.
   
A-772  Andrzejczak, B. (D-1); Diegnan, P.J. (D-18);
Land, R.B. (D-1); Benson, D.R. (D-14); Holley, J.C. (D-20)
Establishes process for recovering cost of caring for
animals involved in animal cruelty violations.
Related Bill: S-1168
   
A-1974  Prieto, V. (D-32); Benson, D.R. (D-14);
DiMaio, J. (R-23)

Permits sale of home-baked goods under certain
circumstances.
__________________________________________________________

SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS
12/15/16 11:00 AM
Committee Room 4, 1st Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-1649  Schaer, G.S. (D-36); Spencer, L.G. (D-29);
Pintor Marin, E. (D-29)
Requires local governments and authorities to obtain
financing cost estimate from NJ Environmental Infrastructure Trust for certain
projects.
Related Bill: S-853
   
S-853  Stack, B.P. (D-33)
Requires local governments and authorities to obtain
financing cost estimate from  NJ
Environmental Infrastructure Trust for certain projects.
Related Bill: A-1649  
________________________________________________________

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ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS
12/15/16 1:00 PM
Aide: (609) 847-3835
Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
For consideration:
A-963  Wolfe, D.W. (R-10); McGuckin, G.P. (R-10)
Requires DOT, NJTA, and SJTA to use only native
vegetation for landscaping, land management, reforestation, or habitat
restoration.   Related Bill: S-227
   
A-2463  Eustace, T. (D-38); Vainieri Huttle, V.
(D-37); Caride, M. (D-36)
Requires owner or operator of certain trains to have
discharge response, cleanup, and contingency plans to transport certain
hazardous materials by rail; requires NJ DOT to request bridge inspection
reports from US DOT.  Related Bill: S-806
   
A-3539  Muoio, E.M. (D-15); Spencer, L.G. (D-29);
Chiaravalloti, N. (D-31)
Requires public and nonpublic schools to test for and
remediate lead in drinking water, and disclose test results.  Related
Bill: S-2082
   
S-227  Holzapfel, J.W. (R-10); Allen, D.B. (R-7)
Requires DOT, NJTA, and SJTA to use only native
vegetation for landscaping, land management, reforestation, or habitat
restoration.  Related Bill: A-963
   
S-806  Weinberg, L. (D-37); Gordon, R.M. (D-38)
Requires owner or operator of certain trains to have
discharge response, cleanup, and contingency plans to transport certain
hazardous materials by rail; requires NJ DOT to request bridge inspection
reports from US DOT.  Related Bill: A-2463
   
S-2731  Greenstein, L.R. (D-14); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Authorizes New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure
Trust to expend additional sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure
projects for FY2017.   Related Bill: A-4326
   
S-2732  Codey, R.J. (D-27); Gill, N.H. (D-34)
Amends list of environmental infrastructure projects
approved for long-term funding for FY 2017 to include new projects and revise
allowable loan amounts.  Related Bill: A-4327 

___________________________________________________________


ASSEMBLY REGULATORY OVERSIGHT
12/15/16 2:00 PM
Committee Room 14, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
The committee will receive testimony from invited speakers on the
State’s paid family temporary disability leave benefits program.
For consideration:
ACR-192  McKeon, J.F. (D-27); Spencer, L.G. (D-29);
Muoio, E.M. (D-15)
Determines that DEP’s proposal to amend septic system
density standards in Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act Rules is
inconsistent with legislative intent.

___________________________________________________________

Pennsylvania General Assembly


The House will reconvene on           
Tue. Jan
3, 2017 at 12:00 PM             
House Calendar
The Senate will reconvene on

Tue. Jan 3, 2017 at
12:00 PM  
 Senate Calendar                   
      

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**UPDATED** Enviro and Ag committees,Trenton – Dec 12 Read More »

Sources say Christie won’t be RNC chair under Trump

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in background cheering Trump at podium – Photo by EPA – Ryan Stone

Gov. Chris Christie will not be named chairman of the Republican National Committee as President-elect Donald Trump assumes the White House, two sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to NJ Advance Media on Thursday morning.
Christie had been lobbying for the position over the last week, but he and Trump came to the decision mutually, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss the scenario candidly.
One source close to Christie said Trump’s team is continuing to talk to the New Jersey governor, a longtime Trump friend and adviser, about various other positions in the incoming administration.But, the source noted, Christie wants to serve out his second and final term as governor — which ends Jan. 18, 2018.
The source added that Christie is close to Trump and will “certainly remain as an informal adviser.”
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Miners’ health care and pension benefits are on the line

Miners march in Waynesburg, Pa. in April, 2016 – Photo by Andrew Rush, Post-Gazette
The fate of health care and pensions of thousands of coal miners is taking center stage this week as Congress struggles to pass a funding bill by Friday to keep the government open for the next four months.
In the latest development, the Republican majority in the Senate has agreed to extend health care benefits — but only for four months.  
Congress is entering the final days to pass the Miners Protection Act, which was proposed more than a year ago to direct $3 billion over the next 10 years into health care and pension funds for miners. The money would prop up United Mine Workers of America pension funds, relied on by more than 89,000 miners nationwide, including 13,000 miners in Pennsylvania.
An extension would honor a promise by the federal government dating back to the Truman administration to guarantee UMWA retirement funds. Without action, roughly 17,000 miners across the country would lose their health care benefits later this month, and an additional 4,000 would lose them early next year.

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The move to stuff an extension of health care benefits into a short-term appropriations bill was announced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Tuesday. The bill is required to fund the government beyond the end of the year and must be approved before Congress breaks for holiday.
Linking the miners’ health care to the short-term funding bill angered supporters of the bill, including Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Casey, who called it a “profound betrayal” of miners.
“This proposal does nothing to protect pensions and will extend health coverage for so short a time that recipients would be notified almost simultaneously that they are both eligible for benefits and that their benefits will terminate,” Mr. Casey wrote. 
Mr. Casey said he’s incredulous the full act was dropped following the election of Republican Donald J. Trump, who won support among large swaths of coal country by promising to enact miner-friendly policies. Mr. Casey wrote a letter to Mr. Trump last month that urged the president-elect to encourage his party’s leadership to back the measure. Of the bill’s 18 co-sponsors, eight are Republicans.
Read the full story here

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