NYC imposes 5-cent fee on single-use grocery bags

On a 28-20 vote, the New York City Council
has passed a controversial bag bill that will impose a 5-cent fee on
paper and plastic single-use bags throughout the city. The law will go into
effect Oct. 1.

Waste
Dive
reports:

The fee will apply to retail, grocery, and
convenience stores as well as some street vendors. The merchants will pocket
the money, unlike similar bills in which cities use the money for education or
cleanup programs.
The bill will exempt NYC residents that are
shopping with the assistance of government benefits. It will also exempt
restaurants, so consumers will not need to worry about paying extra for
delivery.

Dive Insight:
This decision wasn’t made easily, though. According to Councilman David
Greenfield, the vote was one of the “most divisive issues”
that the Council has dealt with this legislative season, as both sides of the
debate had strong reasoning for why the bill should or should not have
passed. The city intended to have a decision on the matter two weeks ago,
but it was pushed back due
to three co-sponsors being out of town.
Since that time, NYC Council Speaker
Melissa Mark-Viverito backed the bill, which was likely the final push it
needed to get passed today.
Opponents, however, are not pleased, as
many of them believe the bill will have a negative effect on low-income
consumers, and that the bill wouldn’t change behavior. To address these
concerns, the fee was halved from the original 10-cent proposal to 5, but that
still was not enough to keep opponents from fighting it to the last minute.

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Yes, a big new manufacturing plant is rising in Camden

Holtec construction site on the waterfront in South Camden, NJ 


Officials at Holtec, the company moving its headquarters and manufacturing facilities
to Camden, hope to help change the city’s
economic landscape, bringing jobs to a place
long starved for them.

 reports for the Courier-Post:
Ray Jones grew up in Camden; he’s a Camden High School graduate and says, proudly, “I’m a Camden guy.” Though he lives in Sicklerville now, the president of We See You Security still has “Camden in my heart.”
He’s heard the bad things about his hometown — the violence, the poverty, the decay. Still, Jones said, “I can tell you the good things about Camden, too.”
Asked about those good things, the 55-year-old pointed to Camden’s people.
“I came from here, I went to school here; I have a master’s degree,  and I did all these things when I was a Camden resident. I’m still here every day,” said Jones, the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey police captain.
“And the young people who are here now deserve the same chances I had.”
Jones says he believes Holtec is committed to offering Camden workers good jobs, and the training they need to compete for those jobs. He’s not alone.
Walt Dixon is a co-owner of Contractor Service, a Federal Street company that supplies construction materials and equipment to contractors. They are working with Joseph Jignoli & Son Inc., the primary contractor on the Holtec project, one he calls “by far the biggest job we’ve had in 26 years in Camden.”

Buy Photo

A new Holtec facility is under construction in South Camden. The company hopes to change the economic landscape in the city. (Photo: Jose F. Moreno/Staff Photographer, Jose F. Moreno/Staff Photographer)

Dixon’s business is relatively small, employing 17 people (many of them city residents), but he’s already seen the benefits of Holtec’s investment in Camden. He’s hoping to hire more people in the near future, a result of the six-figure windfall Contractor Service has seen from Holtec.
“It’s important to get the idea out there that this is not going to be the Camden of the past,” he said. “Buildings don’t make a city — people make a city. Quality jobs can help, but it comes down to education.”
Like Jones, he believes it’s about providing training and opportunity, but also about commitment from the workers.
“We don’t need college graduates; we need people who can come in to work every day and have a good attitude. Our business is about building relationships.”
Holtec, he said, is holding up its end: “They want to hire local people and do business locally. And that’s great.”
‘A win-win’
Robert Lee of Jingoli & Son said his company has made a point of approaching Camden institutions, from local unions to the mayor’s office, to ensure as many city residents as possible are employed on the 52-acre site. Nearly 200 people, from laborers to pile drivers to welders to truck drivers, are working on the project.
“We call the union halls and make sure that we get Camden residents before they send anyone to us,” Lee said. “We go to the community leaders and ask for individuals who are willing to work, to show up on time. We went to City Hall to get a list that the mayor’s office has of individuals who are ready and willing to work on a construction site.
“It ended up turning out great,” he said, noting Jingoli has 30 Camden residents working on the site and is using city vendors like We See You and Contractor Service.
Taariq Ayers is a pile driver and pre-apprentice who came to Jingoli through his masjid in Camden. The 21-year-old Woodrow Wilson graduate said he’s getting on-the-job training and calls his work “a great opportunity.”
Jones, of We See You, said Holtec and Jingoli began their community outreach “a year before the shovels hit the ground,” and he knew he could help provide the Camden residents they wanted to hire

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Dangerous pollutant spreading in Pompton groundwater?


A cancer-causing pollutant in the groundwater beneath a Pompton Lakes neighborhood was also detected in a nearby residential well in Wayne, raising the possibility that the contamination could be migrating under Pompton Lake to the other side.


James M. O’Neill reports in The (Bergen) Record:

State and federal officials say the pollutant — TCE, a solvent — is found in cleaners, paints and other products commonly used by homeowners and that one of these could have been the source of the pollution that showed up in the Wayne well.

And officials overseeing cleanup of the contaminated groundwater beneath hundreds of homes in Pompton Lakes have said for years that the pollution wasn’t likely to migrate deep beneath the lake to the Wayne side.


However, two independent hydrogeologists, who looked at the geology underlying the region at The Record’s request, say it’s certainly possible the contamination could have traveled under Pompton Lake and then been detected in the residential well in the Pines Lake section of Wayne.

“It has been in the ground for decades, so it could easily move by tens of feet per year,” said David Yoxtheimer, a hydrogeologist at Pennsylvania State University. “These contaminants, I have found, can go right under rivers.”
 
Indeed, chromium that spilled at an industrial site in Garfield decades ago and spread beneath hundreds of homes has migrated under the Passaic River and was detected on the other side in the city of Passaic.

Yoxtheimer and John Schuring, a hydrogeologist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said that, given the contamination detected in the one well in Wayne during two tests in 2011, it would be prudent for the other residential wells in the Pines Lake neighborhood to be tested.

Wayne Mayor Christopher Vergano said that to his knowledge there was no systematic effort to test the other wells in the Pines Lake neighborhood after the pollutant was found in the well.

“I’m a little surprised there has not been testing on the Wayne side of the lake,” Yoxtheimer said. “Pompton Lake is shallow and there’s deeper groundwater flowing there.”

The federal Environmental Protection Agency and state Department of Environmental Protection said that while TCE, or trichloroethene, is one of the pollutants under homes in Pompton Lakes, the solvent is also present in paint strippers, adhesive removers, rug cleaners, disinfectants, varnishes and paints, and that one of these may have been the source.


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NJDEP proposes to allow more septic systems in Highlands

State agency claims new water-quality data allows for loosening of current rules; opponents argue data is flawed
The state wants to loosen up the rules governing building in the New Jersey Highlands, changes critics say will allow up to 1,100 new septic systems and more development in the preservation area.

Tom Johnson reports today in NJ Spotlight:
The proposal, to be published today in the New Jersey Register, is based on more extensive water-quality data concerning how much building could occur in the region, which supplies drinking water to more than 5 million residents.
Conservationists view the revisions as the latest effort by the Department of Environmental Protection to roll back protections in the Highlands, coming on the heels of other proposed rule changes that also have come under fire from Highlands advocates.
The Highlands are a sprawling 860,000 acres of forested ridges and rolling farmland in northern New Jersey that was originally protected under a law enacted 12 years ago.
If adopted, the latest rule would deal with how many septic systems would be allowed in the 414,000 acres of the Highlands preservation area, an issue that led to litigation over the existing rules by the New Jersey Farm Bureau. The bureau contended that the rules lacked any scientific foundation. The new rule would increase the potential number of septic systems by 12 percent, according to the DEP.
“The proposed septic system density standards provide a common sense, science-based approach to protecting the region’s precious water supplies, while creating reasonable opportunities for economic growth and jobs,’’ said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin.
Based on data collected from the U.S. Geological Survey, the agency contends the density of septic systems can be increased within the three different land-use categories in the preservation area without degrading water quality.
Critics of the proposal, however, say the data is flawed and predict it will have an adverse impact on water quality.

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What will it take to repair NJ’s ailing water infrastructure?

Lead is just the most publicized of several serious problems; meanwhile, costs for consumers continue to climb

The New Jersey Legislature appears poised to take a crack at fixing the state’s aging drinking-water systems, which have exhibited several highly visible problems in recent months.
Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:
A special legislative task force would be given six months to come up with recommendations to deal with issues related to the drinking-water infrastructure under a measure (SCR-86) to be considered early next week.
The issue, long festering even while being acknowledged by state officials and experts, is daunting. New Jersey faces at least $8 billion worth of needed improvements, according to estimates by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The problems are well documented. Schools in Newark and elsewhere have had to switch to bottled water as water fountains and sinks have been found to contain high levels of lead, a dangerous contaminant. At least 20 percent of treated water leaks from aging pipes before it ever gets to the home. New pollutants, some not even regulated, show up in supplies more often.
As policymakers wrestle with those issues, the cost of delivering safe drinking water to consumers continues to rise. Yesterday, the state Board of Public Utilities approved a pair of rate increases, including one for Suez Water New Jersey, which is among the state’s larger water companies.
The safety of drinking water delivered to customers emerged as a top priority after reports last year of widespread lead contamination in the city supplies of Flint, MI, and then again after unsafe levels of lead were reported in 30 Newark schools last month.
“Lead is what made people aware of how fragile our drinking water is, but there are a lot more problems than just lead,’’ said Chris Sturm, who directs policy development and advocacy for New Jersey Future. “We all assume our drinking water is safe — until it’s not.’’
For too long, those problems have been ignored, say some environmentalists.
“This administration especially, but others as well, are guilty of being (missing in action) when it comes to protecting our drinking water,’’ said David Pringle, campaign director for Clean Water Action, one of the state’s largest environmental organizations.
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NJ forest management or logging in sheep’s clothing?

Residents in the small, bucolic community of Sparta are gearing up for a battle to spare their mountain from what they say is a disastrous state DEP plan that will do more harm than good.


NJTV’s David Cruz, who’s more accustomed to filing stories from the streets of Hudson County or the hallways of the State Capitol, takes to the woods for this one.

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