Environmental Research Foundation  [Printer-friendly version]
June 4, 2009

REPORT OF AN EJ MEETING AT DEP

By Peter Montague

On June 3 I attended the regular monthly public meeting of the DEP's
Environmental Justice Advisory Council (EJAC), chaired by Valorie
Caffee.

I am known to EJAC members because I sit as an invited guest on their
"Cumulative Impacts" subcommittee, though I am not a member of EJAC
itself. I identified myself as an unaffiliated resident of New
Brunswick, but I did mention that I am a member of the New Jersey
Environmental Justice Alliance (NJEJA). I was explicit that I was not
representing any group and I was not speaking for any organization of
any kind. I did not mention the Arthur Kill Alliance or any other
group or individual in Union County.

I told the EJAC that my purpose was to ask them to make a
recommendation to the DEP Commissioner to do everything in his power
to stop the PurGen coal plant proposed for Linden in Union County --
because the plant would create a colossal environmental injustice --
at least as big as the injustice created by the imposition of the St.
Lawrence cement plant in Camden by Governor Whitman.

The meeting had began with a presentation by Dr. Gerald Fagliano of
the N.J. Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS). He
described and demonstrated DHSS's new online data portal. It has two
parts, which you can find here

http://www.nj.gov/health/epht

and

http://www.nj.gov/health/shad

This was fortuitous because I had used this same DHSS data system to
gather some data about environmental and health conditions in Union
County in preparing my presentation to EJAC.

I gave everyone two handouts --

1. The "Burning the Future: Coal in America" DVD that I have offered
to send to each of you (the offer still stands -- just send me a
postal address and I'll mail you a copy). If New Jersey allows a large
coal-based chemical factory and power plant to be built, it will
contribute to enormous environmental injustices in Appalachia, as this
DVD shows.

2. An 8-page PDF handout that I've put on my web site. You can find
it here:

http://tinyurl.com/r6tdkd

Here's a brief description of each of the 8 pages:

Page 1: This is the "Statement of Findings" by the state's
Environmental Justice Task Force, dated June 15, 2005, in which they
accepted the EJ petition from 176 residents of Linden. This
establishes that Linden was designated an official "EJ community"
under Executive order 96.

Page 2: This is the first slide in a presentation given April 21,
2005, by DEP's then-EJ coordinator, Jeremee Johnson, in which she
described how the state's EJ program was being implemented in N.J.
under Executive Order 96.

Page 3: is Jeremee Johnson's description of what is supposed to happen
in designated EJ communities: "Develop Action Plan delineating the
steps to reduce existing environmental burdens and avoid or reduce the
imposition of additional environmental burdens."

In my presentation to EJAC, I emphasized the "avoid or reduce the
imposition of additional environmental burdens." Siting a coal plant
in Linden would definitely violate this intention of the state's EJ
policies.

In sum: DEP is supposed to try to prevent additional pollution from
coming into designated EJ communities such as Linden. You might say
DEP has a DUTY to prevent additional pollution in EJ communities.

Pages 4 and 5 use data from three sources to show that Union County is
already excessively burdened with pollution.

First, we learn from the U.S. Bureau of the Census that Union County
has an EJ profile -- disproportionately high populations of Black and
Hispanic residents.

Second, we learn from the NJDHSS data portal that Union County is far
higher than the statewide average for 8 important air pollutants.

Third, we learn that Union County has above-average number of children
poisoned by toxic lead, and disproportionately high occurrences of low
birth weight babies and infant mortality. Low birth weight and infant
mortality are often considered to be sentinel indicators of overall
environmental quality. If that's true, then we can conclude that the
environment of Union County is seriously degraded.

The final 3 pages of my handout present air toxics data about Union
County from two N.J. DEP web sites. The data of interest occur in
column 4 where we have a "risk ratio" for each chemical listed. This
risk ratio compares existing air pollution in Union County to levels
that the N.J. DEP considers "safe."

For example, on page 6 of the handout, we learn that acrolein in Union
County air is 29 times as high as the "safe" level. Acrylonotrile is
10 times the safe level. Formaldehyde is 34 times the safe level. On
page 8 of the handout we learn that "Diesel particulate matter" is 664
(!) times the "safe" level. These data are 10 years old, but they are
"current" on the DEP web site, and it seems unlikely that they have
changed substantially in 10 years -- except perhaps to get worse. (The
U.S. introduces 700 new chemicals into commerce every year, so there
are 7000 more chemicals to contend with today than there were in
1999.) (Detailed information about the toxicity of each of these
chemicals is available from DHSS: http://tinyurl.com/puabbl)

In sum:

Linden in Union county has been designated an EJ community by the
State of New Jersey. Union County has a demographic profile that fits
the EJ pattern -- above-average numbers of People of Color. Union
County is already burdened by excessive concentrations of toxic air
contaminants. And several health measures indicate that environmental
conditions in Union County are already taking a toll on the County's
children.

I asked EJAC to make a formal recommendation to the DEP Commissioner
to stop the proposed coal plant, which would add 5 million pounds of
air contaminants each year into this already-polluted. (For the source
of the 5 million pound figure, see http://tinyurl.com/qybhrq)

I told them I thought that if this coal plant were allowed in, it
would be for the Corzine administration what the St. Lawrence Cement
plant was for the Whitman administration -- an indelible, embarrassing
symbol of enormous environmental injustice, a permanent stain on the
Governor's record.

EJAC members clearly understood the issues involved. They discussed
the matter briefly and took two actions:

1. They asked me for additional information about IGCC technology,
which I am gathering together now (and will send to this list soon).
Maria Franco-Spera offered to invite Bradley Campbell, who is now
working on behalf of the coal industry, to make a presentation to
EJAC. My impression was that EJAC members did not seem interested in
hearing from Mr. Campbell.

2. EJAC Chairperson Valorie Caffee will ask Deputy Commissioner Jay
Watson for a list of permits that such a facility would need to get
from DEP and EPA. Deputy Commissioner Watson has responsibility for EJ
matters within DEP.

More later. --Peter Montague, June 4, 2009