Environmental Research Foundation, 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