*** Apologies – NJ.Com took down the photos, which were originally published on my “NJ Voices” column at NJ.Com. I was able to save the text, but not the photos. What assholes.
This news article powerfully tells the story –
New Jersey Program Bought Polluted Lands for Low-income Schools
by Megan Tady
In what critics consider one of the more blatant examples of environmental racism, a fund supposedly intended to give a leg up to impoverished pupils of color was used to put them at risk while favoring private developers. http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3800
But they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are photos of controversial school sites across NJ where toxic contamination forced community outrage.
This photo sketch is just the tip of the iceberg – hundreds of schools and day care centers are involved.
Sites are listed in the following order, with a brief narrative caption: 1) Trenton; 2) Neptune, 3) Camden, 4) Garfield, 5) Paramus, 6) Passaic City school; 7) Passaic City day care, 8) Clifton and 9) Gloucester City
Trenton Martin Luther King Jr. school site – toxic soil was imported and used as “clean fill” sparking community outrage that forced demolition of the partially built school at a $27 million loss
Neptune – growth of toxic mold due to shoddy construction and mismanagement forced partial demolition and reconstruction at a loss of millions of dollars
Camden Early Childhood Development Center – being built on old landfill.
Garfield – Middle school was built on toxic industrial site. Cleanup of toxic vapors in soil and groundwater was ongoing when school opened – parents were notified just weeks before school started.
Garfield – early child center is co-located on contaminated former industrial site.
Paramus Middle School – school officials failed to notify parents about a small pile of pesticide contaminated soils. Outraged parents convinced the Mayor to order the school closed and the Superintendent was fired.
Passaic City school sits directly adjacent to toxic old industrial site – DEP and City officials have dragged their feet for years on cleanup.
Passaic City day care center located next to contaminated site. The School Construction Corporation demolished the hospital previously located at the site but have yet to build the school due to contamination discovered after demolition started.
Passaic City day care – trailers and play ground exposed directly to site.
Clifton – proposed new High SChool proposed to be located in covnerted industrial building. Soil and groundwater are contaminated. Polluting industries are located on three sides of building in an industrial zone.
Clifton HS site
Clifton HS site
Gloucester City – middle school to be built on Superfund site. Millions waste on cleanup and relocation of residents
Gloucester City – Polluting industry located directly across street from proposed school on Superfund site.
Gloucester City – school located in an industrial zone on a Superfund site
I’d like to recommend a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. This place really has it all: extraordinary beauty, nature, enticing trails, revolutionary war era history, spectacular scenic views, wildflowers, picnic areas, solitude, interpretive nature center, and plenty of learning and adventure, especially for lovers or families with kids.
The mission of the Bowman Hill Wildflower Preserve is
To lead people to a greater appreciation of native plants, to an understanding of their importance to all life, and to a commitment to the preservation of a healthy and diverse natural world”. Link to site: http://www.bhwp.org/
Visit the Wildflower Preserve and hike up to Bowman’s Tower for spectacular views of the Delaware Valley. The place is located on the Pa. side of the Delaware river, just south of Lambertville and just north of Washington Crossing bridges. Here’s a visual preview of this special place.
The Star Ledger reports today – the second story actually – that EPA plans to announce a cleanup plan for the Passaic River on Monday.
‘Hotspots’ targeted in first phase of Passaic River cleanup
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/06/passaic_river_to_get_a_cleanup.html
Two Star Ledger set up stories and the details of the EPA plan have yet to emerge – Senator Lautenberg is praising the plan – yet how do we know that it’s a positive development???
My spin detector meter is pinned.
What happened to the NJ DEP cleanup plan announced a few years back because EPA was too slow and too soft on the big polluters? See:NEW JERSEY SUES THREE COMPANIES FOR DISCHARGING AND DELAYING CLEANUP OF HIGHLY TOXIC DIOXIN IN THE LOWER PASSAIC RIVER – Directs Companies to Fund Cleanup Plan for Most
Concentrated Areas of Dioxin Contamination in the River http://www.state.nj.us/dep/newsrel/2005/05_0134.htm
The pictures in the Ledger story also mislead readers. Very few places where DEP has issued fish and shellfish consumption advisories are actually posted with warning signs.
Similarly, many toxics sites are not fenced and posted with warning signs.
I smell a cover story to avoid criticism of NJ DEP walking away from their own state level Passaic River cleanup plan and litigation strategy. See:
Passaic River Cleanup Litigation
To pursue the cleanup of toxic dioxin contamination in the Newark Bay Complex, the Fiscal 2007 Budget will provide an amount sufficient to cover legal and expert services,investigative expenses, and other associated costs. For more than 20 years, Occidental Chemical and its predecessors knowingly discharged a highly toxic form of dioxin, pesticides, and other chemicals into the Passaic River from their Newark facility. The environmental and economic damage this pollution has inflicted on the state includes increased cancer risks from consuming blue claw crabs and higher costs to dredge the New York Harbor’s navigational channels.
http://www.state.nj.us/treasury/omb/publications/07bib/pdf/bib.pdf
The timing of this is also very suspicious.
Both EPA and NJ DEP need good news to recover from the recent damning Report by the EPA Inspector General – a story than ran page one across NJ this week: see:
EPA REPORT BLASTS NEW JERSEY TOXIC CLEAN-UPS — State Failures to Enforce Law Lead to Worst Delays in the Country
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1068
By way of illustration: suppose newspapers covered a scathingly critical National report on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) failures on airline safety, and just a few days later the local FAA office announced a safety plan at Newark airport. Obviously, everyone would connect the dots and see the spin and manipulation.
Why that is not the case on this EPA “cleanup plan” is puzzling.
I have no details of the EPA plan, but here is a link to a local briefing on EPA cleanup Options:
http://www.ourpassaic.org/projectsites/premis_public/DM/index.cfm/2007-07-12%20Lower%20Passaic%20River%20Municipality%20Meeting%20Summary%20Final.pdf?fuseaction=GetDoc&DocId=8912
Contaminated soils poison community and the Hackensack River
Bill Wolfe
What are tarps for?THis is what happens when there is little DEP oversight and no enforcement. Yet instead of increasing oversight and strenghening enforcement of our toxic site cleanup laws, the Corzine Administration is proposing to privatize the program.
Do you trust the polluters to voluntarily cleanup sites and police themselves?
DEP enforcement is not the only one asleep – this site is located less than a mile from the HQ of a major metropolitan newspaper.
Maybe if journalists and editors just went outside and looked around, they might find some very interesting stories.
Lots of Jobs cleaning up the environment, not building new sprawl
*** Apologies – NJ.Com took down the photos, which were originally published on my “NJ Voices” column at NJ.Com. I was able to save the text, but not the photos. What assholes.
Bill Wolfe
Bergen Record file photosolar – clean energy, good jobsWhy don’t construction unions and the business community ever talk about all the jobs and economic activity created by environmental programs?
In this case, well paid construction jobs were created by DEP clean water requirements.
Upgrading environmental infrastructure and compliance with environmental laws creates thousands of jobs.
Germany recently created 170,000 well paid high technology jobs in just one segment of the solar industry –
NJ could create hundreds of thousands more jobs and thousands of new small businesses right here in NJ in we got serious about investing in and regulating a transition to an energy efficient, renewable energy, high environmental quality economy.
I never hear the lobbyists or officials in Trenton say that. I never read that in the newspaper.
Wonder why?
