Bear with me here because I still may be a little angry.

But what I witnessed today amounted to a total breakdown in a key scientific and public health institution designed to protect public health from the risks associated with drinking water contaminants.

The NJ Drinking Water Quality Institute (DWQI) held its regular quarterly meeting today. The DWQI is responsible for making independent scientific recommendations to DEP on safe drinking water.

The DWQI is in disarray. After 8 months, the Governor still has not appointed a successor to former Chair Mark Robson, who resigned in January. Vacancies remain to be filled.

Today’s DWQI meeting was preceded by an unprecedented series of negative news stories and editorials that disclosed significant public health risks from drinking water due to chemicals, radiation, and unregulated contaminants like drugs in drinking water supplies (for examples click on link and read:

• Clean Water Advocates Petition DEP to Clean Up Contaminants 
• NJ considers new standards for radon in drinking water; some in Morris would flunk
• N.J., Pa. weigh how much to regulate deadly radon
• Radioactivity rampant in New Jersey well water
• TIGHTER NEW JERSEY DRINKING WATER STANDARDS IN OBLIVION –  Drinking Water Institute Chair Resigns in Frustration; Successor to be Announced
• Editorial: Cleaner water
• Perchlorate limits to be set for water
• New Jersey backs off plans to test water supplies for a chemical found in rocket fuel and fertilizer

After a pummeling like that, I expected that there would be a thoughtful response from the DWQI and DEP.

I expected an announcement of specific steps and action plans to move forward on protecting drinking water from these chemical pollutants.

But I was dead wrong.

The DWQI took no action and made no recommendations to DEP for action.

DEP representatives on the DWQI evaded all tough questions and decisions and made no commitments to do anything.

It was obvious that rank fear of political retaliation related to the costs of meeting the DWQI science based standards was the major barrier to moving forward. Speculative compliance cost considerations completely dominated the science and trumped all public health considerations.

For that I blame Governor Christie and his cost benefit and federal consistency policies under Executive Order #2 – it is having a hugely chilling effect.

I also blame DEP Commissioner Martin who has shown an inclination to attack his own DEP scientists and an arrogant and ignorant unwillingness to tolerate independent science and different opinions. 

Despite my detailed inquiries during the public comment period, it was obvious that both DEP and the DWQI were evasive instead of responsive.

After my thorough questioning during the public comment period, it became painfully obvious that not only were both DEP and the DWQI in disarray, but that staff and DWQI members were too intimidated to say anything, even on purely science questions.

This evasion was with the exception of Mr. Cohn from DHSS, who agreed with my concerns about drought – see # 6 below. Additionally, DEP agreed to disclose the results of prior unregulated contaminant sampling (at least 199 episodes) that found over 500 unregulated chemicals in public water supplies. But DEP did not agree to conduct current health and ecological risk screening and risk assessment for these 500+ chemicals (as requested in the PEER petition to DEP for rule-making) or to disclose or update the prior 2003 toxicology and  risk assessment methodology and results on these 500+ chemicals).

In my testimony, I presented the PEER petition and asked for status reports and DWQI followup oversight on:

1) the October 2005 DWQI perchlorate MCL recommendation which was proposed by DEP as an MCL in March 2009 . DEP Commissioner Martin claimed that he deferred action on adopting DEP’s proposed MCL because allegedly EPA would adopt a MCL “this summer”. Summer is over and EPA failed to act. So where is DEP MCL?;

2) the March 2009 DWQI recommeded updates to MCLs on multiple hazardous chemical contaminants to reflect current science;

3) the status of the February 2009 DWQI recommended radon MCL;

4) the stauts of the May 2010 policy paper on 500+ unregulated contaminants and treatment strategy (In response, I was told by DEP staff that action had to wait until pilot studies were completed. When I asked about the status of the pilot studies, I was told that the 2 pilot systems had not even installed the carbon filter treatment technology and that DEP felt that they could not push this process. In other words, this is on a slow road to nowhere – click here for complete details, including prior 2004 “Interested Party Regulatory review“);

5) the status of addressing the findings on uranium in drinking water sampling in the Highlands presented on May 7;

6) health risks caused by high concentrations of chemical contaminants in water supply source waters, given current drought conditions. Wastewater effluent makes up 100% of the flows in the Passaic/Pompton Rivers above water supply intakes. Millions of people are drinking increased and unsafe concentrations of hundreds of chemical pollutants.

Both DWQI members and DEP staff refused to respond to any of these questions in any way that would represent a commitment to do anything to reduce known unacceptable public health risks from drinking water.

And that is a shocking and totally unprofessional abdication.

book burning (was not part of Nature editorial)

 

Superb editorial from the journal Nature, printed in its entirety without permission. It was written by “scientists with stones” and closes with exactly the same observations and recommendations I have been making here: 

Science scorned

Journal name: Nature

Volume: 467 , Page: 133

Date published:  (09 September 2010)

The anti-science strain pervading the right wing in the United States is the last thing the country needs in a time of economic challenge.

“The four corners of deceit: government, academia, science and media. Those institutions are now corrupt and exist by virtue of deceit. That’s how they promulgate themselves; it is how they prosper.” It is tempting to laugh off this and other rhetoric broadcast by Rush Limbaugh, a conservative US radio host, but Limbaugh and similar voices are no laughing matter.

There is a growing anti-science streak on the American right that could have tangible societal and political impacts on many fronts — including regulation of environmental and other issues and stem-cell research. Take the surprise ousting last week of Lisa Murkowski, the incumbent Republican senator for Alaska, by political unknown Joe Miller in the Republican primary for the 2 November midterm congressional elections. Miller, who is backed by the conservative ‘Tea Party movement’, called his opponent’s acknowledgement of the reality of global warming “exhibit ‘A’ for why she needs to go”.

The right-wing populism that is flourishing in the current climate of economic insecurity echoes many traditional conservative themes, such as opposition to taxes, regulation and immigration. But the Tea Party and its cheerleaders, who include Limbaugh, Fox News television host Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (who famously decried fruitfly research as a waste of public money), are also tapping an age-old US political impulse — a suspicion of elites and expertise.

Denialism over global warming has become a scientific cause célèbre within the movement. Limbaugh, for instance, who has told his listeners that “science has become a home for displaced socialists and communists”, has called climate-change science “the biggest scam in the history of the world”. The Tea Party’s leanings encompass religious opposition to Darwinian evolution and to stem-cell and embryo research — which Beck has equated with eugenics. The movement is also averse to science-based regulation, which it sees as an excuse for intrusive government. Under the administration of George W. Bush, science in policy had already taken knocks from both neglect and ideology. Yet President Barack Obama’s promise to “restore science to its rightful place” seems to have linked science to liberal politics, making it even more of a target of the right.

US citizens face economic problems that are all too real, and the country’s future crucially depends on education, science and technology as it faces increasing competition from China and other emerging science powers. Last month’s recall of hundreds of millions of US eggs because of the risk of salmonella poisoning, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, are timely reminders of why the US government needs to serve the people better by developing and enforcing improved science-based regulations. Yet the public often buys into anti-science, anti-regulation agendas that are orchestrated by business interests and their sponsored think tanks and front groups.

In the current poisoned political atmosphere, the defenders of science have few easy remedies. Reassuringly, polls continue to show that the overwhelming majority of the US public sees science as a force for good, and the anti-science rumblings may be ephemeral. As educators, scientists should redouble their efforts to promote rationalism, scholarship and critical thought among the young, and engage with both the media and politicians to help illuminate the pressing science-based issues of our time.

Secret Meeting Starts New DEP Science Advisory Board Off on the Wrong Foot

[Update 2 – 9/10/10 – On October 10, 2009, I wrote to then DEP Acting Commissioner Mauriello to request that the SAB be subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA):

Commissioner:

I want to follow-up on your remarks on the new Science Advisory Board (SAB) at yesterday’s NJBIA panel discussion. This is especially important because you referred several times to my blogging on that issue and stated that my criticisms were off base.

First, you stated that the NJ DEP SAB was modeled on the EPA SAB. This may be the case. However, you failed to mention a few important facts that are relevant to that modeling exercise:

1. The EPA SAB is subject to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). In contrast, your Administrative Order guides DEP SAB. There are significantly different and stronger legally enforceable technical standards under FACA that are not in your AO, particularly with respect to composition, balance, ethics, transparency, and public involvement. Here is a link to FACA so you can do a side-by-side comparison. I would support State counterpart legislation to replace your AO, if you’d like to pursue that option.

More recently, On April 13, 2010, I wrote to Commissioner Martin that the SAB should be subject to the requirements of FACA:

In light of this episode, I ask for your support towards reforms to make all DEP advisory group deliberations are open and accessible to the public, transparent, accountable, objective, and subject to ethical standards, as provided by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

The next day, on April 14, I testified to the Clean Air Council and made the same request:

7) and support a State level FACA law to assure that all DEP advisory groups operate openly, transparently, objectively, ethically, and provide access to the public.

Given this history, it is baffling why the SAB’s first meeting was in secret – they should have gone out of their way to be open and transparent to avoid this criticism and to protect ther own integrity. ]

Update 1: once again, DEP is playing dishonest games. First, the chronology: I learned of this morning’s SAB meeting at 11:39 am via an email passing on the WHYY report. This post went up at 12:20 pm today and was distributed to press at 12:30 pm via email. DEP issued a press release in response to that criticism at 3:28 pm.  If DEP cared at all about public involvement, they would have issued the press release BEFORE the meeting and conducted an open meeting.

Second, upon returning home, at 5:45 pm today, I learned that DEP had posted the list of 17 issues on the SAB page DEP website. So I just check it out – the document is dated September 8 (yesterday) and the website dates it as September 8 as well (falsely creating the appearance that it was posted BEFORE today’s meeting). But right click, hit “properties” and note that the document was created TODAY and 9:31 am.That means it could not have been posted before the meeting today. So DEP again back dated a document and the website.

I later will provide a detailed analysis of each of the 17 topics selected, but will note one thing for now: while several of the topics appear to be valid scientific questions, there is NO DOUBT, that this issue is a flat out attack on the Highlands regulation’s 25-88 acre septic density standard:

The controversial new DEP Science Advisory Board (SAB) met today for the first time – behind closed doors – not open to the public or the press.

That move obviously seriously undermines their credibility, right out of the box.

It also validates criticisms we have made for months about the composition and role of the SAB, industry influence on the SAB, and politicization of science at DEP.

Dupont, one of the world’s largest polluters with billions of dollars of toxic cleanup liability in NJ, is on the SAB. Obviously, Dupont is keenly interested in DEP science that backs cleanup standards and risk assessments.

Science, by definition, is an open and transparent process that welcomes engagement.

It is shocking that the SAB failed to realize this, especially given the public policy and regulatory nature of their deliberations.

DEP Commissioner Martin apparently gave the SAB a list of 17 issues to work on.

How did Martin develop that list? Who are the SAB and what is their role?

The arrogance is stunning.

The WHYY report is sketchy:

N.J.’s new science advisory board meets

Thursday, September 9th, 2010
By: Kerry Grens
kgrens@whyy.org

A new board that will advise New Jersey on everything from ground water contamination to air quality convened for the first time today. It was closed to the public, but WHYY’s health and science reporter Kerry Grens got a debriefing on what issues the board will address.

The 16-member advisory board, appointed by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection commissioner, is made of university professors, environmental engineers, and industry scientists.

At the meeting DEP handed members a list of 17 major environmental issues, just to get them started. One is the nutrient-overloading problem in Barnegat Bay — which is the subject of a controversial bill in New Jersey’s senate that would restrict lawn fertilizer. Another is how to protect ground water when cleaning up contaminated soil sites.

DEP spokesman Larry Ragonese says the issues will be divided among sub-committees.

Ragonese: They’ll work on a lot of these issues, bring them to the full board, and then the full board will consider them and make recommendations to the DEP, to Commissioner Martin, to either support proposals that we might have on board or to debunk them.

 The next meeting is in October.

NJ Drinking Water Infrastructure Deficit Exceeds $7.9 billion

Trenton water filtration plant on Delaware River

Given yesterday’s long delayed DEP statewide drought watch, which is compounded by DEP’s failure to update the 1996 Water Supply Master Plan and the Christie Administration’s austerity and environmental rollback policies, we thought we’d dust off US EPA’s most recent Report to Congress on drinking water infrastructure deficits.

The American Society of Civil Engineers recently issued a national Report Card – Drinking water infrastructure was determined to be the most urgent infrastructure need and it got a D minus grade! (here is NJ’s State assessment).

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducts a national drinking water infrastructure needs assessment and submits bi-annual Reports to Congress.

According to EPA’s most recent Report, NJ has a drinking water infrastructure deficit of $7.962 BILLION ($4.7 BILLION for transmission and distribution alone – for NJ data, see page 18 of EPA’s Report)).

Drinking water projects received just $272 million in this year’s financing – at that rate, it would take 40 years to catch up with current deficits. Of course, over that time period, billions more in investment would be required to maintain NJ’s aging infrastructure.

Despite recurrent droughts in NJ and scientists’ warnings that drought conditions will get more severe and frequent due to global warming, water supply planning and infrastructure are totally unprepared to manage drought. According to the EPA Report, infrastructure needs are even greater given drought:

An emerging need encountered in the 2007 Assessment is new source water infrastructure to offset existing and anticipated drought conditions. In the past several years, water systems across the United States have been adversely affected by drought. Because drought is not always long term or permanent, the DWSRF-eligibility of projects based on speculated continuation of the drought condition was not clear. EPA does not question that water systems are being affected by drought conditions. However, only a small percentage of the systems participating in the Assessment have completed plans to address the drought impacts.

When documentation was lacking or nonexistent, EPA had to decide whether a speculative permanent solution or a less costly temporary solution should be considered for inclusion in the Assessment. EPA also investigated the drought-related projects to ensure they were primarily to provide drinking water to existing consumers and not for projected growth demand. EPA believes the drought-related needs reported in the 2007 Assessment capture a small portion of the drought related need water utilities may face in the future.

Obviously, this data illustrate major flaws in Christie’s environmental policies and priorities.

Given abdication by the Governor and Legislators – and a press corps that is AWOL – the people of NJ have to force policy-makers to address these deficits.

Our ecological and economic health is dependent upon healthy and reliable sources of drinking water.

NJ Gov. Chris Christie (Jan. 2010 at Inaugural)

Governor Christie is holding a Town Hall meeting today in Raritan Township, the second in his “government reform” campaign.

The campaign kickoff was yesterday, just coincidentally on the same day the Assembly held oversight hearings on his $400 million education funding debacle, so some have called the whole thing a diversion.

But that is dangerous – because there is a perverse Christie policy agenda that is escaping scrutiny.

I realize that clean water and public health stories don’t rise to the level of political scandal in NJ news circles, but Christie’s Raritan visit should shine a light on a recent controversy in Raritan Township that has statewide consequences. That dispute is a perfect example of how Christie’s agenda is “A Race to the Bottom – with No Brakes or Steering Wheel“.

The Raritan Township Committee recently became an outlaw by defying DEP stormwater management regulations (see: Raritan Twp. Committee rejects requiring dumpster covers; faces DEP penalties)

Remarkably, the Town picked a fight over DEP requirements for lids on garbage dumpsters, which are designed to minimize production of that foul liquid called leachate.

Leachate not only smells horrible, it pollutes nearby streams and attracts rats and other disease carrying vermin.

So basic 19th century public health measures are at stake in DEP’s regulations.

Raritan would rather return to 19th century conditions than comply with DEP – the epitome of the Christie reform agenda.

Even more remarkable is that Town Council members are fully aware of this and still refused to comply, calling DEP regulations an “unfunded state mandate“.

Here’s a flavor of the gutter level of the debate:

After [Committeeman] O’Malley voted no, when asked by another committee member whether he “felt good” that the municipality is now out of compliance, he said “Yeah, I do.”

“Since 1900 Dumpsters haven’t been covered and we’ve managed to survive,” O’Malley said, smirking.

[Committeeman] Kuhrt said water from Dumpsters brings rats and leads to health hazards.

This entire dispute hit the local newspapers, which I’m sure made Raritan Township residents proud. Raritan, home of the defiant Rat Brigade!

So, transitioning from local events, let’s get back to Christie’s “reform agenda”.

Christie issued Executive Order #4 which deals with “unfunded mandates” back on his first day in Office. That Order invited exactly the irresponsible, ideologically driven, rebellion that is going on in Raritan:

WHEREAS, the New Jersey State Government has imposed such unfunded mandates in order to improperly transfer responsibility for providing certain services to local governments, in an effort to meet the State’s balanced budget requirement;

So, after manufacturing a bogus issue to divert from the real causes of local property tax increases,  the League jumped on the Christie bandwagon.

Many of the “state mandate” targets of the League are environmental requirements.

Democratic Assemblyman John McKeon, also [**sorry, former] Mayor of West Orange, chairs the Environment Commitee which held hearings last week (see: “Race to the Bottom – With No Brakes or Steering Wheel” .  McKeon seemed to be competing with his local colleagues to see who could be more foolish in rolling back state requirements.

Of course the League of Municipalities’ panel of local officials didn’t mention the embarrassing Raritan case.

Instead, the League used their key witness, the Mayor of Hamilton Township (Mercer County) to attack the DEP stormwater regulations.

That choice of Hamilton mayor was hugely ironic, because Hamilton Township is doing a horrible job implementing those regulations.

An outstanding recent Report by the Delaware Riverkeeper focuses on Hamilton. NJ licensed professional engineers reviewed the Town’s performance and found serious violations that have contributed to flooding and water quality decline. (see: “New Jersey Stormwater Management Implementation – A Case Study of Hamilton Township“

And here’s the Raritan story – read it and weep :

Raritan Twp. Committee rejects requiring Dumpster covers; faces DEP penalties

RARITAN TWP.- The Township Committee defeated a motion to adopt an ordinance requiring Dumpsters to be covered to prevent health hazards; the measure had been mandated by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) so now the township is out of compliance with its discharge permits.

The ordinance would have required that Dumpsters that are outdoors or exposed to storm water be covered to prevent prohibiting “spilling, dumping, leaking” so contents do not end up in the storm sewers.

“We didn’t want this, we were required by the DEP,” Township Administrator Alan Pietrefesa told a resident who was concerned how the township engineer’s office would be able to enforce the ordinance.

“Since 1900 Dumpsters haven’t been covered and we’ve managed to survive,” O’Malley said, smirking.

Kuhrt said water from Dumpsters brings rats and leads to health hazards.

http://www.nj.com/hunterdon-co…