[Update 1/31/12 - Tom Johnson NJ Spotlight writes the story: Trying to Set a Fair Price for Private Use of Public Lands - Conservationists dismiss DEP's flat fee as far too low

Environmentalists questioned whether the state would still be undervaluing land if the proposed 15 cents per square foot is adopted by the administration.

Bill Wolfe, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, suggested a much higher benchmark of $1.25 per square foot for leasing of open lands. He noted that two utilities trying to expand a high-voltage power line through the Delaware Water National Recreation Area recently offered to spend $30 million to buy up open space around that project. Under his calculations, Wolfe said that comes out to about $13 per square foot. end]

The Senate Environment Committee heard 2 important bills today regarding state lands.

Commercial Logging on State Lands – Forest Stewardship (S1085)

Committee Chairman Bob Smith, sponsor of the hugely controversial commercial logging bill that failed in last session’s lame duck, reintroduced that bill (S1085).

To restart the legislative process this session, today he posed a narrow question to focus testimony:

Smith asked each person testifying to stick to the question: “What is the state of the state’s forests”.

Seeming like he was pissed off by the blindsided criticism he received on his lame duck bill, Smith asked the various conservation groups to get together and provide a unified position in support of the bill, or provide an alternative solution. Revealing his frustration, Smith said:

I’m not meeting with you – meet amongst yourselves.

Smith will move a bill on March 8 – he asked for public comments by March 1.

So, now is the time to provide input:

Contact info:  SenBSmith@NJLeg.org. Be sure to copy Committee aid Kevil Duhon at KDuhon@NJLeg.org

You can listen to the testimony by clicking on this link. (scroll down to Environment Cmte).

I testified that the state of the forests were an integral part of the quality of life of the people of the state. Forests are public resources that provide competing benefits for public use and enjoyment and any attempt to manage them raises conflicting ecological objectives.

Given these competing uses and conflicts, public control is essential.

Legislation must assure that “perverse incentives” are eliminated from driving the forest management program. Those perverse incentives include revenues for commercial foresters and fees for DEP managers, which will lead to economic considerations being elevated above the public interest and forest ecology.

Forests are in decline, threatened, and vulnerable to threats posed by global warming, over-development, fragmentation, the narrow views of scientists and “experts”, and misguided government officials and corporations who views forests as commodities.

Public preferences, including aesthetic enjoyment, must be given equal consideration with science in any forest management initiative.

Economic Value of State lands  - S826

This bill grew out of the debacle over the Tennessee Gas Pipeline lease.

I wrote about this set of issues numerous times:

• DEP Report: Highway Right-of-Way Land 8 Times More Valuable Than State Parks and Forests
• Fair Market Value Leases for Energy Infrastructure Could Fund Parks System
• Christie Cuts Sweetheart Deal with Gas Industry
• NJ Subsidizing Oil and Gas Pipelines That Cross State Lands
• NEW JERSEY PARKS LOSE MILLIONS IN UNCOLLECTED LEASE PAYMENTS — Park Closures Could Be Averted by Reaping Concessionaire and Easement Revenue

According to the bill summary:

The bill is a very good idea to force corporations to pay the taxpayers the full economic value of leasing the public lands.

The bill needs to be amended as follows:

• The bill only applies to new conveyances of lands. The bill must be expanded – as recommended by 3 OLS AUdits – to require that current leases be renegotiated to reflect fair market value
• The bill should set a minimum floor prices far in excess of the DEP’s uniform ceiling price of 15 cents per square foot, which is far too low. The range of market values runs from $1.25.square foot set by the NJ Turnpike Authority for fiber optic cables in the Turnpike ROW to $13 per square foot recently offered as mitigation by PSEG for the powerline through the Delaware Water Gap (S-R line calls for a 50-200 ft ROW expansion, assume 100 ft average width, over 4.3 linear miles)

$ 30 million/(4.3 linear miles) x (5280 ft./mile) x (100 feet ROW) = $13.21/sq. ft

• prohibit Utilities from passing though costs and recovery by ratepayers

Powerline Through the Watergap Would Be an “Obamanation”

Here’s four cogent quotes on the proposed $30 million mitigation proposal by power companies to justify destruction of core values of Delaware Watergap National Recreation Area; the Appalachian National Scenic Trail; and the Wild and Scenic Delaware River:

“It is not the role of the National Park Service to negotiate mitigation at this stage of the process, before any decision is made.” ~~~ John Donahue, NPS, Supervisor of DWGNRA; Pam Underhill, Supervisor, ANST – June 27, 2011 letter to PPL Electric Utility

“Creating jobs is my highest priority as President, and investing in our nation’s infrastructure can help create those jobs and grow our economy,” said President Obama. “That’s why I’m asking agencies across the federal government to identify infrastructure projects that will put folks back to work and help make our country stronger, and take immediate steps to push these projects across the finish line.” White House Announces Steps to Expedite High Impact Infrastructure Projects to Create Jobs (8/31/11)

Bill Wolfe of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility called the utilities’ recently announced offer to buy and preserve $30 million in nearby lands as “mitigation” for the power lines a test of the National Park Service’s integrity. “It’s an offense to the public process,” Wolfe said.  ~~~ Pocono Record 1/25/12

To mitigate the loss, the utilities behind the line — PSE&G and PPL — last week announced an offer of land worth $30 million for public preservation. The “thousands of acres of land” has been identified as priorities by conservation groups, according to Karen Johnson, a PSE&G spokeswoman. ~~~ Morris Daily Record 1/26/12

I generally steer well clear of religious matters, having never really shaken off youthful Catholic indoctrination.

But certain projects force gut checks. And this particular set of circumstances rises to and justifiably moves me to invoke religious metaphor.

I listened closely to the testimony at the public hearings on the S-R line through the Watergap.

I was not surprised or bothered when PSE&G’s corporate flacks supported the S-R power line, downplayed the impacts, and claimed that “mitigation” can offset any unavoidable harms.

That is to be expected: PSEG earns a significant share of their profits on transmission investments (a higher ROI that any other investment).

PSE&G is a corporation whose first duty is to maximize profits and shareholder value. Of course they would love to use $30 million of ratepayers’ money to leverage even higher profits – press statements to the contrary, screw the consequences.

And I was not surprised when labor unions and workers supported a power line, because we’re in a deep recession and the unemployment rate is almost at Depression levels. They have families to support, need jobs, and are being duped by their leadership.

And I am not even surprised when government agencies, like the Highlands Council, compromise their mission and integrity and take mitigation bribes in exchange for approvals.

On any economically significant decision, the political pressure is incredible. On these high profile projects, government agencies become mere pawns of political hacks, corporate interests, and the careerists who manage them who will do what they are told.

And of course, I was not surprised by President Obama’s

• support of Fast Tracking approval of the project
• CEQ Program to compromise the nation’s foundational environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
• wrongheaded Executive Order 13563 and attacks on government regulation as “red tape” under the Republican slogan “America is Open for Business” (technically, all of them as bad or worse than the Christie policies I routinely criticize here).

Obama never betrayed me – I never trusted him or expected much.

One thing’s for sure: if a Republican President were doing what Obama is, the Beltway ENGO’s would be in a tizzy and activists groups would be in the streets.

But what I am absolutely shocked, disgusted and feel betrayed by is when publicly trusted self described “conservation” advocates – with an economic stake in mitigation projects no less – shamelessly publicly undermine project opponents and support mitigation.

If expert “conservationists” can’t speak truth to power and hold politicians accountable, how is it possible for the public to democratically do so?

Given President Obama’s support for expediting the approval of this project – and political commitments by Secretary of Interior Salazar that preceded Obama’s support – it is obvious that final decisions are being made in Washington DC based on money and politics, not science and the public interest.

With that so obvious right now, the conservation community needs to unify and do the same thing that Bill McKibben did on the  Keystone XL Project: take the gloves off , protest, and target and hold the President accountable.

The last thing we need is for so called conservationists to be negotiating insider sweetheart mitigation deals with the power companies and providing cover for this sham deal.

But unity and in your face protest and political opposition won’t happen in this case.

And if it won’t happen on a power line through the Watergap, just when would it happen?

And it won’t happen NOT because of legitimate differences in tactics, style and tone within the conservation community. The conservation community is diverse, which is usually a strength.

(but those mild mannered conservationsits somehow can abandon their moderate, reserved stance to exaggerate the impacts of windmills on birds – but ignore or downplay bird mortality caused by power lines. I even heard absurd testimony about opportunities to improve bird habitat in power line ROW. Why is that? Could it have anything to do with financial interests in mitigation and relationships with PSE&G?)

Projects of this magnitude and political profile warrant unity and aggressive political tactics.

But Unity and aggressive oppositional tactics won’t happen because some in the “conservation” community are tacitly supporting the project by corrupt means and for corrupt motives.

The corrupt means are behind the scenes negotiations with PSE&G/PPL on “mitigation” that Karen Johnson confirmed in the above quote (exactly which groups, Karen?).

John Donahue of NPS correctly describes how wrong that is.

And if its wrong for government, it’s absolutely evil  for conservationists, who are supposed to be free of the kind of political influence government managers are subject to.

The corrupt motives stem from the fact that those groups will benefit from or even be funded to do some of the mitigation work.

Yet those conflicts of interest go undisclosed, undermining unity, providing political cover, misleading the public, and betraying all norms and expectations regarding integrity.

All that For Thirty Pieces of Silver?

DEP Lacks Funds to Collect Data – Blame  Craven Fisherman Politics

Proponents of a saltwater fishing fee over the past several years had argued it was needed as a way to raise money for just such research, but the state decided instead to create a saltwater fishing registry with no fee. (AC Press 1/28/12)

Kirk Moore of the Asbury Park Press wrote a story back on April 1 that warned that the river herring fishery would be closed in 2012:

DEP Commissioner Bob Martin - refused to support salt water angler fee

UPPER FREEHOLD — Beset by a crushing workload, decimated staff and years of inadequate funding, the state Bureau of Marine Fisheries is preparing a draft plan to identify what can be jettisoned from a program that serves a $2 billion industry in New Jersey … yet gets less than 1 percent of that from the state budget.

Already there’s a plan to suspend fishing for river herring in 2012 because state biologists won’t be able to fulfill legal requirements under the coastwide herring management plan, said marine bureau chief Brandon Muffley. It’s just one of 22 plans for various species that must be kept updated under interstate and federal rules.

“By default, if you can’t prove your fishery is sustainable, you’re out of compliance,” Muffley said. River herring are the first to be set aside because biologists “need to do one for each individual river system,” he said. …

That story prompted this screed here: Ocean Ecosystems, Fishermen, and Shore Economy Harmed by Craven Politics –

From an Administration that champions cost-benefit analysis, this is particularly ludicrous

Gov. Chris Christie

Kirk Moore has a superb and what should be explosive story in today’s Asbury Park Press: Fisheries caught in budget’s tight net – Herring catch on hold, others may follow.

Moore’s story tells the sad tale of how the shortsighted ideology and craven politics of Governor Christie – catering to the irrresponsible selfish greed of some in NJ’s recreational fishing lobby -  are harming the science and management of coastal ecosystems and fisheries.

The fisheries story is just the latest example of backtracking on ocean ecosystems. [ ...]

So, fishermen should ask Jimmy D. over at RFA why they are not allowed to catch more fish.

It’s because NJ lacks the data to support management decisions.

Next time fishermen complain about restrictive quotas, or catch sizes, or bag limits, they shouldn’t criticize the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) or the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council (ASMFC) or the DEP.

Just call Jimmy D at RFA.

You would think that warning would have resulted in some reasonable moderation of the selfish and shortsighted fishing group lobbyists – like RFA – and their craven legislative supporters to reach a compromise on the salt water registry funding issue.

But no.

Anti-government, anti-science, anti-regulatory, and anti-tax Ideology and selfish special interest group politics prevailed.

The folks who would like to starve the beast and make government small enough to drown in the bathtub won.

As a result, as predicted, in a huge embarrassment to the Christie Administration, NJ shut down the river herring fishery.

The Press of Atlantic City reports:

New Jersey bans the catch and sale of river herring after failing to provide adequate data

New Jersey has shut down its river herring fishery partly because it does not have the personnel or the funding to collect the data it needs.

That means fishermen who net the herring, mostly for the bait business, can no longer do so. Recreational anglers, including fly fishermen, no longer may target them. If an angler catches a river herring by accident, it now must be thrown back. …

State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin closed the fishery in state waters Thursday, said Brandon Muffley, head of the state Bureau of Marine Fisheries.

Heck of a Job Chris Christie, Bob Martin, and Jimmy D.!!

[Endnote: Over at SL, my man George Hayduke III says:

The money is there – it’s the hiring freeze. CC will not let the DEP back fill the positions because having a government as small as it was when Chrisy Whitman was in office is a talking point. despite having the money and 10% unemployment.

[Update: While we are on the topic of fisheries management, here’s an extraordinary statement by the Jersey Coast Anglers Association, expressly distancing themselves from the Governor. I feel bad for Tom Fote:

Clarification on NJ ASMFC Vote on Menhaden

by Mark Taylor

(from Jersey Coast Anglers Association)

I have spoken to many people who do not understand New Jersey’s vote on the menhaden addendum at the ASMFC meeting. I am writing this article to inform you that at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Menhaden Board, Tom Fote is not representing Jersey Coast Anglers Association (JCAA). He is there as the Governor’s Appointee to the ASMFC. He is at that board doing the work of the Governor. This means he represents the Governor and his votes reflect the Governor’s opinion. JCAA does not have a vote at ASMFC. Like every other individual and organization, JCAA makes its opinion known at public hearings and in written comments. JCAA’s testimony and written comments were clearly in support of the addendum. And that addendum was passed without New Jersey’s support. If you are unhappy with a vote by the Governor’s Appointee to ASMFC, you can certainly let him know you disagree. However, you need to make your opinions known directly to the Governor since he can direct his appointee to vote in a specific way on a specific issue.

Last Sunday (1/22/12), on a brilliant crisp morning I got out to Ken Lockwood Gorge. With snow scarce and gone after just two days, it was special. I walked the Gorge and returned on the Columbia Trail. Great loop. Some views:

It was a packed house last night in Andover for the third and final public hearing on the Susquehanna Roseland power line proposal through Delaware Watergap National Recreation Area and the Appalachian Trail corridor.

I testifed on Tuesday’s hearing – one of only 18. But last night, there was a huge line to signup for testimony (I was #63). The trade unions brought a lot of people, but there were far more park lovers and opponents in attendance.

The Public comment period closes on January 31, 2012, so be sure to get your cards and letters in. Here is the link to submit comments.

Don’t forget to mention that you support the preferred “No Build” alternative and that the proposed “mitigation” money is totally unacceptable in principle.

The Park, the AT, and the integrity of NEPA and the National Park Service are not for sale to the highest corporate bidder.

National Story: Obama brags about record oil and gas production

State Story: Impossible to meet deep GHG emissions reductions required by NJ’s Global Warming Response Act via reliance on natural gas.

The Bergen Record ran a story about EPA’s greenhouse gas emissions reporting data (see: PSE&G Bergen Station tops emission list

PSE&G’s Bergen Generating Station in Ridgefield releases more greenhouse gases into the air each year than any other large industrial source in New Jersey, according to a new federal report.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s report is the first-ever list of how much carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases are released by large industrial sites and landfills nationwide. There are 98 such facilities in New Jersey, which release a combined 26.2 million metric tons of gases each year.

WooHoo! First ever!!

But calm down, don’t go getting excited about anything, the story is much to do about nothing.

I’ll just note a few brief points about the real significance and what the focus of the story should have been:

1. National Story: EPA fails to regulate greenhouse gas emissions

Greenhouse gas emissission reporting is an alternative to regulation of emissions.

EPA has yet to adopt mandatory GHG emission reduction regulations under the Clean Air Act.

The new EPA GHG reporting program is an analogue of the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program.

The naive premise of these disclosure programs is that industry will be shamed into making voluntary emissions reductions once the public is made aware of the data.

The premise is false – voluntary measures can not and don’t work. Disclosure merely prompts various gaming strategies to create the paper appearance of reductions.

But there are alternative policy tools that work to reduce emissions – the basic choices are mandatory regulations or market prices.

But reporting requirements that are not linked to either regulation of emissions or setting a market price on emissions are ineffective.

This is all made obvious when one notes that the EPA GHG emissions reporting program was signed into law by President Bush. As EPA noted:

On December 26, 2007, President Bush signed the FY2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act which authorized funding for EPA to ‘‘develop and publish a draft rule not later than 9 months after the date of enactment of this Act, and a final rule not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this Act, to require mandatory reporting of GHG emissions above appropriate thresholds in all sectors of the economy of the United States.’’ Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, Public Law 110–161, 121 Stat 1844, 2128 (2008)

We all know that President Bush was no champion of climate change or EPA. This is just more Obama continuity with Bush.

2. State Story: NJ’s largest emissions source is a natural gas plant

PSEG Bergen Generating Station is fired by natural gas.

Natural gas is supposed to be a “clean fuel”, right? A “bridge fuel” to a green energy future, right?

WRONG! (“clean” natural gas just another perverse part of The Twilight Zone of Energy Policy).

Governor Christie’s Energy Master Plan promotes a massive increase and heavy reliance on natural gas.

Scientists have found that the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of natural gas are as bad or possibly worse than coal, as I wrote:

Climate Benefits of Natural Gas May Be Overstated

http://www.propublica.org/article/natural-gas-and-coal-pollution-gap-in-doubt

The Propublica article incudes this link to EPA technical documents on revisions of greenhouse gas emissions factors for natural gas:

http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/29077/new-epa-data-subpart-w-tsdf.pdf

We can not possibly meet the deep GHG emissions reductions required to comply with NJ’s Global Warming Response Act via an energy strategy or EMP that promotes natural gas.

3.  State Story: RGGI is kicking a dead horse – one that deserved to die anyway

The RGGI game is over until Governor Christie is gone or the Democrats in Trenton grow a spine.

It is a useless exercise to waste bullets shooting that dead horse.

RGGI was fatally flawed anyway, and deserved to die  - unless real emissions reduction based caps and enforceable measures were injected.

Why ignore the NJ Global Warming Response Act and focus on RGGI?

If you want to focus on RGGI, why are EPA data not compared to RGGI caps and NJ Global Warming Response Act targets and DEP emissions inventory?

Why fail to criticize Obama and EPA’s abject failure to move forward on the global warming front? Which brings us to #4.

4. National Story: Obama Collapse

My goodness, forget about Bill McKibben’s misguided praise of Obama’s Keystone XL.

The man has totally collapsed on energy and global warming policy – far worse than Texas oil man Bush (as we’ve written here for some time).

Obama State of the Union address BRAGGED about expanding oil and gas production and yesterday Obama announced 21 million acres of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases. From the SOTU:

Nowhere is the promise of innovation greater than in American-made energy. Over the last three years, we’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration, and tonight, I’m directing my Administration to open more than 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources. Right now, American oil production is the highest that it’s been in eight years. That’s right – eight years. Not only that – last year, we relied less on foreign oil than in any of the past sixteen years.

Where is the ENGO outrage over that?

5. State Story:  NJ has had its own GHG emissions inventory for over a decade

NJ has a GHG emissions inventory program.

It was created by another Republican Governor who opposed regulation, named Christie Whitman.

Republicans love this kind of voluntary fluff that creates the appearance of progress, but requires business and industry to do nothing to improve their environmental performance.

But current Governor Christie has gone so far to the right he’s blocked even that lame Whitman emissions inventory program, see: CHRISTIE SHREDS NEW JERSEY CLIMATE CHANGE PROGRAMS — Kills Emission Reporting, Diverts Green Energy Fund & Defunds Climate Office

Other huge issues are ignored too, for example, issues that are ignored and/or not quantified, including:

• public health costs of air pollution caused by carbon power

$120 billion annual environmental costs of coal power

social costs of carbon

multi-billion dollar net benefits of environmental regulations

subsidies to the energy industry

(or some of the other absurd aspects of NJ energy policy).

Now these are the issues that ENGO’s should be focused on and the press should be reporting.

But I hear crickets.

US Fish and Wildlife Service Review Could Expand Dupont Cleanup

Today we disclose hot internal DEP documents, including DEP’s review comments on Dupont’s ecological assessment of mercury pollution in Pompton Lakes.

We disclose that DEP took the highly unusual step and calculated a cleanup standard to protect fish and wildlife from mercury bioaccumulation known as a “Bioaccumulation Based Sediment Quality Value for Pompton Lake (“BSQV)“.

DEP likely developed its own standard to pushback against flaws in the Dupont science. However, the DEP standard was not incorporated in the subsequent Dupont cleanup plan, which raises questions about why.

But we do know that DEP didn’t want us to have this hot document  - DEP denied our OPRA request for it on the sham basis that it is “deliberative”. The DEP documents can not be deliberative because DEP approved the Dupont remedial investigation plan in 2008 and the only pending decision for which deliberation is underway is by US EPA, not NJ DEP.

DEP also found that Dupont science was “misleading” regarding mercury fish tissue concentrations and raised a red flag regarding likely downriver mercury sediment impacts.

This information is now key, because Dupont is seeking to minimize their cleanup obligations and US Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing the Dupont plan.

The Dupont cleanup plan does not consider upland or downriver impacts, and is limited to dredging sediments from a small 26 acre hot spot area of the lake known as the Acid Brook Delta.

EPA must approve or reject the plan, based on US FWS and public comments.

We look forward to the review comments by the ecological professionals at the US Fish and Wildlife Service (US FWS) NJ Field Office – see this for their environmental contaminants program.

US FWS does critically important work – especially in NJ’s toxic landscapes – and something you don’t hear much about from NJ bird conservation groups or press reports.

Read all about it in news from our friends at PEER

DuPont Pompton Lake Pollution May Be Headed Downstream

DEP Scientists’ Questions Could Prompt Feds to Expand DuPont Cleanup Scope

Trenton — New Jersey state scientists have pointed to evidence that mercury from a toxic waste site at Pompton Lakes is migrating down the Ramapo and Wanaque Rivers through contaminated sediment, fish and wildlife, according to agency documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).  These documents surface just as federal agencies are reviewing the DuPont dredging plans to determine their ecological adequacy.

Pollution from the old E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Company ammunition plant has proven to be more than a 20-year long nightmare for the 450 homes exposed to deadly vapors and other effects.  Now it appears that this pollution nightmare may be spreading.

State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) scientists found much higher levels of mercury in Pompton Lake fish than found elsewhere, raising red flags about bio-availability of the mercury and downriver sediment pollution.  They said the ecological assessment in the DuPont plan to dredge a 26-acre section of Acid Brook Delta, a small part of the 260-acre polluted Pompton Lake, was “misleading” particularly in characterizing data on mercury in fish tissue.  Moreover, DEP calculated a sediment cleanup standard needed to protect fish and wildlife but DuPont’s plan did not incorporate that standard.

The adjoining Ramapo and Wanaque watersheds are affected by contaminated sediment flow as are their fish and wildlife, which bio-accumulate mercury through the food chain.  The current DuPont dredging plan only addresses a small portion (10%) of the Lake and does not consider downriver sediment impacts.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service are now considering and must both sign off on this plan.  PEER is urging Fish & Wildlife scientists to revisit the DEP standard during their review of the DuPont plan.

“These federal oversight agencies must look at these DEP findings and should conduct a de novo review of the scientific basis for the DuPont cleanup plan,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe, noting that DEP had denied him access to these internal scientific documents under the state Open Public Records Act, claiming they were “deliberative” but had previously released these same documents to a different requester. “Right now we are a critical juncture in the future of Pompton Lakes.”

The DuPont plan is supposed to be based upon a site-specific ecological standard designed to protect fish and wildlife from the bio-accumulative effects of mercury in sediments.  Federal review could expand the scope of the proposed cleanup and could also find additional injuries to natural resources for which DuPont must compensate the public.

For more than a century, DuPont’s operations poured heavy metals and other toxins into Pompton Lake.  The plume of pollution has spread to groundwater underlying homes and businesses, causing vapor intrusion problems.

###

Read the DEP comments on the DuPont cleanup

See the memo for the DEP scientists

Look at DEP readings

View the DuPont cleanup plan

Examine the background on Pompton Lakes

According to today’s Asbury Park Press, a Report by NJPIRG claims that nuclear power plants threaten the water supply of 3.3 million NJ residents (see:  Report: Water of millions in peril from nuclear plants

I haven’t reviewed the Report and make no comment on it.

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but there are much more pressing currently existing radiological risks from drinking NJ water.

I’ve written about that here several times, so instead of rehashing all that, see this PEER Press release which has  links to the official documents.

RADIOACTIVE WELLS POSE BIGGER RISKS IN NEW JERSEY — Hundreds of Thousands Exposed Daily to Rad Levels Many Times over Safety Limits

We disclosed that new scientific findings presented at the May 7, 2010 meeting of the state Drinking Water Quality Institute (DWQI), the extent and depth of radioactivity levels are grounds for renewed concern:

• Official “Private Well Testing Act” data show that 10.7% of wells in the coastal plain violate the drinking water Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for gross alpha (i.e., radiological contaminants). Levels in excess of 30 times the MCL have been reported;

• Additional health risks in Northern New Jersey due to uranium are now being discovered; and

• The treatment system for gross alpha from radium is NOT effective in treating risk for uranium. Thus, homeowners who install certain treatment systems incorrectly think they are protected, when they are not protected if uranium is the source of radiation in their well water.