WolfeNotes.com

[Update: 2/13/14– Haha! Got a soundbite on the Tee Vee (along with the ass kicking south jersey folks – watch NBC News coverage: Sandy victims speak out at state hearing – end update].

It was tragedy, comedy, and farce all rolled into one big show, as the Christie Administration literally appeared on stage at Stockton College’s Performing Arts Center last night.

What was supposed to have been a public hearing for the Administration to listen to public comments on Governor Christie’s proposed plan for $1.46 billion in round 2 federal Sandy recovery money, turned into a poorly scripted 1 hour long “performance” – in 9 acts, one for each member of Christie’s Team.

The performance was led by Gov. Christie’s Sandy Czar, Marc Ferzan – remarkably just his third public appearance.

Ferzan led a Cabinet that has refused to appear – multiple times – before Legislative oversight hearings, prompting Senate leaders to threaten a subpoena to compel their appearance.

The arrogance was stunning. And I called Ferzan and Friends on that during the hearing.

In contrast, the dozens of people among the 125 or so who turned out for the public hearing and signed up to speak were limited to just 3 minutes to tell their tales of woe with the remarkable and unconscionable mismanagement of the recovery program thus far.

I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me start from the beginning.

I arrived 30 minutes early, expecting hassles on signing up to testify. Sure enough, my prior electronic registration was somehow lost. I was not the only one whose pre-registration didn’t register. If they can’t get something simple like an online registration process right, how can they get something complex like Sandy recovery right?

After manually registering to speak (#9 on the list), I also signed in as press corps because I wanted to get some photos. Surprisingly, there was no hassle about getting press credentials. As press, I not only got a close up spot to take photos, I got the 2 inch think press packet in the pretty yellow folder! Nice touch.

But, right off the bat, I noticed something was really wrong.

The VIP reserved section was empty – where were the shore Mayors, County Freeholders, and State legislators?

Why were they no shows? Why didn’t they appear to listen to the problems their constituents are experiencing? To find out how badly state programs they oversee are working?

As the event began, an administrator from Stockton welcomed the public – but he might as well have shouted:

Hello out there to you spectators sitting in the dark! Can you see me? Because I sure as hell can’t see you!

It was all down hill from there.

The Christie team stuck to the talking points. They stressed huge multi-billion unmet needs (but they’ve actually distributed less than 25% of the $1.86 billion money HUD granted in round 1, so its not a shortage of money that is causing problems).

They implied that HUD under-funded NJ compared to NY, and blamed almost all the numerous problems on bureaucratic red tape and the need to comply with federal regulations. But a state consultant designed the NJ Sandy recovery programs and State agencies bid the contracts, failed to require adequate staff and training, and oversaw the poor performance of the contractors.

The DEP remarks were canned – I’d heard them delivered several times already – no new info.

But curiously, Mike Winka of BPU went out of his way to explain, at length, why the Administration distributed Hazard Mitigation Grant funds in a way that doesn’t appear to make much sense (see this post:  Documents Show That Gov. Christie’s Office Was Involved in Distribution of Sandy Hazard Mitigation Grants to Towns).

After sitting patiently listening – for an hour – to one Christie Cabinet member after the other speak from prepared text, people who had pre-registered to speak were allowed to speak for 3 minutes.

The Christie stage team made damn sure each speaker was aware of the dwindling seconds, as a huge screen clock counted down the short 3 minute interval – a brief and strange interlude indeed.

People spoke of being treated like criminals. Treated with no compassion at all, as if they were trying to get something for nothing. Of getting bureaucratic runarounds for weeks and months on end, as their applications were shunted from private consultant to consultant. About phone calls not returned. Or applications denied for no reason or the wrong reason.

People spoke about being asked foolish and absurd questions – e.g. senior citizens who had lived in their homes for decades were required to prove they were homeowners.

People who had their homes washed away were required to get asbestos inspections and demonstrate that their homes were not located in environmentally sensitive areas, despite the fact that the homes were gone!

One man made mention of the fact that while he was required to file lots of paperwork, reconstruction of major infrastructure like the $250 million Rt. 35 reconstruction project were granted a categorical exclusion from federal NEPA regarding environmental impact reviews.

Advocate for low and moderate income homeowners and renters blasted the fact that they had to sue the administration to get basic data. They noted that even the complex regulations that governed the various funding programs were kept secret.

One woman spoke of how she diligently paid her flood insurance for many years. But, after her house was swept away by Sandy storm surge, her private flood insurance company denied her claim – get this – on the basis that it was not floodwaters that destroyed her house, but “subsurface migration”!! The ground was literally washed away.

She said the company (forgot name!) should be ashamed – but so should Christie administration regulators who fail to enforce consumer protection and insurance laws.

On top of all that, the control freaks in Christie central had some minion stand next to you and hold the microphone – there was no place to stand and testify. No podium. No central focus where people could look and listen to you. Minions worked the audience like a Phil Donahue show.

That minion holding the mike contributed to the big clock to intimidate people and make for a very undignified public hearing setting.

The voices from the dark audience, their faces unseen but their testimony virtually screaming out about bureaucratic abuse and incompetence, was like a Kafkaesque theater of the absurd.

All in all, not a good night for Sandy victims and victims of future storms that are certain to strike NJ’s highly vulnerable and over-developed coast.

Let’s hope they do better tonight in Newark.

 

I’ve been a brutal critic of DEP Commissioner Bob Martin’s new “customer service” philosophy, largely because the “customers” Martin wants to prioritize providing service to are the business community and the services he seeks to provide are “regulatory relief” and “privatization”, in accordance with the policy set forth in Gov. Christie’s Executive Orders. Citizens are not “customers” of government. The market model is not appropriate to government and democracy.

But, as the above photo shows, there is another kind of “customer service”  – providing real help to real people with real problems.

Face to face, not from bureaucratic silos in Trenton.

All the State agencies had tables set up outside last night’s “Mobile Cabinet Meeting” and public hearing on Gov. Christie’s round two Sandy aid plans.

There could not be a greater contrast between the kind of service Mr. Brubaker of DEP is providing in the photo above and what went on during the “Mobile Cabinet Meeting” on the stage of Stockton’s Performing Arts Center (an apt location for a staged and spun performance) – more to follow about that. – see photo below, which only hints at the bizarre nature of their “public hearing”)

So, I want to give credit to DEP this time for doing something right.

Now, if they can only get the science, policy, and planning right! [oops, and regulations too!]

Without that, its all just lip service. More to follow on all that too.

Gov. Christie’s Billion Dollar Sandy Recovery Booondoggle

The Gov.’s “Political Slush Fund” & “Piggy Bank” Puts Billions of Dollars and Thousands of People At Risk

Climate Denial at the Jersey Shore

 

“This is too important a place in the fabric of New Jersey’s culture to not rebuild it. I’ve never had any doubt in my mind that we’re going to rebuild it,” Christie said. “I do not intend to be the governor who presides over the idea that this is going to be gone. I refuse to accept that.” (Asbury Park Press 11/10/12)

[Update below]

Today begins the first in a series of 3 public hearings on Gov. Christie’s proposed plan to spend the next round of $1.46 billion in federal Sandy recovery aid, which got me to thinking about historically infamous NJ disasters

(see this for locations and times of those hearings and how to submit comments).

The one that comes to mind today is the Hindenberg, a German airship that crashed and burned while landing at Lakehurst NJ on May 6, 1937 –  Thirty five people were killed (by comparison, thirty eighty NJ people were killed by Sandy) (read the Hindenberg story at Wiki).

“The Hindenburg disaster marked the beginning of the end for airship travel. Yet what is often forgotten today is that, until the 1930s, airships were a popular and luxurious way to travel.“ (link) It was an abrupt end of the era of the Zeppelin

Now, let’s do a little thought experiment to illustrate our current situation.

Let’s suppose that, just days after the Hindenberg disaster, while the smoke had not yet cleared, then NJ Governor Harold Hoffman held a series of press events and said something nostalgic like this:

No doubt that the Hindenberg tragedy was a major blow. But the Zeppelin is too much a part of NJ’s culture to abandon. I do not intend to be the governor who presides over the idea that the Zeppelin is going to be gone. I refuse to accept that.

I fondly recall trips as a boy with parents up and down the shore on the Jersey Zeppelin. I met my wife on the Zeppelin.

We need to keep Zeppelin jobs in NJ – that’s why I am calling for not only reconstruction of the Hindenberg, but a billion dollar program of construction of 10 more so that Zeppelin’s remain an essential part of NJ’s future.

The people of NJ would have tar and feathered the man, right? Or at least had good sense to reject his Zeppelin plan.

But that is exactly what current NJ Gov. Chris Christie is doing in rebuilding the NJ shore in almost exactly the same way in response to Superstorm Sandy.

Just days after Sandy struck, the Mantoloking cut (see above) was filled and work began on reconstructing the bridge and Rt. 35.

“We’re stronger than the storm” Gov. Christie assured us in his famous blue fleece.

Here’s what Gov. Christie’s plan says about Rt. 35 and the Mantoloking cut depicted in photos above:

In reconstructing the State’s transportation infrastructure, the State aims to build back a more resilient infrastructure. For example, State Route 35’s reconstruction will incorporate best practices in mitigation, including an improved drainage system, pump stations, and 24-inch thick pavement and sub-base materials. In addition, the State has undertaken the installation of more than four miles of steel sheeting to further protect Route 35.  (@ page 2-24)

The cost of this folly is over $250 million taxpayer dollars.

But reconstruction of a highly vulnerable road and bridge on a barrier island is just the beginning for the Christie Crew.

One highly vulnerable bridge is not enough – They want to build another bridge!

Other long-term projects are also underway, including the construction of a new bridge, among other improvements, to be built parallel to the State Route 72 Manahawkin Bay Causeway. The new bridge will provide the safety of a redundant route on or off Long Beach Island in the event a span needs to be closed. 

But even that insanity just begins to scratch the surface.

For example, Ocean County planners recently held public hearings on the County’s Hazard Mitigation Plan (for an analysis of that, see:

Ocean County Hazard Mitigation Plan Shows Major Portions Of County Underwater Due to Sea Level Rise – Dunes Offer No Protection – Back Bay Flooding NJ’s “Achilles Heel”:

The Plan is just more evidence that shows how extremely reckless and irresponsible Gov. Christie’s push to rebuild the shore is, without considering future risks due to climate change and sea level rise.

The State is spending billions of taxpayer dollars on infrastructure and allowing people to rebuild in areas that the know will be under water permanently, even without a storm.

The County found that:

The Ocean County Plan shows the major portions of the county will be permanently inundated – underwater – due to projected sea level rise. Sea level rise make storm surge far worse. (see table showing the percentages of each town in the county that will be permanently inundated as a result of sea level rise, not considering coastal storms and storm surge).

In deciding how to use federal Sandy aid, Governor Christie’s plan does not even consider sea level rise, storm surge, and more intense coastal storms that are certain to result from climate change  (see:  NEW CHRISTIE SANDY SPENDING PLAN HAS GAPING HOLES.

The Governor proposes to spend billions of federal taxpayer dollars rebuilding in highly vulnerable areas – and even more private sector dollars.

The Governor’s proposed plans for beach replenishment and dune construction will not fully protect the coastal areas and will make back bay flooding worse. Those plans have not be funded by Congress or designed by the  US Army Corps of Engineers.

Rutgers professor Michael Kennish has called back bay flooding NJ’s “Achilles heel”: (Kirk Moore, APP)

Back-bay areas will be New Jersey’s “Achilles’ heel,” said research professor Michael Kennish. “They have no really good way to protect against back-bay flooding.”

And Rutgers Professor Psuty has warned that dunes are not a panacea: (Sarah Watson, AC Press)

While New Jersey and other states have put a major focus on building extensive dune systems following Sandy, those dunes will only protect the immediate oceanfront area, Psuty said. Communities on the bay side of barrier islands will see no protection from the dunes, he said.

“I’m afraid when I hear our local politicians talk about the dunes, they think the dunes solve everything and that is just not the case.”

And Professor Miller warned:

It is estimated sea levels will rise between 2.5 and 6 feet by the end of the century. If those forecasts prove accurate, New Jersey’s effort to require those rebuilding to elevate at least one foot above the current base flood mark is not enough, said Ken Miller, a geologist and sea level rise expert.

“If New Jersey wants to be moving forward to incorporate sea level rise, there needs to be a minimum of two feet above base flood elevation in the current maps,” he said.

Sea level rise was responsible for an additional 38,000 homes to flood during Sandy, Miller said.

The Governor’s reliance on FEMA “Base Flood Elevations” – which do not consider sea level rise and climate change impacts – plus just 1 foot of “freeboard” elevation above the FEMA BFE’s, will not even address permanent inundation nor will they adequate protect structures from the next Sandy, which is certain to come and certain to increase in destructive force.

The Governor s plan completely ignores the issue of coastal land use – it is not even there. Almost all other  coastal states State’s address land use as a key strategy for Hazard Mitigation and resilience.

The Governor’s plan completely ignores  the suite of NJ State laws and regulations and programs that deal with Coastal Zone Management (CAFRA); water and sewer infrastructure planning; water quality, and natural resource protection.

Not only does the Gov. fail to take advantage of these State laws to improve the status quo, there is not even a linkage in the Governor’s plans to assure that implementation of  the projects that receive federal Sandy funds will be done in compliance with these state laws, regulations, and programs.

All of these key State  government land use and infrastructure planning and regulatory issues are deferred – virtually everything in the Christie plan is prospective – the word “will” is used hundreds of times!

It is difficult for me to imagine that the Obama Administration – who recognizes climate change and sea level rise and serious problems hat must be dealt with – will sit back and rubber stamp this plan, given these fundamental defects.

And it is even harder to believe that the NJ Legislature and media – given the current scandalous situation where some say the Gov. used Sandy funds as a “political slush fund” and others have observed that the Gov. used the Port Authority as a “political piggy bank” – will repeat lax oversight and give the Governor another pass on another billion dollar boondoggle.

[Update – NJ Spotlight is spinning some “good news” about a so called energy resilience fund, see:  STATE PROPOSES SPECIAL FUND TO BANKROLL ENERGY RESILIENCY PROJECTS

Here’s my reply to that:

The Christie plan also calls for using $225 million of federal funds to satisfy the State match requirements.That takes a rather large pair given the current situation, no?And it is almost the she amount of money as the Energy Bank – so when feds reject State match proposal, that will be the first to go.

And when New York State officials and Gov. Cuomo find out that Gov. Christie cut another deal with Chairman Samson at the Port Authority to have the Port pay for NJ’s share of the Port’s $2 billion infrastructure damaged by Sandy, you can be sure that additional federal funds anticipated and “programmed” by Gov. Chrisite will be lost.Of course, HUD is now looking closely and is likely to enforce their new rules on science based sea level rise and climate change risk analysis, which the Christie plan does not even attempt to do (they say the “will” consider that at some undefined future time), so there may be lots more federal money that is jeopardized.We released a letter from HUD”s Inspector General backing this up.Why aren’t critical facets like this reported?

Given the context and the new HUD rules, NJ must demonstrate that federal funds will be programmed via enforceable state commitments.

The Christie plan intentionally ignores NJ’s suite of Coastal land use, infrastructure, water quality, and natural resource protection programs and makes vague prospective promises about what the State “will do”.

That will cut no ice at HUD anymore.

Rowan’s Eminent Domain Powers Exceed Even Johns Hopkins’ Dominance Over Baltimore Neighborhoods

“Public – Private Partnership” a Slogan for Patronage and Profits

Christie – Norcross – Sweeney Machine on Steroids

If you want to understand the apparent confusion over Gov. Christie’s approval of legislation (P.L. 2013, c. 227) to give Rowan University eminent  domain powers to create “public – private partnerships” in Camden, look to how Johns Hopkins has behaved in Baltimore.

There is nothing that suggests “partnership” in any of that – unless the partners you are referring to are real estate investment and corporate development partners.

For a discussion of the community’s perspective on what has transpired in Baltimore, watch this superb four part series at Real News Network (part 3 is especially good: Gentrification of Baltimore’s Middle East)

JAY: We’re continuing our discussion about Middle East, Baltimore. It’s an area of Baltimore just to the north of Johns Hopkins Hospital, where thousands of people used to live. Many have been forcibly removed by use of eminent domain, the city law, to force people out of their houses so Hopkins can expand. And it’s one sample or example of the problem of boarded-up and vacant housing in Baltimore. […]

GOMEZ: When it gets into that walled-off space that we think is for the privileged and protects the privileged, then we have to keep expanding our walls, I think, which is something that Hopkins has done over the years. It’s expanded its walls to continue to keep itself feeling safe, its community to feel safe.

So when Martin O’Malley, then mayor, announced this plan, he said this was the city’s plan. He said, and he was quoted as saying, yes, it involves Hopkins expansion, but the city’s taking the lead on this. It was such an example of public-private partnership, one–the biggest one you’ve probably–we’ve ever seen in Baltimore, where the city government would take the lead on facilitating a private expansion, not only in making sure to acquire land through government law, but also to provide subsidy for a $1.8 billion project–now over $500 million spent to date, 12 years in.

JAY: This is where they created East Baltimore Development Incorporated, with about, what, $1.8 billion to–public money, some foundation money, some Hopkins money.

GOMEZ: Exactly, $1.8 billion to facilitate this expansion into this 88 acre area. Of the $500 million spent to date, almost half is public subsidy in some form of grant, tax subsidy, tax increment financing, to help the developer expand. So it’s been–I think we have to really keep sight of the fact that this is a public-private partnership that is fully invested in helping this private entity gain more power and more access to resources.

And this EBDI, East Baltimore Development Incorporated, which is the proxy for this development, it’s a public-private organization which doesn’t allow us, as the public, to access its records because it’s still private. […]

GOMEZ: I think it’s true that the neighborhoods are and were abandoned and disinvested. I think also if you speak to residents, they will say it’s not that we don’t want reinvestment, it’s not that we don’t want rebuilding, but we want to be a part of it. This plan never intended for residents to participate, to be a part of it. This plan was one for them to be removed so that their land, the land they lived in, the land they called community, would be used for something that others felt had better purposes than for those people who were there. So it’s not that residents didn’t want for their land or for the community to change; it’s just that they wanted to participate and they wanted to have the decision whether or not they wanted to stay in that community. That was never a part of this deal.

Like Camden, portions of Baltimore are poor, black, and abandoned by both the private and public sectors – places that Chris Hedges has called capitalisms’ “sacrifice zones” (Watch Bill Moyers interview with Chris Hedges ).

In Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is behaving like a feudal Lord, hell bent on a racist socio-economic cleansing mission.

Now, Governor Christie – and his Norcross – Sweeney cronies – have empowered Rowan to play that same ugly game in Camden.

No wonder the Governor denied any knowledge of even signing such a bill, see:

• Christie Grants Eminent Domain, Doesn’t Realize It
• Christie seemed unaware he signed Camden eminent domain bill

The WNYC story captured the political strategy:

But the new law is rooted in one of Christie’s first term accomplishments — restructuring higher education — that came about because of a partnership with Democrats, not Republicans. The restructuring was pushed by George E. Norcross III, the unelected South Jersey Democratic leader who is the chairman of Cooper University Hospital in Camden. That hospital has a new medical school with Rowan University and directly benefits from both the restructuring and the new eminent domain law.

The bill was rushed through by Norcross ally Stephen Sweeney, the state Senate President and a South Jersey Democrat who has worked extensively with the governor. The quick bill signing indicates that — despite the George Washington Bridge investigation led by Democrats in the Legislature — the alliance between Christie and Sweeney is still very much alive. That suggests Christie may continue to be able to govern despite the bridge scandal and the Sandy funding shakedown allegations plaguing his administration.

But, the “public – private partnership” real estate development strategy story has not been told.

Time for some property records research in Camden!

And the story about the community destruction and gentrification that is sure to follow that profit driven corporate development strategy has yet to be told as well.

Calling all intrepid reporters!

Next: we link Christie Camden strategy with events in Newark – see below screen shot to suggest the narrative for that:

 

Serious Flaws In DEP Science, Regulations, and Cleanup Approach Remain Uncorrected

And then, when the nature of this corrupt game becomes absolutely clear, a moral and ethical crisis is born, forcing that DEP employee to decide whether to shut up and go along or to follow their conscience and somehow resist or speak out.  ~~~ Bill Wolfe

[Update below]

Scott Fallon at the Bergen Record wrote another story today about the Garfield chromium site recently cleaned up under the federal Superfund program, see: Chromium removal sets stage for next phase of Garfield cleanup 

Unfortunately, Fallon again failed to recognize the huge significance of what has transpired at the Garfield site – ironically, that significance IS suggested, but in just one word in the headline for the story, i.e “removal”.

The chromium was removed. Removed. Excavated. Taken away. A “permanent remedy”.

At how many sites does that happen? What percentage of sites have the source of contamination completely excavated?

Fallon also fails to understand WHY the removal occurred, or to link the removal issue to the underlying causes in DEP science, regulations, and entire approach to toxic site cleanups, an approach that has been derided as “pave and wave” (technically known as “engineering controls and institutional controls” or “cap and deed restrict””).

Now that is a BIG STORY. A story that DEP and their “customers” don’t want told.

Instead of telling that BIG story, it is always amazing to me how news media report stories as somehow unique to one location – one site, one development, one permit, one cleanup.

They never seem to understand the context: that DEP is a regulatory agency, so that what happens at one site is driven by DEP regulations that apply statewide to thousands of sites in hundreds of communities that impact the lives of millions of people.

Those DEP regulations reflect not only science and law, but HUGE discretionary policy choices by DEP managers.

Most environmental groups contribute to this problem as well, both because they too work on specific sites or specific permits, and because they rarely – if ever – work on the policy and regulatory issues the determine the outcomes of their battles.

[Note – the recent petition to revoke the municipal storm water permit is an important exception to this rule.]

The Foundations who fund the work of environmental groups are even worse – they simply do not fund policy and regulatory work.

As a result, the underlying regulations never get examined, except by the lawyers and lobbyists for the polluters and developers.

Those private industry special interests invest tremendous resources in working the inside track at DEP –

For an egregious example of that subversion of the public interest, just look at the list of “by invitation only” “Stakeholders” that have seized control of DEP from the inside (lists of 100% industry representative “Stakeholder” groups are here).

Which brings me to the main point of this post – which is announced in the headline.

Sometimes – all too rarely – a conscientious DEP employee comes to understand the essential corruption of this regulatory game.

That the game is rigged –

That the rules are strongly shaped by and written to benefit the polluters’ private interests, not the public interest.

That politics and economics play as much or more of a role in promulgating and enforcing regulations than science, law, or the protection of public health and the environment.

And then, when the nature of this corrupt game becomes absolutely clear, a moral and ethical crisis is born, forcing that DEP employee to decide whether to shut up and go along or to follow their conscience and somehow resist or speak out.

Which takes me to the remarkable case of the DEP chromium whistleblower, Zoe Kelman, who has been vindicated in Garfield and numerous other cases since she blew the whistle.

Ms. Kelman was a trained chemical engineer and longtime DEP employee in the toxic site cleanup program.

In that capacity, Kelman served on DEP’s Chromium Workgroup, and she quickly became aware of major flaws in DEP science, regulation, and policy that jeopardized public health.

Kelman didn’t sit back and go along – as a member of the DEP Chromium Workgroup, she tried to make changes internally. When her recommendations were ignored, she wrote a dissenting Report to DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell (read complete Report here).

Kelman concluded and warned (from Executive Summary):

When her dissenting Report was ignored, Kelman fought back.

With her support, we disclosed Kelman’s dissenting Report in a Nov. 10, 2005 press release, which we conducted on the State House steps, see:

• NEW JERSEY FACING CHROMIUM EMERGENCY – 1 IN 10 CANCER RISKS – State Scientist Reveals DEP Cover-Up; Demand for Federal Intervention

Zoe Kelman, a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection chemical engineer and member of the state’s official Chromium Workgroup has filed a report with the DEP Commissioner showing that harmful chromium is migrating off completed (“remediated”) sites and likely coming into direct contact with residents and workers. Ms. Kelman says the Workgroup failed to consider the work of scientific experts or to examine whether state chromium cleanup standards and “caps” are adequately protective.

We also petitioned the US EPA Administrator to intervene (see this for EPA petition).

It saddens me deeply to say that Kelman’s recommendations and warnings were ignored, as was PEER’s petition. Ignored by EPA and DEP regulators, the media, and legislators.

Since then, over the last 8+ years, Kelman’s recommendations and warnings have been vindicated multiple times by scientific researchers and regulatory developments at chromium contaminated sites.

Most recently, at the Garfield EC Electroplating site, where DEP scientists knew a serious public health risk existed for many years but their warnings were ignored by DEP managers.

Kelman’s Report highlighted the scientific and regulatory flaws that the Garfield site exposed – here are just some of the warnings that were ignored in Garfield:

“The 1998 criteria do not protect groundwater and surface water from chromium contamination. The leaching of chromium from soils into groundwater is a natural resource injury in and of itself. But it can also create a public health hazard; groundwater is a vector for the transport of hexavalent chromium and the contamination of additional soils and structures. Leachate evaporation at interfaces results in localized accumulations of highly enriched solid-phase hexavalent chromium on soil, building or other surfaces. The final report of the workgroup ignores the issue altogether; it proposes no soil standard to protect against leaching to groundwater.”

(see also Kelman’s findings on “capillary action”).

This is a scandal that has not be covered by news media – worse, the underlying flaws in the science, regulation, and policies Kelman exposed have not been fixed and the DEP managers who engaged in this negligence have not been held accountable.

Garfield in not alone.

Let’s hope that Kelman’s integrity and courage are not either.

[Update : 2/14/14 – Bob Speigel of Edison Wetlands Association sent this comment:

The report that Ms. Kelman wrote that exposed the scientific and regulatory flaws was a very brave and courageous act by a brilliant scientist who would not stand quietly by and allow the truth and good science to be buried amongst bureaucratic and regulatory incompetence.  It’s too bad that we don’t have ethical scientists and regulators like Ms. Kelman or Bill Wolfe running the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection or United States Environmental Protection Agencies.  

President Obama promised as did the USEPA administrator Lisa Jackson that regulatory decisions will be based on good science and not ignorance like we have had in the past.  Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth as both the federal US EPA and state NJ DEP often ignore scientifically valid studies and data in favor of profits for chemical company executives.  

The 300,000 people in West Virginia who now have to live with poisoned drinking water are a solemn reminder that we cannot trust the chemical industry to self-regulate.