WolfeNotes.com

NJ American Water Uses Spotlight In Stealth Political Campaign to Deregulate Profits

Democratic Deputy Speaker Of NJ Assembly Pimps The Corporate Message

Lame Duck Bill A Preemptive Strike Against New Drinking Water Protections

Billions Of Dollars And Water infrastructure Investment At Stake

About a week ago, NJ Spotlight began running a new advertisement for NJ American Water.

I found that ad very curious – occurring seemingly out of the blue – especially because it was not linked to any specific legislation or political issue or project campaign that I was aware of. But the ad did specifically mention “forever chemicals” PFAS, and misleadingly mention allegedly rigorous drinking water testing, so my interest was piqued.

My initial suspicion was that the ad was designed to respond to pressure and mislead the public about the risks of hundreds of unregulated toxic chemicals DEP has found in NJ drinking water – a critical issue I’ve been warning the public about for several years and recently petitioned DEP to respond to, see:

• Petition For Rulemaking Submitted To Force The Murphy DEP To Upgrade Protections For Drinking Water In Light Of Widespread Chemical Contamination By Unregulated Chemicals

Significantly, while DEP just denied that petition (published in the December 4, 2023 NJ Register: 55 NJR 2430(a)), DEP is now drafting amendments to update the NJ Water Supply Master Plan, which could include regulatory strategies to address unregulated chemicals, including new sampling requirements, new treatment requirements (e.g. granular activated carbon) and new drinking water standards.

In the petition denial, DEP conceded the validity of my argument and signaled the development of new regulatory requirements to better protect drinking water:

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Department acknowledges that research conducted to date has demonstrated the presence of unregulated contaminants in water supplies. As described above, the Department is involved in varied and continuous efforts to obtain more complete information about the occurrence, toxicity, and possible treatment approaches for these contaminants. As the results of these ongoing efforts are analyzed, the Department will determine whether science supports initiating a regulatory monitoring and treatment program for currently unregulated contaminants.

The advertisement also touted private corporate investments in “resilience” to respond to the climate emergency.

Below is a screen shot of the ad and here is the linked text of the NJ American advertisement.

Amazingly, the NJ American deregulatory and privatization message is pitched by NJ Democrat Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly.

NJ Democrats have long championed privatization of NJ’s drinking water and wastewater systems, see:

• Wide Range of Critics Blast Democrats’ Water Privatization Bill

Just days after the NJ American advertising campaign ads appeared, NJ Spotlight ran this story, favorably reporting on legislation that would further deregulate and increase NJ American’s profits:

• Lawmakers move to help utilities recover costs for upgrades

With no debate, the Assembly on Thursday approved a bill that allows water utilities to recover the costs of improvements to its sewer and drinking water systems more quickly without regulatory review. 

Here is the revealing legislative provision that suggests that this legislation is a preemptive strike and anticipates upcoming DEP regulations: (NJ Spotlight)

In the Assembly Appropriation Committee earlier this month, the panel amended the bill to allow utilities to recover for costs for new treatment systems, such as granular-activated carbon treatment, as well as related tanks, pumps, control and electrical equipment.

This is a particularly egregious example of a set of corrupt abuses:

• The corporate media campaign is being run by the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, which just passed the bill with no debate – a new low in Trenton’s legacy of political corruption;

• The corporate media campaign is being used to generate favorable news coverage at NJ Spotlight, thereby compromising their journalistic independence and integrity

• This hugely significant legislation is being rammed through a lame duck session, with no public awareness or debate;

• The bill would expand current privatization and deregulation of private utility profits, allowing private corporations to pass through 100% of the costs of new regulatory requirements and profit on investments to upgrade treatment systems, with no regulatory review and limits on their profits or public awareness and participation;

• The bill would be a preemptive strike against future DEP drinking water regulatory protections and climate adaptation requirements, making it much harder for DEP to set tough standards due to concerns about costs and rate shock by consumers.

The bill must be stopped – where the hell are the NJ environmental groups?