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Friday Night Massacre At DEP? – “there is a lot of weird here”

Gov.s’ Office Installs Interim Commissioner Over DEP Deputy Deb Mans

Gov. Murphy Further Politicized a DEP Already Deeply In Disarray

[Update below]

According to a press report, Gov. Murphy has made a highly unusual Saturday announcement – via twitter – that DEP Commissioner McCabe is traveling out of State for the month of September and will be replaced by a Gov. Office staffer, not DEP Deputy Commissioner Debbie Mans. Follow.

From the beginning, we have been highly critical of NJ Gov. Murphy’s choice for DEP Commissioner, Catherine McCabe, and written many posts on her ineffective leadership of DEP, particularly on addressing climate change (most recently, see:

• Is Murphy DEP Commissioner McCabe A Naive Deer In The Headlights or a Machiavellian Manipulator? 
• Someone Needs To Tell Murphy DEP Commissioner McCabe That We Can’t Get There From Here 
• Murphy DEP Commissioner “Candide” McCabe Effectively Praises Christie Administration Policy and Management Of DEP
• Senator Sweeney Goes Beyond “Mansplaining” – Uses Murphy DEP Nominee As Political Prop To Undermine Wetlands Enforcement

McCabe – who was not confirmed by the Senate until late June and has allowed Senate President Sweeney and Assemblyman McKeon to install their former staffers and political operatives in DEP policy positions – has charted a course of “continuity with many controversial Christie DEP policies.

She has blind sided and embarrassed the Governor in the press, lacked any media message or policy agenda, and been an ineffective leader of DEP and proven incapable of reforming the status quo (see:

• This is What Regulatory Capture Looks Like
• Murphy DEP Refuses To Disclose Who Acting Commissioner McCabe Is Meeting With And What They’re Talking About 
• Murphy DEP McCabe Pledges To Re-Propose Christie Highlands Rollback Septic Rule

McCabe has been humiliated and cut out of the policy loop on climate change, allowing DEP leadership to be usurped by BPU and the Energy Master Plan. Similarly, McCabe was cut out of Natural Resource Damage policy by the Attorney General. Former political operatives in the Legislature that were installed as Chief of Staff and Director of Government Relations appear to be working behind her back with Democrats in the legislature, again, undermining DEP leadership and credibility by politicizing decisions.

Similarly, we have pointed out that McCabe’s selection of  so called “environmental leader” Debbie Mans as Deputy Commissioner was a purely symbolic gesture and cynical political appointment. Mans is no leader and lacks qualifications for the job, see:

• Murphy DEP Commissioner McCabe Makes Her First Management Move – A Mis-Step

We’ve predicted that McCabe would suffer a very short tenure, much like Gov. Florio’s initial pick for DEP Commissioner, Judy Yaskin, who served for several months before being replaced by Scott Weiner. We wrote:

While Acting Commissioner McCabe seems to be hiding under her desk in Trenton – is she trying to avoid Judy Yaskin’s fate? – Gov. Murphy has not rescinded Gov. Christie’s anti-regulatory and privatization Executive Orders (#1-#4; #17), but instead has shown a disturbing continuity with some of the worst Christie environmental policies, including: (read entire post for list)

But, while McCabe is floundering and failing to lead, at least Judy Yaskin was forced out because she took strong pro-environmental positions, as we noted:

I could be wrong – perhaps McCabe has done her homework and just doesn’t want to step out of the corporate Democrat line and become another deposed DEP Commissioner like her only female predecessor, Judy Yaskin, see: this old NJ Spotlight story:

“In the case of the Salem nuclear power plants, the controversy stretches back nearly three decades to the days of former Gov. Jim Florio’s administration. Then-Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Judith Yaskin ordered cooling towers to installed at Salem — at a cost at that time estimated to be $2 billion –– citing a study that found the plant killed more fish each year than commercial fishermen harvested from Delaware Bay. …

Scott Weiner, who succeeded Yaskin as DEP commissioner, reversed the Salem cooling-tower decision. Instead, PSEG agreed to undertake a massive restoration program of more than 20,000 acres of tidal wetlands along the shores of the Delaware Bay. After he left state government, Weiner worked briefly as a consultant to PSEG.“

So, we were not surprised that Bergen Record environmental reporter Scott Fallon, who seems to have broken a very interesting story that suggests McCabe’s imminent demise, tweeted this:

Saturday morning press release from @GovMurphy: DEP Commish will be traveling out of state “for the month of September”. No other details given. Kathleen Frangione from Govs (sic) office will be acting commish, (sic) not DEP no. 2 Debbie Mans.

There is a lot of weird here.

(I can’t provide the original tweet because Fallon has blocked me for criticizing his reporting).

Curiously, I went to @GovMurphy twitter feed and could not find the Saturday morning tweet Fallon refers to, so I assume that its been taken down. That only thickens the plot.

So I agree with Fallon that “there is a lot of weird here”.

My sense is that McCabe is “traveling” and will make a graceful exit by resigning when she returns for “family” or “personal” reasons.

The installation of Chief Policy Advisor Kathleen Frangione from the Gov.’s Office as interim DEP Commissioner instead of Deputy Commissioner Debbie Mans is not only a vote of no confidence in an a humiliating blow to Mans, it also validates what we’ve long said: that Mans was not qualified, not a leader, and always just a symbolic and totally cynical political appointment.

And it further politicized a DEP that is already deeply in disarray – although Frangione is said to be a climate policy expert. (but as a DC beltway lobbyist and Congressional staffer, not an expert or advocate)

[OMG, I just watched that Princeton talk. Frangione spoke more like a press agent than a policy expert. Jeanne Fox hovered over her to make sure she said nothing about policy decisions or political controversies. Frangione’s presentation was absent substantive content and data, it misrepresented current law (e.g. re: authorized uses of RGGI funds, the non-binding effect of Executive Orders, and with mis-statements about “DEP regulations”, etc) and loaded with slogans. If that’s what passes as a policy expert from Harvard and Yale, we’re doomed.]

We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

In the meantime, DEP folks or anyone with valid information about all this can shoot me an email at:  bill_wolfe@comcast.net

[Update: A knowledgeable reader sent me the following note, suggesting that I exaggerate:

She has vacation house in Ocean City near some friends. 

He said going to Australia for month to visit for birth of granddaughter

So, if McCabe is going to Australia for a month, that could shine a light on Murphy’s lack of paid family leave policy.

It must be nice to just take off for a month. But can all NJ workers take a paid month for the birth of a child? Can they afford to do that? Is Murphy helping?

Similarly, is McCabe being paid during her travels? Does taking a month of from a leadership position damage her management credibility and commitment to DEP?

Is even raising these kinds of questions somehow taboo in the new #metoo world of women’s issues?

Sweeney Still Blocking McCabe Confirmation – What Does He Want?

Gov. Murphy needs to veto the nuke bailout and fracking wastewater bills (if they pass both houses), direct DEP to enforce NJ cleanup laws and assume control over the Dupont Pompton Lakes site, and tell Sweeney that bullies and Boss George Norcross’ machine puppets no longer rule NJ.

Scott Fallon wrote an interesting story yesterday at the Bergen Record –

While I think he got it mostly right, I’m interested in what the story doesn’t say explicitly but implies, so read the whole thing: 5 early environmental tests for Phil Murphy that will affect NJ families.

Fallon notes this, which I found particularly interesting in light of my sense that Senate President Sweeney is blocking confirmation hearings on Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner nominee, Catherine McCabe:

Murphy may soon end up with a bill on his desk that would allow a DuPont spinoff company to resume processing contaminated wastewater at its South Jersey chemical plant without an environmental review. 

Environmentalists have opposed the measure, saying it would bring scores of trucks hauling tanks of toxic waste onto New Jersey roads. They also worry that the treated water could damage the Delaware River, where it is discharged after being processed at the facility in Salem County.

The bill is sponsored by Senate President Steve Sweeney, the state’s most powerful legislator, whose district covers the DuPont plant. The Senate unanimously approved the measure last month. Environmentalists expect the Assembly to approve the measure soon, after an environmental committee voted unanimously in favor of it last month.

Fallon failed to note that the Dupont facility lacks wastewater treatment technology to remove all the radioactive and chemical compounds known to be present in fracking wastewater and the DEP permit lacks adequate protective conditions and enforceable permit effluent limits to protect the Delaware River from these pollutants.

Grandfathering that Dupont permit from new DEP review via special legislation is totally irresponsible.

[Note: Just learned that Fallon mentioned these issues in an excellent prior story he linked to, see this]

But I’m just as interested in the politics of this story as in the technical, regulatory, and policy issues.

Specifically, I’ve written that Senate President Sweeney is blocking the confirmation of Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner (see: Senator Sweeney’s Block On The Confirmation of Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner Prolongs Gov. Christie’s Anti-Environmental Policy.

I’ve speculated that Sweeney is holding McCabe hostage to secure unspecified policy concessions, including the Gov.’s support of Sweeney’s multi-billion dollar PSEG nuclear bailout bill.

And I’ve also written about the absurd fact that Murphy allowed Sweeney to install his political aid Eric Wachter in the second highest Murphy DEP position, as Chief of Staff. Wachter is a mole from within. That was probably a quid pro quo for appointing Debbie Mans as Deputy Commissioner.

But I’ve not mentioned the Dupont fracking wastewater issue, which environmental groups have fought hard over, almost successfully, to achieve a total ban (Gov. Christie vetoed that bill).

But instead of a ban, it seems that the Legislature has taken a U-Turn and now seeks to support acceptance of fracking wastewater.

So I have major questions:

1. How did the same Democratic Legislature go from passing a bill to ban acceptance of fracking wastewater in NJ under Republican Gov, Christie, to supporting a bill to allow it under Democratic Gov. Murphy, and without environmental reviews and protective DEP permit conditions?

2. Is Sweeney holding McCabe’s confirmation hostage to the Gov.’s signature on the fracking wastewater bill – in addition to the PSEG nuclear bailout – which would benefit only Dupont profits?

3. Is Sweeney’s support of Dupont’s fracking profits also pressuring Gov. Murphy to back off his comments on the Dupont Pompton lakes site, which compared the Dupont PL site to Love Canal?

These are the kind of questions reporters like Scott Fallon (and his editors) will never address head on and only insinuate. Where is Jeff Pillets?

We’ll try to figure out what the hell is going on, but this far it sure looks like Sweeney holds the upper hand.

Gov. Murphy needs to veto the nuke bailout and fracking wastewater bills (if they pass both houses), direct DEP to enforce NJ cleanup laws and assume control over the Dupont Pompton Lakes site, and tell Sweeney that bullies and Boss George Norcross’ machine puppets no longer rule NJ.

It’s a beautiful day here in the deserts of Arizona (80 degrees and sunny) and I’m dying to get outside this Starbucks (WiFi), so I will be very brief with this note.

Jim O’Neill of the Bergen Record (is it still called that?) wrote a story today on the Natural Resource Damage issues associated with Dupont Pompton Lakes.

I’m reluctant to provide a link and drive traffic there, but I must do so to make my point, so see:

 Feds seeking payout for impact of DuPont pollution on wildlife in Pompton Lakes

I broke this story and have written about it several times, including detailed analyses – using US FWS documents – which show major failures by Dupont, EPA, DEP and the Bergen Record coverage, mostly by Mr. O’Neill. I’ll dig up all those links later – in the interim, readers should feel free to use the word search function in the upper right corner of this page. (or check out my Twitter feed, where I tweeted links to most of that stuff in response to prior “Toxic Secrets” coverage).

For now, I will note the following to summarize the major issues that were ignored, what  I call a “whitewash”.

O’Neill failed to mention that:

1. USFWS was severely critical of Dupont’s science (that EPA signed off on) and

2. USFWS criticized the EPA approved cleanup plan because it left significant amounts of mercury in the lake and likely downriver.

3. Despite a written pledge by EPA Region 2 Administrator Enck in a letter to me, EPA violated RCRA regulations because those regulations require that EPA consult with US FWS BEFORE approving the cleanup plan.

EPA failed to do that and only consulted with US FWS AFTER they approved Dupont’s flawed plan.

4. Although O’Neill mentions the prior DEP NRD dirty deal (which residents and local Councilpersons Lisa Riggiola and Ed Meakem broke with my help), and notes that it could be re-opened by DEP (a quote I made years ago in O’Neill’s the Record’s original story I think by Alex Nussbaum), he fails to provide the corrupt context for that deal.

That context was a STATEWIDE deal with Dupont executed by former DEP Commissioner Brad Campbell.

These are very serious factual omissions in the story.

These facts are omitted because they:

1) destroy the Record’s narrative as conducting brave investigative journalism – with O’Neill and Fallon speaking truth to power (NOT! gag me!)

2) because they undermine the Record’s praise of EPA Administrator Enck,

3) because they would expose the fact that the Record MISSED or DOWNPLAYED these issues when it mattered;

4) because it would prove that they IGNORED MY WORK BREAKING THE STORY AND EXPOSING THESE ISSUES.

5) because they show that the Record (O’Neill & Fallon) were either lazy, stupid, arrogant, lap dog, risk averse, or flat out intimidated by Dupont, EPA, DEP and local officials to write the story correctly the first time, and therefore disrespected their readers and gave those responsible a huge pass by not criticizing them when it matter (like I did)

One of these days I’ll write a critique of their entire “Toxic Secrets” series on Dupont, when I get the time.

In the interim, take my word for it –

they are so full of shit in blowing their own horn on a story they missed for many years, that they downplayed, and that they were intimidated by Dupont and gave EPA and DEP and local officials a huge accountability pass.

They should go back and read Dusty MacNichol and Kelly Richmond’s award winning “Open For Business” series – and consider that those real investigative reporters were brave enough to expose the corruption of Gov. Whitman’s core policy, at a time she was hugely popular.

They didn’t write some after the fact, self promoting, whitewash.

Is the Pandora’s Box of “unregulated contaminants” finally opening?

This is what they don’t want you to see behind the fence – Ringwood Mines Superfund Site (Bill Wolfe, 1/3/12)

Scott Fallon of the Bergen Record has another good story today on the Ford Ringwood site– see:

• Two labs return wildly differing results for water in Ringwood

Fallon is really getting into the weeds and listening to his primary source Michael Edelstein, a Ramapo College professor, and for that we say Bravo! – those interested in going deeper into the weeds, see page 5 of this EPA Technical Fact sheet.

EPA is fully aware of the lack of reliability regarding sampling and analytical methods for 1,4, Dioxane and simply has never publicly discussed that issue or taken steps to mandate that Ford use the most sensitive analytical methods.

That’s strike two for EPA, after failing to disclose the problem for almost a year after detecting the chemical in groundwater.

But Fallon buried the lead on the underlying source of the problem and does not explain the significant implications of the problem. That’s really strike 3 for EPA (again, a critical problem EPA rarely discusses publicly).

The underlying problem is that 1,4, dioxane – like over 500 chemicals found in NJ drinking water – is not regulated by EPA and there is no federal drinking water standard (“maximum contaminant level” – MCL) for 1,4, dioxane or any of those other 500+ chemicals millions of people drink every day!

[NJ DEP has a State enforceable “interim specific groundwater quality standard” (0.4 ppb) and “practical quantitation” limit” (PQL) (0.1 ppb) for 1,4, dioxane, but under the federal Superfund program, EPA is not required to comply with the state standards, but merely consider it as a “applicable and relevant” requirement. EPA made another mistake by not adopting NJ DEP’s ISGWQS and more sensitive PQL that would have required that Ford use more sensitive analytical methods – although the recent sampling by the Boro produced results even more sensitive than DEP’s PQL.

The Christie DEP should NEVER have approved and signed off on the EPA remedy without insisting that EPA enforce NJ DEP’s strict standard!  The State of NJ concurred with the EPA approved Ford scheme (see Appendix V of the EPA ROD for the DEP State Concurrence letter).]

If 1,4, dioxane were regulated by federal EPA and there was an MCL established, there would be an EPA approved analytical method Ford would be required to use, Ford would be required to comply with the MCL in designing the site specific cleanup, there would be treatment required NATIONALLY to remove the chemical from drinking water, and there would be public disclosure of test results (if only via the Consumer Confidence and Source Water Protection program).

Here’s how the Bergen Record story explains that to readers – 9 paragraphs into a complex story:

A clear liquid used as a solvent and found in many products, including paint strippers, dyes and greases, 1,4-dioxane is considered an “emerging contaminant” by the EPA. The agency has yet to develop uniform health standards for 1,4-dioxane as it has for many hazardous substances, including others present at the Ringwood site. Still, several government agencies have said 1,4-dioxane is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.”

Now that the Record has finally opened the can of worms on “unregulated contaminants” in drinking water, let’s hope they do followup stories that advise readers of the implications of that loophole.

Here’s a place to start – and here is a solution:

• FILTER THE CHEMICAL SOUP IN NEW JERSEY’S DRINKING WATER

Trenton — New Jersey should filter its drinking water to remove hundreds of chemicals, most of which are unregulated, from its drinking water supply, according to a rulemaking petition filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The plan to screen many chemicals out of tap water was actually developed by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) but has been in limbo for the last six years.

State testing has detected “approximately 600” chemical compounds “in 199 samples collected” including five brands of bottled water, according to a recent DEP white paper. The vast majority of these chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, hormones, and cleaning products, are not regulated by either the federal or state government. As a result, there is no regulatory effort to reduce or eliminate them from drinking water.

The April 2010 DEP white paper, entitled “Investigations Related to a ‘Treatment-Based’ Regulatory Approach to Address Unregulated Contaminants in Drinking Water,” advocates used granular activated carbon filtration and other techniques to remove most chemicals in drinking water, noting that carbon filtration alone removed more than half of identified chemicals.

Source: NJ Highlands Coalition (7/16)

Tonight, the NJ Highlands Coalition is holding an important public meeting to inform the public and take public comments on the Christie DEP’s proposed rollback of the Highlands Preservation Area Septic Density Standard:

Time:  6:00 pm Wednesday, July 11, 2016
Location:  Montclair State University, Center for Environmental & Life Sciences (CELS) Rm 120

Bergen Record reporter Scott Fallon wrote the set up story, see:

• Environmentalists launch campaign against proposal to put septic systems in Highlands

It is important that people attend and express their support for clean water and preservation of the Highlands.

The map above shows that the benefits of the Highlands are distributed well beyond the region’s borders – Urban NJ receives its water supply from the Highlands, as this map clearly illustrates.

Highlands protections are vital – especially at a time when NJ seems to be entering another drought.

The DEP denied the Highlands Coalition’s request to extend the public comment period and hold additional public hearings, so the Coalition is holding its own public meeting. They will  take testimony and submit the public’s comments to DEP. The DEP extended the public comment period just 2 weeks – it closes on July 15.

The Coalition is doing DEP’s job to solicit public comments – a job that DEP has neglected – so let’s hope that people turn out and speak out against another Christie DEP rollback.

I’ve written multiple posts about why the proposal is flawed and would weaken important Highlands protections – for information, see this and this and this and this and especially THIS and THIS.

You can find more information about tonight’s meeting and directions at the NJ Highlands Coalition’s webpage.

High Point Trail, view of Wanaque Reservoir