WolfeNotes.com

This site will focus on important stories that are being ignored or misrepresented by the media. I’ll do traditional muckraking to hold the bad guys accountable; expose the lies and self serving spin of government officials and politicians; and explore how the failures of government, media, AND well meaning environmental organizations contribute to the problems we face. I’ll also have some fun posting landscape photo’s I shoot.

I have been involved in New Jersey environmental policy circles for more than 25 years. Most recently, in 2005, I founded and directed the New Jersey Chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a national non-profit alliance of local, state and federal scientists, law enforcement officers, land managers and other professionals dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values. www.peer.org

Prior to founding NJ PEER, I served 13 years as a planner and policy analyst for the state Department of Environmental Protection (1985-1995; 2002-2004), for six years as policy director of Sierra Club’s New Jersey Chapter (1996-2002); and at Pew Environment Group as the Mid Atlantic States Manager of Pew’s “end overfishing campaign”. I received a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and public policy from Harpur College at SUNY Binghamton (1983), and attended Cornell University’s graduate program in city and regional planning (1983-1985).

While at DEP from 2002-2004, I led the team that expanded the Category One Program and developed the 300 foot wide Category One Buffers initiative on over 2,000 miles of NJ waterways. This was based on a new integrated ecological assessment method for water-body anti-degradation designation under the Clean Water Act. I worked closely with Commissioner Brad Campbell to enforce the phosphorus standard. I also staffed Governor McGreevey’s Highlands Task Force and wrote the DEP and environmental provisions of the Highlands Act. Shortly after leaving DEP, I was a consultant to the Highlands Coalition and led the negotiating team for the DEP Highlands Regulations.

While at DEP from 1985-1995, I: managed NJ’s RCRA Corrective Action program; co-researched & co-authored the Statewide Landfill Closure Plan; managed over $200 million in grants/loans to local recycling and material and energy resource recovery projects; staffed Governor Florio’s “Solid Waste Assessment Taskforce” which imposed a moratorium on incinerators, established a new source reduction, toxics use reduction, and lifecycle assessment driven materials management policy, and set the highest recycling rate in the country. In 1995, I was forced out of DEP as a whistelblower for exposing Governor Whitman’s efforts to suppress science regarding health risks of high levels of mercury in freshwater fish.

With Sierra Club, I worked with volunteers to kill the $240 million Mercer County garbage incinerator, block the Trenton/Hopewell sewer line; led the public campaign and authored the 1996 ballot question to amend the NJ Constitution to dedicate 4% of Corporate Business Tax proceeds (appx. $100 million/year) to environmental programs; authored the 1997 Watershed Management Act that established and funded NJ’s watershed management planning program; provided testimony to the US Senate in opposition to Christie Whitman as EPA Administrator;  and served on numerous Legislative and DEP regulatory stakeholder groups.

Read more at SourceWatch page.

All photographs are mine (unless noted) and may be used on a non-profit basis with attribution.

You may contact me at:  BIll_Wolfe@comcast.net