WolfeNotes.com

“NJ schools are intensely segregated along racial and class lines. The concentration of poverty is extreme. In Abbott districts, racial minorities makeup 90-95% of enrollments and students classified as in poverty represent 90-93%“
David Sciarra, Education Law Center

Bill WolfeAvery Grant, Long Branch, moderated

The South Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance (SJEJA) held a statewide conference on “The Crisis of Building Schools on Contaminated Sites and Unhealthy Schools in New Jersey” last Saturday at Thomas Edison College in Trenton.
The event focused on huge disparities in educational opportunity and the disproportionate environmental health threats that urban and minority children face at school.
The Conference featured special guest speaker Lois Gibbs, the nationally recognized upstate NY “housewife” who founded the anti toxics movement based on her family experience at the notorious “Love Canal”.

Bill WolfeRoy Jones, Co-Chair, SJEJA

Remarkably, the NJ School Construction Corporation (abolished and reestablished as the School Development Authority) has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of educational funds intended to benefit disadvantaged black children on acquisition of contaminated land and construction of schools on toxic waste sites, including Superfund sites. Such a practice would not be tolerated and never happen in wealthy suburban white school districts. Here’s a link to the video of the presentation by SJEJA Co-Chair Roy Jones (thanks to Peter Montague for shooting and sharing video):
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/a098dfb9121fe328/

Bill WolfeDavid Sciarra, Director, Education Law Center, legal champion of the “Abbott v. Burke” equitable school funding decision

David Sciarra spoke about the continuing challenges facing Abbott districts. He emphasized the need for additional $2.5 billion in school construction funding and the gross segregation and concentration of poverty in the Abbott school districts.
Lois Gibbs was astonished that – 30 years after the tragedy of Love Canal where a community was built on top of a toxic chemical waste dump – that she was speaking in NJ (of all places) to oppose construction of new schools on landfills and toxic waste sites. Gibbs explained how government policies based on cost benefit analysis and risk assessment decide who lives and who dies. “The system is set up to keep us from winning… The results of cost benefit analysis really mean that poor and working class people don’t matter. We are expendable.” she said.

Bill WolfeLois Gibbs, of “Love Canal” fame, Director of the Center for Health, Justice and Environment

Bill WolfeDr. Peter Montague, longtime anti-toxics activist, founder of Rachel’s Hazardous Waste News, and nationally recognized proponent of the Precautionary Principle

Peter Montague, longtime anti-toxics advocate, presented recent scientific findings about health effects of industrial chemicals, which have shown to mimic hormones and impact human growth and reproduction at extremely low levels. He highlighted the ned for a precautionary approach. This would put the burden on the chemical industry to show reasonable evidence of no harm before marketing and introducing chemicals into the environment.

Bill WolfeDr. A.S. Mahdi Ibn Ziyad, Congressional candidate in NJ’s First District, environmental justice activist, teacher and adjunct professor

Dr. Ziyad spoke of the need for social and economic change to promote justice – he is a candidate for Congress in NJ’s 1st Congressional District. He emphasized that one of his platform priorities in environmental justice.

Bill WolfeAlgernon Ward, chemist adn community activist, Trenton

Algernon Ward presented a case study of successful community organizing to block construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. school in Trenton. Toxic soils were imported to the site and used as “clean fill”. The outraged community organized and forced the SCC to demolish the partially built structure ($27 million loss) and cleanup the site before building a new school there.

Yalies embrace “Governator” over Nobel Laureate

Bill WolfeYale’s Woolsey Hall is packed to the rafters.

The Yale University community turned out for “The Governors Declaration on Climate Change” on Friday. The well promoted event was timed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of President Teddy Roosevelt’s landmark “Conference of Governors” in Washington DC.

Bill WolfePinchot is buried in Milford, Pennsylvania, along the Delaware River

That 1908 event helped launch the conservation movement (precursor to today’s environmental movement). Roosevelt’s close advisor, first Chief of the US Forest Service and conservationist Gifford Pinchot, worked to establish the National Parks System and inspire State programs to protect land. In an historic debate that still rages, Pinchot’s “conservationist” views clashed with the “preservationist” orientation advocated by John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club.

Bill WolfeNobel Laureate Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), welcomes the warm reception.

The event focused on the leadership of 18 Governor’s who signed the “federal partnership” declaration on global warming, but California Governor Schwarzenegger clearly won the hearts and minds of the Yale crowd. In remarks in which he took personal credit for forming the fitness “movement”, Schwarzennegger took the opportunity to ridicule environmentalists.

Bill WolfeSchwartzenegger speaks at Yale.

Schwarzenegger characterized environmentalists as effete (gay? feminine?) elite proponents of a failed movement based upon shame, guilt, pessimism, government solutions, and limits to growth (you think the Ahnold can say “Malthusian”?).
Analogizing to what he described as the takeoff in today’s hugely popular personal fitness “movement” (a “movement” he took credit for having started with “Pumping Iron”, back in the day when weightlifters were considered nerds), Schwarzenegger advocated his new muscular macho brand of the “environmental movement”.

Bill WolfeSchwarzenegger and Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell sign Governor’s Declaration at Yale.

This new “movement” he is leading is optimistic, exciting, cool, sexy, and most importantly, macho. It relies on capitalist market investment and trusts technological solutions, and is NOT antiquated government command and control driven.
The contrast with the humble Nobel Laureate scientist, Dr. Pachauri could not have been more stark.
But the Yale community absolutely ate Schwarzenegger up – his remarks were punctuated with applause and laughter. The crowd gave him a spontaneous standing ovation, which was far in excess of the response to Nobel Laureate and IPCC Chair Dr. Pachauri.
Frankly, I was embarrased for Yale – an elite University supposedly dedicated to the life of the mind and pursuit of Truth, not the promotion of political propaganda.
In my view, Schwarzenegger is a bully who blends certain retrograde cultural myths and machismo with uninformed market fundamentalist rhetoric. His public policy views may be informed by good speech writers, but he clearly is overly optimistic – bordering on utopian – in his advocacy of capitalism, private markets, and technology to provide a magic bullet to solve our environmental problems.
This is a very dangerous combination of attributes in a politician. But I’m sure the California folks who elected him are beginning to understand this “Hybrid Hummer environmentalism”.

Bill WolfeIn a wonderful historic gesture, grandsons of Gifford Pinchot and Teddy Roosevelt are special guests at Yale (from left).

I had a press pass for the Obama rally in Harrisburg on Saturday night and was able to take these excellent photographs – click on this link to view the pictures:
http://128.2.8.237/bw/photos/obama/selects/
This is my favorite:
http://128.2.8.237/bw/photos/obama/selects/IMG_4226.jpg
The 12+ MB original RAW files have been reduced for posting. Originals are far higher quality and suitable for copying, up to poster size. Shoot me an email if you are interested in making copies:
bill_wolfe@comcast.net

Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“…There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor — both black and white — through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.
Delivered 4 April 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
*Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I need not pause to say how very delighted I am to be here tonight, and how very delighted I am to see you expressing your concern about the issues that will be discussed tonight by turning out in such large numbers. I also want to say that I consider it a great honor to share this program with Dr. Bennett, Dr. Commager, and Rabbi Heschel, some of the distinguished leaders and personalities of our nation. And of course it’s always good to come back to Riverside Church. Over the last eight years, I have had the privilege of preaching here almost every year in that period, and it is always a rich and rewarding experience to come to this great church and this great pulpit. I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice. I join you in this meeting because I am in deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart, and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” And that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.
The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.
And some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation’s history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.
Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: “Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King?” “Why are you joining the voices of dissent?” “Peace and civil rights don’t mix,” they say. “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people,” they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

Read more…

“Long ago it was said that “one half of the world does not know how the other half lives.” That was true then. It did not know because it did not care.” Jacob Riis [1890]
Jacob Riis’ 1890 classic book – a landmark in photojournalism – “How the Other Half Lives” illustrated the outrageous conditions in the lower east side slums of New York – his expose had an immediate impact, inspiring reforms that changed New York. I often wonder: where has that same sense of outrage at injustice gone? Lets take a look.
Street Scenes in Passaic City, NJ
In the tradition and spirit of Riis (I don’t remotely pretend to the competence or quality of Riis’ work), I went to North Jersey yesterday to document conditions at some urban schools located on toxic waste sites. What I found both appalled and pleased me.
I was overwhelmed by this scene – the people of Passaic City have created beauty on the streets of their neighborhoods.

Bill Wolfe

It is outrageous that City and State officials have not been nearly as creative or committed as the people who live there, and instead have abandoned them – abandoned industrial sites and signs of neglect and disinvestment were everywhere.

Bill Wolfetoxic industrial rubble strewn site – owned by City – is directly across the street from religious shrine and in front of Public School #9

Bill Wolfetoxic site across street – 100 feet – from PS #9. Owned by City

Bill WolfeToxic site next door to PS #9

Bill Wolfe

The SCC sign says “Health and Safety Project for School #9″ – the cruel irony is that this did not include a cleanup of the abandoned toxic site across the street, literally just feet from school doors.

Bill Wolfe

Pre-schoolers – our most sensitive and special ones – were similarly at risk. These pre-school trailers were located at the perimeter of a brownfields project. Take a look and ask if you would want to send your young child here.

Bill WolfePre-school trailers can be seen in background. This brownfield site is a SDA construction site known as the “Dr. Robert Holster Education Complex”. A school was supposed to have been built there over 4 years ago but the site still sits vacant. A community hospital was torn down by SCA to build the school.

Bill Wolfe

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Bill WolfeIn foreground, a discarded tire (at edge of brownfield site) is used as planter – lets hope that the soil kids plant and play in has been tested and is safe.

Discarded shipping crates are used for storage – when I was a kid going to school in an upscale suburban town in Westchester County, my favorite reading was a series titled “The Box Car Kids”. This scene added new meaning to that phrase from my youth.

Bill Wolfe

Problems also included over-crowding. Lack of funding and delays in school construction forced kids to learn in trailers for an unacceptable extended period of time

Bill Wolfe

We can do better than this
(Note: while taking these pictures, I was confronted by school and day care officials. I explained my purposes and had very good conversations with them. But shame of Passaic City officials for sending police to my home tonight to investigate me for shooting these photo’s).

Bill Wolfe

Bill WolfeAssembly Environment Committee Chairman, John McKeon (D/Essex).

The Assembly Environment Committee today was scheduled to hear two bills related to the controversial issue of children’s exposure to toxic chemicals while in school. Wisely avoiding opening a huge can of worms, the Committee took no testimony and decided to table the bills for further consideration by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). See:”The Chemical Schools Cleanout Pilot Program
(A1313(McKeon/Stender)http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/A1500/1319_I1.HTM – a bill to establish a “school chemical management program” (A 1769 (WatsonColeman/Scalera)http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/A2000/1769_I1.HTM
As demonstrated by a series of fiasco’s across the state, NJ has major problems with potential exposure of children to toxic chemicals while at school. Had these bills been heard, they would have been panned as avoiding the real problems (See:A Tale of Two Toxic Schools – What are we telling our kids when we put them in these environments? http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/02/a_tale_of_two_toxic_schools_ho.html
The problems stem from NJ’s flawed DEP toxic site cleanup program. Under the “urban brownfields” logic, laws that previously sought to cleanup sites to protect human health now are focused almost exclusively on promoting economic redevelopment. Lax DEP oversight provides Incentives to cut corners – often at the cost of proper cleanup. Due to a large number of toxic sites (over 16,000) and a scarcity of develop-able clean land, reckless urban brownfields redevelopment laws are now impacting school sites and children as well. For an absolutely mind numbing expose’ of the problem, see: New Jersey Program Bought Polluted Lands for Low-income Schools –

Bill WolfeAbandoned housing behind Early Childhood Development Center, Camden, NJ.

“In what critics consider one of the more blatant examples of environmental racism, a fund supposedly intended to give a leg up to impoverished pupils of color was used to put them at risk while favoring private developers” http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3800
Here are illustrations of the just some of the problems yet to be addressed by state officials:

Bill WolfeParamus Middle School, Paramus, NJ.

1. No Parental Notification Parents are typically the last to know if there are toxic problems at school. In Paramus – an upscale Bergen County community – the discovery of a small pile of pesticide contaminated soil caused a huge furor, and forced the resignation of the Superintendent, who had failed to disclose and then covered up the problem. A bill has been introduced to mandate parental notification of toxic problems at schools S480(Gordon – D/Bergen)http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/S0500/480_I1.HTM
Yet, at a controversial school site in Allentown, contrary to the community’s demands, DEP approved of capping and “blending” highly contaminated pesticide soils at the school site. There are scores of schools with far greater risks than Paramus where information intentionally has been withheld from parents -including the fact that schools are located on or nearby partially cleaned up toxic sites. Parents in nearby Garfield didn’t know their kids were going to a school where a cleanup was not yet complete, or that the school foundation itself served as a “cap” in the DEP approved cleanup plan (imagine that: sending your child to a building that technically and legally was part of a toxic site cleanup.)
2. Lax oversight/shoddy school construction.

Bill WolfeMiddle School, Neptune, NJ.Millions of dollars were wasted to tear down poor construction.

NJ State Inspector General Cooper issued a scathing report to former Governor Codey regarding mismanagement of the Schools Construction Corporation(SCC).http://www.state.nj.us/oig/pdf/njscc_preliminary_report.pdf
Among the mismanagement, IG Cooper found that over $330 million had been spent on purchase of sites “patently unsuitable” for schools – this does not include millions in resulting toxic cleanup costs for contaminated sites that never should have been bought.See:RADIOACTIVE SCHOOL SITE IS TIP OF NEW JERSEY TOXIC ICEBERG — Over 100 School Site approvals expedited under Secret Deal http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=679
The SCC has reckless judgment as well as deep pockets, while DEP looks the other way and refuses to tighten cleanup standards at school sites. DEP even signed off on an SCC plan to build a school at a contaminated former Manhattan Project site in Union City. In blowing the whistle on that site, NJ PEER disclosed a secret Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the SCC and the DEP. http://www.peer.org/docs/nj/06_24_4_dep_moa.pdf
To implement the State’s effort to expedite school construction, the MOA explicitly relaxed safeguards and expedited DEP environmental review of toxic school sites (see: NEW JERSEY SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION REFORM GETS FAILING MARKS — No Environmental Reviews Prior to Building More Schools on Toxic Sites http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=899
As a result of this disclosure and the Union City fiasco, the MOA was revoked. Since then, the Legislature has abolished the SCC and replaced it with the Schools Development Authority (SDA). But many underlying problems remain. See: TOXIC SCHOOL SCANDAL SPOTLIGHTS WEAK NEW JERSEY LAW — Parents Get No Notice of Child’s Exposure in Deregulated State Clean-Up Program http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=864
3. Poor School Siting, reckless land acquisition, lax environmental oversight

Bill WolfeDemolition of Jefferson School, Trenton, NJ.
SCC wasted $25 million in taxpayer dollars to demolish the partially built Martin Luther King replacement school because SCC contractors imported toxic soil to the site as clean fill.

Bill WolfeFederal toxic Superfund site selected as a Middle School site, Gloucester City, NJ.
Millions of educational dollars wasted on toxic cleanup and buying out homes and relocating residents.

4. Toxic chemical vapors seeping into schools
There are several examples of where schools have been impacted by toxic vapors seeping into the school – a Franklin (Warren Co.) school was impacted by solvents from a federal Superfund site. Parents and children in schools and day care facilities in Gloucester, Middlesex and Ocean Counties have been affected as well. Thousands of homes are at unknown risks.

Bill WolfeMiddle School, Garfield, NJ.In foreground are soil and groundwater wells to monitor toxic chemical vapors during active cleanup while school is occupied

5. Partial cleanup, caps & engineering controls

Bill WolfeEarly Childhood Development Center, Camden, NJ.

Bill WolfeECDC under construction. Camden NJ.
The center is located on top of an old dump. Due to inadequate DEP cleanup, high levels of toxic chemicals remain in soils under the building and at the site.

6. Environmental Injustice

Bill WolfeEarly Childhood Development Center, Camden, NJ.
Construction workers told me that installation of pipes 3 feet under this portion of the building unearthed all sorts of debris. This discovery conflicted with what the story they were told that 8-12 feet of soil across th entire site had been excavated prior to construction.

Scores of schools built on toxic waste sites are in poor, black, and disadvantaged “Abbott District” communities. For example, th Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) in Camden is located on a former dump. Toxic chemicals in soils and groundwater exceed DEP toxic cleanup standards and DEP is not taking enforcement action against the original polluters. I was told by workers at the site that construction had unearthed old garbage, debris, tires and contaminated soils. This is a racist policy that puts children at risk and diverts scarce educational dollars..

Bill WolfeUnsecured abandoned dump across the street from ECDC. Camden, NJ.

7. Pollution sources nearby poisoning kids
The health risks of toxic exposure to kids are not limited to urban areas or toxic waste sites. Air pollution sources nearby schools – such as chemical facilities or truck stops – poison kids too:

Bill WolfeHigh School. Paulsboro, NJ.

Bill WolfeTruck stop – Mahwah High School just feet away in background.
Diesel fumes impact kids at school and on athletic fields directly above truck stop.

8. Real estate deals and developers rule – Flawed Brownfields Policy
State toxic site cleanup laws promote redevelopment at the expense of public health.The DEP needs to regain control of the construction industry and the movement of toxic contaminated soils, Under current law, DEP has very little oversight – an industrial construction site is treated no differently than a school yard. This is crazy.

Bill WolfeMartin Luther King School site, surrounded by homes in Trenton, NJ. Importation and previously existing contaminated soils outraged the community and forced a $25 million demolition of the partially built school.

What are we telling our kids when we put them in these environments? Take a look.

Bill WolfeWest Brook Middle School. Paramus, NJ.
Discovery of pesticide contaminated soils outraged parents, prompted the Mayor to order the school closed, and forced the resignation of the Superintendent.

The issue of children’s exposure to toxic chemicals while at schools and day care centers has exploded as a political issue in New Jersey, as a result of several high profile cases reported by media. A series of tragedies across the state have exposed major flaws and breakdowns in DEP’s toxic site cleanup program (see:– TOXIC SCHOOL SCANDAL SPOTLIGHTS WEAK NEW JERSEY LAW — Parents Get No Notice of Child’s Exposure in Deregulated State Clean-Up Program http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=864
In the most recent reaction – which again dodges the underlying toxic site cleanup issues – the Senate Environment Committee will hear a bill today (S 480) sponsored by Senator Robert Gordon (D/Bergen)http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2008/Bills/S0500/480_I1.HTM
The bill is in response to last year’s extraordinary fiasco in Paramus’ West Brook Middle School. In a case that received national attention, in late May of 2007, the Bergen Record broke a story in which Paramus Public School officials knowingly failed to report the presence of the banned pesticides aldrin, dieldrin, and chlordane on the campus of Westbrook. In response to outraged parents, the Mayor ordered the school closed, the Superintendent was fired for failing to notify parents and covering up the problem, and a Bergen Record reporter was arrested for taking soil samples at the site.http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org/blogs&start=120
Parents and day care operators are still reeling since the August 2006 “Kiddie Kollege” episode where 60 toddlers were exposed to poisonous toxic mercury vapors in a day care center located in a converted former mercury thermometer factory. The factory had failed to comply with a DEP cleanup order for over 12 years (see: MERCURY-LADEN DAY-CARE CENTER IN NEW JERSEY IS NO ANOMALY — Lax State Brownfield Laws Make Tragedy an “Accident Waiting to Happen” http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=722
The Legislature and Governor were forced to respond – last January, Corzine signed a law, and issued a press release touting his reforms. See : Jan-11-07 Governor Corzine Signs Legislation to Improve Environmental Safety at Schools and Child Care Centers http://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/approved/20070111.html
The law was a band aid on a gaping wound and failed to resolve the underlying flawed DEP toxic cleanup program – see: CORZINE URGED TO CLOSE LOOPHOLES IN TOXIC School & DAY-CARE BILL – Conditional Veto Could Strike Out Exemptions and Strengthen Safeguards http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=800
Soon thereafter, dozens of schools and more that 400 day care centers located on toxic sites – even Superfund sites – were disclosed in Paramus, Garfield, Union City, Trenton, Gloucester City, Allentown, Clifton, Camden, and scores of towns as a result a of major flaws in DEP toxic site remediation and NJ Schools Construction Corporation programs (See: RADIOACTIVE SCHOOL SITE IS TIP OF NEW JERSEY TOXIC ICEBERG — Over 100 School Site approvals expedited under Secret Deal http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=679

Bill WolfeGarfield Middle School. Garfield, NJ.
The school was built on a toxic waste site and was undergoing active remediation of toxic chemicals in soils and groundwater when the school open last year. Vapor intrusion sampling had not been conducted – all without the knowledge of working class parents.

To prepare for the hearing, I thought I’d take a ride up to Bergen County and check out the West Brook Middle School, as well as another far more toxic contaminated school site in nearby Garfield.
The Garfield case was far worse than Paramus. Garfield, a disadvantaged “Abbott” district, had a middle school built on a toxic waste site. Amazingly, chemical vapors were still being extracted from soils when the school was opened last year – all without the knowledge of working class parents (See:New Jersey Lacks Policy to Protect Public From Chemical Intrusion (Herald News) http://www.childproofing.org/news/archives/2007/09/september_24_-.htm

Bill Wolfepolluting old industrial sites surround and hover over school

The Paramus and Garfield cases provide a strong contrast in toxic health risks to children in a wealthy suburban (Paramus) versus a working class disadvantaged community .
Take a look at the photo’s and compare the two schools, with respect to several attributes: including the surrounding neighborhood, the school facilities, the natural features, the overall ambiance. Think about what the kids see and experience at these two school settings: What do the kids see? What are we telling them?

Bill Wolfekids look out the window and see monitoring wells measuring toxic vapors is soil and groundwater under and just feet away from school

Bill Wolfeentering school surrounded by old industrial sites

Bill WolfeNo soccer fields, tennis courts, track, grass play grounds, or nature – adjacent stream and grounds are fenced off toxic hazards

Bill Wolfekids pass active toxic vapor cleanup system on the way to gym.
Toxic chemical vapors are being vacuumed out of soil to avoid migration directly into school building.

Bill Wolfepolluting diesel motors – on school grounds – power toxic cleanup system

Bill Wolfekids learn to read emergency toxic warnings

Bill Wolfekids look out window and see adjacent stream is an open sewer

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Bill Wolfepolluting old industrial sites are neighbors

Bill Wolfeuncontrolled and unmonitored demolition and toxic site cleanup ongoing a couple hundred feet from the schoolyard.

Bill WolfeAbout 200 feet behind the school – across the railroad tracks and stormwater impoundment – is the “Early Childhood Center”.

Bill WolfeThe view leaving the “Early Childhood Center” – lurking abandoned contaminated industrial site across the stream and polluted stream.

Bill Wolfe

Compare what the Garfield kids experience to what the Paramus kids enjoy – I won’t even comment – let the pictures tell the story:

Bill WolfeKids enter school in the shadow of a stately sycamore – not industrial smokestacks.

Bill WolfeLandscaping – not monitoring wells – frames school.

Bill WolfeTennis anyone?

Bill WolfeKids look out the window and long to play soccer at recess and after school – not avoid toxic industrial sites and polluted streams.

Bill WolfeSigns welcome kids to play on athletic fields – not warn them about toxic waste cleanups sites.

Bill WolfeAbundant nature to enjoy and explore at the schoolyard – not toxic industrial sites and polluted streams.

Bill WolfeKids in both schools pledge allegiance to the same flag – but how long can these huge disparities be maintained under one nation?
As Lincoln said
“A house divided against itself can not stand”

Bill WolfeTwo police and several utility crew men supervise a minor construction site across the street from the school – why can’t similar resources be found to monitor massive demolition and toxic site cleanup next to Garfield Middle School?

Bill WolfeKids can enjoy a place for quite contemplation or moments of young love – but where does one find solace and privacy amidst the pavement of Garfield??

If you’ve gotten this far and are not ashamed, you’re not alive.

Tomorrow (Monday, January 28, 2008) Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson will present her priorities for 2008 to the Senate Environment Committee.

Bill Wolfe

In an ideal world, that presentation would have been preceded by a statewide series of public hearings – along the lines of the Governor’s toll plan – to solicit the public’s preferences regarding clean air, clean water, global warming, toxic site cleanup, stopping the loss of forests and farms, reversing declines in ocean health, and a host of serious challenges DEP faces in protecting public health and the environment.
The opportunity for public input exists. The new Senate Environment Committee will meet at 10:00 am in Committee Room 10, Third Floor, State House Annex, Trenton. The Committee invited the public and the Commissioner to discuss environmental issues for 2008. http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/BillsForAgendaView.asp
The Committee has new membership and a new Vice-Chair, Jeff VanDrew (D/Cape May) http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/committees/senate.asp
It will be interesting to see if this hearing is covered by the press and if so what they choose to emphasize and write about. It will also be interesting to see how Jackson puts her cards on the table – will she duck and do the typical dog and pony show; or will she engage substantive issues and generate some controversy at a time when the Governor is struggling to defend his toll refinance plan? How will the new Committee choose to conduct oversight? What will be the priorities of the new members and new Vice Chair?
So, with that in mind, here’s my list and challenge to Commissioner Jackson – what’s yours? I will report Jackson’s testimony tomorrow.
1. Implement the Global Warming Response Act

Bill Wolfe

The legislature directed DEP to submit a Plan – by June 2008 – for meeting Governor Corzine’s much touted aggressive green house gas emissions reduction goals. A package of new laws, regulations, investment, incentives, and programs will be required. The Commissioner should lay out a detailed programmatic vision, which includes a binding commitment to re-negotiate the goals of the RGGI bill just enacted; to provide a deadline for the new Energy Master Plan being developed by BPU; and to present policies towards decisions on various controversial major energy projects, such as Oyster Creek nuclear plant cooling towers, Exxon ocean LNG, and off shore wind. I would hope that some inquiring Senator would conduct oversight and ask questions about how the Governor’s toll plan will comply with federal Clean Air Act ground level ozone standards and achieve the emission reduction goals just adopted in the GWRA.
2. Adopt and fund a long over due Water Supply Management Plan

Bill Wolfe

Water supply deficits currently exist and more are projected in light of expected growth. Global warming will impact rainfall, with more severe and prolonged droughts likely. Existing infrastructure is very old, often in need of billions of dollars of investments in repair or upgrade to meet ever tightening health standards, as needed to respond to NJ’s toxic legacy. DEP is years behind in revising the current plan which is over a decade old and out of date in light of new science. DEP must commit to a plan that assures a sustainable and healthy water supply, with strict limits on new development and mandatory water conservation for all users.
3. Strengthen the Highlands Regional Master Plan

Bill Wolfe

The current plan about to be adopted would allow far too much development in the region, which is why many environmental groups oppose it and why three Highlands Council members voted against their own plan. Governor Corzine has final say on all actions of the Council – so the buck stops with the Governor. Jackson needs to weigh in with Corzine to counter pro-growth and parochial local interests on the Council to protect the water supply for half the state..
4. Adopt mandatory chemical plant safety measures

Bill Wolfe

Corzine – as US Senator and Gubernatorial candidate – pledged to enact mandatory chemical
plant safety laws. He has failed to do so. Current regulations are voluntary and allow the chemical industry to control decisions to adopt critical public safety protections. The Legislature needs to mandate current voluntary guidelines, especially requirements to adopt technologically feasible “inherently safer technologies”. Current rules allow the chemical industry to reject them based on cost, which puts communities needlessly at risk.
5. Protect urban communities from air toxics

Bill Wolfe

The entire state of NJ fails EPA cancer risk health benchmarks for air toxics. Urban and disadvantaged communities are disproportionately impacted due to concentrated nearby polluting industries and loads of trucks and car emissions. Newark kids have the highest asthma rates in the world. Admissions at urban hospital emergency rooms soar on bad air days, leading to premature death and disease. This is a compelling moral and environmental justice issue. Jackson must speak out.
6. Repair broken toxic site cleanup program

Bill Wolfe

NJ’s toxic cleanup program is broken. Polluters have been allowed to walk away and leave toxic pollution behind under “caps” – again mostly in urban, poor or black communities. The laws were weakened to cut costs and stimulate development. That approach has failed. Its now time to restore prior protections and reorient the program back toward protecting communities, not developers. -
7. Adopt standards for schools and daycare standards to protect children

Bill Wolfe

The legislature mandated that DEP approve the cleanup plans for sites where schools and daycares are built. Will DEP mandate complete cleanup??The law also mandated the new rules be proposed by January 2008 to set safe indoor standards at schools and daycare centers – at low levels that will protect children. This law was enacted in response to the “Kiddie Kollege” fiasco – where 60 children were poisoned by mercury vapors in a daycare center. The daycare was located in a converted industrial thermometer manufacturing facility that ignored a 12 year old unenforced DEP cleanup order. Jackson should brief the committee on this children’s health program for schools and day cares.
8. Show me the money – Restore DEP Budget and invest in critical green infrastructure -

Bill Wolfe

Governor Corzine has spoken a lot lately on the need to invest billions in roads. But DEP still has not recovered from the Whitman Administration’s staff and budget cuts. The Corzine budget cuts and hiring freeze have made historical resource problems worse. They have led to attrition and vacancies in key staff positions. DEP receives the large majority of its budget from polluters fees and federal grants, only a very small percentage is the burden of NJ taxpayers – less than 1/2 o 1% of the $34 billion total state budget. Any further cuts at DEP help polluters and developers, not taxpayers. Jackson must draw the line on budget and investment issues..
9. Transparency, open government, and ethics reforms

Bill Wolfe

DEP must disclose publicly – on their website – all meetings with industry lobbyists and all pre-application permit meetings. The public right to know is paramount and DEP must operate as an open public agency, and not a consulting firm for the polluters and developers. DEP must not hire private contractors that have conflicts of interests. The public confidence and trust is jeopardized by current practices.
10. Fix & adopt proposals in the pipeline – honor prior commitments
DEP has several important regulatory proposals in the hopper that have yet to be adopted, including the “water quality management planning rules (sewer rules) and the stream encroachment rules (flood prevention) [*correction: SE rules were adopted by DEP in November 2007 - I meant to refer to proposed rules to upgrade 910 miles of streams to "Category One"]. DEP recently has begun to solicit input on how to strengthen current coastal management and storm water rules. DEP has long promised to enact rules to protect the disappearing habitat of threaten and endangered species, and criteria to protect wildlife from bio-accumulative toxic water pollutants, like mercury, PCBs, and pesticides. DEP has proposed a controversial cleanup plan on the Passaic River (TMDL) and needs to develop one for Barnegat Bay and hundreds of other polluted waters that fail Clean Water Act standards. Jackson needs to speak clearly and fight for the resources and political support to make these long overdue stronger protections happen.

Bill Wolfe