Environmental groups

oppose pending N.J. bill

Conservationists and civil rights and environmental justice acti-vists gathered at the State House in Trenton in mid-June to oppose legislation that will expedite development approvals in more than 43 percent of New Jersey’s remaining vacant land.

Attendees at the meeting included Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club, New Jersey Chapter; Doug O’Malley of New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG); Valerie Caffee of New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance; Ted Korth of the New Jersey Audubon Society; and Tim Dillingham, director of the American Littoral Society, Sandy Hook.

"This bill is not just a fast track, this is a runaway train called the Fast Track Express that is going to pave over and pollute the state of New Jersey," said Tittel.

The bill’s provisions include a maximum 45-day review period of applications submitted to the Department of Community Affairs, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Department of Transportation before automatic approval is given, permits-by-rule that are granted without review, removal of public participation and procedural due process, and an ombudsman that will act to facilitate the provisions, according to a press release.

The scope of the permits included in this legislation is broad-reaching and encompasses programs that directly affect public health such as hazardous waste storage and remediation of toxic sites to those that directly affect quality of life such as bear hunt approvals and diversions of Green Acres park land. According to O’Malley, clean water advocate at NJPIRG, the effort cuts the public out of the process, will create a burden at DEP and be a victory for overdevelopment in New Jersey.

The bill directly undermines recent advances in the environmental justice movement including the governor’s executive order on environmental justice and DEP’s development of protocol for public participation in brownfield development and site remediation. According to Caffee, if the legislation is passed, communities of color and low-income communities will be written out of the permitting process.

Recent projects where public participation factored into protecting the environment and working with government to facilitate appropriate outcomes including stopping the Windy Acres development in Hunterdon County, remediating the coal gasification site in Long Branch, and developing appropriate transportation improvements at the Millstone Bypass in West Windsor.

Projects at risk of becoming fast-tracked include the release of VX nerve gas by DuPont into the Delaware River, construction of Route 92 in Middlesex County, chromium cleanups in Jersey City, and the Xanadu mall project in the Meadowlands, according to the press release.