Assembly and Senate Preview: Enviro Bills Up on Monday

The following bills are up in the Assembly on Monday, October 29^th:

Port Authority Transparency A1708 (Vainieri Huttle)/S619 (Weinberg) seeks to increase transparency by modifying government structure and providing legislative oversight for PANYNJ. The bill requires the PANYNJ to create and make public a detailed annual operating budget. It also included rules for property disposition and subsidiaries as well as set standards for public hearings related to toll or fare increases. The Sierra Club supports efforts to increase transparency and accountability within the Port Authority. This bill has already passed the Senate.

“This legislation is a change that is needed to move us forward because the Port Authority has been a rogue agency without any accountability. They have wasted money while impacting the lives of everyone in the area. It’s important to monitor and regulate the Port Authority because they control ports, bridges and airports and not only affect the daily lives of commuters, but of the environment and our health as well. This bill goes a long way to help reform an agency that’s been out-of-control for so long. It will bring accountability and transparency to an agency that could possibly do tremendous damage to the region and our environment,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We need this reform because we expect Port Authority to be looking at construction on the Gateway Tunnel, Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel, a new bus terminal, and other important pieces of infrastructure. We need to make sure these projects are transparent and done in a proper and cost-effective way.”

Water Testing A2420 (Benson) requires water suppliers to reimburse residential customers for drinking water testing under certain circumstances. Those circumstances include when the testing is necessitated by the exceedance of a maximum contaminant level, or action level of a federal or State drinking water standard by the public water system.

“The first step to fixing contaminated drinking water is to identify it and that’s why we need to encourage more testing. Over the years, we have failed to adequately test our drinking water. We have said time and time again that we do not do enough testing at the faucet; most of the testing is done at the plant, which is why we see problems months before it is detected. This bill will help encourage residential customers to test by giving them reimbursements,” said Jeff Tittel.

Prohibits Asbestos A4416 (Swain) prohibits sale or distribution of products containing asbestos. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a new proposed framework that would allow for new uses of asbestos. The material is currently heavily restricted with efforts underway to remove it from many structures. Health impacts of asbestos exposure include lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis.

“Once again, we need state legislation to protect us from federal rollbacks, this time asbestos. This is a material we’ve known was dangerous for many years. Asbestos was one of the first chemicals regulated under the Clean Air Act. Asbestos fibers are released into the air and breathed in. This damages the lungs, intestines, and other organs, and can lead to a plethora of dangerous diseases. There is global consensus on the risk of asbestos for 30 years we’ve been working on removing this dangerous substance from our structures and homes. We need this legislation to protect the people of New Jersey from being exposed to this dangerous substance,” said Jeff Tittel.

The following bills are up in the Senate on Monday, October 29^th:

Fracking Ban S678 (Bateman) prohibits treatment, discharge, disposal, application to roadway, or storage of wastewater, wastewater solids, sludge, drill cuttings or other byproducts from natural gas exploration or production using hydraulic fracturing.

“We need to block fracking in New Jersey but more importantly, we need to block it in the entire Basin first. We’re concerned that Governor Murphy has backed away from his commitment to fight fracking waste through the DRBC. Fracking is a dangerous process that threatens drinking water and public health. In New Jersey, we’re more threatened with connecting fracking activities such as the dumping or treating of waste or using of water sources. Dumping fracking wastewater is dangerous because it contains over 600 different toxic chemicals, many of them carcinogenic. This could lead to pollution and contaminated drinking water.  This legislation would ban all activities related to fracking in our state. It would prevent fracking waste from being dumped on our land or in our water and help stop facilities to treat that waste from being built here,” said Jeff Tittel. “This bill would help protect New Jersey but it would not completely stop the threats from fracking to the Delaware River and our drinking water supply.”

Penalties for Violations S679 (Bateman) increases civil penalties for certain natural gas or hazardous liquid facility safety violations. The bill doubles the amount of money that a violator may be charged with for these violations.

“Given all the problems we’re seeing with natural gas like fires, explosions and property loss, we need to update the penalties. We support this bill as an incentive for these facilities to be safer and have less violations. Natural gas and hazardous liquids are dangerous to our communities and our environment. Polluters should have to pay, especially when it puts us at risk,” said Jeff Tittel.

Vegetation Management Response Act S2505 (Oroho) authorizes electric public utilities to clear, destroy and remove vegetation however they wish. We oppose this bill that gives utility companies the ability to destroy vegetation.

“We oppose this bill that gives utility companies too much leeway. They could end up clearing important vegetation and harming environmentally sensitive areas. We need to protect power lines from trees but not allow for power companies to just clear-cut whatever they want. This bill also exempts utilities from local tree ordinances and shade tree commissions. This gives them a blanket to clear-cut anything they want. We need protective and selective cutting, not just open discretion,” said Jeff Tittel. “Vegetation removal can result in increased erosion and sedimentation, increased flooding and pollution in our waterways, and destruction of wildlife habitat.

Rancocas Creek SR99 (Singleton) urges the US Secretary of Interior to designate Rancocas Creek as National Water Trail.

“The Rancocas Creek is an important natural resource and we support this resolution to designate it a National Water Trail. This designation would help protect the ecology of this important waterway while promoting its use for recreation opportunities such as canoeing. We support highlighting and protecting the importance of New Jersey’s natural resources, especially waterways and the Rancocas Creek is a great example of that,” said Jeff Tittel.

Single-Use Plastic SCR136 (Smith) urges federal government to take action to require manufacturers of single-use plastic products to assume responsibility for pollution caused by those products. These actions include litigation against manufacturers of single-use plastic products to recoup clean-up costs, water filtration expenses, and damages to natural resources caused by discarded single-use plastics.

“It’s important that we work together as a nation to make sure that polluters pay, especially when it comes to plastic pollution,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.