WolfeNotes.com

Christie DEP Goes All Nixonian – A Hit Piece of the First Degree

Bergen Record reporter Jim O’Neill must be desperate and auditioning for the new McNews editors at the bought out Record.

Today, he got totally played by a cabal of Christie DEP hacks, NJ Audubon, and a notorious professional loggers’ lobbyist and wrote an incredibly ugly hit piece on NJ Conservation Foundation, see:

• Environmental group didn’t get permits to kill trees for Passaic County habitat

In my 35 year experience, I can’t recall DEP responding to complaints by a loggers’ lobbyist and NJ Audubon, and then doing press to drop a dime on and criticize NJ Conservation Foundation –

This is as ugly as it gets – and the Bergen Record goes along for the ride.

It must be payback for the State Parks defunding KIG story and followup editorial, both of which were highly critical of NJ Audubon.

Nixonian. Just more evidence that they know no shame.

I’ll be writing more on this in the near future, but for now I’m pressed for time at a local library, so here is my note to O’Neil

Jim – ask DEP and NJ Audubon and Mr. Kallesser the logger if DEP issued permits for the prior and proposed logging on Sparta Mountain and if they are seeking those permits under the current plan.(and if they support permits – specifically: stream encroachment, freshwater wetlands, soil conservation, Highlands (DEP and RMP), and local land use approvals.

The answer is no – here are the regulatory details and site specific facts if you are interested:

Environmental Damage Of DEP Sparta Mountain Logging Plan Largely Unregulated

You have been played and written an ugly hit piece of the first degree, when you should have been writing about the Sparta Mountain anti-logging protest hike on Saturday.

Wolfe

Trump Calls Climate Change A Hoax, Pledges To Dismantle EPA

NJ Audubon Remains His Partner

I want to close out two issues I’ve been writing about for some time now.

I)  Stealing State Parks Funding and Still Lying About It

The Bergen Record finally published a story on funding cuts for the maintenance of NJ State Parks and how the Keep It Green Coalition – led by NJ Audubon and their Foundation and corporate friends – duped the voters into slashing those funds, despite a known $400 million backlog in capital maintenance projects, see:

• Budget cuts doom state parks to disrepair

It is a complex story to tell, but it all boils down to this:

Some environmentalists say the amendment had an unintended but severe impact on the Natural and Historic Resources capital budget. The budget had been replenished each year from the same tax, a dedication secured in a prior, 2006 voter-approved constitutional amendment. That amendment was to provide a “reliable and stable source of funding” that would enable the DEP to make “long-term investments in the state park system,” according to a 2013 draft of the state’s Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan.

It provided about $15 million annually, and would have doubled to $32 million in 2016. ...

Mark Texel, head of the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry, called it a “massive blow” and said in a Facebook post soon after the vote that it was “the darkest day I have faced in my professional career.” [**Note: he called it “worse than Sandy“]

“We had a plan to really tackle some of these major capital projects that had been deferred for many, many years,” Texel said. “And we were making progress. Suddenly now our capital budget is having the legs cut out from underneath it. … It was disappointing, I admit. I was very disappointed.”

[***Update: Here is Texel’s full statement: (boldface mine)

“As the Director of the NJ State Park Service now coping with the reality that our entire Parks capital budget will be completely eliminated beginning July 1, 2015 as a result of the YES vote I can say this is the darkest day I have faced in my professional career. Worse than Superstorm Sandy. 440,000+ acres of preserved open space, 52 historic sites, 39 parks — used by 8 million visitors each year — all managed by my agency and now with no funding plan in place for stewardship beginning in just 7 months. This is not a bad reality TV show. This is New Jersey’s Inconvenient Truth hidden from voters throughout this campaign.”

Finally, despite the continuing lies and pushback to undermine and divert attention from the nasty truth, the press held the culprits at Keep It Green accountable:

Bill Wolfe, director of the non-profit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said he didn’t believe that voters in 2014 knew this would happen.

He accused NJ Keep It Green of “intentionally, knowingly” stripping state parks of capital funding to finance Green Acres so they wouldn’t have to ask voters to approve a bond. That, he said, let open space groups avoid a public brawl with Governor Christie, who has demanded no new debt be placed on taxpayers. The coalition, he said, “didn’t have the spine to fight for the money.”

Keep It Green was finally forced to respond, and they did so by continuing a pattern of lies, spin and omission – here’s a gem: If KIG knew there was a $400 million backlog, how can they still defend stealing $32 million that was previously Constitutionally dedicated to State parks maintenance?

Ed Potosnak, an empty suit that can only blow smoke, digs in deeper. He simply denies the reality of the fact that his Open Space ballot measure stole $32 million/year of dedicated State parks funding:

Ed Potosnak, chairman of Keep It Green and executive director of the NJ League of Conservation Voters, said the idea that the amendment had stripped money from the parks was a “smoke and mirrors argument” by the Christie administration.

“It’s just because they’re not prioritizing it,” Potosnak said. “That money is going other places … if they thought it was important, they’d put it towards the parks. It’s not because of [the constitutional amendment]. We’re seeing that slip because the administration has other priorities. And … they don’t want to say flat out, ‘We have other priorities.’ They’re going to point the finger.”

For environmental groups to buy into that story is “shameful,” Potosnak said. “Stand up for full funding — don’t point the finger at other factors and play into [the state’s] narrative that is false.”

I am perhaps the Christie administration’s harshest and most consistent environmental critic, but they are right on this one. It’s no false narrative:, it’s the truth, backed by budget evidence:

Brian Murray, Christie’s press secretary, said the 2014 amendment hampered DEP efforts to address capital improvements and left it with “fewer funds to use for parks and other crucial environmental protection efforts.”

The “other priorities” Potosnak refers to are DEP’s shifting million of dollars to restore cuts from other environmental programs – like clean water and toxic site cleanup. Those critical environmental funds also were stolen by KIG’s self serving “rob Peter to pay Paul” open space scheme. Those were in addition to the Parks maintenance money.

The Record followed the story up with a good editorial today, see:

• Park Maintenance

I rarely get named in editorials, so vindicated, must note:

But the Christie administration and even environmentalists normally not aligned with the governor point to a 2014 referendum in which voters overwhelmingly endorsed a plan to use money from the corporate business tax to buy open space under the Green Acres program. Some of that money had been used for park cleanup and maintenance.

The success of the referendum measure was not surprising. New Jersey voters traditionally have supported initiatives to buy and preserve land on all levels of government. But as Bill Wolfe, the director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, told The Record, voters probably did not know the consequences of their vote.

The reason that voters did not know the consequences of their vote was due to a $1 million funded PR campaign of lies and deception by self serving conservation groups and their spineless and unprincipled “leaders” like Ed Potosnak and Ms. Mooij of NJ Audubon.

But the reality is actually far worse –

These conservation groups are funded by elite foundations and corporations. Their professionals report to elite boards and elite members.

Their “advocacy” work reflects the economic and political interests and ideology of those elites.

In this case, the defunding of State Parks fits their elite agenda.

First of all, the elites of the KIG Coalition don’t rely on State Parks for outdoor recreation and they don’t care about what they perceive as the riff-raff that do.

Second, defunding of State Parks creates a financial crisis that reinforces a privatization and commercialization agenda for State lands that elites are ideologically supportive of:

As to how the state could bridge the budget gap, Texel, the Division of Parks and Forestry head, points to the public/private partnerships meant to monetize parks — like the gazebo built at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park to play host to wedding ceremonies, or the caterer who calls Sussex County’s Waterloo Village home. He also suggested corporate sponsorships, used effectively by the National Park Service, as a money source.

Last, the Open Space program fits their elite and corporate ideological conservation agenda in several ways: 1) private wealthy landowners benefit from public subsidies, which amount to another regressive upward transfer of wealth. 2) At the same time, diversion of DEP funds to open space shrinks State government and DEP regulatory programs are slashed. 3) Groups like NJ Audubon “partner” with DEP and receive DEP funds and favors, e.g. just look at the Sparta Mountain logging debate.

Which brings us to our second close out issue:

II)  Donald Trump Promises To Abandon The Paris Climate Accords; Kill Obama EPA Clean Power Plan; Expand Oil, Fracking & Coal Production; and Slash Environmental Regulations – Yet NJ Audubon Maintains A Partnership With Him

A small sample of the insane Trump policy agenda: (see this and this and this)

What would a corporate partner with NJ Audubon have to do before Audubon terminated the partnership?

Just what would it take?

What would Donald Trump have to do for the leaders at NJ Audubon to publicly distance themselves from him and sever their partnership?

TRUMP NATIONAL GOLF CLUB SIGNS 10-YEAR AGREEMENT FOR WILDLIFE CONSERVATION ON ITS BEDMINSTER, NJ COURSE

These are the warped and cowardly low lifes that populate elite conservation groups.

DEP Dirty U-Turn 

NJ Natural Gas Withdraws Stream Permit, qualifies for deregulated DEP approval

In a remarkably corrupt, cynical and significant regulatory move, the Christie DEP just determined that a pipeline crossing a stream will “not disturb the stream in any way“, thereby virtually deregulating pipeline stream crossings.

Just as pipeline activists finally began to focus on the achilles heel of pipeline regulatory vulnerability – the DEP Clean Water Act water quality certificate requirements –  the Christie DEP and lawyers for NJ Natural Gas’ Southern Reliability Link (SRL) pipeline have made an end run around that vulnerability.

The regulatory U-Turn stunt recalls the equally brazen move to skirt Pinelands Commission approval and public hearing requirements.

DEP just very quietly determined that “horizontal directional drilling” (HDD) – i.e jacking a pipeline under a stream – does not create any impact on the stream, i.e. does “not disturb the stream in any way”

The proposed NJNG SRL pipeline will cross 43 streams.

Under the Clean Water Act and NJ State Water Quality Standards, NJNG was highly vulnerable to legal challenges of DEP approvals of those crossings, based on adverse impacts to water quality (i.e. existing physical, chemical, and biological characteristics).

DEP made this determination on the NJ NG SRL pipeline through the Pinelands.

But this DEP determination will set precedent for all pipelines. And it will impact not only Flood Hazard Area permits, but other DEP regulatory approvals under the Clean Water Act and NJ State water quality standards.

First, here’s what happened (correspondence provided upon request, h/t Teressa Lettman of PPA) – then we’ll tell you what it means.

1)  On August 29, 2016, NJNGas withdrew their Flood Hazard “Individual Permit” (IP) Application for the pipeline route. That permit application had been under review by DEP for over 1 year and public hearings were scheduled.

2)  On September 12, 2016 NJNGas submitted a new application for a Flood Hazard Applicability Determination for a “Permit By Rule” (PBR).

3)  On September 16, 2016 the NJ DEP issued a PBR eligibility determination– DEP found that no formal IP authorization for the proposed project was required and that the pipeline qualified instead for PBR’s under Flood Hazard rules.

A “permit by rule” is essentially deregulation – there is no permit application that is reviewed by DEP. Instead, NJNG privately certifies compliance with vague regulatory requirements. There is no public hearing and no opportunity for the public to comment on a PBR, and no obligation that the DEP respond to public comment. It is not even clear if and how a PBR can be legally challenged administratively and in the courts.

Basically, briefly, the argument is this:

1) Under DEP Flood Hazard Act regulations (NJAC 7:13-7.36), in order to quality for a permit by rule (PBR), the pipeline jacking and/or crossing the stream must “not disturb the stream in any way“.

In making the PBR “applicability determination”, DEP thereby agreed that the pipeline crossing would “not disturb the stream in any way“, via the determination that the project was eligible for the PBR.

This is a highly substantive determination (legally and scientifically/factually) because it determines regulatory requirements and outcomes, including for related DEP permits and approvals.

2) By making this finding, DEP just eliminated any possible water quality standards or Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certificate challenges we could make.

If a stream crossing does not “disturb the stream in any way” there is no way DEP can deny a water quality certificate or find a violation of State DEP Water Quality Standards.

Totally corrupt.

This DEP determination that a PBR applies must be challenged legally as “final agency action” made without any public process (lack of due process) and that lacks any scientific basis (arbitrary and capricious).

Also keep in mind that DEP Assistant Commissioner Ginger Kopkash testified to the Senate Environment Committee during consideration of legislative veto resolution SCR 66 on the DEP’s Flood Hazard rules that DEP would never issue a “permit by rule” or “general permit” to a pipeline – she said an individual permit would be required.

The DEP’s new FHA rules that survived that veto made it easier to approve pipelines across streams.

The Christie DEP weakened regulatory standards and made it easier by: 1) eliminating a prohibition on disturbance of Category One stream buffers; 2) increasing the allowing disturbance of soils and vegetation in the “riparian zone”; 3) eliminating a cap on riparian disturbance and allowing mitigation; and 4) relaxing a restriction on eligibility for the “permit by rule” to exempt impacts from certain pipeline related construction activities that disturb vegetation and soils and negatively impact water quality.

We warned legislators and readers about this during the SCR 66 debate.

This is the PBR DEP just found that SRL qualifies for under the weakened FHA standards.

So, on top of the horribly corrupt policy and DEP approval process, we have more DEP lies.

There is an audio tape of the Senate hearing that some intrepid reporter might want to listen to and ask Ms Kopkash and her collaborators at the DEP press office about in light of the SRL PBR determination.

[End Note: Here is what DEP said about the very limited nature of Permit By Rule in the Flood Hazard rule proposal – obviously a lie in light of the SRL PBR decision:

Activities authorized under the existing permits-by-rule are also generally limited to activities that do not constitute a “major development,” which is defined under the SWM rules at N.J.A.C. 7:8-1.2 to be a project that disturbs an acre of land and/or results in the creation of one-quarter an acre of impervious surface. Therefore, under many permits-by-rule, a person can undertake an activity that results in the loss of up to one-quarter an acre of riparian zone vegetation where “previous development or disturbance has occurred.” However, a person intending to undertake a project for which all requirements of a given permit-by-rule are not met must instead apply for and receive an authorization under a general permit or an individual permit under this chapter. In the majority of cases, an individual permit must be obtained, which subjects the activity to the requirements of existing Table C. Since the limits of Table C are in many cases much more stringent than that which could be allowed under a permit-by-rule for similar activities, this has led to an inconsistent approach toward riparian zone protection and has caused confusion among the regulated community. In order to harmonize the types of activities allowed under the different permits within this chapter, proposed N.J.A.C. 7:13-11.2(f)1 provides that the net loss of up to one-quarter acre of riparian zone vegetation within an actively disturbed area is not subject to proposed Table 11.2. 

Christie DEP Rejected Scientists’ Recommendations On Drinking Water Standard for Carcinogenic Heavy Metal Chromium

Press Office Attacks Critic

“Hate that fucker,” Drewniak wrote to David Wildstein, the chief Bridgegate conspirator. “I want to beat him with a lead pipe…That would put everyone on notice.” Tom Moran column, “Christie’s Pals Want To Kill Me“

Does the NJ press corps know the difference between rhetoric and reality? Do they care more about their own personal pecadillos than public health?

The ugly lead pipe metaphor – which got saturation media play – was obviously just nasty rhetoric.

But failure to regulate known carcinogens in public water supplies actually does kill people – and it got virtually squat in media circles.

Although you wouldn’t know it from reading the NJ newspapers, NJ has a long and sordid history with respect to public health risks and lax DEP regulation of the toxic heavy metal chromium, see:

• • Garfield Chromium Case Another Vindication of DEP Whistleblower
  • NEW JERSEY SLAPS GAG ORDER ON ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTISTS – Embarrassing Chromium Study Prompts Management Review of Scientific Findings
  • CHROMIUM FAR DEADLIER THAN EARLIER ASSESSMENTS INDICATE – Scores of Capped New Jersey Contaminated Sites Will Have to Be Re-Evaluated
  • TEFLON COATS PUBLIC AGENCY ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE – Jackson Sought to Have DEP Study Pulled from Publication
  • CHROMIUM POSES HIGHER LUNG CANCER RISK IN NEW JERSEY CITIES – State Ignored Staff Warnings of Continued Exposure Even in “Remediated” Sites
  • NEW JERSEY FACING CHROMIUM EMERGENCY – 1 IN 10 CANCER RISKS – State Scientist Reveals DEP Cover-Up; Demand for Federal Intervention
  • High Chromium Danger Known by New Jersey Leaders Since 2007- Lisa Jackson and DEP Brass Decided to Proceed As If New Data Did Not Exist

The most recent chromium scandal is now playing out as a result of a national Report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

Based on EPA data, EWG that found that over 200 million Americans are exposed to unsafe levels of the carcinogen in drinking water, see the Newsweek story:

• CHROMIUM-6 FOUND AT ELEVATED LEVELS IN WATER OF 200 MILLION AMERICANS

Bill Wolfe, with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that protects government whistleblowers, says the EPA is “absolutely not” doing its job to protect the public from chromium, and that it’s a case that “illustrates undue influence—agency capture—by major corporate polluters.”

The EWG national Report prominently featured New Jersey, and in doing so exposed gross negligence by the Christie DEP.

The Christie DEP ignored DEP’s own scientists’ recommendations to set a chromium drinking water standard of 0.07 parts per billion, recommendations issued way back in September 2010.

The initial EWG Report noted:

In New Jersey, the press reported the water quality institute’s recommendation before it could be formally submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection for development of a regulation. This angered Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin, who was appointed by Gov. Chris Christie. He not only blocked submission of the recommendation, but effectively stopped the institute from meeting for four years,15 delaying drinking water regulations for more than a dozen chemicals.

The final version was softened, in response to DEP press office threats:

“In New Jersey, the press reported the water quality institute’s recommendation before it could be formally submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection for development of a regulation. According to former DEP planner Bill Wolfe, now an environmental advocate, this angered Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin, appointed by Gov. Chris Christie. Wolfe said Martin not only blocked submission of the recommendation, but effectively stopped the institute from meeting for four years,[15] delaying drinking water regulations for more than a dozen chemicals.

The final Report notes NJ’s battle:

Battles in New Jersey, North Carolina

Scientists in California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment are not alone in determining that extraordinarily low levels of chromium-6 in drinking water can cause cancer.

In 2010, New Jersey’s Drinking Water Quality Institute, a state agency comprised of scientists, utility officials and citizen experts, calculated a health-based maximum contaminant level – what California calls a public health goal – of 0.06 parts per billion, just slightly higher than California’s.[12] This year, scientists in North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality, also drawing on the 2008 National Toxicology Program study that drove the California goal, calculated a do-not-drink level matching the New Jersey number.[13][14]

But neither New Jersey nor North Carolina has set a legal limit for chromium-6 in tap water. In both states, scientists’ health-based recommendations were at odds with the decisions of politically appointed regulators.

As I expected, that set the Christie hacks off and the DEP press office immediately sprung into attack mode to suppress that story in NJ media. To do that, they again smeared me personally.

This email was sent to EWG and reporters by DEP spokesman Bob Considine:

Unfortunately, you’re sourcing a disgruntled former DEP employee who was dismissed from here and is not telling the truth.

According to EWG, the Christie DEP press office essentially threatened them if they didn’t revise the Report – ironically on the same day of press reports of Gov. Christie’s spokesperson using the “lead pipe” threat.

EWG caved into that threat and revised the text of their Report, something I objected to and got this “apology” reply from EWG:

Bill,

I’m sorry you are disappointed, as I have profound respect for you and the work you have done and am very much hoping we can continue a relationship.

The simple truth is that we did not have the time or space to explain your proofs in detail, although we completely believe them. DEP was threatening what amounted to a nuclear counterattack on our credibility and the most efficient way to deal with it was to tell them they could have a couple of sentences in response. If the report had been one dealing with New Jersey in detail, we would have dug deeper and presented the evidence showing you are right.

Despite the fact that I sent NJ Spotlight reporter Jon Hurdle the evidence to back up my claim, he too was intimidated by the Christie DEP smear and did not print the full story about the recent DEP rejection of scientific recommendation back in 2010.

So here it is, from the Drinking Water Quality Institute’s meeting minutes for September 10, 2010:

3. Subcommittee Summaries—Subcommittee Chairpersons Health Effects—L. McGeorge: She noted first that the Subcommittee had adjusted its workplan, delaying action on radium and tertiary butyl alcohol to the first quarter of 2011; they would consider adding nitrates to their workload at a future meeting. Second, after A. Stern’s presentation at the previous Health Effects Subcommittee (HE) meeting on the slope factor developed by the NJDEP Chromium Workgroup for oral exposure to hexavalent chromium, the HE had accepted this slope factor as the basis for a Health-based MCL recommendation for hexavalent chromium at its September meeting. L. McGeorge distributed copies of a memorandum to the Testing and Treatment Subcommittees, recommending a health-based maximum contaminant level (HBMCL) of 0.07 μg/L for hexavalent chromium based on this slope factor.

 If readers have any doubts about this story, they can visit the video archives of NJN TV. Environmental reporter Ed Rogers broadcast a story on the evening news in which I was interviewed and supported the chromium recommendations of the health effects subcommittee.

Or readers could look into why the Chairwoman of the health effects subcommittee at the DWQI was removed after making that recommendation at that meeting.

She too got the Chrome Pipe Treatment.

A Tiki Bar Is Going Too Far

Island Beach State Park gem is commercialized with tawdry Tiki bar

Another shoe drops as a result of the “Keep It Green” theft of State Park Funds

red fox at Island Beach SP

We’ve written about this topic numerous times – see “Christie DEP Managing NJ State Parks, Public Lands & Forests As Cash Cows – a disaster for NJ State Parks and public lands.

The disaster is a result of the Christie DEP’s warped “Sustainable Parks Strategy”, which was compounded by the theft by the “Keep It Green” coalition of State Parks funds for open space.

The policy was imposed by unilateral DEP edict, with no public hearings or ability to comment and no legislative policy authorization.

Not only is a Tiki Bar completely incompatible with Island Beach State Park’s mission and natural resources, but there are plenty of places to get hammered on the Jersey Shore (I hope someone holds DEP Commissioner Martin personally liable when the inevitable DWI or drunk drowning deaths result).

I would have thought DEP would have learned something from the Liberty State Park debacle.

So No comment on the latest – other than it takes a very big pair of balls to name the place for the red fox – and has Jeff Tittel gone soft?

Read the NJ.Com story and weep

• A tiki bar in a N.J. state park? Not everybody is toasting