WolfeNotes.com

Passaic Basin Provides 475 Million Gallons Per Day of Mostly Treated Sewage For NJ Water Supply

NJ DEP Silent On or Misleading Public About A Controversial Practice

Passaic Basin Sewage treatment plants that discharge to water supply rivers (Source: NJ DEP)

My trip to California got me thinking about the epic drought there and the various mitigation strategies being considered, including the reuse of wastewater.

Reuse of treated wastewater (e.g. the discharge from sewage treatment plants) is a controversial topic, even for relatively minor uses, like irrigation of golf courses or non-food crops.

The concept of using treated sewage for public water supply is virtually an unspoken taboo.

So, I thought readers would be interested in exploring the implications of the fact that NJ, for decades, has relied on a massive wastewater reuse project – for drinking water – in the Passaic Basin, including the Ramapo, Pompton, and Passaic Rivers.

During dry periods and summer months, the flows of those river are dominated by wastewater discharges – at times over 90% of the rivers’ flow comes from wastewater treatment plants. The water supply infrastructure is designed to rely on wastewater discharge.

And the Passaic Basin is not the only place where NJ residents are drinking million of gallons a day of treated sewage.

Water supply intakes located on the Delaware and Raritan rivers, among others, also rely on significant flows of treated wastewater.

But, you would not know any of that by listening to Highlands advocates or by reading NJ DEP’s “wastewater reuse” webpage, which explicitly claims that reuse is limited to “non-potable applications”:

Over the past few years, the Division of Water Quality Reclaimed Water for Beneficial Reuse Task Force has been working to promote and implement the beneficial reuse of wastewater from domestic and industrial wastewater dischargers. RWBR involves taking what was once considered waste, giving it specialized treatment, if necessary, and using it for public and/or restricted access uses. This high quality reclaimed water can be used for non-potable applications in place of potable water or as a supplement to potable water. RWBR has a myriad of application potentials including the spray irrigation of crops, parks, and golf courses; dust control; fire fighting; and toilet flushing, to list a few. The high-level of disinfection and effluent treatment required for RWBR protects public health and environmental quality.

Does discharge and dilution of wastewater in a river alter the fact that the wastewater is “recycled” or “reclaimed” and “reused” at downriver water supply intakes? Even when wastewater is 50% or more of river flow? 90%?

Perhaps if DEP released the long overdue Update of the NJ Waster Supply Master Plan, we could have a public discussion about these controversial practices.

That discussion would include whether we should upgrade wastewater treatment technology to protect drinking water intakes, instead of weakening surface water quality standards as DEP is currently considering, as NJ Spotlight recently reported:

Bill Wolfe, New Jersey director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (NJPEER), said the DEP’s proposed new approach fails to consider the ecological impacts of nitrogen on waterways.

“It ignores longstanding historical policy of ‘source water protection’ — that the policy burden on the wastewater dischargers is to protect water supplies — and shifts quite a bit of the cost and compliance burden onto the water purveyors,’’ Wolfe said.

In the Passaic River, there are 72 sewage plants discharging into the waterway, which supplies potable water to millions of customers in the region, according to Tittel. In the Raritan River, there are 60 such plants discharging into the river, also a major source of drinking water, he said.

That discussion would also include whether we should upgrade drinking water treatment technology given the large amount of wastewater discharged to water supply rivers and the hundreds of unregulated chemicals detected in these rivers we rely on to provide drinking water supply.

Trenton — New Jersey should filter its drinking water to remove hundreds of chemicals, most of which are unregulated, from its drinking water supply, according to a rulemaking petition filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The plan to screen many chemicals out of tap water was actually developed by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) but has been in limbo for the last six years.

State testing has detected “approximately 600” chemical compounds “in 199 samples collected” including five brands of bottled water, according to a recent DEP white paper. The vast majority of these chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, hormones, and cleaning products, are not regulated by either the federal or state government. As a result, there is no regulatory effort to reduce or eliminate them from drinking water.

The April 2010 DEP white paper, entitled “Investigations Related to a ‘Treatment-Based’ Regulatory Approach to Address Unregulated Contaminants in Drinking Water,” advocates used granular activated carbon filtration and other techniques to remove most chemicals in drinking water, noting that carbon filtration alone removed more than half of identified chemicals.

The discussion also might consider not only the serious adverse health effects of these largely unregulated chemicals on people, but on fish and wildlife, particularly in light of recent news reports of “intersex fish” in the Delaware River.

[Update: It would also discuss the need to expand protections for stream buffers to control non-point source pollution and storm water runoff by C1 designations.]

• Reuse of wastewater for drinking water in the Passaic Basin

But let’s get back to the topic of this post, which is the effective reuse of wastewater for drinking water.

According to the DEP TMDL Non-Tidal Passaic River Basin, which was designed to protect the Wanaque Reservoir:

At the confluence of the Pompton and Passaic Rivers, the Wanaque South intake diverts water into the Wanaque Reservoir. Water diverted at this location can, depending on pumping relative to stream flows, include both the Pompton and Passaic Rivers. As a result, phosphorus loads from both waterbodies can be directed to the reservoir, where they accumulate and cycle within the impoundment creating the opportunity for excessive primary productivity over the growing season. High levels of chlorophyll-a have been observed in the Wanaque Reservoir, although measured levels are lower than they would be naturally due to physical and chemical control measures exercised by NJDWSC.

To maintain this yield, the Wanaque Reservoir utilizes inflows from three separate sources: (1) its natural tributary system, which includes the Monksville Reservoir; (2) the Pompton Lakes intake, which is located on the Ramapo River; and (3) the Two Bridges intake, which is located on the Pompton River about 750 feet upstream from the confluence with the Passaic River. The NJDWSC has the capability of pumping up to 150 mgd from the Pompton Lakes intake, and up to 250 mgd from the Two Bridges intake. By design, when the diversion from the Two Bridges intake exceeds the available flow in the Pompton River, this intake has the ability to reverse flows in the lowermost reach of the Pompton River and tap the locally impounded waters of the Passaic River. Thus, the entire upper Passaic watershed (with a drainage area of 361 square miles) becomes a contributing source to the Reservoir. To maintain water quality and protect users in the downstream portions of the Passaic, Pompton and Ramapo Rivers, the Department has implemented several restrictions on intake usage, including:

(a) no diversions during July and August unless there is a declared drought emergency; (b) no diversions from the Pompton Lakes intake when flows in the Ramapo River are below 40 mgd; and (c) no diversions when flows in the Passaic River at Little Falls are below 17.6 mgd (modified from Najarian (2005)

• Passaic Valley Water Supply Intake 

But the pumping of polluted river water to the Wanaque Reservoir is not the only reuse of wastewater in the Passaic Basin.

According to the Passaic Valley Water Commission

The current plant, operated by the Passaic Valley Water Commission, delivers approximately 60 million gallons per day of Passaic and Pompton River water to a population of more than 750,000.  […]

The Little Falls plant is now the largest ballasted flocculation plant in North America. With a capacity upgrade from 75 MGD to 120 MGD

So there it is.

NJ residents are drinking almost 500 million gallons per day of treated wastewater.

So, I put the questions to those folks:

• Should DEP be strengthening water quality standards and regulating more chemicals to protect your drinking water?
• Should DEP be requiring that wastewater plants upgrade their treatment technology to remove more chemical pollutants?
• Should DEP be requiring that drinking water plants install state of the art activated carbon treatment technology to remove unregulated chemicals?
• How much are you willing to pay for safe and clean drinking water?

Gov. Christie’s DEP Commissioner wants to provide “regulatory relief” to those drinking water and sewage treatment plants – what do you think about that?

Let the Gov. and your legislator know.

 Despite Campaign Pledge & Scientists Recommendations, Christie DEP Has Not Designated 1 Stream Mile

How is it possible that scientific recommendations for C1 designations have been ignored?

Recommended C1designation upgrades – Source: NJDEP (2012)

In a strong contrast to the situation in NJ under the Christie Administration, in a press release issued today, Pennsylvania clean water activists are applauding proposed legislation that would establish 100 foot wide forested buffers along some Pennsylvania streams:

Questions for the Keep It Green Coalition

With no debate, the Assembly just approved the Resolution SCR84, by overwhelming majority votes. So much for Speaker Prieto’s claims about “The People’s House” and all views getting a fair hearing.

We will be opposing the measure from now till November, but we’re up against tons of conservation community and Foundation money, and there is little indication right now that the KIG coalition members will break ranks or that the less self interested groups like Sierra Club or NJEF will speak out honestly in opposition to what they did not create and know is a very bad plan.

For now, KIG members should be asked the following questions by the press and their members and Foundation backers:

1) what are your plans for replacing the $32 million diverted from parks funding? Will you fight for that money to be restored in next year’s budget?

2) now that you’ve not opposed Gov. Christie $1 billion plus in diversions and actively supported diversion of environmental funds for reasons not approved BY THE VOTERS (which is far worse than a diversion of legislatively appropriated money), how can you ever credibly oppose any future diversions of environmental funds?

3) now that you’ve accepted Gov. Christie’s austerity policy (no new revenues, no taxes, and no new debt) and refused to fight, to educate the public, and to conduct an open public campaign for the need for new revenues, how are you ever going to support funds for things like putting a price on carbon, gas tax, water tax, renewable energy, or financing multi-billion dollar water infrastructure deficits?

4) How can you look a kid from Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Camden, et al in the eye while you skim off 20% of that money for “Stewardship” schemes that include commercial logging of state lands, and maybe 10% more for your own salaries?

Today is a day that lives in infamy – I am ashamed to be even remotely associated with any of this.

Assembly Should Not Be Strong Armed – Reject Plan Now on the Table

The Sky Will Not Fall And There Are Better Alternatives

Austerity is not a policy we can live with

In an amazing case of brinksmanship, the NJ Assembly – in an emergency session called by Gov. Christie to address bail reform – will consider how to fund open space on Monday.

The Gov. and Legislators have known for a long time that the open space fund is broke, but Monday is the last day for getting a question on the November ballot to authorize a Constitutional amendment  – in this case, to divert existing revenues that were previously dedicated by voters to specific environmental programs.

Although the Gov. promised to create a stable source of funding to renew the Garden State Preservation Trust (Green Acres, Farmland Preservation, Historic Preservation) during his 2009 campaign, he has reneged on that promise, at one point even twisting the arms of fellow Republican Legislators to defeat a prior Senate plan.

Because of the Governor’s intransigent ideological opposition to signing any legislation that would create new revenues or additional debt (“Read my lips, no new taxes” – or is it Grover Norquist’s No tax pledge?), the Legislature has been forced to bypass his veto blockade via passing Resolutions to present the issue directly to voters.

Even at this critical moment, as he appeases right wing zealots who form the base of  the Republican Party in search of the Presidential nomination, the Gov. remains mute on the open space funding question.

And it is no accident that funding of DEP regulatory programs would be sacrificed to transfer resources and influence to a private property subsidy program – a twofer for the right wing worldview.

So, this is not some minor debate about open space – it is really an ideological showdown – a debate about fundamentally different views of policy, finance, and government.

Are environmentalists going to collaborate in the destruction of the regulatory and political accountability model that has been protecting public health and the environment for decades? Will they be co-opted by a divisive Rob Peter to Pay Paul strategy that pits land conservation against environmental quality? Will they abandon aggressive political accountability and give Gov. Christie a pass for betraying his commitments to them?

Will they passively acquiesce to the “austerity” worldview and simply accept claims that the public is NOT willing to pay for environmental and public health protection? Abandon that fight completely? What are the implications of that?

(If environmentalists won’t fight for new funds on easy lifts like open space, how are we ever going to get a price on carbon? Or pay for heavy lifts like funding to pay for multi-billion infrastructure deficits? Or clean water?)

Yet somehow, despite these facts and implications, the “Keep it Green” coalition (KIG) and the media have blamed the Legislature, more specifically, Assembly Democrats, for the problem, while giving the Gov. a pass.

The proposal under consideration would divert over $100 million per year  in existing revenues currently dedicated to water resources programs and projects, polluted site cleanups, underground tank removal and cleanup, air pollution equipment for diesel engines, and improvements to parks.

(and they have the Orwellian gall to call it “pay as you go” – when it’s really “take as you go”.)

That’s right – for the first time, so called environmentalists are actively supporting the diversion of environmental funds – a practice that they have vehemently fought for over 20 years and something that was opposed overwhelmingly by NJ voters by a Constitutional amendment back in 1997 explicitly designed in response to diversions.

There are far better alternatives, including, in order of preference:

1) asking voters to actually pay for the popular open space program with a new source of funds, an option that has been blocked from consideration by Gov. Christie – for his own political benefit – and rejected by Legislators as politically infeasible.

2) asking voters to fund the program by authorizing new bond debt, the traditional way of financing large capital projects, which is something they have approved many times by large majorities for 4 decades.

3)  as a last resort, if diversion of existing revenues is the only option, then diverting funds from other program areas, such as corporate subsidies or environmentally damaging economic development schemes.

The LAST place that conservationists should support sterling money from to pay for open space is environmental programs – Robbing Peter to pay Paul never makes sense, and it is an extremely divisive and selfish approach.

4) abandon the current approach, let the Fund go broke, rely on federal Sandy funds as a stopgap, hold Governor Christie accountable, and focus on building political support for a better option next year.

Governor Christie has diverted well over $1 billion of environmental funds to pay for over $2 billion of his corporate tax cuts and subsidies.

That theft includes $1 billion from the Clean Energy Fund, which was designed to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy; $40 million in Passaic River dioxin cleanup funds;  and many millions more from the State Recycling Fund, Landfill Closure Funds; toxic site cleanup funds, pollution prevention Fund, Right To Know Fund, and others, e.g. see:

• Raids on Dedicated Funds Climb Under Christie

But that’s not all – the State level diversions do not include millions more in raids by local governments on environmental infrastructure monies managed by local authorities – like water and sewer systems. This alone is outrageous in light of multi-billion dollar infrastructure deficits.

At the same time, Gov. Christie has blocked any new revenue sources.

And his fiscal and budget attacks are part of an even larger withering assault on environmental regulations and on DEP as an institution.

When does it stop?

Where has the Keep It Green Coalition been while all this has been happening for the last 5 years?

Why would they join the raid on environmental funds?

If they were going to raid existing funds, why not raid environmentally damaging EDA funds or corporate subsidies?

• A Brief history

Christie is by far the worst offender in stealing environmental money and the only one to block all attempts to raise new revenues.

But he is not the only Governor to divert taxpayer funds that were supposed to be spent on environmental projects.

By the mid 1990’s, Governors Florio and Whitman had stolen over $500 million of environmental funds.

Whitman exacerbated the impacts of those diversion by slashing DEP budgets by 25% or more and cutting DEP staffers work week by 20%, from 40 to just 32 hours.

At the same time, like Christie, Whitman embarked on an assault on environmental regulations and DEP as an institution, under her pro-business “Open For Business” and “STARR” (Strategy for Regulatory Reform) initiatives.

The Christie version of this is his “Common Sense” regulation Executive Orders, designed to slash “job killing Red Tape” and provide “regulatory relief” to business and industry.

But that across the board Whitman attack prompted environmental leaders to fight back.

Environmental groups realized that adequate funding, strict regulations, and a healthy DEP institution were vital to protection of public health and the environment and they were willing to join forces, form a unified agenda, and fight to defend them all.

There were no attempts to divide and conquer or pit the traditional environmental quality regulatory model against a private voluntary land acquisition model.

It is not easy to win a major policy battle against a NJ Governor, given the strong powers the Governor possesses under NJ’s Constitution.

Environmental leaders recognized the nature of the Whitman attack and fought back effectively against a powerful and popular Governor.

The environmental community was unified and organized: traditional conservation groups like Audubon and NJ Conservation Foundation and local watershed groups,  along with the public health, pollution, and environmental quality focused Trenton based groups, like NJ Environmental Federation, NJPIRG, and Sierra Club.

They collectively pursued a rarely used creative legislative strategy – requiring only simple majorities in both houses – to bypass Whitman and put the environmental funding question directly to voters  as a ballot question.

The Ballot question asked voters to amend the NJ Constitution to dedicate 4% of the Corporate Business Tax (CBT) revenues to specific DEP environmental regulatory programs.

From a fiscal perspective, at the time, the economy was booming and state budget revenues were increasing, so the $100 CBT dedication was no raid on funds for other programs, nonetheless DEP programs. The assumption was the CBT money would supplement existing General Fund revenues allocated to DEP, not reduce them.

I am proud to say that I was one of the leaders that crafted that strategy, helped forge that unified coalition, and fleshed out the substantive policy content supporting the Legislative Resolution and Ballot question.

And I am equally angry and disgusted by the betrayal and failure of leadership of our current environmental groups, who now actively betray that legacy in pursuit of selfish narrow agenda that robs the regulatory Peter to pay the open space Paul.

• The Question on the table

Now, instead of fighting back against a powerful Republican Governor, the environmental community capitulates.

They have not even tried to over-come or criticize the Gov.’s absolute veto on new revenues or “austerity” policy.

Instead of defending DEP as an institution, protecting regulatory programs  and assuring funding for DEP programs, they willingly join the raid on them.

Instead of fighting for new revenues, they are actively supporting the same raids on environmental funds – and the attack on regulations and DEP as an institution that those funds support – that they so strongly opposed during the Whitman era.

Adding insult to injury, they are doing all this damage by using taxpayer dollars to buy land that – in almost all cases – could be protected by local zoning, regional planning, and State environmental regulations.

So, it really kills me, having done all this good work during the Whitman era, to see it all unraveled, and with the support of mostly self serving environmentally groups who will benefit financially from the program they are advocating (should we be cutting DEP programs to fund “stewardship”? Should those “stewardship” funds go to private groups?)

The policy reversal and cowardice are sickening.

I’ve written about why the Keep It Green Green Acres funding proposal is a huge upward transfer of wealth and unfair and why Legislators should Fix it before they fund it.

Things might be different, had I seen just a shred of evidence, like:

• one press release by Keep It Green Coalition criticizing Governor Christie for all this instead of Assembly Democrats,
• a legitimate effort to work to build public support for better options, or
• a pledge not to receive or benefit any of the funds, abandoning the “Stewardship” funding, and supporting program reforms

I really hope the Assembly kills this KIG betrayal on Monday by not approving SCR 84.

State Officials Cited by NTSB for Violations of Federal Emergency Response Requirements

DEP Provided False Information to Public That Endangered and Harmed Community

Partial Community Evacuation based of “erroneous reports”

State Failed to correct errors and misinformation when informed about them

“Fact based decisions regarding community exposure did not occur”

NJ, Once a National Leader, Is Now National Laughing Stock 

Evacuation in Paulsboro violated federal Guidelines Source: NTSB

“Shelter in place is what I grew up in as ‘duck and cover.’ The idea that you could somehow shelter in place and be safe from these risks is ludicrous on its face,” Wolfe said. …

These facilities are part of a chemical industrial complex that stretches for about 20 miles along the banks of the Delaware River. Paulsboro is a community that’s pretty much in the middle of that. We were at Paulsboro High School, about a football field away from those facilities.

“The industry has created maps showing where there is called a ‘kill zone’ where in the event of an accident like this, had that been a chlorine tank, literally hundreds or thousands of people could have been killed, instantly,” Wolfe said.  ~~~ NJTV News, 12/4/14

Sometimes, it’s no fun to be vindicated and say “I told you so”.

But Tuesday’s National Transportation Safety Board hearing and final report demand both an “I told you so” and an in depth response here. So today, we provide part one – a little of the history and an overview of key NTSB findings.

• Looking Back – A Few Points

I hardly know where to begin and I hate to use such a trite cliche, but you really can’t make this stuff up.

We had been to Paulsboro and written about the place many times prior to the accident (beginning with this 2008 Star Ledger piece “In Harm’s Way) and have been writing about the Paulsboro  toxic train derailment since the day it occurred.

From day one, we strongly criticized the emergency response, the limited evacuation, and especially the false and misleading information provided by government officials to the media and the community about the health effects and risks of the chemicals involved .

I went to Paulsboro during the episode and ventured into the “hot zone”.

I knew the accident was far worse than officials told the public and that the emergency response was badly mismanaged, and that’s why we filed a petition seeking performance reviews by the Inspectors General at the EPA and Department of Homeland Security.

I provided the toxic context, explained how state and federal regulations were flawed, transportation infrastructure decrepit, how the reported monitoring data were flawed, how the science and health effects did not support the “shelter in place” response, how monitoring data exceeded federal safety standards, how the risk communication plan was controlled by a questionably competent corporate consultant, and how Gov. Christie failed to respond, not even to the minimum level set by Louisiana Gov. Jindal.

As lawsuits filed by residents prompted the media to probe what went wrong, I thought it was bad when they reported (long after the fact) that the Gloucester County Emergency Response Team lacked batteries for their hand held air monitors.

No biggie, those air monitors just tell emergency responders whether exposure to toxic gases are in concentrations that just might kill them or thousands of nearby residents.

And I knew in real time, and wrote about it extensively, that officials were outright lying about the toxicity of the chemical vinyl chloride, the health risks of exposure, and the faux evacuation and “shelter in place”.

NTSB investigators have now validated virtually all those criticisms – and found far more mistakes, negligence, and potential wrongdoing that I was unaware of.

• NTSB Finds Fatal Flaws

The National Transportation Safety Board hearing and Report on the Paulsboro toxic train derailment has set new lows that even I would not imagine to be possible in a state that was once a national leader and pioneer in chemical safety and risk management. (watch video of hearing here)

The final Report has not been issued yet (updated with links), but there were staff briefings that were revealing and more damning information emerged during the Board’s review of the staff presentations – watch the video for that. For now here is the available written info:

• Chairman’s Introductory remarks (notes that vinyl chlorine is a carcinogen, a fact not initially disclosed)
• Staff power point briefings
• Chairman’s closing statement
• NTSB Synopsis

Here are just some of the egregious errors NTSB found:

• the head of the local response, the Fire Chief, said he couldn’t see or smell the chemical, so no problem
• the emergency response team set up a Command center directly in the “hot zone”, in violation of federal safety guidelines
• none of the emergency responders wore protective breathing apparatus required under federal safety guidelines
• the Paulsboro police told responders and the public that the gas was not toxic. When told of their error, the mistake was not corrected.
• emergency responders were climbing on the derailed chemical rail cars for no reason
• DEP issued public statements about the chemical risks that were flat out false, had no scientific basis, were misleading, and that endangered people. When told of their error, the mistakes were not corrected.
• the partial evacuation lacked a scientific basis and violated federal safety guidelines
• the railroad company, Conrail, intentionally withheld information of the chemicals involved in the derailment
• the Paulsboro local chemical safety and emergency response plan was expired and seriously deficient
• the NJ State Police Office of Emergency Management oversight of local and county programs was a disgrace

I could go on. And will in future posts when the NTSB Final Report is released.

But for now, before we write those more detailed posts, let’s just consider key issues.

 First, just look at the map above and focus on the 1/2 mile evacuation radius. That is the minimum evacuation zone recommended by federal emergency response guidelines – it could be far larger for some chemicals like chlorine, which tanker cars carried in this accident.

The emergency responders in Paulsboro failed to meet this minimum evacuation zone radius and there was no scientific basis for the portion of the community that was evacuated.

Second, local officials were not the lead responsible entity for the emergency response and they can not be expected to be experts in chemical safety, so I really can’t blame the local fire chief and local police for egregious falsehoods and mistakes they made.

I blame state and federal officials who are responsible and are supposed to be experts. Those officials made a series of unforgivable “mistakes”, which I will go into in detail once the NTSB Report is released.

The most unforgivable, were the ones NTSB said officials “failed to comply” with federal requirements and “citations for violations” were issued (see slide on page 45)

At the time of the accident, we explicitly said DEP lied to the public – those harsh criticisms have been vindicated.

Adding inset to injury from this scandalous negligence and coverup, I read that the former Mayor of Paulsboro and current State Assemblyman for the city, who served as the head of “communications” for this Keystone Cops fiasco, was “offended” by the NTSB Report.

And we’ll explore Burzichelli’s role as well in future post, leaving for now that he was the former Mayor of Paulsboro, is the current State Assemblyman for the town, and has served as Gov. Christie’s “Red Tape Commission” and sponsored several bills that would roll back environmental protections , allow industry to get involved in developing state drinking water standards, gut NJ’s strict State standards, and weaken the ability of DEP to enforce the law.

Much more to follow on all this.