DEP’s Jackson lobbying for privatization and Fast Track
“There will be no Fast Tracking”
Jon Corzine 4/5/08 – remarks at NJEF Annual Conference.
DEP Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson.[Update #1: at 1:30 pm today, I received a call from Assembly Majority Office to advise that Tuesday’s hearing will be limited to the following issues:
1) licensed professional program; 2) insurance; 3) remedy selection; and 4) repeal of Fast track law]
[Update: #2 – 6:00 pm – Site Remediation White Papers – just posted on DEP website. See: http://www.nj.gov/dep/srp/stakeholders/whitepapers/
Just days before the Legislature will hold joint hearings on April 15 to address much needed reforms to DEP’s broken toxic site cleanup program, DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson was out lobbying for highly controversial measures.
Pre-empting the legislative debate, Jackson supported more privatization and deregulation. Ironically, it is exactly those policies that created the debacles and failed to protect public health – such as Encap, Kiddie Kollege, Ford, – that have outraged citizens across the state, generated enormous bad press, and spurred the legislative reform efforts. (see: LEGISLATURE TO PROBE TOXIC COLLAPSE IN NEW JERSEY — Series of Cleanup Fiascoes Have Communities Feeling Betrayed and Vulnerable http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=694
Let me be specific and quote the reported remarks of Commissioner Jackson:
“We don’t want more regulation, we want less,” Jackson said. “We’re going from five checkpoints down to one — I call that efficiency.”
DEP chief Jackson addresses Urban Land Institute http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080409/REALESTATE/80409013
What is Jackson thinking with such knee jerk anti-regulatory rhetoric?
Perhaps worse, Jackson supported more privatization:
“The commissioner spoke primarily about a proposal to adopt a consultant licensing program that would allow environmental professionals from the private sector — rather than state employees — to facilitate remediation of contaminated sites. The licensing program, which would resemble a program in Massachusetts, would address the problem of delays caused by lack of DEP case managers due to budget cuts.”
Privatization of toxic site cleanups is a fools errand, where consultants and polluters have huge economic incentives to cut costs, violate regulations, and compromise public health and environmental protection.
In NJ, private certifications and lack of DEP oversight have caused major fiasco’s. The people in Hamilton learned the hard way in the WR Grace case. Grace certified the site was clean and DEP rubber stamped that certification without taking any soil samples. Later, high levels of toxic asbestos forced the US EPA to conduct an emergency removal of 15,000 cubic yards of highly contaminated soil. Or ask folks in Edison and central NJ about the Ford plant PCB fiasco. In that case, toxic PCB contaminated soil from that “cleanup” was used as clean fill at more than a dozen housing developments in central NJ. There are dozens of known and unknown similar cases where people and the environment are being poisoned due to failed cleanups.
In the Massachusetts program – held up by Jackson as a model – a State Audit found that three quarters of privatized cleanups were found to be deficient. see: STATE AUDITS FIND THREE-FOURTHS OF TOXIC CLEAN-UPS DEFICIENT — Many Privatized Hazardous Waste Removals Must be Done Over http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=628
For the implications of privatization at DEP, see NEW JERSEY TO PRIVATIZE TOXIC CLEAN-UP SCIENCE — State Environment Department Will Contract Out Geologic Work to Reduce Backlog
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=922
In addition to the controversies over toxic site cleanup, just weeks ago, Jackson was criticized by environmental groups for creating a “Permit Efficiency Task Force” (see:http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1022
Jackson pre-emptively showed her cards in that controversial debate as well. Her remarks sought to justify and lobby for policy changes – before the group has even met – the controvesial mission of the “Permit Efficiency Task Force” Jackson recently created by Administrative Order. The deliberations of that industry dominated Task Force will not be open to the public (see: DEP denies task force on permits is a retreat
Jackson: Faster reviews won’t weaken protections http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1206423377148520.xml&coll=1
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1022
“Jackson also spoke about an initiative that has established a task force to conduct a comprehensive review of the DEP’s land use permitting process. The task force is charged with preparing a report with its recommendations for improvements within 120 days. One goal will be to streamline the land use permitting process while maintaining public healthand protecting the environment, she said. Another goal will be to incentivize sustainable development projects.
“If we do not address how we deal with our permits department, I feel the department will collapse under the weight,” said Jackson. “Folks want predictability of outcomes and times and we are trying to bring that.”
By using the terms “predictability and certainty”, Jackson parrots the tired rhetoric of the Whitman Administration and industry lobbyists seeking to roll back environmental and public health protections.
Where is the NJ press corps?