WolfeNotes.com

According to today’s Bergen Record:
“New Jersey officials released a second five-year plan for “controlling” cancer on Friday, saying that much has been accomplished but much remains to be done in a state with one of the highest rates of cancer in the nation.”
N.J. unveils 5-year plan for combating cancer
http://www.northjersey.com/news/18824564.html
I find it extremely curious that this coverage failed to mention environmental and occupational exposure to industrial chemicals – does the State’s Plan share this deficiency?
Compare that coverage to the Houston Chronicle’s investigative series on chemical pollution “In Harm’s Way”
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/01/what_they_dont_want_you_to_see.html
Or this statement by DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson, based upon expert testimony last month to the NJ Clean Air Council “Experts and Advocates: Pollution from Ports A High Cancer Risk to Urban NJ
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/04/experts_and_advocates_pollutio.html
Here are some incovenient truths I hope ther State’s Cancer Prevention plan considered:
NJ residents are bombarded – on a daily basis while at home, work and outdoors – by multiple exposures to known human chemical carcinogens in air, water, soil, and food:
1) NJ has statewide ambient air pollution levels for hazardous air pollutants that exceed EPA cancer benchmarks by hundreds or thousands of times (this data has been on the front page of the Record).
2) NJ drinking water across the state has been found to be contaminated with carcinogens, and hundreds of municipal and private wells have been shut down due to chemical contamination.
3) Soil and groundwater are tainted by carcinogens at 18,000 toxic waste sites; 114 Superfund sites (the most in the nation); hundreds of uncontrolled leaky landfills and dumps; and over 6,000 know groundwater pollution sites.
4) NJ has an industrial legacy, a large active petro-chemical industry sector, and is the nation’s most densely populated state. Occupational exposure to carcinogens is widespread in NJ workplaces.
5) A joint federal/state cancer cluster study in Tom’s River found that rare forms of childhood cancers in girls was both statistically and causally related to a toxic air pollutant released by a local industry.
I could go on, so I assume you get my drift.
But I see nothing in the story about the environment/toxic chemicals as a contributing cause of cancer (other than naturally occurring radon and sunlight).
What’s up with that?
Are environmental carcinogens addressed in the DoH’s 5 year plan?
Reader input welcome – I could not find a link to the State’s 5 Year Cancer Prevention Plan.

Bill Wolfe

[Update: 5/2/20 – In the throes of COVID pandemic lockdown, I thought this was a good piece to repost. See: Solitude, originally published on my column at NJ.com on May 9, 2008.

There used to be several beautiful photos here, but they’ve been taken down. Ask the assholes at http://NJ.com where they went. Saving a few bucks on bandwidth to destroy beauty is vandalism, not journalism. ~~~ end update]

I recently read an interesting story about Lake Solitude dam in High Bridge (Hunterdon County, South Branch Raritan River). Dams are anathema to environmentalists and many efforts are underway to breach them to restore natural river flows. So I was surprised to learn that a leading environmentalist I respect supported preservation of the dam on historic grounds. I then read that restoring small scale hydro-power was contemplated at the site, so now the issues got even more interesting, as global warming will require these kinds of zero carbon local micro-power renewable energy sources. I’ve been told that there may be up to 100 old dam sites in NJ where small scale hydro power may be feasible. So I took a ride up to High Bridge to poke around and here’s some of the Solitude I found (links to information source at the end of the photo’s):

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Bill WolfeThe End!

Save our Dam
http://www.saveourdam.com/
Preservation New Jersey – top 10 endangered historic sites
http://preservationnj.org/ten_most/ten_most_property_detail.asp?COUNTY=Hunterdon%20County&PropID=151
DEP Bureau of Dam Safety
http://www.nj.gov/dep/damsafety/staff.htm
[Note – the below comment was posted by “Agust” but was screened by NJ Voices spam filer due to “Dick Cheney” – so, don’t want folks to think I am supressing it:
“Leading environmentalist supports keeping the largest source of thermal pollution on the Raritan, is this environmentalist Dick Cheney?
Come back in July when the water entering the lake is 70 degrees and the water flowing over the top of the dam is 85. This is a prime example of an old, useless dam killing one of the finest trout streams in the state. People come from all over to fish the Gorge but beyond the lake the only trout are the ones stocked and even they are usually dead by 4th of July.
The dam raises temperature, prevents movement of silt and is classified as dangerous. Please reconsider your praise, while the intricate industrial dam may look pretty but it is in fact poison.
Restore the river, breach the dam.”]

Bill Wolfe

Governor Orders DEP to Explore Other “Funding Options”
[Update: 8/3/08- the press finally covered this story. See:
DEP’s lease program disorganized — but at what cost?
http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/B3/20080803/NEWS0301/808030350/1123/NEWS02

State loses money on leases
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080803/NEWS/808030434
Trenton — Governor John Corzine has backed away from his plan to close several state parks due to fiscal pressures, according to an agency e-mail released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In addition, state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) employees have been told that they will not face imminent lay-offs.
Last month, Governor Corzine proposed to close several parks serving an estimated two million visitors each year and lay off 80 park workers in order to save the state roughly $4.5 million. Documents uncovered by PEER showed that DEP is forfeiting millions of dollars from not collecting owed rents and other payments from big corporations holding easements and concessions on park land: Memo to Jon -“Skin in the game”
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/04/memo_to_jon_skin_in_the_game.html
“I am glad someone finally listened to reason,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe. “Collecting rent is a basic step that should have been considered before announcing that parks will be closed to the public.”
In an e-mail to employees today, DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson wrote –
“As you know, we did roll out a preliminary Reduction In Force (RIF) Plan primarily affecting our State Parks on April 1, 2008. Since that time our Governor has publicly supported keeping services in our State Parks open. This, of course, is very good news. At the same time, the Governor has asked us to review the full range of funding options potentially available to financially support parks operations on a going forward basis.”
Internal DEP documents posted by PEER show that uncollected and subsidized rents are common throughout the system. Problems include lack of lease agreements, failure to collect owed rents, rent-free arrangements, and outdated decades-old leases. DEP also ignored a series of Office of Legislative Services Audit reports issued in 1997, 1999 and 2003 documenting a lack of internal financial controls needed to track lease payments owed.
“The plan to close parks never made any sense, especially the part about using state workers to chase the public away from the parks that the public owns,” added Wolfe, noting that DEP is largely supported by federal funds and fees rather than state tax dollars. “Unfortunately, the DEP is being used as a political whipping boy when it has absolutely nothing to do with the state’s current financial straits.”
PEER has also objected to a recent series of dangerous proposed state environmental rollbacks done in the name of the present fiscal emergency, including efforts to cut back soil, water and anti-pollution powers now exercised by the state.
“More pollution is not the answer to New Jersey’s economic woes,” Wolfe concluded.
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Read Commissioner Jackson’s message on park closures and layoffs
http://www.peer.org/docs/nj/08_7_5_parks_e-mail.pdf
Look at the money state parks are losing by not collecting rent
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1030
See other environmental rollbacks ascribed to fiscal pressures
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1027
New Jersey PEER is a state chapter of a national alliance of state and federal agency resource professionals working to ensure environmental ethics and government accountability.

Bill WolfeDEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson testifies before the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee – May 1, 2008.

Drinking Water Supplies for Half the State Vulnerable to Toxic Contamination
“The environmental community… submitted comments wanting stricter standards and expressed concerns that we were not protective enough…. The Builders wanted weaker standards…I have elected not to adopt groundwater soil standards (sic), but instead develop guidelines that address comments from both sides.”
In a stunning retreat, DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson announced that she withdrew proposed standards to protect groundwater from chemical pollution dumped at toxic waste sites or leaking from underground tanks and pipelines. The move is a major concession to high-polluting industries which have vigorously opposed these toxic clean-up rules, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
In May 1, 2008 testimony before the Senate Legislative Oversight Committee, state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa Jackson said she would abandon proposed “impact to groundwater pathway standards” and DEP’s proposed groundwater pollution impact assessment methods for all new clean-ups of toxic soil.
Accordingly to DEP, half of New Jersey residents depend on 900 million gallons of groundwater a day for drinking water. DEP has identified more than 6,000 polluted groundwater sites, forcing closure of hundreds of municipal and residential wells across the state. Polluted groundwater can also migrate under buildings, causing “vapor intrusion” from volatile chemicals that poison building inhabitants.
This reversal represents a substantial rollback of protections because –
1) Impact-to-groundwater standards are typically far more stringent (lower) than surface soil cleanup standards. For example, the soil clean-up standard for the carcinogen benzene is 4 mg/kg (parts per million or ppm) based on inhalation risk, but the impact-to-groundwater standard is 0.0008 mg/kg (ppm), 5,000 times more stringent than what will now be required;
2) At sites where contaminated soils exceed the impact-to-groundwater standards, soils must be removed or treated and may not be simply capped and left in place; and
3) When coupled with the DEP plan to privatize toxic site clean-ups, much more discretion is placed in the hands of industry to decide whether public health and drinking water are safeguarded. This combination also will make it extremely difficult for the state to oversee or audit the performance of private contractor clean-ups.
“This is an astonishing abdication of the state’s primary responsibility for protecting drinking water,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe, a former DEP analyst, noting that instead of strict absolute standards there are vague, relative guidelines that will be very hard to enforce. “In essence, DEP is ignoring the fact that soil contamination taints groundwater. As a result, we will be seeing many more pave-and-wave clean-ups without regard to public health.”
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Listen to Jackson’s May 1, 2008 testimony to Senate Legislative Oversight Committee
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/media/archive_audio2.asp?KEY=SLO&SESSION=2008
Read the DEP impact- to groundwater rule adoption document
http://www.nj.gov/dep/rules/proposals/050707a.pdf
View the PEER comments on the abandoned standards
http://www.peer.org/docs/nj/08_7_5_soil_standards_comments.pdf
Examine New Jersey’s plan to privatize toxic clean-ups
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1034
Look at the toxic waste mess in New Jersey
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=909
New Jersey PEER is a state chapter of a national alliance of state and federal agency resource professionals working to ensure environmental ethics and government accountability

“NJ schools are intensely segregated along racial and class lines. The concentration of poverty is extreme. In Abbott districts, racial minorities makeup 90-95% of enrollments and students classified as in poverty represent 90-93%“
David Sciarra, Education Law Center

Bill WolfeAvery Grant, Long Branch, moderated

The South Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance (SJEJA) held a statewide conference on “The Crisis of Building Schools on Contaminated Sites and Unhealthy Schools in New Jersey” last Saturday at Thomas Edison College in Trenton.
The event focused on huge disparities in educational opportunity and the disproportionate environmental health threats that urban and minority children face at school.
The Conference featured special guest speaker Lois Gibbs, the nationally recognized upstate NY “housewife” who founded the anti toxics movement based on her family experience at the notorious “Love Canal”.

Bill WolfeRoy Jones, Co-Chair, SJEJA

Remarkably, the NJ School Construction Corporation (abolished and reestablished as the School Development Authority) has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of educational funds intended to benefit disadvantaged black children on acquisition of contaminated land and construction of schools on toxic waste sites, including Superfund sites. Such a practice would not be tolerated and never happen in wealthy suburban white school districts. Here’s a link to the video of the presentation by SJEJA Co-Chair Roy Jones (thanks to Peter Montague for shooting and sharing video):
http://www.motionbox.com/video/player/a098dfb9121fe328/

Bill WolfeDavid Sciarra, Director, Education Law Center, legal champion of the “Abbott v. Burke” equitable school funding decision

David Sciarra spoke about the continuing challenges facing Abbott districts. He emphasized the need for additional $2.5 billion in school construction funding and the gross segregation and concentration of poverty in the Abbott school districts.
Lois Gibbs was astonished that – 30 years after the tragedy of Love Canal where a community was built on top of a toxic chemical waste dump – that she was speaking in NJ (of all places) to oppose construction of new schools on landfills and toxic waste sites. Gibbs explained how government policies based on cost benefit analysis and risk assessment decide who lives and who dies. “The system is set up to keep us from winning… The results of cost benefit analysis really mean that poor and working class people don’t matter. We are expendable.” she said.

Bill WolfeLois Gibbs, of “Love Canal” fame, Director of the Center for Health, Justice and Environment

Bill WolfeDr. Peter Montague, longtime anti-toxics activist, founder of Rachel’s Hazardous Waste News, and nationally recognized proponent of the Precautionary Principle

Peter Montague, longtime anti-toxics advocate, presented recent scientific findings about health effects of industrial chemicals, which have shown to mimic hormones and impact human growth and reproduction at extremely low levels. He highlighted the ned for a precautionary approach. This would put the burden on the chemical industry to show reasonable evidence of no harm before marketing and introducing chemicals into the environment.

Bill WolfeDr. A.S. Mahdi Ibn Ziyad, Congressional candidate in NJ’s First District, environmental justice activist, teacher and adjunct professor

Dr. Ziyad spoke of the need for social and economic change to promote justice – he is a candidate for Congress in NJ’s 1st Congressional District. He emphasized that one of his platform priorities in environmental justice.

Bill WolfeAlgernon Ward, chemist adn community activist, Trenton

Algernon Ward presented a case study of successful community organizing to block construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. school in Trenton. Toxic soils were imported to the site and used as “clean fill”. The outraged community organized and forced the SCC to demolish the partially built structure ($27 million loss) and cleanup the site before building a new school there.