DEP = “Deny Every Problem”

Why is it so hard for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection to acknowledge environmental problems and communicate risks?

Bill WolfeDEP Headquarters – 401 East State Street, Trenton, NJ. This massive building houses over 3,000 DEP employees.
But where is their VOICE? And what happened to their MISSION?

Sometimes I read an environmental story that cries out for interpretation or comment. Typically, it is something technical, in the fine print, or otherwise buried in the news story that illustrates a much larger problem that the public or guy in the street does not understand, or that completely contradicts the general public understanding or assumptions about how things work.
Often, due to complexity, news reporters themselves either: 1) do not fully understand the issue; 2) dismiss it as “inside baseball”, “red tape”, or “bureaucracy”; or 3) just fail to communicate the significance – something in need of an insider’s explanation.
Today’s story about DEP’s views of the drinking water in Pequannock really fits the bill:
Pequannock water to get $4M fix
Monday, March 16, 2009
BY ANDREA ALEXANDER
http://www.northjersey.com/environment/environmentnews/Pequannock_water_to_get_4M_fix.html
(continued)

In case anybody didn’t notice, the two DEP spokespersons quoted in the story managed simultaneously to contradict each other, DENY the problem, and point fingers elsewhere.
The underlying problem is not an earth shattering story or major environmental or public health risk.
It does, however – perfectly – illustrate a serious lack of leadership and a totally dysfunctional DEP bureaucracy.
Barker Hamill, head of DEP’s “Safe Drinking Water” program, downplayed the signifcance of the problem, while pointing fingers at another DEP program (certainly not his!), the DEP storwater management program:
“The sodium levels in the township water do not raise alarm with the state. Barker Hamill, assistant director of Water Supply Operations for the state Department of Environmental Protection, compared the sodium in Pequannock’s drinking water to eating three potato chips….
State officials are even divided over what role road salting plays in sodium found in drinking water.
Hamill was quick to point to it as a factor. “Generally speaking, whenever we see a lot of sodium problems, particularly in northern as opposed to southern New Jersey, we feel it is associated with road salting,” Hamill said.”
[Full disclosure: I have no intention of singling out Barker Hamill personally, but I previously have written about – and denounced- Hamill’s penchant for denial of water supply risks (see the below post, which was critically reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer). This is not an individual problem – Hamill is just following orders and reflecting the DEP culture. Recent examples: DEP Managers support privatization and deregulation of the toxic site cleanup program, despite the fact that they are well aware that such a policy has caused cleanup delays at thousands of festering toxic sites. Even more remarkably, a former DEP Commissioner made excuses and did not apologize, even when questioned by the US Senate, for failing to notify parents of 60 toddlers- for over 14 weeks – that their children were exposed to toxic mercury in a day care center. So the problems at DEP are deep and systemic, see NY Times story:
Memo Shows Agency Knew of Danger in Child Care Building
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE7D71E3EF932A3575AC0A9609C8B63
See also:
DEP Head – firmly back in the sand – Erosion of public right to know – DEP reverting to Whitman era
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/08/dep_head_firmly_in_the_sand.html
But let’s get back to today’s Pequannock drinking water story that illustrates the larger systemic problems. Barry Chalofsky, head of DEP’s storm water management program – which regulates road salt storage and application – flat out contradicted Hamill. No problem Chalofsky said, and certainly no problem in enforcing DEP Stormwater management regulations or municipal stormwater permits. Besides, according to Chalofsky’s logic, it takes so long to see a problem, any enforcement is impossible (but if this is true, why even have a DEP? Maybe DEP should watch “CSI” or “Cold Cases”?):
“But Barry Chalofsky, chief of the DEP’s Bureau of Nonpoint Pollution Control, has a more cautious view.
“If truly salt was the issue than (sic) we would be seeing problems all over the state and we are not,” Chalofsky said. “People are going to jump on the first thing they see, and the first thing they see is salting roads or salt piles.”
Sodium can take years to seep into underground water sources. By the time it’s detected, the source, such as an improperly stored municipal salt pile, could be long gone, Chalofsky said”
The issue here is not the health risks or environmental impacts of road salt.
The issue here – bluntly – is what the hell is going on at DEP and how is it allowed to persist?
Hamill and Chalofsky’s quotes illustrate – in a perverse nutshell – an uncoordinated, poorly managed, and dysfunctional bureaucracy.
A place where so called “leaders” downplay problems and dodge accountability. These two middle level mangers have made long and successful careers at DEP doing exactly that.
DEP is not a place where taking the initiative and solving problems is rewarded, but a place where dodging accountability and responsibility is. Where NO MY JOB! pays career dividends.
DEP is not a place where serving and educating the public are absolute principles, but where misleading and manipulating the public are not only tolerated, but the rule.
DEP is not a place where professionals manage problems, but where one gets rewarded by protecting bureaucratic turf, defending poorly designed and totally uncoordinated “stove-pipe” regulatory programs, and following orders.
I spent the bulk of my professional career at DEP and remain committed to the public interest and a strong DEP.
But it it stuff like this that makes me want to call for total abolition of DEP as we know it – to tear it down, clean house, and start from scratch.
The DEP’s stormwater management and drinking water programs are mature – they have operated in some form for over 25 years.
If after all these years of experience, they can’t solve, communicate, or coordinate something as relatively simple and low cost like road salt, how can they possibly address significant and complex challenges?