WolfeNotes.com

Don’t expect anything to change – this is all “pretend” – the “old normal”.

According to Georgetown University Climate Center, NJ is the only northeastern state without a climate change adaptation plan – a serious deficiency noted in a recent federal Report.  ~~~ Wolfenotes – 1/24/13

“The order amounts to a total abdication of DEP’s responsibility to supervise responsible planning and environmentally sound permitting of critical public infrastructure,’’ said Bill Wolfe, director of the New Jersey chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a public watchdog group. ~~~ NJ Spotlight 11/7/12

Tom Johnson at NJ Spotlight reports today on Gov. Christie signing important legislation:

CHRISTIE SIGNS BILL PROVIDING FUNDS TO REPAIR, HARDEN NJ WATER INFRASTRUCTURE

With some of the state’s largest drinking water and wastewater treatment plants heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy, Gov. Chris Christie yesterday signed a bill aimed at financing repairs at the facilities.

The legislation (S-2815) establishes a three-year program that could allocate up to $5 billion, not only to repair the plants, but also to harden them against future extreme weather, a probability that has elicited broad bipartisan agreement of what is the “new normal.’’

The Gov. and the Legislature are pretending to address NJ’s massive infrastructure vulnerability problems that will only worsen as climate change accelerates.

The problem begins and progress is being blocked at the top – because Gov. Christie continues to deny that climate change is an urgent issue that must be incorporated into all policies NOW – instead, the Gov. says that climate change is an “esoteric issue” he has no time to consider.

The Gov.’s views are why, first of all, NJ does not have a Climate Change Adaptation plan, the only state in the Northeast not to have one.

As a result, State officials are flying blind – no assessment of the problem, no idea of the feasible options or the cost of solutions, no policy in plan and no plan on how to implement the policy.

The Gov. is blocking development of any regional planning – even for the highly vulnerably NJ coast, where he is opposing a Coastal Commission.

The bill the Gov. signed is business as usual – made far worse by DEP Commissioner Bob Martin’s Order which deregulated repair and re-installation of infrastructure damaged or destroyed by Sandy.

Jeff Tittel got it exactly right when he said:

“Even though we have just been devastated by Hurricane Sandy and are trying to rebuild, this legislation does not even mention climate change adaptation or preparing for sea-level rise or storm surges. We are concerned that this money is just going out to sea in the next storm,’’ said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, a frequent critic of the Christie administration.

But there are additional major gaps, loopholes, and flaws in existing regulatory programs and lax or non-existent DEP oversight that also must be addressed.

As I’ve written, current DEP NJPDES regulations make emergency planning voluntary and do not require implementation. That regulatory loophole must be closed.

Similarly, the DEP water supply regulations put DEP in charge of emergency planning for water supply infrastructure. DEP has done NOTHING to fulfill this responsibility.

(other than to outsource the program and shift a State responsibility to local governments)

Which takes me to the final point about accountability.

For years, DEP ignored Reports and warnings about infrastructure vulnerability (including DEP’s own Pilot Program and professional staff recommendations).

For years, DEP failed to enforce or strengthen rules.

For years, DEP failed to approach the Legislature or to initiate a public planning process to address these huge challenges.

All that is really bad and directly led to the lack of preparation by water and sewer utilities which caused far more damage than necessary (e.g. no backup power, insufficient/no fuel, no vulnerability reduced, etc).

This DEP lax oversight and negligence and incompetence were as bad or worse than NJ Transit’s mistakes in storing rolling stock in flood hazard zone that caused over $100 million in damage.

All this is really bad –

But then consider that tropical storm Irene illustrated huge vulnerabilities, e.g. it led to pipeline break that knocked out Monmouth’s water supply for an extended period.

Irene should have been a huge wakeup call. But it was ignored, making Sandy damage FAR WORSE than it had to be.

Bottom line: DEP has dodged all accountability for this and the “solution” just passed by the Legislature did not address or fix any of these problems.

Don’t expect anything to change – this is all “pretend” – the “old normal”.