Pinelands Commission Update

Commission Approves 5% Salary Increase for Staff

Reviews Electric Utility ROW Management Program

Will Upcoming CMP Plan Review Incorporate Lessons from Pipeline Battle?

Source: Pinelands Commission Progress Report on ROW Management Plan (3/14/14) – Let’s hope the Commission is not as stuck as this truck!

[Update below]

I went down to the listen in on the Pinelands Commission’s March meeting on Friday. I wanted to gauge the mood and assess where the Commission is at in the wake of the bruising South Jersey Gas Co. pipeline battle.

Some, including Cape May Senator Jeff Van Drew and SJG, apparently have not given up and are waging a rearguard action to reconsider the pipeline project, so diligence is warranted.

I was not intending to speak, but after listening to the staff presentations and public comment, I decided to offer a few suggestions for going forward. Here’s a few things I heard and what I said:

• Salary increase for staff

The Commission is understaffed, has unfilled vacancies, and the existing staff are under-paid. That set of issues exploded during a September 13, 2013 presentation by Communications Workers of America – I wrote about that in this post.

Pinelands professional positions are not paid as well as similar professional work in DEP, staff have not had a raise in several years, and staff have been forced to increase contributions to health care and retirement plans, so a raise is long overdue.

Well, it looks like some good came out of that because the Commission finally agreed to give staff a 5% raise – but, the Resolution was unclear about whether that 5% was for salary, or for salary and benefits. Regardless, it does not make up for lower base salaries, a pay freeze, and increased contributions to benefit plans.

• Vegetative Management Plan in Electric Utility Right of Way

The science program presented its Review of the Utility Right of Way Vegetation Management Plan (for a program overview, see this).

For the 2010 – 2012 Progress Report, see this.

It was painful to look at the pictures of the ROW cuts through the forest.

The Progress Report shows that there are serious non-compliance issues with respect to wetlands:

The remaining approximately 24% of the 1,141 spans managed over this three- year period had a prescription that called for trees to be cut manually. This prescription is required in wetlands where forest or tree sprouts occur in the ROW. Mowing is not permitted in spans with this prescription. This prescription appears to be the most challenging for the utility companies to conduct due to the increased manpower needed and difficulty accessing these wetland spans without special vehicles and equipment. Of the 3,041 total Pinelands Area spans, 642 spans, or 21%, have a “cut trees manually” prescription. As discussed in the individual year summaries, not following this prescription, either by mowing or by using vehicles to cut, or assist in the cutting of vegetation, was a problem in all three years.

In addition, the overall program seems narrowly focused on the land area in the ROW. That narrow focus seems to be preventing a broader  assessment of the impacts of the ROW disturbance (and maintenance activities) on Pinelands resources and forest health.

I suggested that the Commission consider developing that kind of scientific assessment and beef up wetlands enforcement. Perhaps utilities should be required to pay for the scientific assessment and to restore existing degraded ROW lands and mitigate impacts of ROW on forest and other Pinelands resources, including public access and visual impacts.

On the positive side, Emile DeVito PhD just advised that the Pinelands ROW plan does not allow use of toxic herbicides:

As you probably know, they are using vast amounts of herbicide in the rest of NJ, even in the preservation zone of the Highlands. In these places outside the Pinelands, where the ROWs are blitzed with broad-spectrum herbicide that kills all woody plants as well as many other dicot species, resulting in a “scorched earth” effect that is obvious and easy to spot, huge numbers of native plant and animal populations species are being severely impacted, not to mention the long-term effects on soil and water.

• CMP Plan Review

The Commission is now engaged in the fourth in depth review of the Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP).

Commissioner Ashum, who celebrated her 90th birthday at Friday’s meeting, asked the Commissioners to provide ideas they wanted addressed in Plan review process. The Commission is seeking public input as well:

Previous reviews resulted in changes that included simplified permitting for the development single-family dwellings, a ban on new mining operations in Pinelands-designated Forest Areas, waste management facility siting policies, forestry standards and application requirements, and the mandatory clustering of residential development in the Forest and Rural Development Areas, among many other initiatives.

The public’s participation and insight will be critical in this project. To that end, a Plan Review Committee composed of five Commission members has been formed. This Committee will meet monthly to guide the development of the Plan Review based on feedback from members of the public and specific focus groups, such as the 53 Pinelands municipalities, seven Pinelands counties and many other parties.

Fred Akers of Great Egg Watershed gave a good overview of the recent history in upgrading regional energy infrastructure. Fred noted that in the last 10 years, both South Jersey Gas and Atlantic City Electric have made major capacity expansion upgrades to regional electric and gas infrastructure to accommodate growth that never occurred.

Fred noted that the BL England plant was slated to close when these infrastructure expansion decisions were made.

Despite over-capacity and lower growth, they still want more.

Fred closed by saying  (paraphrase)- “I don’t want Great Egg Bay to end up looking like Barnegat Bay” [Ocean County’s Commissioner Avery did not seem pleased by that jab – I was looking at his face at the time.]

I suggested that the Commission consider lessons learned during the SJG pipeline battle, particularly additional transparency, public participation, and inter-governmental coordination reforms.

Of course, the MOA loopholes must be closed as well.

The Commission also must address how the CMP can address climate change impacts now occurring, as well as an overall energy policy

I pledged to provide written comments on those issues – I urge readers to weigh in as well.

[End note – I intentionally did not raise the controversial issues regarding the status of the recusal of Commissioner Ed Lloyd and the ethics complaint filed on Counselor Roth.

I bit my tongue on this, despite Commissioner Galletta’s ridiculous threat.

Galletta objected to the Commission practice on recusal, whereby a Commissioner that is recused must leave the room and not listen to or participate in discussion or voting on the issue.

Galletta said he would no longer leave the room because that violated his rights as a citizen. He challenged the legal staff (Counselor and AG’s) to provide clear “judicial precedent” on that requirement to leave the room.

Galletta apparently is clueless – Commission ethics requirements need to be made stronger, not weaker. – end]

[Update – 3/16/14 – Speaking of recusals, here’s a message for Galletta – from Bergen Record

In contrast to the lack of rules for abstentions, New Jersey’s administrative code requires state legislators and members of state agencies to publicly give reasons for recusals and to leave the room when related issues are discussed. While those rules do not apply to county or municipal governments, Purcell said he advises local officials to do the same.

Does Galletta want to emulate the ethics of the Port Authority?