EPA and Newark Mayor Booker Promote Recovery Act Funded Brownfields Redevelopment

Newark is on the banks of the Passaic River, a Superfund site due to sediments with some of the highest dioxin levels in the world.

Newark is on the banks of the Passaic River, a Superfund site due to sediments with some of the highest dioxin levels in the world. (notice the plane flying over the train going across bridge!)

Today I took a trip up to Newark to attend an EPA press conference with Newark Mayor Cory Booker. EPA held the event at City Hall to talk about progress on the first anniversary of the Economic Recovery Act (see EPA press release below).

Newark Mayor Cory Booker speaks about Newark's sustainable development programs and the jobs and economic development benefits of EPA funded Recovery Act brownfield redevelopment projects.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker speaks about Newark’s sustainable development programs and the jobs and economic development benefits of EPA funded Recovery Act brownfield redevelopment projects.

I really should have known from the EPA press advisory that “formal remarks, one-on-ones, and photo ops” really means:

this is our dog and pony show, we control the message, and we are not taking tough questions from the press or audience“.

No wonder the professional journalists I reached out to were not interested (although NJN camera’s were there).

Had I been given the chance I would have asked the following questions:

1) Today, EPA is announcing Recovery Act funding of 3 “Brownfields” sites – but according to NJ DEP data, Newark has 635 known contaminated toxic sites yet to be cleaned up. Obviously, public funds can not pay for it all. But why should any taxpayer dollars be used to fund cleanup, when the NJ DEP has failed to enforce State cleanup requirements on corporate polluters?

What is EPA doing to assure that pollution laws, like RCRA, Superfund, and the Clean Water Act are enforced so that polluters – not taxpayers – pay for cleanup?

2) Last year, the NJ Legislature privatized the State toxic site cleanup program. This means that private contractors paid by NJ polluters will be in charge of self-certifying cleanups at about 20,000 contaminated sites – over 600 of them in Newark – with virtually no DEP oversight. At the same time, last year, the EPA Inspector General issued a scathingly critical audit of the NJ DEP cleanup program which found a systemic failure to enforce cleanup laws and major lapses in DEP oversight and extensive delays in cleanups. That audit lead to EPA assuming control over stalled cleanups at DEP mismanaged sites. Highlighting the health risks of these sites, last month, in response to community outrage and a cancer cluster linked to DEP failure advise residents of vapor intrusion risks, or to mandate timely or complete cleanup of the Dupont toxic site, EPA pledged to assure protection of public health with more aggressive enforcement and federal control of the Dupont Pompton Lakes site. Given NJ’s privatization, a broken DEP cleanup program, and what we’ve seen recently with the cancer cluster associated with lax DEP oversight of the EPA RCRA Dupont toxic site in Pompton Lakes, what steps is EPA taking to assure Newark residents that similarly dangerous sites will be fully cleaned up in a way that protects public health?

3) Last week, according to the Bergen Record, Paterson Mayor Joey Torres and community activists were blind-sided by an EPA funded study conducted by NJ DEP that found elevated levels of several industrial toxic chemicals increase already unacceptable high cancer risks and childhood asthma rates (see Bergen Record: Paterson air study raises questions and City’s air may raise cancer risk). Are you aware that in 2005, EPA funded a similar community air toxics/environmental justice study in Newark’s East Ward? That  study is not available on EPA or DEP websites but it found elevated levels in asthma and other respiratory illness in children at 3 pre-schools in Newark’s East Ward. When will EPA release and discuss this study with the Newark community?

See EPA press release below:

US EPA Regional Administrator, Judith Enck

EPA-funded Brownfields Projects Announced in Newark on

One Year Anniversary of Recovery Act

Contact: Beth Totman (212) 637-3662 (office), (646) 369-0064 (cell), totman.elizabeth@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y. – Feb. 17, 2010) In the year since February 17, 2009, the day President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), projects funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have yielded cleaner air, water and land, and new green jobs across the country. Today, EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck was joined by Newark Mayor Cory Booker and other Newark officials, as well as environmental justice advocates, to mark the one year anniversary of the Recovery Act and highlight the progress that has been made using Recovery Act funds around the city of Newark to assess and clean up contaminated properties called brownfields.

EPA brownfields grants address properties at which expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence of toxins. Newark received $600,000 in ARRA funds to conduct cleanups at three sites; a former gas station on Bergen Street, the NSC Plating and Polishing Company on South 12th Street, and the International Metallurgical Services site on Blanchard Street.

“A year after President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it’s clear that the environment, public health and the economy are benefiting from projects like these in Newark,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck. “Due to Recovery Act funding, contaminated and abandoned lots are being cleaned up in a manner that protects public health and the environment. These properties can then be redeveloped and will generate more tax revenue, thereby providing both environmental and economic benefits to the residents of Newark.”

“As we continue our transformation of Newark, we are making sustainability and “green” policies a central part of our efforts. Thanks to our partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency and the stimulus dollars received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, we are able to remediate once-blighted brownfields in our City, and restore them to productive use, which will improve the environment and health for all of our residents. Together with our community partners we are continuing to build a stronger, safer, prouder City,” Mayor Booker said.

On Feb. 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, providing more than $370 million for environmental cleanups and enhancements across New Jersey, including:

  • Over $161 million in wastewater improvements
  • Over $43 million for drinking water projects
  • More than $6 million in clean diesel projects
  • Almost $160 million for Superfund cleanups
  • Nearly $5 million to address leaking underground storage tanks
  • $2.25 million for brownfields assessments and cleanups

In 2009, Newark received $600,000 in ARRA funds to conduct cleanups at the Bergen Street site, the NSC Plating and Polishing Company and the International Metallurgical Services site. The stimulus-funded cleanup activities will help reclaim these three sites for productive uses, including retail, housing and light industrial purposes.  Each development is part of a broader neighborhood development strategy that benefits the City and its residents at large. Since the program began, EPA has awarded $2.2 million to Newark for assessing and cleaning up brownfields. For more information about EPA’s Brownfields program, visit http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/

When President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he directed the Recovery Act be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability. To that end, the American people can see how every dollar is being invested at http://www.recovery.gov.

For more information about projects funded through ARRA in this region, please visit: http://www.epa.gov/region02/eparecovery.

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2 Responses to EPA and Newark Mayor Booker Promote Recovery Act Funded Brownfields Redevelopment

  1. Rebecca says:

    Bill,
    Please contact me. I am the Erin Brokavich here. I was at that pony meeting. Have much to tell you.

  2. Bill Wolfe says:

    @Rebecca
    So sorry Rebecca, did we ever speak?

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