Longstanding Pattern Of DEP Failure To Act
Old school veteran investigative reporter Jeff Pillets published a troubling story today about another case where “forever chemicals” have poisoned a community, in this case the lovely Delaware River town of Lambertville, NJ.
Pillets now writes for The Jersey Vindicator, a new outlet doing quality journalism (with solid photography too!). Read the whole story, see:
I lived for almost 20 years in the neighboring town of West Amwell and consider Lambertville my old backyard.
The story and photos evoke strong personal and professional memories. Sadly, exactly this same story was written 50 years ago and it seems like we’ve learned absolutely nothing over those years. Groundhog Day, repeat the same errors over and over again.
The story also opened Pandora’s box in terms of huge gaps in DEP’s environmental regulatory programs. Let me digress and briefly share a personal anecdote before I go there.
When I joined DEP in 1985 I worked on old landfill issues. At that time, you could honestly say that there was a lack of public awareness and a lot of scientific unknowns and lack of information about disposal of toxic chemicals and old landfills and groundwater pollution and drinking water wells.
I worked with a small group that drafted a Statewide Landfill Closure Plan for over 600 industrial and municipal landfills known to exist at that time. The price tag on the plan was $3 billion to investigate and properly close them.
I accompanied the project manager who presented the plan to then Gov. Tom Kean DEP Commissioner Chris Daggett. I still recall the outrage I felt when Daggett literally laughed in our faces as he dismissed the concept of going to the Governor and requesting funding for that magnitude a program.
A few months later, I was even more appalled when the DEP lost a legal challenge to requirements that old landfills submit monthly groundwater monitoring data to DEP. That case was known as “Vi-Concrete”. DEP lost the case because DEP failed to promulgate regulations to require the monitoring. Immediately following the Court’s decision, instead of simply adopting regulations to authorize the monitoring, the head of DEP’s Water Resources (Arnold Schiffman) wrote a letter to hundreds of old landfills informing them that they no longer were required to submit groundwater monitoring data. I thought that was one of the most irresponsible actions I’ve ever seen.
And 40 years later, here we are.
Getting back to Pillet’s Lambertville story.
Pillets opened a can of worms with this (boldface mine):
“After half a decade of investigating and monitoring the groundwater, the state [DEP] issued a “negative finding” letter clearing the Taurus site. None of the tests done around the old school were for PFAS, which at the time was a threat that was not on regulators’ radar.”
DEP has issued “No Further Action” (NFA) letters and “covenants not to sue” at thousands of contaminated sites.
Virtually NONE of them sampled for PFAS and “forever chemicals”.
So DEP needs to REOPEN ALL OF THEM TO SAMPLE FOR PFAS/PFOA/PFNA “forever chemicals”. The polluters lobby will go CRAZY ABOUT THAT.
This reminds me of a very similar disaster in the DEP site remediation program.
When I rejoined DEP in 2002 – vindication after I had been forced out by Gov. Whitman as a whistleblower in 1994 – DEP Commissioner Campbell tasked me with the lead on assembling “Vulnerability Assessment” Reports from each Division manager. The objective of these assessments was to identify serious flaws in DEP programs and regulations after 8 years of rollbacks and budget cuts by Governor Whitman.
Campbell wanted to use those program specific assessments to create what he called “an honest baseline” Report so that he could not be criticized for problems created by Whitman and could begin to develop necessary corrective actions and reforms.
Look at this 2002 DEP “Vulnerability Assessment” Report to then DEP Commissioner Campbell that documents that 95% of contaminated groundwater sites were granted CEA’s, 90% of them for “natural attenuation”, bureaucratic jargon and euphemism for “just leave the pollution there“.
That Vulnerability Assessment also flagged the huge issue that – just like “forever chemicals” – that the DEP site remediation program did not sample for or consider the risks of “vapor intrusion” – i.e. the underground migration of toxic gases from groundwater and soil into buildings.
DEP knew of examples where the indoor air of buildings was contaminated by nearby toxic sites, yet they did NOTHING about it!
As we warned 15 years ago, see the 2002 DEP Vulnerability Assessment, page 5 last paragraph):
Indoor Air from contaminated groundwater
The issue is relatively new as it relates to vapors from dissolved constituent plumes entering homes at above chronic levels. This issue is not an isolated incident (Wall Township) and has become an issue across the country. As more cases of this type surface it may cause the protectiveness of sites with natural attenuation remedies and the protectiveness of groundwater quality standards to be reevaluated.
And, as DEP knew they would, “more cases did surface”. In fact, vapor intrusion was soon to be discovered at daycare centers, which triggered a huge scandal.
Finally, Pillets’ story exposed the lack of DEP regulations to limit the discharge of “forever chemicals” from industries and sewage treatment plants to our rivers, which we use for drinking water.
The DEP says “we’re working on that”:
“The Division of Water Quality is undertaking an effort to identify, reduce and eliminate sources of PFAS in industrial wastewater. As part of the effort to identify PFAS at the source, the Division began their strategy by focusing on the direct industrial dischargers to surface water (Category B permits) and industrial dischargers to a POTW (Category L permits), along with working with Delegated Local Agencies to begin identifying, reducing and eliminating sources of PFAS discharged into their systems. The Division created and issued a survey to permittees to gather information regarding potential sources of PFAS and operational processes. The Division also issued a Request for Information to gather wastewater sampling data from the surveyed permittees. This data will aid the Division in understanding the scope of PFAS in wastewater discharges.
On January 17, 2023, the Commissioner signed Administrative Order 2023-01 to encourage the collection of data that will aid in efforts to identify, reduce and eliminate sources of PFAS in wastewater and its residuals.”
Just like the landfill groundwater monitoring and vapor intrusion fiasco’s I highlighted above, DEP will collect data for many years before they begin to develop Statewide regulations and then individual permits for water pollution discharge limits, with the polluters dragging their feet and fighting them all along the way.
That will take over a decade, if it ever gets done at all.
So, that’s why I recently filed a formal petition for rulemaking – to force DEP to act, see:
No doubt DEP will deny my petition. They will claim that they are working on a “comprehensive strategy” and collecting data.
The Murphy DEP likes to do that. It let’s them issue great press releases and DO NOTHING.