NJ bill would increase medical waste fines – but lacks funding
Atlantic Highlands, NJ – Bill Wolfe talks about medical waste beach washups and the need to increase resources for enforcement of environmental laws, including the Medical Waste Management Act. Last summer, in the wake of disgusting medical waste washups on the shore – I wrote this post:
Making the environment a priority – where is the leadership?
Posted by Bill Wolfe August 26, 2008 7:17AM
More signs of erosion of environmental protection
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/08/making_the_environment_a_prior.html
“As the summer winds down and we head into the Labor Day weekend, the recent closure of Delaware Bay shellfisheries, proliferation of jellyfish, and wash-up of medical waste that closed Cape May beaches highlight the critical importance of protecting our environment (see:
Avalon’s beaches shut again over waste
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/186/story/237553.html
State hunts dumpers of medical waste off Avalon

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1219725396143840.xml&coll=1
Read more…
Bill WolfeDupont Logo from Deepwater facility –
Better living through chemistry?On a night like this
So glad you came around,
Hold on to me so tight
And heat up some coffee grounds.
We got much to talk about
And much to reminisce,
It sure is right
On a night like this.
“`Bob Dylan
[Update #6 – The Dupont Pompton Lakes toxic contamination story isn’t going away – check out the latest:
http://www.northjersey.com/environment/State_will_check_rate_of_cancer_in_plume.html
State will check rate of cancer in plume
Thursday, March 12, 2009
BY ELAINE D’AURIZIO
POMPTON LAKES — Mayor Katie Cole has requested the results of a state health study to see if cancer clusters exist among residents living above a plume of contamination in the borough’s northeastern section.
The state Department of Health and Senior Services says it will respond to her by early April with the results.
Cole said she asked for the study of the entire plume — some 437 homes — but especially for Barbara Drive and Orchard Street, because residents “kept coming up at meetings to say there were numerous cases of cancer at those locations.”
Read more…
Bill WolfeThe piece is too good not to pass on, from Eric Boehlert of Media Matters, author of “Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled over for Bush”
http://www.amazon.com/Lapdogs-Press-Rolled-Over-Bush/dp/0743289315
Right on cue, the White House press awakens from its Bush slumber
by Eric Boehlert
Pulling a collective Rip Van Winkle, the White House press corps has awakened from its extended nap just in time to aggressively press the new Democratic administration, just as it dogged the last Democratic president during his first days in office back in the 1990s. Conveniently skipped over during the press corps’ extended bout of shut-eye? The Bush years, of course.
[Read the full article here:
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200901270006
The US Senate confirmation of former NJ Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson as US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator brought out sharply conflicting views with respect to the relative roles of science and politics in her leadership style and policy decision-making.
The Washington DC Beltway view – based on Jackson’s own testimony and press remarks – is best illustrated in this headline and story from ENS:
EPA Nominee Jackson Promises Science Will Trump Politics
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-14-10.asp
Today’s NY Times – written by award winning veteran former NJ Star Ledger and Bergen Record reporter Dunstan McNichol and based on interviews with professionals who have worked with Jackson – takes a strongly contradictory view:
A Master Juggler in a Job That Demands One
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/nyregion/new-jersey/25depnj.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=jackson&st=cse
Read more…
