Archive for September, 2009

Why are we still dumping on our shore?

Written by Mike Pisauro on September 9th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Labor Day is over and the shore season is over.  Over the last several weeks of this summer I took my family to the shore.  I love the shore. As a kid, I went to the NJ shore every summer with my family and I want to carry on the tradition with my children.  When I was a kid I do not remember seeing garbage on the beach.  I do not remember, at least until I was older, medical waste washing up on the beach.  When I was a child, I do not ever remember having a condom float by me as I swam in the ocean.  That is exactly what I saw a couple of weeks ago.

My children are not so lucky.  And that is a shame.   Over the Labor Day weekend, my kids picked up several pieces of garbage that had either been left on the beach by thoughtless people or had washed upon from the ocean.  To my pride they put the garbage in the garbage where it belonged.  This is what they and I saw as we took a short walk one evening (excuse the photography).

Garbage on the Shore 2Garbage on the Shore 3Garbage on the Shore 4

Around the same time I was looking at the garbage on the beach, 24 syringes washed up on the beaches of Long Beach Island over a few days period.  A news article ,written by Michelle Lee of the Press of Atlantic City, reported that LBI’s health officer believed that the syringes were because of combined sewer overflows and bad surf.

People need to stop littering at the beach and off their boats.  Government needs to upgrade combined sewer overflows that that garbage cannot be washed out to see.  Government needs to enforce the litter laws and anti-dumping laws.

Our coastal environment is too important to treat it as a place to dump our garbage.  It is too important to our economy.  It is too important to a tradition that my and many families in New Jersey have.  I do not want to ever have to explain to my child why a condom is floating past them in the ocean or that they have to watch were they walk on the beach so that they do not step on glass or syringes.  I want them to see and enjoy the beauty of New Jersey’s shore.Ocean and BirdOcean

EPA finds DEP's site remediation program lacking again.

Written by Mike Pisauro on September 8th, 2009 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Recently, the U.S. EPA released an audit report critical of NJ’s Department of Environmental Protection.  This audit report is on the heels of another negative audit report of the DEP’s handling of the remediation of contaminated sites.  The most recent audit looked to at whether DEP’s Quality System was in compliance with EPA’s required Quality control systems, whether DEP was implementing their Quality System and whether DEP was insuring that the data from their monitoring projects were adequate.  Instead of rehashing the entire report, I want to focus on the EPA’s finding regarding the Site Remediation Program.

None of the Site Remediation Program’s bureaus interviewed do any project assessment and/or process improvement beyond data validation, (i.e. no field audits, no split samples, no internal assessment, etc.)  The EPA assessment team was told that Responsible Party contractors and/or NJDEP contractors are “certified professionals and taken at their word.

It is kinda scary to think that DEP has a culture that allows for a complete disregard for the statutory and regulatory requirements.  We have seen over the last several years the impacts of DEP not confirming the information they have received from outside contractors.  I.e. W.R. Grace, Edison Ford plant, etc.

This audit report should be viewed in light of the recently enacted Licensed Site Professionals Law.  The LSP law deputizes outside contractors to decide how contaminated a site is, how best to clean the site and to determine the site is now clean and to issue the equlivant of No Further Action letters.   Once the LSP program is up and running will DEP continue to be so trusting?

When the LSP bill was racing through the legislature Environmental Organizations, including the NJEL, strenuously argued that DEP need to engage in aggressive oversight.  DEP fought enviros on this as well as enviros’ request that DEP maintain control over the worst sites.    The end result is that DEP cannot audit LSPs or even require the LSP board to audit an LSP.  DEP can merely recommend that an LSP receive an audit.  In fact the DEP’s ability to review or audit a site is mostly limited to document reviews and “shall review the performance of a remediation.”  §21b.  Another section of the law provides that DEP and LSP board can “investigat[e], sampl[e], inspect[], or copy[] any records, condition, equipment, practice, or property”  Even if DEP has the authority, will they overcome their culture of trusting the “professionals” and will they independently verify the information they receive from the professionals to ensure that sites are remediated and the environment and our health are protected.