2.5 years after signing, NJ environmental justice law begins

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Maria Lopez-Nunez is the deputy director of Ironbound Community Corporation. She speaks outside a Newark N.J. sewage treatment facility on Jan. 11,2022. Residents are voicing their opposition to a proposed backup energy plant, claiming that their neighborhood has already been overloaded with polluting plants, including two more power plants. New Jersey's Environmental Justice Law, which was designed to stop communities such as Newark, who already have to deal with pollution, from accepting additional sources, went into effect on April 17, 2023.

Wayne Parry/AP

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FILE – In this April 2022 photo, activists are seen at a protest in Newark N.J. against a proposed backup energy plant for a wastewater treatment facility. Just months after New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy ordered them to pause the project, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission has pushed forward with a gas-fired energy plant. Phil Murphy had ordered the halting of the project to ensure it did not violate an environmental justice law that will soon take effect to protect communities already burdened with pollution sources. New Jersey's Environmental Justice Law, which was designed to protect communities that are already overburdened with pollution, went into effect on April 17, 2023.

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FILE – This file photo from Jan. 11, 2022 shows a part of the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority facility in Newark, N.J. Residents are voicing their opposition to a proposed backup power station for the facility. They say that the neighborhood is already overloaded with polluting plants including two other power stations. New Jersey's Environmental Justice Law, which was designed to protect communities such as Newark, who already face serious pollution, from accepting additional sources, went into effect on April 17, 2023.

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WOODBRIDGE (N.J.) (AP). Two and a quarter years after being signed into law, a new measure to protect New Jersey communities from pollution sources took effect on Monday.

The law, according to officials, is the first of its kind in the country that requires permit denials when an environmental justice assessment determines that a new facility would have a disproportionately adverse impact on communities already overburdened.

The law that Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who called it the toughest law in the country, has passed too late to stop some of New Jersey’s most controversial proposals for power plants in minority communities, where residents had been hoping the measure would prevent them from building.

Maria Lopez-Nunez is an official at the Ironbound Community Corporation. The corporation has been fighting against numerous power plant proposals near and in the heavily polluted and industrialized section of Newark. I knew that the environmental justice regulations would arrive too late to prevent some of these projects. We're still celebrating. We still believe we can win.

Residents of Woodbridge have raised concerns about a plan to build a natural gas-fired power plant adjacent to the existing one. The proposal has been met with strong opposition. Some residents have complained of respiratory problems and others say that their homes are affected by the proposed power plant.

Children need to be hospitalized

With breathing problems

The proposal was made by Competitive Power Ventures of Silver Spring, Maryland, in 2016. It was deemed "administratively completed" by the Department of Environmental Protection of Maryland a year later. This means that it does not fall under the new law. Department spokesman Larry Hajna confirmed this. He said that an administrative order, which directs the state to impose specific conditions in order to minimize negative environmental effects, is applicable. The application is still pending.

The proposals to build backup energy plants for NJ Transit in Kearny and the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission in Newark, as well as for NJ Transit in Newark, remain pending. Both have been

Residents are strongly opposed to the plan

The neighboring communities.

The DEP has not responded to Monday's questions about whether environmental justice laws will apply to these projects.

Murphy

Signed the law

In September 2020, the government will be able to deny permits to polluting projects that are in areas where there is already a lot of pollution.

The bureaucratic process to write the regulations and consult with interested parties has delayed the full implementation of this law until Monday.

Residents living nearby are angry.

Murphy stated that the final adoption of the Environmental Justice Law's regulations will "further the promise of environmental injustice by prioritizing meaningful engagement of communities, reducing risks to public health through innovative pollution control, and limiting the adverse impacts new pollution-generating installations can have on already vulnerable community'.

It's not a secret that the poor, urban, and minority communities are oversaturated by toxic facilities. They have never been able to have a voice in determining if these businesses and institutions are acceptable. Troy Singleton.

Marcus Sibley said that the law would empower communities to combat additional pollution sources.

He said that expecting entities to do what is right has never been a winning approach for those who are most vulnerable to exploitation and adverse environmental impacts.

New Jersey Business and Industry Association (NJBIA) opposed the law. They said it would discourage companies from setting up shop in the state and cost the state good-paying manufacturing positions.

Wayne Parry is on Twitter.

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