Addressing Cumulative Impacts Through Local Land Use and Policy Tools: Newark Environmental Justice and Cumulative Impacts Ordinance

A case study of the Newark Environmental Justice and Cumulative Impacts Ordinance

The Robert A. Catlin Memorial Lecture at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy

Newark’s Environmental Justice and Cumulative Impacts Ordinance seeks to create stronger environmental and land use policy tools at the local level to prevent and mitigate additional pollution associated with a variety of development and redevelopment projects. It also addresses environmental justice by helping to prevent Newark, which has a disproportionate number of low-income and residents of color, from having

a disproportionate number of polluting projects placed within its borders. Three panelists will discuss the various components and impacts of the ordinance. A light reception will follow the panel.

Dr. Nicky Sheats, Esq., Director, Center for the Urban Environment, John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy, Thomas Edison State University

Dr. Ana Baptista, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management and Associate Director, Tishman Environment & Design Center, The New School

Cynthia Mellon, Co-chair, City of Newark Environmental Commission and Coordinator, Newark Environmental Resource Inventory

A case study of the
Newark Environmental Justice and Cumulative Impacts Ordinance

The Robert A. Catlin Memorial Lecture at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy

Newark’s Environmental Justice and Cumulative Impacts Ordinance seeks to create stronger environmental and land use policy tools at the local level to prevent and mitigate additional pollution associated with a variety of development and redevelopment projects. It also addresses environmental justice by helping to prevent Newark, which has a disproportionate number of low-income and residents of color, from having

a disproportionate number of polluting projects placed within its borders. Three panelists will discuss the various components and impacts of the ordinance. A light reception will follow the panel.

Dr. Nicky Sheats, Esq., Director, Center for the Urban Environment, John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy, Thomas Edison State University

Dr. Ana Baptista, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management and Associate Director, Tishman Environment & Design Center, The New School

Cynthia Mellon, Co-chair, City of Newark Environmental Commission and Coordinator, Newark Environmental Resource Inventory

View Slide Deck

Assembly Appropriations Committee Statement To Senate Committee Substitute for Senate, No. 232

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: AUGUST 24, 2020

The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 232 (SCS/1R), with committee amendments.

This bill, as amended by the committee, requires the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to evaluate the environmental and public health stressors of certain facilities on overburdened communities when reviewing certain permit applications.

The bill defines the term “facility” to mean any: (1) major source of air pollution; (2) resource recovery facility or incinerator; (3) sludge processing facility, combustor, or incinerator; (4) sewage treatment plant with a capacity of more than 50 million gallons per day; (5) transfer station or other solid waste facility, or recycling facility intending to receive at least 100 tons of recyclable material per day; (6) scrap metal facility; (7) landfill, including, but not limited to, a landfill that accepts ash, construction or demolition debris, or solid waste; or (8) medical waste incinerator. The term excludes a facility as defined in section 3 of P.L.1989, c.34 (C.13:1E- 48.3) that accepts regulated medical waste for disposal, including a medical waste incinerator, that is attendant to a hospital or university and intended to process self-generated regulated medical waste.

Beginning immediately after the DEP adopts the rules and regulations required by the bill, the DEP would not consider complete for review any application for a permit for a new or expanded facility, or any application for the renewal of an existing facility’s major source permit, if the facility is located in whole or in part in an overburdened community, unless the permit applicant meets certain conditions. Specifically, a permit applicant would be required to…

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Murphy Administration Honors Leaders in Environmental Justice, Recycling, Climate Action with 2020 Environmental Excellence Awards.

(20/P048) TRENTON – The Murphy Administration is honoring a wide array of environmental leaders with its 2020 Environmental Excellence Awards—from elementary school students who spearheaded an enormous battery recycling effort to the social and racial justice champions who advocated the nation’s most progressive environmental justice law signed by Governor Murphy this September. This year’s honorees have moved the state forward on significant issues, including climate change, recycling, clean drinking water, and environmental justice.

image“As we celebrate our fiftieth anniversary and create an ambitious vision for the next 50 years, this is a historic year for environmental protection and this year’s honorees are on the leading edge of this important work,” said New Jersey DEP Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe. “Their vision and innovation set a standard to which we can all aspire, and I look forward to their next milestones in environmental protection.”

“Governor Murphy and I congratulate and thank all of the winners for their contributions, as well as every New Jerseyan who has worked to protect our environment” said First Lady Tammy Murphy. “Despite the serious threat of the climate crisis, we are incredibly optimistic about New Jersey’s future because of the persistent advocacy, commitment and leadership of so many New Jerseyans in the fight against climate change.”

In his opening remarks at the virtual awards ceremony, DEP Deputy Commissioner Shawn LaTourette also noted that the 2020 “honorees exemplify the values that motivate us here at the Department of Environmental Protection and across the Murphy Administration: an abiding commitment to science and service, and a drive to confront our greatest challenges, and out of them create new opportunities that will help us build a stronger, fairer New Jersey.”

The 2020 awards were presented virtually and video is available on the DEP’s website and Facebook page. Excerpts from the presentation and videos of the honorees will also be featured on DEP social media channels throughout December…

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Rosa Parks, Revisited

N.Y. Times (Feb. 1, 2013)

Most of what you think you know about Rosa Parks may well be wrong.

By Charles M. Blow

On the verge of the 100th anniversary of her birth this Monday comes a fascinating new book, “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” by Jeanne Theoharis, a Brooklyn College professor. It argues that the romanticized, children’s-book story of a meek seamstress with aching feet who just happened into history in a moment of uncalculated resistance is pure mythology.

Charles M. Blow
Charles M. Blow

Theoharis points out, “Rosa’s family sought to teach her a controlled anger, a survival strategy that balanced compliance with militancy.”

Parks was mostly raised by her grandparents. Her grandfather, a follower of Marcus Garvey, often sat vigil on the porch with a rifle in case the Klan came. She sometimes sat with him because, as the book says she put it, “I wanted to see him kill a Ku Kluxer.”
When she was a child, a young white man taunted her. In turn, she threatened him with a brick. Her grandmother reprimanded her as “too high-strung,” warning that Rosa would be lynched before the age of 20. Rosa responded, “I would be lynched rather than be run over by them.”Continue reading

EJAC meeting February 20, 2013

EJAC members and all: This is your friendly reminder of our EJAC meeting on this upcoming Wednesday (Feb. 20, 2013) at 10am. Meeting will be held in the 7th floor large conference room here at NJDEP in Trenton (401 E. State St.).
This meeting is going to be devoted entirely to the discussion of Hurricane Sandy with a presentation
Continue reading

New Book: Living and Dying in Brick City

New Book — Living and Dying in Brick City: An E.R. Doctor Returns Home
by Sampson Davis
sampson davis
It was just before 7:00 A.M. on July 1, 1999, my first full day on the job. Jay-Z blared from the stereo as I steered my old Honda Accord past the White Castle burger joint, toward Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. The neighborhood — a mix of boarded up buildings, dingy brick storefronts, beauty supply stores, and fast-food restaurants — rolled by like a video. Before long, the July heat would draw residents out of their homes to play checkers and cards, children in swimsuits would be dashing through open fire hydrants, and sweaty boys would be swooshing basketballs through naked rims on concrete courts. This was Brick City, my city. I knew its rhythms, and I’d seen its dark side up close.Continue reading

Racism in 2012: Year End Review

Racism Review (Dec. 31, 2012)
Racism in 2012: Year End Review
By Jessie
As 2012 draws to a close, I pulled together some of the biggest news in racism for the year.
Election Politics – Of course, much of the year we were focused on the racism in election politics.