For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100
The NJDEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe testified today before the Assembly Budget Committee on the Governor Murphy’s proposed budget FY2020. The DEP budget has been cut by 17.8% in the spending plan and operations by 10%. Topics during the hearing involved staffing, lead in drinking water, VW settlement money, and NRD money. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club released the following statement:
“Commissioner McCabe is spinning and trying to put the best face on a bad budget. She supports cuts to her own department and important programs instead of asking for more resources to get the job done. The proposed budget lacks resources to deal with lead in our drinking water, cleaning up toxic sites, and keeping staff that will protect our environment. McCabe backs the budget but then blames the lack of resources and staff for important cleanup activities across the state. She is carrying water for the administration, but that water is too contaminated to drink. McCabe is going along with the usual budget cuts and not fighting for resources that hold her agency together. The proposed budget still has a lot of money being diverted, close to $200 million. Operations are down by $27 million. This is worse from last year’s budget when the DEP saw a 14.3% drop at $275 million and a 3% decrease in operations at $207 million.
“When asked about New Jersey’s standards for lead, Commissioner McCabe resorted to the federal rules at 10ppt. New Jersey’s standards should be at 5ppt, not 10ppt. because that is what the Private Well Testing Act calls for. By failing to use the state’s stricter standard, McCabe is risking the health and safety of the people of this state, especially children. McCabe also kept on guiding legislators to look at the EPA website for water resource information, but what about DEP’s website? When asked about immediate action to fix New Jersey’s lead problem in our drinking water, Commissioner McCabe supported the Brita and Poland Spring solution. Those solutions do not work in the long term. Areas most affected with lead in their drinking water such as Trenton cannot afford to use those methods too. McCabe supports replacing and fixing service lines but these is at least an $8 billion problem. Our water is at risk and we need to fix our old leaky pipes.”
Last year Commissioner McCabe committed staff numbers to being 100 above at 2700 employees but currently DEP staff is 200 below at 2500 staffers. McCabe is defending fewer staff than under Christie. This compares to 3,400 in 2008, and 4,400 in the mid-1990s. While McCabe says there is enough money DEP’s budget, she blames the slow down for site remediation and waste management on the lack of staffers. If we don’t have enough staff, we won’t be able to properly review permits from businesses and developers to grow our economy without delay. Staffers may be leaving because they were hoping for a change under the Murphy Administration and it is not happening. The Treasurer is also freezing a lot of the hiring processes.
“The DEP is still sitting on the $72 million from the VW Settlement Fund that is supposed to jump start electric vehicles in New Jersey. Other state like New York have already started spending that money to improve their EV technology. The biggest source of air pollution and greenhouse gases in our state comes from automobiles, which is why we need to increase electric vehicles to clean our air. DEP cannot replace our vehicles with diesel if they plan to actually reduce NOx pollution in affected communities. The department still need to move forward on programs for EV’s, resiliency, or climate programs. They also have not regulated C02 emissions for natural gas pipelines and power plants.”
“When asked if Commissioner McCabe believed that the NRD Exxon settlement money should help impacted areas from that settlement. McCabe said that it depends on the circumstance. What she failed to mention in her testimony it that the majority of the $40 million from NRD Exxon settlement will not be going to areas impacted by Exxon. Instead that money will go to white cedar restoration in the Pinelands and for salt water intrusion issues in Cape May. The NRD could not only help areas like Paulsboro by help our state’s lead problem in schools. McCabe finally admitted taking money on watershed programs for open space and that has put an impact on the budget.
“The DEP is losing funding and staff in this budget. This means there may not be enough people to do the job that needs to be done to grow the economy while protecting the environment. We cannot improve the environment without improving funding for those programs. In the past we have gone after Christie’s budget when it raided funds and cut programs. Unfortunately, Murphy’s budget is all too similar. We need the Legislature and the Governor to put the resources in this budget that are necessary for the DEP to make sure our land is clean, our air is pure, and we are able to keep parks open for the people of New Jersey.”