The statistics are appalling. Two of the waste incinerators in the United States that emit the largest amounts of lead annually are in Camden and Newark, NJ. In-state polluters are also high up on the list of particulate matter emitters, and in fact, New Jersey’s incinerators are predominantly located in environmental justice communities, defined as communities that already have more than their fair share of polluting industry, or are home to large concentrations of people of color and low-income residents.
In fact, roughly half the residents of New Jersey live in environmentally burdened communities, according to a map produced by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Therefore, it was a great relief to advocates for clean air and a safe environment when the DEP adopted rules implementing New Jersey’s environmental justice law, albeit more than two years after the state Legislature approved it.
The environmental justice law ensures that state officials can block new polluting industry or expansions of existing facilities that would exacerbate disproportionately high pollution in these communities. It would also allow the public to weigh in on whether these developments should be allowed when companies seek permits for new installations or expansion.
“Fossil fuel projects in overburdened communities will no longer be the norm. We have come to an inflection point in New Jersey’s history that realization of public health is a priority regardless of your ZIP code,” said Renée Pollard, chair of the Sierra Club’s NJ Chapter Environmental and Social Justice Committee. She noted that a clean, healthy, livable environment is a basic human right.
Other states have also moved forward with environmental justice laws. They include Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Illinois, California, and Wisconsin.
The new law requires that environmental officials, when considering permit requests, must seriously consider added burdens on environmental justice communities, and many types of facilities are specifically named in the law: gas-fired power plants, co-generation facilities, recycling facilities, incinerators, landfills, sludge processing plants, sewage treatment facilities, and scrap metal and medical waste operations. But “any major source of air pollution” is covered by this law.
The NJ “Business & Industry Association” protested adoption of this law, contending it would discourage investment, but there’s no reason why prosperity can only be achieved by fouling New Jersey’s environment and making the state a less healthy place to live. Perhaps Maria Lopez-Nuñez, deputy director of organizing and advocacy for Newark’s Ironbound Community Corporation, said it best in an interview with NJ Spotlight News: “It is going to show other states that the sky is not going to fall if you bring environmental justice to a community,” she said.