Date : Tue, 23 Feb 2016 12:48:30 -0500
The Assembly Health Committee is held a hearing to discuss lead in New Jersey’s drinking water. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, released the following statement:
“We believe that it’s important that the Committee is holding this hearing because lead is a major problem in New Jersey, especially in our drinking water. Lead is a serious health threat, whether it’s in paint, soil, or water. Lead is one of the most hazardous substances known to man and it impacts children, especially small children, in our urban areas. Children in New Jersey cities have more lead in their blood than those in Flint, Michigan. Lead can cause illness and even in small amounts can lead to brain damage and learning disabilities. Thousands of children are diagnosed with lead poisoning in New Jersey each year; over 3,000 in 2015 alone.
“New Jersey cities have old outdated pipes in our streets and homes which can mean even higher levels of lead in our water. Many of our water systems go back to the Victorian era and even homes built in the 30’s and 40’s have pipes made with lead sodder. We also don’t do enough testing at the faucet; most of the testing is done at the plant. This means that the lead from these old pipes come into our water before it gets to our homes. We waste water with old systems where 25% can be leaking from the pipes. On top of that we’ve seen officials falsifying data about water quality such as in East Orange and Middlesex County. New Jersey needs to do a better job of keeping lead out of our water and monitoring for it. We don’t want an incident like the one in Flint Michigan to happen here in New Jersey.
“Flint Michigan is a major man-made public health and environment disaster. It happened because of an anti-environmental and regulatory agenda set by Governor Rick Snyder. Governor Snyder chose an emergency manager who was political crony and industry lobbyist who decided to use the polluted Flint River for the town’s water supply to save money. Just like in Michigan, Governor Christie has also stacked his administration and environmental and public health professionals with political friends and former lobbyists that worked for polluters. We have serious concerns that what happened in Flint could happen in New Jersey because the Christie Administration has weakened and rolled back clean water protections in New Jersey.
“The EPA failed to do its job when it came to the Flint crisis and the regional director has since stepped down. We believe this is because of the attacks from the Right-Wing of Congress to try to gut EPA, block funding, stop them from implementing Clean Water Act, and try to repeal the Waters of the United States rules. These attacks have made EPA afraid to do its job and we are concerned they will not hold the Christie Administration accountable for its attack on clean water or have enough oversight.
“From his first day in office, Governor Christie signed an Executive Order saying New Jersey cannot have any protections stronger than the federal government and then started to dismantle environmental protections. That Executive Order came directly from ALEC and the Koch Brothers. Similar to Michigan, the Christie Administration’s head of water is a former lobbyist. Christie has even held secret “stakeholder” meetings where special interest groups have re-written rules for stormwater management, water quality management planning, flood hazard areas, protections on category one and stream buffers, and Highlands regulations in order to develop in environmentally sensitive areas.
“The Legislature has stood up to the Governor, as has EPA and FEMA, against the Christie Administration’s Flood Hazard Areas that will lead to overdevelopment add more pollution to our waterways. The Administration have also proposed a new NJPDES that will allow more discharge from sewerage plants. The DEP has have even changed the rules so they can pump dirty water from the Passaic River into the Wanaque Reservoir, which serves almost all of Bergen County. Our DEP should really stand for the ‘Department of Excessive Pollution.’
“For five years, our Governor refused to let the Drinking Water Quality Institute meet. The Administration has not adopted new standards on the known carcinogen PFOA, perchlorate, PFNA, PFC, pharmaceuticals in our waterways, chromium and arsenic even though we have the science in place to adopt protections. Christie’s Administration have downgraded and eviscerated the DEP Division of Science and have replaced it with the Science Advisory Board, which is primarily made up of polluters and corporate interests. Even worse is that the state has failed to update the 20-year-old Water Supply Master Plan, which determines water availability as well as water quality issues. This means the DEP may be allowing development in areas where there is not adequate water supply and taking from polluted sources.
“If the Christie Administration continues taking over cities instead of allowing cities file bankruptcy, Christie could be directly in charge of their water supply. With an ongoing record of weakening of clean water protections in the Highlands and Pinelands, we are concerned what could happen with the government takeover in Atlantic City. Just like Flint, Christie has already allowed Camden’s water to be privatized to cut costs in an area whose wells are in a place that are too contaminated. As a result, they are taking Camden’s water from highly contaminated sources and even trying to get Pennsauken to take the water. In Atlantic City, there are plans for water privatization and their wells are threatened by a superfund site.
“Like Governor Snyder, Christie doesn’t care if there is lead in our drinking water. Christie recently vetoed a bill that would protect children from lead so he could grab the money for the budget. He diverted $10 million dollars from a program that would remove lead paint from homes. He also vetoed a bill that would protect drinking water from volatile chemicals like 1,2,3-Trichloropropane (TCP) even after these dangerous chemicals were found in New Jersey wells. Under the Christie Administration, environmental enforcement and inspections have been cut at least 60 percent. However, the DEP has failed to release no new data on inspections for the past 4 years so it could have been cut at least 80 percent.
“New Jersey’s drinking water also has a significant problem with a chemical called THM. Trihalomethanes (THM) is a bi-product of water treatment when we kill bacteria using chlorine. Some of our rivers such as Passaic can run 90% sewage discharge. THM is a threat to children, pregnant women, and people with autoimmune diseases. THM is carcinogenic and can cause birth defects. Many systems in the state have high levels of THM that are close or even exceed the federal standard. Some water systems have turned to adding ammonia to knock down THM levels but this causes another series of problems in itself. Going to ozone treatment would help because it would use less chlorine. However, we would still need to use it in old cities where water leaks into these old pipes from the groundwater.
“The Legislature has to examine this issue because Governor Christie has put our environment and public health at risk. His policies have allowed for more pollution in our waterways. He has vetoed important legislation to keep toxins out of drinking water. He has stolen money from lead abatement and used it to plug holes in the budget.The costs associated with upgrading New Jersey’s water systems are huge. We need a minimum of $8 billion to upgrade our pipes and another $8 billion for wastewater treatment plants. What happened in Flint can happen here and we need to work to reduce lead in our drinking water and keep the people of New Jersey safe. New Jersey has a Private Well Testing Act that says water for homes on wells has to be tested at the faucet and the well when a home is sold. We need to expand that Act to include the same standards for all homes, including ones that are not on wells. Is the glass half empty or half full? It doesn’t matter because it has to be tested before you drink it.”
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Jamie Zaccaria Administrative Assistant New Jersey Sierra Club office: (609) 656-7612 https://www.facebook.com/NJSierraClub