the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Upper Saddle River NJ, more indoctrination for your kids . First Lady Tammy Murphy today announced that the New Jersey State Board of Education has adopted her initiative to make New Jersey the first state in the nation to incorporate climate change education across its K-12 learning standards.
“In New Jersey, we have already begun to experience the effects of climate change, from our disappearing shorelines, to harmful algal blooms in our lakes, super storms producing torrential rain, and summers that are blazing hot,” said First Lady Murphy. “The adoption of these standards is much more than an added educational requirement; it is a symbol of a partnership between generations. Decades of short-sighted decision-making has fueled this crisis and now we must do all we can to help our children solve it. This generation of students will feel the effects of climate change more than any other, and it is critical that every student is provided an opportunity to study and understand the climate crisis through a comprehensive, interdisciplinary lens.”
Almost zero evidence of any of this , and yet arsenic run off from sites like Toll Brothers Apple Ridge site in Upper Saddle River goes completely unchecked and the state continues to pursue a court mandated high density housing building binge without any environmental concerns .
Almost every waterway in New Jersey is too polluted to meet clean water standards, and the state’s new proposed permits for municipal stormwater discharges has not done anything to change that.
Other areas of the state are contaminated with a cocktail of dangerous, cancer-causing chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) after decades of hazardous disposal by manufacturing plants across New Jersey. It is a problem that has tainted New Jersey’s drinking water for years.
“A top priority of my Administration has been to reestablish New Jersey’s role as a leader in the fight against climate change,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “The adoption of these standards across our K-12 schools is an important step forward that will strengthen the future of New Jersey’s green energy economy. By incorporating these standards into the nation’s number one public education system, we are creating a catalyst and knowledge base for new green jobs and teaching our children to become leaders who will propel New Jersey forward to 100 percent clean energy by 2050.” This is code for ,”another excuse to raise taxes”
In the mean time New Jersey has 114 Superfund sites, more than any other state in the nation. According to Pete Lopez, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator, the multi-billion-dollar Superfund program allows the EPA to clean up the most contaminated properties and waterways in the nation.
Sierra Club, Air Report Shows NJ Still an “F” – Worst Air Quality in Nation. The American Lung Association released its 2020 State of the Air report showing New Jersey continues to have some of the most polluted air in the nation. Nine counties in New Jersey earned F’s for ground-level ozone pollution, also known as smog.
NJ has alot of Superfund sites because they did a better job than other states at getting sites assessed and listed under Superfund. That way sites can get cleaned up. Would your rather NJ do a poor job at identifying the sites and not having them cleanup by EPA? Would you rather these sites, deemed imminently dangerous but left off the list? Alot of states went that route. I don’t know about you but if the feds are willing to step in, pay for all of the studies and remediation, the extraordinarily expensive step of identifying PRPs (potentially responsible parties) and then negotiating settlements with those PRP, I’ll let the feds do that instead of the state. And the term “Superfund” doesn’t mean that the site is worse than others , it simple means that a PRP cannot be easily identified and the funding mechanisms will be different. There are shit tons of RCRA sites out there that are far worse but their liability is easily assigned to an owner or past owner who still exists. Other states have plenty of RCRA sites and Superfund sites that are in their infancy stages of remediation while NJ sites are making clean-up progress and becoming delisted.
Yes, NJs air quality isn’t great but you know where alot of the pollutants and particulates are.coming from? Those big ole coal fired energy plants to the west of us. Prevailing winds from the west carry their pollutants to the east. If we want to reduce our own emissions, we need to improve access/egress to the ports, upgrade commercial diesal engines to class 3 or 4 emmissions, be able to double stack rail containers, improve mass transit, etc.
And your water quality statement is just completely wrong. Take a look at the marine borer data along the Hudson as an example of ecological response to pollutants. Not sure where your getting your data from but I’d love to see it. Water quality within the State of New Jersey is SIGNIFICANTLY improved over the passed few decades. State of the science allows us to know more about the impacts of contaminants and this may be causing you confusion. Inputs to water have been reduced by legacy sediments continue to flux contaminants back into the system. Keep in mind that most contaminants are hydrophobic and are NOT present in the water. They adhere to the organics associated with silts and clays and are then made available to the organisms living within the silts and clays. Some contaminants are bioavailable , have trophic transfer capabilities and may even bioaccumulate. Some do not.