The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
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Ridgewood NJ, the New Jersey Sierra Club hosted an educational webinar on December 4th at 7 PM . The webinar was called , “fighting artificial turf in NJ”. This event uncovered the environmental harms, public health risks, and financial impacts of toxic artificial turf.
Continue reading The New Jersey Sierra Club Hosts Educational Webinar on the Dangers of Turf Fields
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Ringwood NJ, The New Jersey Sierra Club and more than a dozen other environmental groups sent a joint letter to DEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe requesting a public hearing for the Consent Decree regarding cleanup of the Ford Superfund site in Ringwood. The letter also asked to extend the public comment period from 60 to 120 days. The letter notes the complexity of the site and the intense public interest in the issues involved in making the requests. The EPA recently struck a $21 million settlement with the Ford Motor Company and Ringwood on a plan to cap hazardous materials on the site. (See Joint Letter to DEP attached)
Continue reading Environmental Groups Demand Public Hearing Over Consent Decree regarding cleanup of the Ford Superfund site in Ringwood
January 11,2018
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Mahwah NJ, the Bergen Record reports (https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/2018/01/10/suit-bergen-knew-gun-range-site-contaminated-squashed-probe/1016898001/ ) a lawsuit claims that not only did county officials know about the contamination at the Bergen County Police Academy gun range, but that they actively squashed an investigation into alleged crimes by those who led the dumping.
The law suit alleges the famed “double dipper” and “party changer” Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino retaliated against Frank Carrafiello and other officers who investigated the soil remediation project. The suit names not only Saudino, but the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office , the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Bergen county government .
The suit claims that Sheriff Saudino demoted officers, forced others to retire and changed the assignments of those officers who investigated the remediation.
The New Jersey Sierra Club and Mahwah officials outlined the contamination at the Bergen County Law and Public Safety Institute. They also said the county allegedly announced lead bullet casing and other potentially toxic materials to be dumped on the site for about a year.
Jeff Tittel, executive director of the Sierra Club, said the materials oxidized and broke down, possibly seeping into the groundwater and nearby streams, the Ramapo River and the Ramapo Aquifer, which provides drinking water to thousands of people.
A Bergen County spokeswoman claims in April that County Executive James Tedesco’s administration “took swift and immediate action upon learning of the potential environmental issue at the Law and Public Safety Institute shooting range located in Mahwah.”