New ‘Environmental Justice' Rules Now In Place To Protect Pollution-Choked Communities

By Dana DiFilippo, New Jersey Monitor

April 18, 2023

Communities that have been long overburdened by pollution got some hard-won protection Monday when the final regulations to implement New Jersey’s new environmental justice law took effect.

The law and new rules, which environmentalists have championed for 15 years, require state officials to weigh the public health impacts of pollution-producing facilities that want to expand, open new sites, or renew existing licenses. If the state Department of Environmental Protection determines the facility’s plan will disproportionately worsen pollution in an already overburdened community, the permit must be denied.

The law and regulations are intended to protect neighborhoods — typically in communities of color — that have been historically disproportionately impacted by pollution. Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law in 2020, but it couldn’t be implemented until the final regulations were adopted.

“As we enter Earth Week 2023, the final adoption of DEP’s (environmental justice) rules will further the promise of environmental justice by prioritizing meaningful community engagement, reducing public health risks through the use of innovative pollution controls, and limiting adverse impacts that new pollution-generating facilities can have in already vulnerable communities,” Murphy said in a statement.

Under the new rules, state environmental officials mulling permit requests must include residents of affected communities in the decision-making process and consider other existing “stressors” in the community, such as the cumulative impacts of multiple sources of pollution and water quality issues.

The new regulations also require permit applicants to prepare an environmental justice impact statement and host a public hearing on their plan. Several such hearings are scheduled for projects from Paterson to Camden to Clifton.

Facilities covered by the new environmental justice rules are: gas-fired power plants, cogeneration facilities, and other major sources of air pollution; recycling facilities, garbage incinerators, and landfills; sludge processing facilities; large sewage treatment plants; scrap metal facilities; and medical waste incinerators, except those serving hospitals and universities.

Environmental activists who lobbied for the law celebrated the regulations’ adoption.

Kim Gaddy of Clean Water Action said her group fought to “keep the language tight to make sure that not one more drop of pollution can be added to our already overburdened predominantly Black and brown, low-income, and language-isolated communities. No one should live like this, and this newly adopted EJ rule is going to help us get the justice and remedies we seek and deserve.”

Not everyone was happy. Ray Cantor of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association said the rules hurt business.

“These rules will essentially lock out any new manufacturing from coming into the state and significantly prevent the expansion of existing businesses,” Cantor said in a statement. “Even existing New Jersey manufacturers, seeking a permit renewal, may be forced to relocate out of state. The clear message is that New Jersey is not open to manufacturing and the good-paying jobs they deliver.”

New Jersey Monitor, the Garden State’s newest news site, provides fair and tough reporting on the issues affecting New Jersey, from political corruption to education to criminal and social justice. The Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.