After months of analysis and intense input from a broad spectrum of community and development stakeholders, New Jersey has aired implementing details of its nation-leading 2020 law to integrate “environmental justice” criteria into how, or whether, certain pollution-emitting facilities are built or expanded in communities the state has determined as “overburdened” by toxic and climate change risks.

The state Dept. of Environmental Protection unveiled thelong-awaited proposed rulesthat will launch a 90-day public comment period as of June 6 on how it considers granting permits for facilities—including 10-MW or larger power plants, incinerators, waste recycling facilities, sewage treatment plants larger than 50 million gallons per day, landfills and other projects defined as air pollution sources under the U.S. Clean Air Act—in communities meeting minority, low-income and other population criteria.

“This is a big deal … and a watershed moment,” said DEP CommissionerShawn LaTourette, in a June 3 briefing. “N.J. is the first state in the U.S. towrestle meaningfully with addressing cumulative impactsof pollution that are disproportionately experienced.”

The review period will include three July hearings, with DEP aiming to enact final rules by Dec 31.

New Jersey identified 310 possibly affected municipalities that include 50% of the state population, updated with the most recent two years of census data, said Sean Moriarty, a DEP deputy commissioner.

尽管有针对性社区的数量自2020年以来就没有改变，但该机构将环境“压力源”的数量减少了，例如移动空气污染，靠近公路，地面臭氧和哮喘等健康风险，从60种。

depsays it cannot estimate the cost of compliance, but notes that the rules will significantly benefit public health, and do not bar new facility construction. Also, permit approval would weigh location choice and mitigation steps, and would encourage innovation, it adds. Also key is whether a project “satisfies the compelling public-interest standard” to be built in a community on DEP’s list, although the proposal says economic benefit will not be an overriding factor.

“压力源”

To be made available is a new digital mapping tool that can aid builders and community members to visualize how projects would impact overburdened communities, and compare impacts over different years, said Kandyce Perry, director of NJDEP’s environmental justice office. “Facilities can look at specifics and see how to reduce stressor levels,” said Moriarty. “The possibilities are endless, limited only by the creativity of the applicant.”

With stakeholders still digesting the 154-page proposal, few have advanced previous positions. Business trade groups had raised concern about compliance impacts to project costs and to future needed economic development. LaTourette noted that "folks overanticipate the impacts and suggest a parade of horribles from an economic perspective, which is completely untrue.”

Maria Lopez-Nuñez, deputy director of organizing and advocacy for an environmental group representing residents in one industrialized area of Newark, said her "initial read is that the rules adhere to the spirit of the law.” She has praised the state’s unusually broad effort to gain public input over the last year and the proposed rule’s likely impact on federal justice guidelines as well as programs in other states. “A lot of people in the EJ community are looking at this closely,” she said.

已经在该州设定的指定司法社区的18luck官网大型项目可能面临挑战。

其中包括一家计划在纽瓦克的84兆瓦甲烷燃料发电厂，主要州废水公用事业Passaic Valley污水处理委员会表示，在一场大风暴中需要作为废水处理管理的备份。该机构的主要治疗厂在2012年的超级风暴桑迪期间失去了动力，将8.4亿加仑的原污水送入了Passaic River和Newark湾。

State approval of the $184-million project, which has faced strong community opposition, was paused in January by Gov. Phi Murphy, as the commission further studies environmental impact and added pollution mitigation technology. It said the facility may also convert from natural gas to cleaner fuels when it becomes feasible, including the use of battery power. Utility officials also promised to implement air emission controls and a hybrid microgrid.

拉图莱特说，该工厂的环境正义问题现在可以根据他发布的2021年行政命令来考虑。

Also now facing community upset—and a just-submitted petition to pause permitting—is a state plan for an estimated $4.5-billion project to widen to four lanes and replace infrastructure of a heavily traveled section of the New Jersey Turnpike built in the 1950s through Bayonne and Jersey City that links to the Holland Tunnel and into lower Manhattan.

Gannett Fleming was awarded a $30.3-million contract for preliminary design and environmental services in January.

LaTourette noted that application of the proposed environmental justice rules will be “complex and necessarily imperfect, but it’s changemaking.” He added that the rule “will be debated and refined in months and years to come,” also expecting lawsuits, “but more will meet its challenge.”

Meanwhile, other states are eyeing similar curbs, said DEP officials, pointing to efforts in Colorado, South Carolina and Michigan, although “none have the same authority we do,” said Moriarty.

A draft policy in Pennsylvania that could take effect this summer directs its state environmental agency to make environmental justice a factor in prioritizing facility inspections, enforcing compliance with pertinent laws, planning for climate-change impacts, issuing grants and funding community development projects.

In Vermont, Gov. Phil Scott on May 31 signed legislation creating that state’s first environmental justice policy.