The Murphy administration will move forward on a controversial plan to build a new, $180 million fracked gas backup power plant along Newark Bay in the city’s Ironbound section despite strong opposition from local lawmakers and community organizations.
Commissioner of Environmental Protection Shawn LaTourette said an environmental justice review has been completed and will allow the project operated by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission to move forward.
“The construction of this facility may be an affront to some, the reality — the scientific fact — is that air pollution from his facility will be reduced,” said LaTourette.
PVSC receives raw sewage from 48 municipalities in five North Jersey counties and is the sixth largest in the nation out of more than 16,000.
“During storm events, sewage treatment plans receive a large influx of sewage mixed with stormwater, and if power to the plant fails, plants are often unable to process that sewage and we can see back up into the streets and even in homes,” LaTourette explained. “That leaves sewage systems no choice but to bypass the treatment plan and then send raw sewage right out into our rivers and our bays, and that introduces pathogens that can harm people and ecology.”
The new power plant – the fifth in Newark – would be used only for emergency power during a storm and not for everyday use, LaTourette said. PVSC would not be permitted to use the backup station as a routine power source, and they would not be allowed to sell any energy it generations back to the power grid.
“If there’s a power outage, we want the sewage treatment plans to run,” he explained. “This is not a power plant to generate energy in the broad sense.”
During Sandy, power outages led to billions of gallons of sewage to be spilled into Newark Bay.
This will be the fifth power station in Newark, and LaTourette acknowledged that there is a long history of industrial pollution that has disproportionately affected Ironbound residents.
“The purpose of our environmental justice law is not to outright deny new projects, but rather to improve upon the baseline conditions that communities experiences — reduced environmental and public health stressors upon that community,” stated LaTourette. “That is what this decision does.”
The project became an issue in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate earlier this year, with Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) opposing it; which led his then-opponent, First Lady Tammy Murphy, to distance herself from her husband’s administration and also oppose it.
Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark) and Assembly Budget Committee Chair Eliana Pintor-Marin (D-Newark), who represent the Ironbound neighborhood, strongly opposed the project. So did Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and county and local elected officials.
The DEP’s approval of the PVSC power plant in the Ironbound neighborhood is an indefensible and hypocritical decision that blatantly violates New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Law,” Ruiz stated. “It disregards the well-being of Newark residents who have long borne the brunt of toxic air pollution and negative health outcomes from nearby power plants built in their communities to shield more affluent areas from its harmful effects. These decisions have deep-rooted implications in systems that have consistently impacted communities of color.”
Ruiz slapped the Murphy administration saying they can’t “pat itself on the back for pioneering environmental justice policies and promoting environmental education in schools while continuing to harm the environment and the health of its most vulnerable residents.”
“The people most affected by this act will bear the health and psychological brunt, particularly the children who reside in these neighborhoods, unlike the decision-makers who remain comfortably detached from the consequences of their shocking and reprehensible actions,” she said.
Pintor-Marin called the decision to move forward “deplorable.”
“Newark, designated as an overburdened community by the DEP, faces numerous environmental and public health challenges. The East Ward, in particular, bears the brunt of these issues, with some of the highest asthma rates in children nationwide,” the Ironbound legislator said. “Newark deserves better. My children deserve better; our children deserve better. It’s time to take a stand for the health and future of our community.”
This story was edited at 6:18 PM to include comment from Ruiz and Pintor-Marin.