TRENTON – Advocates for cities and towns across New Jersey where industrial pollution has contaminated rivers and dumped chemicals in our communities are campaigning for a ballot measure that puts a lock box on settlements meant to restore defiled natural resources.
The advocates held a tele-press conference on Thursday to inform voters about Question 2 on the November ballot and encourage them to ‘Vote Yes.’
“Voting ‘Yes’ on Question 2 will ensure that communities impacted by pollution receive the settlements they are due and that our environment is restored,” said Ed Potosnak, chair of New Jersey Keep It Green, a coalition of more than 150 environmental organizations that is leading the ballot question campaign. “Together we can safeguard legal settlements paid by polluters and ensure they go to restore parks, rivers and streams, fish, wildlife populations, and habitat.”
New Jersey’s laws require corporate polluters to clean up where they have contaminated and pay for the damages the pollution wreaked on the environment. The damages paid by polluting companies are known as Natural Resource Damages (NRD).For example, in a case where pollution to a river rendered the water unsafe to fish or swim, NRD funds would be used to make up for these lost uses by restoring public access to the river through community waterfront parks or restoring fish habitat.
Newark’s Riverfront Park was built, in part, with Natural Resource Damages funds from Occidental Chemical Corp. and others responsible for the discharge of hazardous pollutants into the Passaic River.
“Natural Resource Damage money is intended to help affected communities recover from industrial pollution, sometimes sustained over many decades,” said Kelly Mooij, coordinator of Keep It Green. “Spending the money for its intended purpose is essential to a successful program that makes polluted communities whole again.”
In recent years, the money has been raided by Trenton politicians to balance the state budget. Though Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature voted overwhelmingly to put Question 2 to voters this Nov. 7, they did not resist raiding NRD funds one more time in current budget.
“Raiding of funds is a significant and widespread issue and has been for several administrations. Voter-approved Constitutional amendments are the only way to protect funds for their intended purposes,” said Debbie Mans, executive director of NY/NJ Baykeeper. With the amount of money from NRD settlements allowed to be used for restoration capped at $50 million total in the current budget, the Christie administration may be in a rush to settle cases quickly to sweep monies over that $50 million cap into the general state budget, before voters could tie their hands.
A lot is at stake. In addition to the pending ExxonMobil settlement for $225 million, draft settlements recently have been announced for three long-standing NRD cases:
•Sunoco MTBE settlement for $64 million
•BP MTBE settlement for $32 million
•Motiva/Shell settlement for $68.5 million
This means that nearly $390 million could be raided by the Christie Administration instead of being invested in impacted communities to build parks, restore natural resources and improve water quality.
For more information, visit: http://www.njlcv.org/yeson2