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GARDEN STATE ENVIRONEWS 031209

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Dec 9, 2003, 2:13:30 AM12/9/03

031209

GARDEN STATE ENVIRONEWS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
{*} IMPORTANT WEST MILFORD DOWNZONING PUBLIC HEARING - DEC 11
{*} NEW JERSEY'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
{*} NJPIRG STUDY SHOWS TOO MANY LIVES AT RISK
{*} EPA SUED OVER TOXIC WASTE AIR RULES
{*} EAST CAMDEN DIRT REMOVAL HITS SNAG
{*} EGG HARBOR GASOLINE CLEANUP WINDING DOWN
{*} DREDGE DISPOSAL BREAKTHROUGH
{*} LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS FACILITY PLANNED IN NJ
{*} CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SEEKS TO HIDE BEHIND SPIN DOCTOR
{*} TOWNS UNDECIDED ON NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING RULES
{*} NJ STRUGGLES TO DEFINE WHAT CONSTITUTES FARMLAND
{*} NEW JERSEY VOTERS THE BEST IN OPEN SPACE SUPPORT
{*} ENVIRONMENTAL FEES
{*} WORLD'S LARGEST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW DATABASE LAUNCHED
{*} WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST INTERN OPPORTUNITY
{*} SPECIAL PLANTS OF THE PINELANDS COURSE

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IMPORTANT WEST MILFORD DOWNZONING PUBLIC HEARING - DEC 11

Date: 09 Dec 2003
From: "Robert M. Szuszkowski" {rs...@optonline.net}

Dear friends, environmental colleagues and Highlands advocates,

On Thursday night, December 11th at the West Milford Municipal
building, the West Milford Township Council is going to attempt
something unprecedented. This present Town Council is only seated
until December 31st. In January an entirely new and extremely pro-
development Council takes the helm, so I am reaching out to all of you
urging you to please come to this last meeting that will either make
or break the future of this Highlands community we all call the "Heart
of the Highlands." Many people know that West Milford is home to two
watersheds; the Pequannock and the Wanaque. Although we have thousands
of acres of watershed land in town, it is interspersed and fragmented
by other large tracts of land that are currently undeveloped and in
some cases zoned for high density residential housing, in some cases 4
units per acre with possibility of sewers and even higher densities. .

On Thursday evening the West Milford Township Council is holding
three public hearings on down-zoning three of these larger tracts
totaling over 600 acres. We have three votes to downzone these tracts,
to R-4 which is more in line with the surrounding watershed lands, but
we need to convince two more Council members, and we need your help.
One of these tracts drains into a C-1 waterway and into the
Charlottesburg Reservoir. The others are in sewer service areas, that
allows double densities, even though there are no sewers there now.
All of these tracts contain many acres of undisturbed wetlands and are
home to many species including Barred Owls, Red Shouldered Hawks,
Great Blue Herons, and Bobcats to name a few. All of these tracts also
lie in what is known as the scenic Union Valley Road corridor between
Bearfort and Kanouse Mountains and if successfully down-zoned would
create an eight mile stretch of Union Valley Road with large lot
holdings interspersed with watershed, keeping an appearance of un-
fragmented forest through the "Heart of the Highlands."

In the October 1999 Issue of New Jersey Monthly, the stretch of road
that traverses by these tracts was described as sitting in an
".unblemished landscape" as it was described as one of New Jersey
Monthly's Five Most Scenic Routes in New Jersey. They also wrote that,

"..sprawling horse farms fill the landscape. Slow down to take in
their rolling hills and rustic stables, but don't take your eyes off
the road for too long because you're in bear country."

If this land is allowed to be further fragmented we will see even
more large tracts that are critical to bear habitats further
fragmented creating more of an outcry from residents, because then the
bears will have absolutely nowhere to go.

I urge you to please attend this critical down-zoning public hearing
and please speak, urging the West Milford Town Council to downzone all
three of these tracts that are so extremely critical in supporting;

1. An ecosystem that once destroyed cannot be replaced.

2. Scenery that rivals anything that New England has to offer.

3. A drainage basin and recharge area critical to not only the local
population but also to millions downstream that drink the water
that flows through here.

I hope to see some of you there. The meeting is at 7:30 on Thursday
December 11th at the West Milford Township Municipal building at 1480
Union Valley Road in West Milford. I have attached directions below as
well as a link to the township webs site for more information on our
beautiful town.

- - -

DIRECTIONS

From Southern New Jersey:

Take 287 North to Route 23 North. Follow Route 23 North to the Echo
Lake Road exit in Newfoundland. Make a left at the end of Echo Lake
Road onto Macopin Road. Stay on Macopin Road for approximately 6
miles. Macopin will travel directly into Union Valley Road at a "Y"
intersection. Follow Union Valley Road about ź mile into the Town
Center. West Milford Town Hall is a red brick building set back from
the road on your right ahead of two traffic signals.

From Upstate New York:

Take Route 94 west through the Town of Warwick. Look for the sign
"Upper Greenwood Lake." Make a left turn onto Route 21 (Warwick Tpke.)
Stay on this road for 7.3 miles. Make a right turn onto White Road.
Bearing right at the bottom of White Road will place you on Union
Valley Road. At the traffic signal, make a right. Go straight through
the second traffic signal and look for West Milford Town Hall on your
left. It is a red brick building set back from the road.

From the New York City Area and Bergen County:

Take the George Washington Bridge to Route 4 West. Exit Route 4 onto
Route 208. Exit Route 208 at Skyline Drive. Follow Skyline Drive
through two stop signs until it intersects with Route 511 North (aka
Greenwood Lake Tpke.). Stay on Route 511 until the "Y" intersection at
Greenwood Lake Sports Center. Bear left at the "Y" onto Marshall Hill
Road. At the stop sign bear left again. Pass a ShopRite shopping
center and travel straight through two traffic signals. After the
second signal look for West Milford Town Hall on your left. It is a
red brick building set back from the road.

Take Route 80 West to Route 23 North. Continue North on Route 23 to
Union Valley Rd. Proceed on union Valley Rd. until you reach the stop
sign (6.5 miles). Go straight on Union Valley Rd. the Municipal
building will be on the right (0.4 miles).

* * *

Bob Szuszkowski
Councilman at Large
Township of West Milford
Phone: 973-697-1436
rs...@optonline.net

West Milford Web site - http://www.westmilford.org

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NEW JERSEY'S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

Date: 031209
From: http://www.nj.com/news/times/

By Tracey L. Regan, Times Staff Writer, December 08, 2003

Over the past several years, it has become conventional wisdom in New
Jersey that the state's poor air quality is the fault of out-of-state
power plants that send smog and other toxic chemicals drifting over
the state's borders.

New Jersey has joined neighboring states in litigation to force power
companies to the South and Midwest to cut emissions from their
smokestacks. Officials representing McGreevey charged the Bush
administration with facilitating the flow of pollutants by loosening
controls on power plants. While it is true that about a third of the
smog here blows in over the state's borders, the largest source of
pollution is local.

The state is now under increasing pressure to address emissions from
the growing number of cars and light trucks on the state's congested
roads and highways, say administration officials and environmental
advocates.

Those so-called "mobile sources" produce about 40 percent of the
state's smog, according to federal environmental officials, and the
vast majority of toxic pollutants, such as benzene. Environmental
advocacy groups here contend that on-road and off-road vehicles
together account for about 50 percent of the state's smog.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week declared the
entire state to be out of compliance with strict federal smog (ozone)
standards adopted at the end of the 1990s.

"Under EPA's new air quality standard for smog, many states,
including New Jersey, will need to do more," Jane Kenny, EPA regional
administrator, said last week.

That finding will mean that "New Jersey will have to look at more
significant reductions in state," said Bradley Campbell, commissioner
of the state Department of Environmental Protection, who criticized
the agency for taking what he called cheaper options, such as curbs on
the country's largest power plants, "off the table."

While the state has called for reductions over the past decade in
power plant emissions, New Jersey officials have been less eager to
mandate curbs on cars.

Last week, for the second time this year, a Senate committee declined
to take a vote on a bill that would require the state to adopt the
stricter auto emissions standards in place in California and New York.
After the hearing, sponsors of the bill said they would consider
adding economic incentives to the package that would make it more
palatable to the car dealers who oppose it.

Critics say the state also routinely fails to acknowledge the impact
that major developments, such as the recently approved "Xanadu"
project in the Meadowlands - a $1.3 billion sports and entertainment
complex - have on the state's air quality.

Ray Bateman, one of two members of the Sports and Exposition
Authority board who voted against the project last week, said he did
so in part because the development "will cause an environmental
crisis" in an already traffic-congested part of the state.

While Campbell said the state will review the project's impact on air
quality over the next several months, Bateman said there was no plan
in place to address it.

"How we'll offset this, I don't know. It was discussed and dismissed
by proponents who said: `Don't worry, we'll solve all of these
environmental problems. Next case,' " Bateman said, adding, "They
don't have a plan."

He said that while the sports authority board has talked about
building a rail link to the complex sometime in the future, "doing
rail is very difficult. There are competing interests, and it is a lot
more difficult than they think."

Under the federal Clean Air Act, the state is required to offset
pollution increases brought by large transportation projects that put
regional plans for meeting ambient air quality standards at risk.

"They've locked themselves into a developers agreement before there
is even an environmental review to look at what the impacts are,"
Jeffrey Tittel, director of the Sierra Club, said of the Meadowlands
project. "What we do is develop first and look at the environment
second."

Campbell said the state is weighing several options for reducing
emissions from vehicles.

One possible plan, he said, is to require pollution controls on large
off-road vehicles that emit soot as well as smog-causing chemicals. He
said the state also could mandate the year-round use of oxygenates in
the gasoline sold here to make it cleaner-burning.

"Obviously the California car proposal is one option," he added,
though he pointed out the Legislature must approve that measure.

James Appleton, chief of the state car dealership association,
insists the state must also provide "appropriate incentives" to reduce
the cost of some of the more expensive cars dealers may have to sell
here as a result, such as electric/gas hybrids.

Campbell said it has become increasingly difficult to reduce car
emissions, not just because the population continues to grow but also
because people here are driving more miles on average each year.

"It's a function of longer commuting times," he said.

Environmental advocates who criticize the state for ignoring
pollution from cars say it will become increasingly difficult to do so
as the country's air quality standards tighten.

"The EPA's action will require New Jersey to write a new, more
stringent and more comprehensive clean air plan," said Dena Mottola,
director of the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group.

"Adopting a clean air plan that doesn't reduce smog pollution from
the number one source, cars and trucks, would be like bailing out a
sinking ship with a spoon or treating cancer with aspirin."

* * *

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NJPIRG STUDY SHOWS TOO MANY LIVES AT RISK

Date: 031209
From: http://njpirg.org/

CLEAN AIR ADVOCATES CALL FOR URGENT ACTION ON AIR POLLUTION

December 8, 2003

Trenton - Clean air advocates from the New Jersey Public Interest
Research Group, released today the findings of a major study of the
health impacts of air pollution in the state and called for urgent
action to protect public health.

The study, entitled "The Public Health Impact of Air Pollution in New
Jersey," determined that each year between 2,300 and 5,400 New Jersey
residents die prematurely because of air pollution, accounting for
between 5.5 percent and 7.7 percent of all deaths not caused by
violence or accidents. This finding ranks air pollution as the third
highest risk factor for premature death, behind smoking and obesity,
and just slightly above alcohol.

"Unlike smoking or obesity, individuals have little control over
their exposure to air pollution," said Dena Mottola, executive
director of NJPIRG Law and Policy Center. "This study highlights why
we need to act aggressively as a society to limit pollution from all
the major sources."

The study quantified the impacts of soot and smog pollution in New
Jersey, from hospital admissions to sick days. NJPIRG researchers
produced the estimates using air pollution monitoring data from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), baseline health statistics
from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services and EPA,
a review of scientific studies of the connection between air pollution
and health damage, and methodology based on similar work produced by
EPA and the World Health Organization. The report quantifies the full
impact of air pollution, accounting for all air pollution above
natural background levels.

The study found widespread damage to public health from air pollution
extending well beyond premature death. The study reports that
annually, soot causes 7,800 to 15,000 hospital admissions for
respiratory and cardiovascular disease, 450 to 9,500 new cases of
chronic bronchitis, 330,000 to 1.4 million asthma attacks, 460,000 to
530,000 missed work days, 7.1 million to 9.7 million person-days when
air pollution-related illness limits normal activity levels, and 14
million to 45 million person-days when air pollution causes mild
respiratory symptoms like shortness of breath or cough.

"Air pollution is a threat to our health year-round," added Mottola.
"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it can't harm you."

Additionally, the study reports that every summer season, ground
level ozone, or smog, causes 860 to 1,900 cases of adult onset asthma,
3,900 to 5,900 hospital admissions for respiratory disease, 640 to
12,000 emergency room visits for asthma, 110,000 to 310,000 asthma
attacks, 960,000 to 1.7 million person-days when air pollution limits
normal activity levels, and 2.4 million to 7.5 million person-days
when smog causes mild respiratory symptoms.

"Contrary to popular belief, scientific studies indicate that there
are no safe levels of exposure to air pollution," said Travis Madsen,
staff researcher for NJPIRG. "New Jersey residents face an enormous
burden of illness from bad air, despite the fact that air quality
meets federal standards on many days during the year."

Children also bear a health burden from air pollution. The report
found that each year, air pollution causes 40 to 80 infants to die
prematurely, 290 to 440 hospitalizations for pediatric asthma, 21,000
to 77,000 cases of acute bronchitis in children, 150,000 to 170,000
pediatric asthma attacks, and roughly 600,000 missed school days.

The pollutants examined in the study mainly come from the burning of
fossil fuels such as gasoline and diesel fuel in motor vehicles and
coal and natural gas in power plants. Within New Jersey in 1999,
nearly 60 percent of soot emissions and almost half of smog-forming
emissions came from on and off-road motor vehicles and equipment. On-
highway vehicles produced 48 percent of particulate emissions and 31
percent of smog-forming emissions. Out of state pollution sources also
contribute to the overall problem, including mobile sources in nearby
cities like Philadelphia and New York, and coal-fired power plants in
Pennsylvania and the Midwest.

The report recommends a suite of policies aimed at reducing emissions
from the largest sources in order to reduce pollution levels and
improve public health. The policies include: cleaning up on-highway
vehicles by installing particulate trapping filters on currently
operating diesel engines and requiring auto manufacturers to produce
less-polluting vehicles; reducing road-dependent land use practices
and sprawl while encouraging better transit to reduce transportation
emissions; cleaning up upwind industrial facilities by restoring and
enforcing the New Source Review provision of the Clean Air Act, and
implementing a new, tough national cap on power plant emissions. The
authors note that while these policies will not fully eliminate air
pollution and its impacts, they will yield progress.

- - -

For More Information:
Travis Madsen or Dena Mottola
(609) 394-8155

* * *

The New Jersey Public Interest Research Group
Citizen Lobby and Law & Policy Center
11 North Willow Street
Trenton, NJ 08608
609-394-8155

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EPA SUED OVER TOXIC WASTE AIR RULES

Date: 031209
From: http://www.ens-newswire.com/

AmeriScan, December 8, 2003

Washington, DC - Environmentalists filed suit Friday in federal court
challenging regulations published by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) to regulate hazardous chemicals at toxic waste sites.

The plaintiffs in the suit believe the EPA regulations will allow
these hazardous chemicals to be pumped into the air without any
control measures.

"On behalf of its friends in the polluter lobby, the Bush
administration has engaged in a scam that the Enron Board would
admire," said Jim Pew, attorney for Earthjustice who is representing
the environmental groups. "This rule will allow polluters to avoid
much of the cost of cleaning up their toxic waste by just shifting
their poisons from the water and soil to the air."

The cleanup of toxic waste sites typically uses heat or aeration
methods to remove chemicals from contaminated soil and water. The
process releases a wide array of toxic compounds into the air -
previously the EPA had listed these cleanup operations as a major
source of hazardous air pollution that must be regulated under the
Clean Air Act's air toxics provisions.

That changed in October, when the agency issued a rule completely
exempting the bulk of toxic waste cleanups - all those conducted under
the Superfund law (CERCLA) or state programs run under the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) - from Clean Air Act emission
standards.

The agency says emissions standards are unnecessary because CERCLA
and RCRA already require federal or state agencies to establish
appropriate requirements for cleanups on a case by case basis.

The requirements are, according to the EPA, the "functional
equivalent" of Clean Air Act emission standards, but neither RCRA nor
CERCLA require any air emission standards for toxic waste cleanups nor
ensure that such standards will be equivalent to those the Clean Air
Act's air toxics provisions would require.

The case was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the Sierra Club, the
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and Concerned Citizens for
Nuclear Safety, in the United States Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia Circuit.

* * *

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EAST CAMDEN DIRT REMOVAL HITS SNAG

Date: 8 Dec 2003
From: "Peter Montague" {Pe...@rachel.org}

By Richard Pearsall, Courier-Post Staff, Dec. 5, 2003

On the day NJ Transit opened bids for the removal and disposal of
contaminated dirt piled in East Camden, the agency had already begun
trucking the dirt to a sand-and-gravel pit in Bucks County, Pa.

Lynn Bowersox, a spokeswoman for NJ Transit, confirmed that 5,000
cubic yards of the dirt, excavated during construction of the South
Jersey light rail line, have been taken to the Penn Valley Quarry in
Falls Township, Pa.

Pennsylvania, meanwhile, has blocked further dumping of the dirt at
the quarry until it can do its own analysis of the soil.

"That quarry is no longer approved to be used," said Ron Furlan,
director of waste management programs for the Pennsylvania Department
of Environmental Protection's Southeast Regional Office. "It may be
that what was represented to us is not the whole story and we'd rather
be safe than sorry."

The dirt contains low levels of hazardous substances such as arsenic,
lead and PCBs and is deemed unsuitable for residential areas.

Bowersox said her agency "welcomed their inspection" and is
"confident that they will find it (the dirt) acceptable."

Furlan said his agency will be inspecting the soil in East Camden as
well as in the quarry.

In June, NJ Transit agreed to remove the dirt, some 123,000 cubic
yards in East Camden and another 26,000 cubic yards in the Roebling
section of Florence, after residents of East Camden protested its
presence in huge mounds next to their neighborhood.

The agency began removing the soil in October, awarding the trucking
and disposal contracts without bids in order to demonstrate good faith
and get the project moving, it said.

NJ Transit said it decided to put out for bid the work on the removal
of the remaining two-thirds of the dirt in East Camden in an effort to
get a better deal.

The bids opened Tuesday revealed that NJ Transit had already selected
a disposal facility, the Penn Valley Quarry, and a broker, Beneficial
Soils Solutions, to handle the disposal for a fee of $1.8 million.

Carl Lasher, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania DEP, said that dumping
the dirt in the quarry was approved by the department's division of
mining reclamation based on analyses presented to it by Beneficial
Soils Solutions.

Bowersox said the quarry and the broker were selected without bids
based on the "exigency clause" of NJ Transit's bylaws and said the
agency "got other price quotes" before selecting them.

Conti Enterprises submitted the low bid on the "removal and loading
and disposal of nonhazardous soil" from the Camden berms, undercutting
two other bidders by a wide margin.

Conti, the general contractor who did most of the construction work
on the light rail line itself, bid $3.8 million, a price that includes
the $1.8 million it will pass on to Beneficial Soil Solutions and the
Penn Valley Quarry.

Acknowledging Tuesday that Conti submitted the low bid, NJ Transit
officials said that no contract would be executed until the bids were
reviewed and approved by the NJ Transit board, which meets next week.

* * *

Reach Richard Pearsall at (856) 486-2465 or
rpea...@courierpostonline.com
Copyright 2003 Courier-Post.

# # #

Rachel's Environment & Health News
Environmental Research Foundation
POB 160
New Brunswick NJ 08903-0160
T: 732-828-9995
F: 732-791-4603
E: e...@rachel.org
W: http://www.rachel.org

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EGG HARBOR GASOLINE CLEANUP WINDING DOWN

Date: 8 Dec 2003
From: "Peter Montague" {Pe...@rachel.org}

By Dan P. Lee, Staff Writer, (609) 272-7209
Press of Atlantic City, Dec. 6, 2003

Egg Harbor Township - An environmental cleanup project is wrapping up
along a closed portion of Somers Point-Mays Landing Road where
gasoline leached from underground storage tanks removed decades ago
from a former gas station.

The official supervising the project, which began Nov. 13 with the
closing of the county roadway between Steelmanville Road and
Schoolhouse Lane, said the plume of the old gasoline is relatively
small and that no drinking-water wells in the area have been affected.
He said the work is meant to protect residents' wells.

Information about the discovery of the contamination and the work to
clean it up was not released to the news media, and county officials
explained the cleanup project simply as "roadwork" in a one-paragraph
news released issued in early November. Township officials appear to
have had little knowledge about the situation, as Township
Administrator Peter Miller said he had been unaware of the
contamination and the cleanup project when informed by a reporter
Thursday afternoon.

County engineer Joseph D'Abundo said the project involved the county
only because portions of its roadway were to be affected. He said it
was the result of a Superior Court order but referred specific
questions to Michael Grzankowski, president of MSG Contracting Inc.,
the Mercer County-based environmental cleanup company contracted for
the job.

Reached late Thursday afternoon, Fred Mumford, a state Department of
Environmental Protection spokesman, said he would not be able to
provide information about the problem or the cleanup until next week.

But Grzankowski, the official supervising the project, said in a
telephone interview that the discovery of the leaching gasoline came
several months ago when the owners of the property on which the gas
station formerly operated, at 1624 Somers Point-Mays Landing Road,
went to sell their house and began required testing.

He said the gas station operated in the 1920s and '30s but was
eventually closed, and the underground gasoline tanks were removed in
the 1950s.

He said testing determined that the plume was about 3,000 square feet
by 12 feet deep. He said his company is handling the cleanup project
under a consulting firm hired by the homeowner's insurer.

Grzankowski said the project involved several steps, including first
tearing up a 40-foot-wide by 70-foot-long stretch of Somers Point-Mays
Landing Road under which the plume extended. He said workers then
removed all the affected soil, replacing it with more than 70 loads of
dirt, each comprising approximately 20 yards.

Grzankowski stressed that the plume had remained relatively
stationary over the years and that no wells in the area, including
that of the home on the site of the former gas station - where workers
also removed a former gas station structure as part of the cleanup
project - have tested positive for contamination.

Grzankowski said that all the soil now has been replaced and that the
only remaining work is to repave the roadway. He said he expects the
paving to begin and end next week, contingent on the weather, and said
that the situation then should be permanently settled.

"When I'm done there's nothing left," he said. "I remove everything
from the site."

The homeowners could not be reached for comment.

* * *

To email Dan P. Lee at The Press: DL...@pressofac.com

# # #

Rachel's Environment & Health News
Environmental Research Foundation
POB 160
New Brunswick NJ 08903-0160
T: 732-828-9995
F: 732-791-4603
E: e...@rachel.org
W: http://www.rachel.org

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

DREDGE DISPOSAL BREAKTHROUGH

Date: 8 Dec 2003
From: "Peter Montague" {Pe...@rachel.org}

PROCESS TURNS IT INTO BUILDING MATERIAL AT BAYONNE DEMO PROJECT

By Julia M. Scott, Jersey Journal Staff Writer, December 06, 2003

Dredge material - the silt and clay, much of it contaminated with
pollutants, dragged up from the bottom of the Kill Van Kull and other
channel deepening projects - has always been viewed as a hard-to-
dispose-of waste product.

But the Gas Technologies Institute has a recipe for turning the black
muck into a useful substance: Take one cubic yard of dredge, mix with
limestone, heat to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit in a huge kiln, cool with
water, and the result is "Ecomelt," a stringy substance resembling
rock-hard pencil lead.

Ecomelt can then be ground up and combined with wet cement to create
Cement-Lock, a construction-grade form of concrete.

The transformation process was demonstrated last month at the foot of
a huge churning kiln at the International Matex Tank Terminal in
Bayonne.

"The technology you see here today turns waste material into a viable
product," said Jane M. Kenny, the regional administrator of the
federal Environmental Protection Agency.

"It does seem too good to be true," said Michael C. Mensinger, senior
chemical engineer for Gas Technologies Institute, who is one of six
people named on two of the technology's patents.

When contaminated dredge is baked at such hot temperatures it melts
into "lava," breaking down harmful contaminants into basic elements,
like carbon and hydrogen.

"You basically get 100 percent conversion from the dredge to the
Ecomelt," said Stanley S. Borys, GTI's chief operating officer.

About one cubic yard of dredge will produce a half-ton of Ecomelt,
Mensinger said, after being cooked in the 30-foot long kiln.

GTI employees discovered the technology while brainstorming with
Unitel Technologies, Inc. to solve a problem the EPA had posed in
1998: How can contaminated dredge material be turned into a useful
substance?

After deciding not to dump any more dredge material into the ocean of
New Jersey in 1997, the EPA set aside $20 million and the state of New
Jersey doubled that to fund companies' search for a solution, Kenny
said.

One proposal was from GTI, which received $1.2 million to develop the
technology.

The Midwestern company decided to house the kiln at the IMTT because
it was near the harbor, where so much dredge was coming from, and
because New Jersey partially funded the project, Mensinger said.

GTI, a company that develops environmental-and energy-related
technologies, was familiar with the problem of making urban
environments self-sufficient, Borys said.

They expect EPA approval in the next few months.

The EPA Superfund Innovative Technologies Evaluation unit is running
tests on air samples to determine if the kiln emissions are safe. If
they are, GTI will be one step closer to EPA approval.

James T.B. Tripp, general counsel of Environmental Defense, called
the technology a "win-win for the environment," and one that could
lead to a cleaner New York/New Jersey bay "without simply shifting the
harm to another location."

GTI officials believe they can transform dredge sediment into
concrete for about $35 per cubic yard, Mensinger said.

Over the past six or seven years, the cost of disposing of dredge
above land (as opposed to dumping it in the ocean) has fallen from
about $118 per ton to $32 per ton, said state Department of
Transportation representative Rick Gimello.

"We're committed to finding ways to use dredge materials
beneficially," said Col. John B. O'Dowd, of the U. S. Army Corps of
Engineers, adding that the dredging in the Kill Van Kull between
Bayonne and Staten Island is the number one civil works project in the
country.

"I think this is really positive," Kenny said. "It's exactly where
you want to be, exactly what you want."

* * *

# # #

Rachel's Environment & Health News
Environmental Research Foundation
POB 160
New Brunswick NJ 08903-0160
T: 732-828-9995
F: 732-791-4603
E: e...@rachel.org
W: http://www.rachel.org

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS FACILITY PLANNED IN NJ

Date: 031209
From: http://www.philly.com/

OIL GIANT BP IS TO BUILD A TERMINAL IN LOGAN TWP.
ON THE DELAWARE TO SERVE FIVE MILLION HOMES

By Adam Fifield, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer, Dec. 05, 2003

The international oil giant BP announced plans yesterday to build a
terminal on the Delaware River in Logan Township that it said would
import enough liquefied natural gas to serve five million homes a day
in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

The Gloucester County facility, across the river from the Sunoco
refinery at Marcus Hook, would cost "several hundred million dollars"
and could be operational by 2008, according to a BP official. It would
include three storage tanks and a pier that would accommodate about
100 ships a year.

"It's an opportunity to bring clean natural gas to the area, but also
benefits the area with jobs and taxes," said Neil Chapman, BP public
affairs director.

The facility could create 60 permanent jobs and as many as 500
temporary construction jobs, according to Lauren Segal, project
manager for the Logan site.

The gas would be imported primarily from Trinidad, where BP has a
large natural-gas operation, and converted back into gaseous form at
the Logan plant before being sent into an existing pipeline network in
the region. The gas would be supplied through local distribution
companies to residences and small businesses.

Segal said that the project would not require any deepening of the
Delaware River, but that some dredging would be needed to create the
berth.

The company, which has discussed the proposal with local elected
officials, emergency personnel, and the U.S. Coast Guard, plans to
submit an application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
within the next few weeks. The commission will review the proposal,
conduct environmental reviews, and seek community input - a process
that could take up to 18 months.

Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, is natural gas that has been chilled
to minus 256 degrees Fahrenheit and condensed into a liquid. It takes
up 600 times less space than natural gas, permitting it to be shipped
to and from remote locations. There are four import terminals for
liquefied natural gas in the United States: Everett, Mass.; Cove
Point, Md.; Elba Island, Ga.; and Lake Charles, La.

Experts say natural gas is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel. There
has been a national tilt toward liquefied natural gas as domestic gas
production has slowed and demand has risen.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan called last July for
increased imports of LNG. "Access to the world natural-gas supplies
will require a major expansion of LNG-terminal-import capacity and
development of the newer offshore regasification technologies,"
Greenspan told a Senate committee.

Lois Epstein, an oil and gas industry specialist with an Alaska
environmental group, said Greenspan's remarks helped touch off a
"flurry of activity" among companies seeking to build ports to import
liquefied natural gas.

"I think they're trying to site them as fast as they can because
there's only a certain number of places where this would work,"
Epstein said. "You don't want too few, and you don't want too many, so
there's a big rush to be first."

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, there are
about 30 proposals to build LNG import terminals.

Environmentalists and safety advocates have warned that liquefied
natural gas is a potentially volatile substance that raises security
concerns. Epstein noted that the gas "is a hazardous material. And
that, by its nature, means things can go wrong."

BP officials said the Logan Township terminal would be outfitted with
numerous safety features, including monitoring devices and automatic
shut-off systems and 51/2-foot-thick storage-tank walls. The company
has conducted a security and vulnerability analysis.

"If we have an incident on the site, we have to look to make sure it
stays on the site," Segal said. "Our first focus is to do everything
we can to make sure the probability of that event is virtually zero."

Segal said the Gloucester County site was selected, in part, because
of its relative remoteness from populated areas. She also pointed out
that the facility would occupy only 40 acres of a 175-acre plot of
land, leaving 135 acres for a buffer zone.

State Sen. Stephen Sweeney, who is also a Gloucester County
freeholder director, said he had been heartened by his discussions
with BP officials on safety issues.

"We're trying to get the industry to do the right thing with existing
plants," Sweeney said. "This is a new one coming on, and there's no
reason this plant can't be state-of-the-art when it comes to security
and safety."

* * *

Contact staff writer Adam Fifield at 856-779-3917 or
afif...@phillynews.com.
(c)1995-2003 Knight Ridder Digital, Inc. All rights reserved.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SEEKS TO HIDE BEHIND SPIN DOCTOR

Date: 031207
From: http://www.ens-newswire.com/

HEALING OUR WORLD: WEEKLY COMMENT

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

As the seasons change, even people who are otherwise quite
disconnected from the natural world find themselves contemplating the
effects that the changing weather will have on their lives. Whether it
is someone in the Northern Hemisphere who is thinking about
winterizing her car or home or someone living in the Southern
Hemisphere who is preparing for summer, most of us are just a little
more aware of the dramatic connections we have with the Earth.

Unfortunately, that awareness is fleeting, and, all too quickly, most
people turn back to the comfort of the assumptions that rule our
lives. We will continue to assume that no matter what we do to the
Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land, the government will always come
to our rescue. Most people also brush off the calls to action of
citizens concerned with environmental abuse. They, once again, assume
that the government wouldn't possibly let the harmful things those
folks keep talking about happen.

The blissful ignorance that allows so many of us to get through our
day is rapidly becoming a deadly liability.

For example, if you ask just about anyone you encounter in the street
if the U.S. government requires chemical companies to prove that a
substance is safe before releasing it into the atmosphere, water,
soil, or marketplace, they would most likely say, "Of course they do!"
It is ridiculous to most people to suggest that chemical companies are
allowed to release, market, and distribute chemicals that could be
harmful to human, animal, and ecosystem health.

Well, fasten your seat belts, because that is exactly what the system
allows. And it is about to get worse.

The idea of proving chemicals safe before they reach the marketplace
is known as the precautionary principle. This has never been the
policy in the United States. Ever.

The chemical industry, however, is worried that people like you and
me may be getting tired of hearing about all the chemical poisoning
stories, about playgrounds with wood treated with arsenic, and about
all the tens of thousands of cases of cancers that have been
associated with the exposure to or ingestion of one chemical or
another. So they are going to do something about it.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC), an industry lobbying and
support organization, plans to conduct a covert campaign attacking the
growing movement, particularly in California, for more chemical safety
testing. The ACC's plans include the creation of phony front groups
and spying on activists, according to an internal memo obtained by
Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The memo recommends that the ACC hire a "crisis communications firm"
that promotes itself as the attack dog of the public relations
industry to fight back against California's adoption of laws and
regulations that embrace the precautionary principle. The idea of
proving the safety of chemicals before they are marketed has been
gaining popularity in Europe and recently, California has enacted
legislation that applies the principle to several pollutants
including, most recently, chemical flame retardants.

First introduced 30 years ago, chemical flame retardants are now
widely used despite minimal health testing and after all that time,
they have accumulated inside our bodies at relatively high levels. The
testing that has been done so far indicates that brominated flame
retardants are harmful to mental and physical development and the
levels found in some mothers and fetuses are rapidly approaching the
levels shown to impair learning and behavior in laboratory
experiments.

And it will come as no surprise to most readers that even though two-
thirds of the American public believes that such protections are in
place already, the Bush administration has opposed their
implementation here in the U.S.

The leaked memo recommends that ACC members pay $120,000 a year to
Nichols-Dezenhall, a Washington based firm that hires former FBI and
CIA agents, to conduct "selective intelligence gathering...about the
plans, motivations and allies of opposition activists...Focus on the
PP 'movement leadership' in the U.S., and in particular, California,"
the memo says.

This is consistent with the ACC's track record of attempts to hide
the chemical industry's real face from consumers. In October 2003,
they recommended that the chemical industry commit to spending $250
million over the next decade on advertising, to shift people's
attention away from issues of safety and security.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental
Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and their
counterparts in every state say a chemical is safe, they are usually
referring to one of a number of lists that have been established. The
use of these lists threatens public safety and fosters irresponsible
practices that promote business over health.

Probably the most deceptive list is the Generally Recognized as Safe
or GRAS list. The name alone should make you suspicious.

Created in 1958 by the Food and Drug Administration as part of the
revised Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, the GRAS list started
out with about 700 chemicals ranging from food additives to
preservatives. This legislation required that the FDA approve all food
additives before they are used in food.

But there are two fatal flaws in the way this legislation is
implemented. First, the manufacturer of the proposed substance
provides safety information to the FDA. In most cases, unless there
has been evidence that the substance has been causing problems, the
FDA does not conduct any tests of its own. Under current procedures, a
manufacturer may simply say that use of a food substance is "generally
recognized as safe."

Chemicals are not required to be proven safe before they are allowed
on the market. A manufacturer simply has to say it is safe.

The second flaw in the legislation is that it exempts substances that
were in use prior to 1958 from testing requirements. Thousands of
substances have never undergone testing programs.

Assuming that our government protects us from harm is but one of many
assumptions that need challenging in the coming new year. Use the
change of seasons to "winterize" or "summerize" not only your home,
car or wardrobe, but your thinking as well. Get rid of the insulation
that surrounds your ideas and your common sense. Expose yourself to
alternative information sources and don't be afraid to learn the
truth. Accept that the consequence of putting economics first means
that some children, women, men, and ecosystems must die.

What if 2004 became known in history as the year people rose up and
said, "Enough is enough," and "profit cannot come before health and
safety, especially of children?"

Now that would be something to celebrate.

- - -

RESOURCES

1. See a commentary I wrote a couple of years ago about called, "Still
Lazy After All These Years: The Myth of Product Safety," at:
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2000/2000-05-02g.asp

2. Read about the issue of toxic chemical flame retardants at:
http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/envirocaliftoxics.asp?id2=9719

3. See the story about the chemical industry's plan to divert the
public's attention from health and safety issues at:
http://www.ewg.org/news/story.php?id=2065

4. Read about the ACC's plan to fight the precautionary principle and
download a copy of the leaked memo about it at:
http://www.ewg.org/briefings/acc/

5. Write to Greg Lebedev, president and CEO, American Chemistry
Council, 1300 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 800, Arlington, VA 22209. Tell
him it is time to stop misleading and lying to the public and time to
own up to their responsibilities.

6. Find out who your elected representatives are and contact them.
Tell them we must hold chemical companies, and our own government
agencies, accountable to the public. Tell them that it is time to
place public health as a top priority, not an expendable consequence
of doing business. You can find them at:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html

7. Keep track of worldwide anti-war protests at:
http://www.protest.net/iraq_action_digest_dec_3.html

8. 20/20 Vision will help keep you informed of issues at:
http://www.2020vision.org/

9. Learn what to buy and what not to buy through the Boycott Action
News at: http://www.coopamerica.org/boycotts/index.html

10. For international activism information, visit:
http://flag.blackened.net/agony/links.html for a listing of worldwide
sites.

Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and the
author of ""Healing Our World", A Journey from the Darkness Into the
Light," available at: http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html or
your local bookstore. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions
to him at: jac...@healingourworld.com and visit his website at:
http://www.healingourworld.com

* * *

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

TOWNS UNDECIDED ON NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING RULES

Date: 031209
From: http://www.nj.com/newsflash/jersey/

TOWNS UNDECIDED ON HOW THEY'D USE NEW AFFORDABLE HOUSING RULES

By Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press, 12/8/03

Mount Laurel - The strange bedfellows alliance of advocates for the
poor, the environment and homebuilders in New Jersey fear that
proposed new rules from the state's Council on Affordable Housing
would give towns the power to hurt all three of their causes.

Those fears may be eventually realized, but so far officials say they
don't yet know how towns would use the new rules, which COAH says
should help the communities slow the pace of sprawl.

"When the plans are finalized, said John E. Coley Jr., a lawyer who
represents Clinton Township in Hunterdon County, among other towns,
"they'll get into how it affects them."

And only then will the opponents know for certain whether their fears
are founded.

The New Jersey Supreme Court told the state's towns in the landmark
Mount Laurel decisions of 1977 and 1983 that they are responsible for
providing housing within financial the reach of low-income people.

In response, the Legislature created COAH, which doled out numeric
obligations to each community. Towns had a choice: They could file a
plan and follow the rules or risk lawsuits from developers seeking to
put up dense developments that would include some affordable housing.
Those suits have the potential to hijack planning from local
officials.

The new proposal essentially lets towns set their own numbers. At
minimum, they would have to provide for one unit of subsidized housing
for every 10 market-rate units built in the municipality and one unit
for every 30 new jobs created.

In theory, a town that has met its previous obligations - old ones
would not disappear when the new rules are adopted - could decide not
to allow any more development and be done with its affordable housing
obligation.

Most of the activist groups like the idea of tying housing
requirements to growth, but think there are too many loopholes and
that the ratio of housing that should be available to low-income
people is too low. The result, they say, could be continued
overdevelopment, but without much help for the poor.

Town officials and the State League of Municipalities generally
support the new proposal, but have questions about the details.

Princeton Township, for example, wants to know whether Princeton
University could be made to pay to finance the local affordable
housing plan the way for-profit businesses that create jobs would.

COAH proposed new rules in August and has until Oct. 6, 2004, to vote
them up or down. Officials expect the vote will come long before the
deadline.

Local officials say it's that vote - and not the proposal - that will
set town governments into action.

For example, Monroe Township, one of the Gloucester County boom towns
on the edge of Philadelphia's suburbs, is planning on reworking the
housing section of its master plan next year, said planner Tim Kernan.

He's filled in members of the planning board there, as well as the
other town where he's planner, about the proposed changes but says
they did not immediately raise concerns or come up with ideas on how
the adjusted rules might work there.

Kernan said he doubts Monroe officials would allow the township to
develop much differently if the proposed rules take effect than it
does now.

But he does think the rules change would matter when it comes to
affordable housing. For example, Kernan suspects the planning board
will like the idea that half a town's affordable housing obligation
under the proposal could be met with homes for low-income senior
citizens. Under the current rules, those homes can only account for
one-fourth of the obligation.

Allowing more senior citizen housing means there would be fewer
opportunities for needy younger families, said Paul Chrystie,
executive director of the Coalition for Affordable Housing and the
Environment.

As for Chrystie's contention that the changed policy would increase
development without increasing the state's affordable housing supply
more than the current rules, those who will help towns respond deliver
a mixed verdict.

"I don't think you're going to see the changes driving the land-use
plans," said Ed Schmierer, the lawyer for planning boards in Mercer
County's Princeton Township and Hopewell and for the League of
Municipalities.

"This is going to really, really cut into development in New Jersey,"
said Clinton Township's Coley.

* * *

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

NJ STRUGGLES TO DEFINE WHAT CONSTITUTES FARMLAND

Date: 031209
From: http://www.nj.com/newsflash/jersey/

Associated Press, 12/8/03

Union Township - John Deere Landscapes' plans to open a nursery in
Hunterdon County has stalled amid questions over whether the large-
scale retail operation can really be called a farm.

It's not the first time traditional definitions of farming have been
challenged as New Jersey confronts suburban sprawl.

Peter Furey, executive director of the New Jersey Farm Bureau, said
some people "are biased toward the open space side of the equation."

"You don't want to have the landscape dotted with agribusinesses, but
a certain amount of this is needed for the business of farming," Furey
told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

John Deere Landscapes, an arm of the global agriculture giant, bought
a 150-acre Union Township farm in late August for $1.25 million.

The seller, Robert LeCompte, acquired the land three years earlier at
a state auction for $450,000. The land cannot be developed because the
state stripped the development rights before selling it.

LeCompte said he broke even on the sale due to improvements made to
the land. The farmer said he referred John Deere to both county and
state agriculture committees while the purchase was still under
consideration.

"They're big boys," he said. "They should have done their homework."

John Deere planned to open its first nursery in New Jersey, selling
plants and landscaping supplies worth $1.6 million in the first year.

But residents, township officials and the State Agriculture
Development Committee question whether the nursery would be anything
more than a hardware store, trucking in most of its plants.

"Why should our tax dollars go to subsidize a multimillion-dollar
business?" said Marie Bailey, who lives on a horse farm down the road.

The state committee was scheduled to rule on the proposal Dec. 18.

In a lengthy memo dated Oct. 14, John Deere argued the state's Right
to Farm Act and a 1983 preservation law should be interpreted broadly
to help agriculture survive.

Frank Bates, John Deere's senior vice president of operations, said
the company planned to grow trees on 40 acres, but they would not
mature enough to sell for five years.

In the meantime, plants would arrive by truck, Bates said.

"We feel strongly that any plant material that is for resale is alive
and growing and would constitute agricultural products," he said.

In a different case last year, the state committee ruled that animal
experimentation was a permitted use of preserved farmland.

A division of drug maker Wyeth plans to raise sheep and cattle,
infect them with disease and slaughter them to test the efficiency of
new medications. Neighbors continue to fight the plan, and a hearing
was scheduled for Wednesday before the East Amwell Board of
Adjustment.

* * *

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

NEW JERSEY VOTERS THE BEST IN OPEN SPACE SUPPORT

Date: 8 Dec 2003
From: "carol" {ca...@njconservation.org}

THE STATE WE'RE IN
By Michele S. Byers, Executive Director
New Jersey Conservation Foundation
December 3, 2003 - Volume XXXIII, No. 47

Five years ago, New Jersey voters approved the Garden State
Preservation Trust Fund, a decade's worth of money to preserve a
million acres of open space and farmland. The fund made $98 million
available for preservation each year for ten years. Since then, over
300,000 acres have been added to New Jersey's inventory of preserved
lands, including local parks, wetlands, farmlands and forests. So when
it came time to ask voters to amend the Garden State Preservation
Trust to take advantage of low interest rates, they did it again this
Fall, approving Ballot Question #1!

Ballot Question #1would raise the bonding cap on the state's open
space program by $150 million. Thanks to current low interest rates
that means an additional $150 million, with the same payback schedule,
without costing another dime! It's just like re-mortgaging your house
with lower interest rates!

The `Yes' vote on Question 1 won by about 65-percent and gave the
state that much more money for open space, farmland and parks
throughout New Jersey.

That's an infusion of $150 million right now, at a time when the
pressure for more sprawl continues to peak, and citizens are fighting
to protect treasured open spaces in all kinds of neighborhoods and
communities in every corner of New Jersey. Last year, for example, the
State was able to provide only $1 in park funding for every $8
requested by local governments.

Of the additional $150 million, one third is earmarked for protecting
lands in the New Jersey Highlands region - our water fountain,
supplying drinking water to about half of the state's residents.
Another third is set aside for Governor McGreevey's urban parks
initiatives, which aims to create or improve 200 community parks.

At the local level, voters also approved 32 out of 38 open space
ballot questions, including two county questions in Bergen and Hudson
Counties. The passage of the Hudson County measure gives New Jersey
the distinction of being the first state in the country with open
space funds in every county!

So thank you to all of you who voted in the last election or those
before - you have helped make New Jersey a better place to live, work
and raise a family by saving and protecting our open space, farmland,
parkland and natural resources.

- - -

I hope you'll contact me at 1-888-LAND-SAVE or
in...@njconservation.org, or visit NJCF's website at
http://www.njconservation.org, for more information about conserving
New Jersey's precious land and natural resources.

* * *

Carol K. Banhart
New Jersey Conservation Foundation
Bamboo Brook
170 Longview Road
Far Hills, NJ 07931
Phone: 908-234-1225 x105
Fax: 908-234-1189

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

ENVIRONMENTAL FEES

Date: 031209
From: http://www.serconline.org/

With the tremendous budget strains on state governments nationally,
lawmakers are looking for ways to raise funds and improve tax
fairness. Under these circumstances, lawmakers interested in fiscal
reform can improve their state's environment through its fiscal policy
using an idea called environmental fees or "environmental tax
shifting."

Environmental fees are very simple - by raising taxes on pollution
and waste we discourage those harmful practices while making cleaner
and safer alternatives more competitive. The intent is to use basic
economic principles to get the market to tell the ecological truth. If
done properly, environmental fees can help make markets work better by
incorporating more of the indirect costs of goods and services such as
pollution clean-up or state healthcare costs into the prices of
products or services. The change in prices can change consumer and
producer behaviors accordingly.

By using these simple economic principles, you can improve
environmental protection and create new economic opportunities. Far
from hurting economies, environmental fees are just one strategy that
may help us achieve a safer and more sustainable economy that is not
detrimental to our environment and health.

BENEFITS OF ENVIRONMENTAL FEES

The most successful environmental fees act to end taxpayer subsidies
of environmentally harmful behaviors by shifting the costs back to
polluters. Often it is taxpayers who foot the bill for government
monitoring and services that relate to waste and pollution.
Legislators can improve their budgets and assist market forces to find
cheaper alternatives by increasing the fees that polluters pay towards
their own oversight and clean-up.

Key benefits of this approach include freeing up revenue for more
critical programs or tax reductions, reducing government subsidies for
pollution (see SERC's Green Scissors State Activity page), and
allowing the market to more clearly reflect the true costs of
pollution. Imposing environmental fees on polluters increases
opportunities for environmentally safer companies to become
competitive and, thus, creates the potential for more jobs and
revenues.

Any arguments which support government subsidies for polluters as a
type of "economic development" tool ignore the overall costs to
taxpayers of higher taxes, declining health, and environmental clean-
ups. Ending pollution subsidies is a good way to combat all of these
effects in a way that makes good fiscal sense.

Often the environmental benefits of a fee are derived more from the
use the money is put to than the effect on a taxed item or market.
Fees can be used to fund programs that pay for clean-ups, research,
testing, education, project development, or demonstration projects.

These applications benefit the state by providing needed funds to
quickly deal with potentially expensive accidents and long term clean-
ups. In addition, the state can afford to develop and promote
solutions and environmentally healthier alternatives to current
harmful practices.

* * *

State Environmental Resource Center
106 E Doty St Ste 200
Madison Wisconsin 53703
Phone: 608-252-9800
Fax: 608-252-9828
Email: in...@serconline.org

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

WORLD'S LARGEST ENVIRONMENTAL LAW DATABASE LAUNCHED

Fri, 5 Dec 2003
From: Beth Ingraham. {Beth.I...@UNEP.ORG}

ECOLEX

2 December 2003

Rome - A new gateway to information about environmental law is now
available on the Internet at http://www.ecolex.org. The World's
largest environmental law database has been developed by combining the
legal libraries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO), the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

ECOLEX provides online access to over 100,000 legal references and is
an essential resource for developing the necessary tools to promote
environmental management. The information in the system covers
treaties, national legislation, soft law and other non-binding policy
and technical guidance documents, judicial decisions, and law and
policy literature.

One of the unique aspects of the information coverage is the
inclusion of a significant number of legal references from developing
countries. Currently, over 120 developing countries have provided
input to ECOLEX. Ensuring adequate information coverage from
developing countries will remain an important goal for the ECOLEX
partner organizations.

Ever since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment
there has been a rapid growth in the number of Multilateral
Environmental Agreements (MEAs) negotiated by Governments. Users of
ECOLEX can now examine any one of approximately 450 MEAs and see which
governments have signed or ratifies that MEA. Conversely, it is also
possible to see all the MEAs signed or ratified by any one Government.

The development of ECOLEX has brought together two UN organizations,
FAO and UNEP, in a unique partnership with the world's largest
conservation organisation, IUCN ? all sharing a common vision to
provide better electronic access to information on environmental law
to build capacity worldwide.

The partners are committed to the further development and enhancement
of the ECOLEX gateway in order to respond to the ever-increasing
demand for information about environmental law from a wide user base
ranging from decision makers, policy advisors and lawyers to NGOs,
advocacy groups, students and the general public.

For further information on ECOLEX please contact:

At FAO:
Barbara...@fao.org
Website: http://www.fao.org

At IUCN:
ALu...@elc.iucn.org
Website: http://www.iucn.org

At UNEP:
Sylvia.B...@unep.org
Website: http://www.unep.org

Gerard.C...@unep.org
Website: http://www.unep.net

* * *

Beth Ingraham
Information Officer
Head, Assessment Documentation Unit
Division of Early Warning and Assessment
United Nations Environment Programme
POB 30552
Nairobi 00100 Kenya
Tel: (254-20) 624299 (+2hr GMT)
Fax: (254-20) 624269
Email: beth.i...@unep.org
Web: http://www.unep.org and http://www.unep.net

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST INTERN OPPORTUNITY

Date: 8 Dec 2003
From: Linda_...@fws.gov

WHERE:

Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Salem County, NJ

WHEN:

June - August 2004; 40 hrs/week

Send cover letter, resume, and three references to:

Attn: Intern Opportunity
Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
197 Lighthouse Road
Pennsville, NJ 08070
856-935-1487

Resumes received by April 15, 2004 will be given highest priority, but
resumes will be accepted until the position is filled.

WORK DESCRIPTION:

The person selected for this position will primarily assist with
breeding bird surveys and fire effects monitoring. The intern will
collect habitat information at breeding bird survey points located
across the refuge. They will serve as a recorder on breeding marshbird
callback surveys, conducted by boat through 2,500 acres of tidal
marsh. The intern also will enter and analyze breeding bird survey
data and assist with mapping survey results in Arc View 8.3.

The intern will assist with the refuge fire effects monitoring program
by conducting vegetation transects and collecting and weighing biomass
samples. They will be responsible for data entry and analysis for this
project.

The intern also will monitor the refuge's 25 songbird nest boxes,
conduct reptile and amphibian searches, assist with weekly shorebird
surveys, and assist with the development of a nature trail.

Other duties may include monitoring and maintaining wood duck nest
boxes, posting refuge boundaries, developing interpretive materials,
conducting interpretive programs, and maintaining refuge grounds and
equipment.

Forty hour work week schedules can be adapted to meet personal needs;
however some weekend work will be required.

REQUIREMENTS:

A successful applicant will be pursuing a bachelor's or higher degree
in the biological sciences or a related field. The intern must be in
good physical condition, capable of working outdoors daily in hot and
humid weather with ticks and biting insects. They must have a valid
driver=s license. Plant and wildlife identification skills are
desirable but not required. The ability to use a variety of Windows XP
compatible software is desirable but not required. Familiarity with
power tool operation is desirable but not required.

STIPEND:

$150/week. Housing may be provided.

ABOUT THE REFUGE:

Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is located on the upper
Delaware Bay in Pennsville, NJ. The 2,880-acre refuge consists
primarily of brackish tidal marsh and adjacent woodlands and fields. A
pair of bald eagles nests on the refuge, and there are several nesting
pairs in adjacent marshes that forage on the refuge. Pea Patch Island,
the site of one of the largest heronries on the east coast, is located
in the Delaware Bay about one mile from the refuge, and all nine
species that nest on the island forage on the refuge during the
breeding season. At dawn and dusk hundreds of wading birds can be seen
flying between the refuge and the island.

Refuge wetlands provide year-round habitat for waterfowl, although
numbers are greatest during fall migration. In the spring, large
numbers of shorebirds can be seen feeding in the refuge tidal marsh.
There are 80 acres of grasslands on the refuge, and in late summer
hundreds of tree swallows may be seen foraging over them. Refuge
woodlands are home to a great diversity of plant and animal species,
including a variety of reptiles and amphibians found in the wetter
parts of the woods.

Refuge management is focused on protecting and enhancing high quality
habitat for migratory birds. The primary activities are invasive plant
control in the refuge tidal marsh and setting back succession in the
refuge uplands to provide a variety of habitats including grasslands
and scrublands.

* * *

Linda Chorba Ziemba
Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
197 Lighthouse Rd
Pennsville NJ 08070
T: 856-935-1487
F: 856-935-1198
E: Linda_...@fws.gov

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SPECIAL PLANTS OF THE PINELANDS COURSE

Date: 5 Dec 2003
From: Forr...@aol.com

Dear Friends and Members,

Presently Russell Juelg of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance is
trying to get a feel for how many folks would be interested in doing
this rather intensive plant course. We will be willing to give a
couple of scholarships to some Citizens United members who would
utilize their skills after the class.

Just let Russ (rus...@pinelandsalliance.org) and myself know you are
interested. Then we will see if the class is viable and notify you as
to what is happening.

Sincerely,
Jane Morton Galetto

# # #

SPECIAL PLANTS OF THE PINELANDS COURSE

Course Title: Special Plants of the Pinelands
Course Subtitle: An intensive overview of the rare and characteristic
plants of the Pinelands National Reserve, with an emphasis on the
communities and habitats of the State-listed Endangered & Special
Concern plants within the PNR.

Course Instructor: Ted Gordon
Course Coordinator: Russell Juelg
Primary Course Sponsor: PPA

Course Format: Twelve day-long sessions interspersed through the
growing season. Each session (9am-4pm) consists of varying amounts of
classroom lecture and field study.

Materials: Each student should have a hand lens and a copy of the 1991
edition of the Gleason & Cronquist Manual of Vascular Plants. Other
reference material will be recommended.

Course Schedule: Beginning Tuesday, April 20, 2004, sessions are held
every other Tuesday until September 28, 2004.

Meeting Location: May vary in accordance with availability and the
intended location of the field study for that day.

Number of Seats Available: 25

Cost: Approximately $190 per student. That works out to less than $16
per daylong session. Actual cost may be considerably lower, depending
on contributions of the Sponsors.

# # #

Citizens United to Protect the Maurice River
POB 474
Millville NJ 08332
T: 856-327-1161
E: forr...@aol.com
W: http://www.cumauriceriver.org

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Phil Reynolds - Editor - reyn...@gsenet.org
Ivan Kossak - Executive Director - kos...@gsenet.org

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