September 1, 2009
Assemblyman John E. Rooney wants assurance from the state Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, that people are not living on toxic sites after a federal Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, report found that the state DEP’s oversight of hazardous-waste and wetlands programs remains flawed.
“From Kiddie Kollege in Gloucester County to the botched Encap landfill project in the Meadowlands, New Jersey’s recent environmental and public health record has been atrocious,” Rooney, R-Bergen, a member of the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee, said.
“The DEP’s careless oversight is so glaringly insufficient that even Lisa Jackson, who headed the agency for Governor Corzine before becoming President Obama’s choice to lead the EPA, can see it from Washington.
“I appreciate her agency’s honesty, but she was better positioned to correct these problems when she worked for New Jersey,” Rooney added.
The audit criticized the state DEP for not fixing problems identified in a similar 2005 audit, conducting field audits of projects and not having the Office of Quality Assurance perform oversight of site remediation.
“It is terrifying to think there may be families throughout our state who unknowingly live on contaminated sites, unnecessarily threatening the health of young children and senior citizens because a state agency cannot fulfill its core mission,” Rooney said. “Governor Corzine must order his Environmental Protection agency to begin an immediate review of its oversight programs to determine whether people are living in unsafe conditions.”
In the 1990s, Rooney, then-chairman of the Solid and Hazardous Waste Committee, addressed a similar issue with the contaminated GE Mercury Vapor Lamp Division building in Hoboken, which was redeveloped for residential use. However, the mercury contamination caused severe health problems for residents, who were evacuated by the EPA. This situation repeated itself several years ago with Kiddie College.
