|
Subscribe to EJ Law Notices by County: Did you know that you can receive notices to upcoming EJ Law application hearings in your area? Subscribe online and select the counties in which you'd like to stay up-to-date for hearings near you.
Environmental Justice Newsletter
May 9th, 2024
Summary of Important Dates
Announcements
NJ to Receive $123 Million for Lead Pipe Replacement to Advance Safe Drinking Water
On May 2nd, the EPA announced $123.1 million from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to help New Jersey identify and replace lead service lines, preventing exposure to lead in drinking water. Working collaboratively, EPA and the State Revolving Funds are advancing the administration's Justice40 Initiative as lead exposure disproportionately affects communities of color and low-income families. The total funding announced through this program to date is expected to replace up to 1.7 million lead pipes nationwide, securing clean drinking water for all families.
Attorney General and DEP Announce Filing of Four New Enforcement Actions in Environmental Justice Communities
On April 25th, the Attorney General's Office and DEP announced four new lawsuits against facilities in and around overburdened communities as defined under New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Law. The facilities sued include Wilenta Feed in Secaucus, Gas Mart in Jersey City, PC Shell in Vorhees and FM Equities in Pennsauken. Including the actions announced, the Office of the Attorney General and the DEP have filed 68 environmental justice cases or actions since 2018. A new resource explaining New Jersey’s environmental justice enforcement actions, including an interactive map, is available online.
NJ Flood Disclosure Laws Now in Effect
New Jersey faces escalating flood risks due to climate change. By 2050, sea-level rise could exceed 2.1 feet, endangering over 40,000 coastal properties. Increased precipitation intensity also heightens severe inland flash flood risks. To address this, New Jersey enacted the Flood Risk Disclosure Law in 2023, which requires landlords and property sellers to disclose flood risks to buyers and tenants. The law went into effect on March 20, 2024.
The flood disclosure law, while not under the jurisdiction of Blue Acres, fosters transparency and awareness of flood risks among property buyers and tenants, in line with Blue Acres' mission to empower informed decisions and address flood-related risks in New Jersey communities and properties. This law is vital to protecting overburdened communities that are vulnerable to flooding. Learn more online.
NJ Board of Public Utilities Selected for EPA's Solar for All Program
Funded through the federal $7 billion Solar for All program, NJ Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has designed a SFA program that tackles the major barriers that have prevented the adoption of solar energy by low-income and disadvantaged households. As a result of cross-agency collaboration, the state has determined four key pillars for this federal funding opportunity: residential solar, multi-family housing solar and storage, residential-serving community solar, and technical assistance and workforce development.
The State's proposed use of funds will work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollution, deliver cost savings on electric bills for overburdened households, and unlock new markets for distributed solar. Learn more online.
EPA Announces Online Environmental Justice Clearinghouse
Under the Biden Administration, EPA has established the Environmental Justice (EJ) Clearinghouse as a public, internet-based, wholistic resource composed of culturally and linguistically appropriate and accessible materials related to environmental justice. This clearinghouse will act as a living library that provides information on technical assistance, tools, and resources to assist communities with environmental justice concerns in building capacity for public participation. Users can continuously help improve the clearinghouse tool by proposing additional resources or submitting feedback.
Participation Opportunities
Upcoming Environmental Justice Law Public Hearings
May 28- Safety Kleen- Linden, Union County, EJ Rule (virtual only)
June 12- Gaeta Recycling- Paterson, Passaic County, EJ Rule (hybrid)
Facilities subject to the Environmental Justice Law must facilitate meaningful opportunities for overburdened communities to engage in permitting decisions for pollution-generating facilities through an enhanced public participation process. Subscribe to EJ Law notices by County
Green Acres Stakeholder Outreach Meetings for Local and Nonprofit Assistance Rules
The Green Acres Program is hosting a series of virtual outreach meetings to discuss planned changes to Green Acres rules and receive public feedback. The Green Acres rules govern the award of loans or matching grants, or both, to local government units for the acquisition or development of land, and matching grants to nonprofits for the acquisition or development of land, for outdoor recreation and conservation purposes. In advance of the expiration of these rules in December 2025, the Green Acres Program invites local government and nonprofit partners and the public to contribute to the process of making changes to the rules.
Meeting topics include acquisition funding, park development and stewardship funding, and non-profit issues. Learn more online.
NJ Extreme Heat Resilience Action Plan Open for Public Comment!
The Interagency Council on Climate Resilience's Draft Extreme Heat Resilience Action Plan is now available for public feedback! This plan identifies the challenges associated with rising temperatures and the actions of state departments and agencies to address them. Submit comments and suggestions via online form through Monday, May 20, 2024.
Join the WE ACT TCTAC Community Voices Cohort!
As part of EPA Region 2's Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (TCTAC), WE ACT is building a rotating network of community outreach voices to support its in-person outreach throughout New York and New Jersey. The TCTAC Community Voices cohort will provide local support curated to meet the needs of the region, conduct outreach to regional Environmental Justice communities, support design and facilitation of in-person training in their region, and provide feedback on the design, implementation, and impact of the TCTAC program. The TCTAC Community Voices will also be crucial in achieving our movement-building goals.
Participants will meet to determine regional priorities regarding environmental justice, climate justice, and energy justice, informing the development of a Regional Environmental Justice Network in subsequent years of the project.
Applications are due by Friday, May 31, 2024. Learn more online.
Webinar: Redefining “Disadvantaged Communities” in a New Water Infrastructure Era
As part of the EPA Learning Exchange, Source Water Collaborative is hosting a free informational webinar entitled Redefining “Disadvantaged Communities” in a New Water Infrastructure Era on May 30th from 2:30 to 4pm. This webinar will share what clean water advocates can do to help states achieve the most equitable process possible for source water protection in their programs and the role public participation requirements had in modifying their definitions of a “disadvantaged community”. In addition, the webinar will cover how states have ensured their definitions bring about the most equitable outcome possible and challenges states have had in implementing the funding. Learn more online.
Environmental Justice Webinar Series for Tribes and Indigenous Peoples
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Webinar Series for Tribes and Indigenous Peoples includes monthly webinars intended to build the capacity of Tribal governments, Indigenous Peoples, and other environmental justice practitioners by discussing priority environmental justice issues of interest to Tribes and Indigenous Peoples. Webinar agendas will include updates from the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, best practices to advance EJ, and Tribal presenters. Learn more online.
Funding and Technical Assistance Opportunities
In case you missed it, see below for opportunities that provide funding and assistance for projects related to green infrastructure, climate change, healthy communities, and more.
Call for Water Utilities: No-Cost Climate Change Risk Assessment Opportunities
Through EPA’s Creating Resilient Water Utilities initiative, drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater (water sector) utility owners and operators can receive one-on-one, no-cost climate change risk assessment support using CRWU’s tools and resources, including their Environmental Justice Story Map. Through this initiative utilities can better understand potential risk to climate change threats, identify adaptive measures to become more resilient to those threats; and identify funding sources for implementation of those adaptive measures. Interested parties can request this technical assistance support via online form. Learn more online.
3 Billion in Funding Now Available through EPA's Clean Ports Program!
The Clean Ports Funding Program will build on EPA’s Ports Initiative that helps our nation’s ports, a critical part of our infrastructure and supply chain, address disproportionate public health and environmental impacts on surrounding communities.
The $3 billion will be disbursed between two separate funding opportunities- the Zero-Emission Technology Deployment Competition which will fund zero-emission port equipment and infrastructure to reduce mobile source emissions at U.S. ports AND the Climate and Air Quality Planning Competition to fund climate and air quality planning activities at U.S. ports including emissions inventories, strategy analysis, community engagement, and resiliency measure identification.
Applications are due May 28th, 2024. Learn more online.
EPA Funding Available for Community Air Quality Information Analysis Initiatives
As part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, The EPA is seeking applications proposing community-engaged research to advance the use and communication of air pollution data for addressing community-identified air pollution concerns. Despite advancements in community air monitoring methodologies, challenges remain in accessing, analyzing, interpreting and then translating the data into information for the public that can be used to inform community actions.
Eligible research initiatives should develop practical methods for making sense of and effectively communicating community exposure data in underserved communities to facilitate greater public engagement with decision-makers and adequately address community-identified air pollution concerns associated with criteria air pollutants or hazardous air pollutants.
Solicitations are open until June 26th, 2024. Learn more online.
|
All New Jersey residents, regardless of income, race, ethnicity, color, or national origin, have a right to live, work, and recreate in a clean and healthy environment. Historically, New Jersey’s low-income communities and communities of color face a disproportionately high number of environmental and public health stressors and, as a result, suffer from increased adverse health effects. New Jersey seeks to correct these outcomes by furthering the promise of environmental justice.
DEP’s Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) aims to improve the quality of life in New Jersey’s most vulnerable communities by educating and empowering communities who are often outside of government decision-making processes and guiding DEP’s programs and other state departments and agencies in implementing environmental justice.
|
|
