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Environmental Justice Newsletter
September 2, 2022
Welcome! NJDEP's Office of Environmental Justice is pleased to announce the start of a biweekly Environmental Justice Newsletter. In this series, you’ll receive information about grants, webinars, comment opportunities, public hearings/stakeholder meetings, and other ways to amplify environmental justice.
Summary of Important Dates
| September 4 |
Deadline to submit comments on the EJ Rule proposal |
| September 7, 2pm |
Online Public Listening Session for Brownfield Redevelopment Incentive |
| September 7 |
Nominations due for HEP Management Committee in EJ Representation
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| September 8, 1pm |
Online Public Listening Session for Brownfield Redevelopment Incentive |
| September 8, 6pm-8pm |
Public hearing for the Hurricane Ida Action Plan at Manville High School Auditorium
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| September 12, 6pm-8pm |
Public hearing for the Hurricane Ida Action Plan at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Campus Center Ballroom, Second Floor
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| September 14 |
Deadline to apply for Stormwater Competitive Grant Program |
| September 15, 6pm-7:30pm |
Cumberland County EJ Community Engagement Session at the Alms Center in Bridgeton and through Zoom
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| September 16 |
DCA Opens Public Comment Period for Hurricane Ida Recovery Action Plan. |
| September 23 |
Extended Deadline to apply for Stormwater Technical Assistance Grants |
Announcements
Congratulations to New EJAC Members!
June 2022- The Office of Environmental Justice and NJDEP Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette welcomed seven newly appointed Environmental Justice Advisory Council (EJAC) members. Appointees span across the State and cover various sectors of expertise including business & industry, local grassroots or community groups, public health, indigenous groups, and statewide social justice/civil rights organizations. Get to know more about them below:
Yvette Viasus (Asbury Park): Community Solar Specialist at Solar Landscape
Mike Morgan (Camden): Co-Chair of the Air Quality workgroup of Camden Collaborative Initiative
Katharina Miguel (Trenton): Clean Energy Advocate from Isles, Inc.
Dr. Denalerie Johnson-Faniel (Newark): Director of Equity and Inclusion at University Hospital
Dr. Robert Laumbach (Piscataway): Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Rutgers School of Public Health
Tyrese Gould Jacinto (Bridgeton): Member of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Nation, President and CEO of Native American Advancement Corp.
William Casey (Edison, Metuchen): Vice President of NAACP Metuchen-Edison Area Branch Chapter, Committee Member on Environmental Justice Committee
Participation Opportunities
NJEDA to Offer Public Listening Sessions on
Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) is hosting two Brownfield Redevelopment Incentive (tax credit) listening sessions on Wednesday, September 7th and Thursday, September 8th. Established by the New Jersey Economic Recovery Act of 2020 (ERA), the Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive Program is a $300 million tax credit program designed to compensate developers of redevelopment projects located on brownfield sites for remediation costs. Developers, investors, real estate professionals, attorneys, environmental professionals and economic development teams should attend to see how the program can support their efforts. This is an opportunity to provide constructive input to ensure the program is structured and administered in a manner that drives opportunity for all residents and communities.
Registration links are provided below:
September 7, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Session
September 8, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Session
Stakeholders can provide Program Specific Feedback on our website.
Nominations due by Sept 7th: Harbor Estuary Program is Seeking Nominations for Management Committee in EJ Representation
Over the next year, the New York – New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program (HEP) will begin revising its Action Agenda and other core documents. The Agenda guides actions and investments on the part of the HEP’s federal/bi-state collaboration. HEP is seeking to increase leadership participation from organizations and individuals who work to address environmental justice concerns, in particular the benefits that clean water, ecological restoration, public access, community engagement, and an environmentally sustainable maritime industry can bring to residents and businesses.
To nominate yourself or someone else for these positions, please send a brief email describing your interest in the position, including any past experience working on estuary issues and what you hope to achieve through your participation in the Management Committee to HEP’s Program Director Robert Pirani at rob@hudsonriver.org by September 7th 2022.
Attend the Cumberland County EJ Community Engagement Session: Thursday, September 15th from 6pm-7:30pm
Spanish Interpretation Available
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) is pleased to invite residents of overburdened communities in Cumberland County to attend a community engagement session regarding environmental justice with NJDEP Deputy Commissioner Sean Moriarty and EPA Region 2 Chief of Staff & Senior Advisor for Equity Olivia Glenn.
Location: The Alms Center, 1 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Bridgeton, NJ 08302
Livestream: via Zoom. Click here to register.
The community engagement session will provide residents, community groups, and other members of the public a chance to meet and discuss environmental justice issues in Cumberland County with DEP and EPA Region 2 staff.
Comment Opportunities
Submit comments on EJ Rule Proposal by September 4th
The proposal of the Environmental Justice Regulations, required to implement the EJ Law, is published and available for public comment. All comments must be received by September 4, 2022, with the applicable N.J.A.C. citation, commenter’s name, and affiliation following the comment. The Environmental Justice Rulemaking Briefing Presentation provides a synopsis of the EJ Law and rulemaking process.
Additionally, a beta version of the Environmental Justice Mapping, Assessment and Protection (EJMAP) tool is now live. This tool provides the public with a visualization of where overburdened communities (OBC) are located throughout the State, where existing facilities regulated under the Law are located, and what existing environmental and public health stressors impact these OBCs. For more information on how to use EJMAP, please review this tutorial. Feedback on the tool and technical guidance, particularly related to the structure and functionality of the tool itself, can be shared to EJMAPFeedback@dep.nj.gov for consideration.
Comments due by September 16th: DCA Opens Public Comment Period for Hurricane Ida Recovery Action Plan and
Announces Two Public Hearings
The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) opened a 30-day period for people to provide public comment on the Hurricane Ida Recovery Action Plan, which details how the State proposes to utilize $228,346,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funds to help households and communities recover from Hurricane Ida. The proposed Hurricane Ida Action Plan may be obtained in English and Spanish at on DCA’s website.
The public hearings on the Action Plan will be held Thursday, September 8, 2022 (6:00pm – 8:00pm) at the Manville High School, School Auditorium and Monday, September 12, 2022 (6:00pm – 8:00pm) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Campus Center Ballroom, Second Floor.
People may also submit their comments through the DCA website, by email to DisasterRecoveryandMitigation@dca.nj.gov, or by mail to the attention of Constituent Services, Division of Disaster Recovery and Mitigation, NJ Department of Community Affairs, 101 South Broad Street, P.O. Box 823, Trenton, NJ 08625-0823. All comments must be received on or before 5:00 pm EST on September 16, 2022, to be considered.
Grant Opportunities
Deadline Extended: Stormwater Utility Feasibility Study Technical Assistance and Stormwater Resilience Planning
Due to high demand, NJDEP has extended the deadline for counties, municipalities and public utility authorities to submit expressions of interest for technical assistance grants to become more resilient, better manage the impacts of stormwater and study the feasibility of forming stormwater utilities. The new deadline for the technical assistance grants is September 23. The application deadline for the Stormwater Competitive Grant Program remains September 14. For additional questions on these grant programs visit here or send an email to stormwatergrantsinfo@dep.nj.gov.
FEMA Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities
Grant Applications Open
Funding rounds are now open for FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant opportunities. The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program makes federal funds available to states, U.S territories, Indian tribal governments, and local communities for pre-disaster mitigation activities. This grant will provide financial assistance for costs associated with hazard mitigation projects. The deadline to submit an application is January 27, 2023. For more information, contact the NJ Office of Emergency Management – Hazard Mitigation Unit at christopher.testa@njsp.org or visit FEMA grants website.
Hudson Raritan Estuary Urban Rain Garden Grant
The Office of Natural Resource Restoration will be soliciting grant proposals for projects that will design and construct rain gardens or similar small-scale bioretention facilities within the Hudson Raritan Estuary. Applicants eligible for this funding must be government agencies or non-profit organizations. A total of $2,000,000.00 is being made available under this grant program and the maximum grant award available to any one project is $300,000.00. Applications will be accepted starting August 8, 2022.
The deadline for submission is November 7, 2022. For more information about the grant program, including application requirements, eligibility, and award size, please see the Grant Loan Programs website and the Office of Natural Resource Restoration’s website.
Blue Acres Flood Buyout
NJDEP’s Blue Acres program has rolled out its new website, including a homeowners buyout application portal in English and Spanish as an easier online option. Local government officials – particularly floodplain administrators – are encouraged to contact Blue Acres with questions and to direct interested homeowners to our homeowner buyout application portal for the latest online and printable versions of the offer application. Blue Acres buyouts are targeted based on need and funding eligibility requirements, and therefore are not guaranteed to every applicant.
EJ In the News
EJ 6.0: NJ AG’s Office and NJDEP Announce Seven Environmental Enforcement Actions, Six in EJ Communities
On August 24th, Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Commissioner of Environmental Protection Shawn M. LaTourette announced the filing of seven new environmental enforcement actions across the state. Six of the environmental justice lawsuits filed center on a broad array of chemical pollutants that have tainted separate, unrelated sites in Newark, Linden, Ewing, Rahway, Elmwood Park Borough, and Middlesex Borough. Those six communities are considered overburdened under New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Law because they have significant low-income, minority, and/or limited English proficiency populations. The seventh lawsuit centers on a blueberry farm and blueberry processing operation in Hammonton that employs migrant farm workers who live on site.
Including the lawsuits mentioned above, the Attorney General’s Office and DEP have filed a total of 52 environmental justice cases since 2018. To date, the lawsuits have yielded nearly $20 million in judgments.
EJ Tools
NJDEP in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) launched the Healthy Community Planning New Jersey (HCPNJ) website, which provides municipal-level reports to help local governments and the public understand and address environmental threats to public health faced by their communities.
The website features an interactive map where users can click by county and municipality to access environment and health reports. Explore the glossary of environmental public health terms and associated FAQ for additional information.
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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.
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