SOUTH TOMS RIVER — State and federal officials met with residents of South Toms River and surrounding communities on Wednesday as part of an effort to reduce environmental damage in some of New York’s most underserved neighborhoods. Jersey.
At Second Baptist Church on First Street, Shawn M. LaTourette, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection; Kandyce Perry, director of the department’s Office of Environmental Justice; and Lisa Garcia, administrator for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2, which includes New Jersey, met with local residents.
The event was the third in-person stop for the department’s environmental justice listening sessions, following the events of the past few months in Burlington City and Elizabeth.
“We know that environmental justice issues come in many forms, and they don’t always arise in highly urbanized or dense areas,” Perry said at the meeting Wednesday.
“We also know that Ocean County has been and will be at the forefront of weather-related events, such as flooding and sea level rise, as our climate warms, and residents Ocean County’s most vulnerable will be hit hard,” she said.
As of 2020, about half of South Toms River’s residents were people of color, making it unique in Ocean County, where most residents (84%) identify as white, according to the department. of Ocean County Planning.
The borough also has the second-lowest per capita income in the county, according to the planning department. In 2018, per capita income in South Toms River was $21,463, according to the ministry. Only Lakewood — where nearly half of the township’s residents are 18 or younger and too young to work — had a lower per capita income in 2018, at $17,460, according to the department.
State and federal officials said the purpose of Wednesday’s meeting was to hear directly from residents of South Toms River and surrounding communities about the environmental damage they were facing.
After:Cleanup of toxic sites and elimination of lead pipes are part of EPA’s 2022 vision for New Jersey
Related:Murphy says NJ will accelerate efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, Jersey Shore now included
“Environmental justice really speaks to the fact that there is a history in our environmental movement that unfortunately low-income communities, communities of color and Indigenous communities have not received or borne the benefit of a large many of our environmental decisions,” Garcia said. , from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Too many of these communities have long faced higher levels of air pollution, old and unsafe water infrastructure and higher levels of exposure to contamination than their neighbors, she said.
The three said many state and federal programs aimed at eliminating some of the existing environmental risks — such as replacing old lead water pipe infrastructure or remediating toxic and polluted sites — exist to help.
The New Jersey Environmental Justice Act, signed in 2020 by Governor Phil Murphy, also aims to prevent these communities from being unfairly burdened by pollution in the future. The law requires the Department of Environmental Protection to take special care in granting certain types of permits for industrial development in “overburdened” communities.
To be considered “overburdened”, approximately 35% of a community’s population must be considered low-income, at least 40% of the community does not identify as white, or at least 40% of households have a master’s degree limited English.
The Environmental Justice Act requires that approximately 310 New Jersey municipalities that meet this definition — neighborhoods of nearly 4.5 million New Jersey residents — get special consideration from the State Department for certain types of New projects. These projects include major sources of air pollution such as gas-fired power plants, waste transfer stations, landfills, large recycling centers and sewage treatment facilities.
“You would think that the DEP (Environmental Protection Department) protects the trees,” said LaTourette, the commissioner. “But in fact, our job is to protect people from environmental harm.”
LaTourette said part of the ministry’s mission is to ensure that South Toms River and communities like it receive help to prepare for climate change and the issues that will come with it, such as the increased risk of flooding and rising summer temperatures.
“Climate change is already affecting New Jersey,” he said. “It’s been here, with Super Hurricane Sandy and with the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida and repetitive, heavy rains and flooding in between. And we’re not as prepared as we could and should be.”
But the State Department is working with local communities to change that, by modifying local planning and building codes, he said.
“We pursue development that will stand the test of time, that in the quest to solve one problem, we don’t create another,” LaTourette said. “What’s important for people to understand is that there’s no one magic bullet that’s going to stop flooding, that’s going to help us deal with rising seas and extreme rainfall. It’s an assortment of things.”
Amanda Oglesby is from Ocean County and covers the townships of Brick, Barnegat and Lacey as well as the environment. She has worked for the press for more than a decade. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.