05/31/2022 03:48 PM EDT
Presented by AARP New Jersey
Job creation may no longer be a strong enough pitch for companies looking to build polluting facilities in marginalized communities.
A long-anticipated 153-page draft of new rules proposed today by the Department of Environmental Protection are the result of New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Law signed in 2020 to protect low-income communities and communities of color from polluting facilities.
The requires that companies consider how eight kinds of industrial facilities will create added stress for what the state labels as “overburdened” communities, that is, those plagued by heavy industry, poverty or political marginalization. Companies have often plowed over local opposition from these neighborhoods to construct or expand industrial operations that bring environmental harm, including air, water and soil pollutants, and human health hazards.
According to the draft rules release today, the DEP says it cannot estimate the cost of compliance but says the rules will significantly benefit public health, acknowledging that they do not prohibit construction of any new facilities — “only that they will be constructed either outside of overburdened communities or with appropriate mitigations in place.”
"New Jersey’s low-income communities and communities of color historically have been subjected to a disproportionately high number of environmental and...
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