The Center for Environmental Transformation
July 19, 2011
Hello everyone! Greetings on this beautiful hot day in southern New Jersey!*
There is a lot happening in Waterfront South and Camden these days. One of the great things is the continued work of the Waterfront South Environmental Network (WSEN). This group conducts research on the impact of polluting industries on the water, air and soil of Waterfront South. The group includes community activists, governmental officials and scientists. The focus of much of their energies recently is on the idea of cumulative impact of polluting industries, and an effort to work for regulatory change that reflects the reality of cumulative impact. This is a reality that is detrimental to the health of people living in urban settings, yet it is overlooked in the current regulatory framework. That needs to change!
To get a sense of what cumulative impact means, let me describe for you the environmental reality of Waterfront South. On the northern border of our neighborhood is a concrete crushing facility as well as two incredibly large metal recycling facilities. On the southern border of our neighborhood is the trash-to-steam facility that burns the trash of most of Camden County as well as neighboring Gloucester County. In the middle of the neighborhood is a chemical company. In addition, there is a port on the north side and the south side of the neighborhood between which diesel trucks move day and night, often sitting at stop lights, their exhausts filling the air. What I’m describing here is a relatively small land area which is home to several industries that emit harmful contaminants into the air. While each of them passes muster with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, together they represent a significant threat to the health of the inhabitants of this neighborhood. Our regulatory framework deals with each polluting industry as an individual, which makes a certain amount of sense in this country where we hold dear the rights of the individual. However, when it comes to the environment, focusing on an individual’s actions, which on their own might contribute an acceptable burden to the environment, is problematic, and flies in the face of reality. The environmental is threatened by the cumulative impact of human behavior.
If I’m the only person throwing my trash out on to the street as I drive through the neighborhood, this isn’t a problem. However, if most people do throw their trash out onto the street as they drive by, then we have a significant problem. We have seen something similar with the fisheries of the planet. It is not a problem if one fishing boat takes a boat load of fish home with them. But if every fishing boat takes home a boat load of fish, soon there won’t be any more fish! Similarly, although each industry in Waterfront South meets the standards set by government regulation, taken together these industries create a significant health threat to the children, elderly and those with pre-existing conditions like asthma. It is time that our regulatory framework be broadened to take into account the cumulative impact of polluting industries on the air, water and soil of our urban centers.
The WSEN is inviting people to address this very issue by letter to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. They hope to send a flock of letters to the NJDEP by the beginning of August. The Center for Environmental Transformation supports this effort. It is based on solid science and common sense. Write a letter and send it via email to Andrea Ferich at aferich@gmail.com. For your convenience,I’ve attached my letter, below. Feel free to use it as a basis for yours, with the appropriate edits.
We are all on this planet together, and we have a responsibility to the earth and to our brothers and sisters. Asking our governmental officials to broaden their understanding of the impact of pollution on the lives of people is a very specific way in which to meet that responsibility.
Thank you.
Mark Doorley
President, Board of Trustees
The Center for Environmental Transformation
NEWS AND NOTES
1. Every Thursday until the end of October, from 4 – 7PM at 1729 Ferry Ave. (The Center) there will be a farmer’s market, featuring the produce from the community gardens as well as produce supplied by Philadelphia-based GreensGrow. Join us to hang out, meet old and new friends, and purchase some fruit and vegetables for your table. To hear about a fruit dear to the heart of one of Junior Farmers, Marco Cubrera, watch this video. 2. First Saturday work day: On August 6, 2011 we will gather at 9AM at the garden to harvest, weed, etc. Please consider joining us. Bring along some water and gloves. It is very helpful to know if you are coming, so please email Andrea at aferich@gmail.com or call her at 856-283-1338. 3. We have a phone number! The Center now has a number you can call to get more information on our work or to schedule a retreat. The number is 856-365-8111.
4. JOIN US! Tomorrow, Wednesday July 20th, please join us to take over the Northgate Park in Camden, NJ with nearly 2,000 native plants. These plants were selected by students from Molina School and Senior Citizens from Respond for their beauty, attracting butterflies, and cut flower potential. This program is the first of its kind through Rutgers University’s new Art Garden program. Andrea Ferich, or CFET, has been paired with a phenomenal mural artist, and they're going to cover this park with color while reclaiming this entire city block growing beauty and healthy communities in Camden. Native plants are from our area, don't need as much water once they are established, and attract local birds and insects. This project, in addition to our involvement with the Camden SMART initiative, has led to the establishment of the Camden Native Plant Nursery. Check it out. If you are interested in participating, the meeting place is Northgate Park at 6th and Elm Streets in Camden. . .9 AM-3pm. Some things to bring if you have them: trowels, scissors, gloves, hoses, movie camera, youth, drinking water, your lunch, (Andrea will be wearing a bright yellow shirt) Contact her at aferich@gmail.com with questions or to RSVP. 5. Retreat News: Last week a group from Loyola-Blakefield HS in Baltimore spent time with us, working in the greenhouse, gardens and new native plant nursery. There were 10 young men, rising seniors, and two chaperones. They worked hard, learning about Camden, and indentifying ways to bring what they are learning back to their communities in Baltimore. They left on Saturday, the 16th, and another group from this high school arrived for a week’s stay on Sunday, the 17th . Pray for them all. It is this kind of experiential learning event that we hope to sponsor throughout the year. If you are involved with a group on the high school level, college level or with a group focused on justice, please consider spending time with us at the Center, for a weekend or week experience.
6. Speaking of retreats, attached is the brochure for our retreats. The one I attached last time had some mistaken identifications in it.
7. JOIN US! On Tuesday, July 26th, at 11AM a very special event is taking place in Waterfront South. On the corner of Chelten and Broadway an old gas station which was an eyesore has been turned into a beautiful rain garden. This amazing turn of events on this piece of land is due to the efforts of Andy Kricun and the Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority. One step at a time, we are turning Waterfront South into a beautiful place, particularly for the children. On top of that, rain gardens are an essential tool for assisting the Camden city sewer system to deal with the runoff from rain storms. Every gallon of water that can be diverted through a rain garden is one less gallon that the aging sewer system has to handle. That is a good thing for the residents of Camden! Come celebrate with us! To read more about rain gardens, visit this site. 8. Donor and grant news
a. Jonathan Newcomb and Valerie Spino Newcomb made a significant contribution to the Center on the occasion of their wedding on June 4, 2011. In lieu of favors for their guests, they made this contribution to support the Center’s work. Thank you Jonathan and Valerie! God bless you abundantly in your married life!
b. McKella280 of Pennsauken, NJ contributed the printing of the retreat brochure. Thank you so much to McKella 280 for its generous support of our work.
c. We received a $10,000 grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. This grant will go toward programming that seeks to integrate art, gardening and education on environmental justice for young people in the city of Camden and the region. We are grateful to the Dodge Foundation for valuing the work we are doing, and for giving us an opportunity to develop that work more fully.
10. Please remember the Center as you make plans for charitable contributions. There is a capital fund that will be used to reconstruct the porch on the side of the Center, renovate the front entrance of the Center, and complete the replacement of all the windows on the Center so that we are more sustainable in our energy use. Your assistance in completing these capital projects is needed and appreciated. For more information on this, contact Mark Doorley at info@camdencenterfortransformation.org.
July 15, 2011
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing about a topic that has become more and more critical for me, and for the way in which we approach regulation as it pertains to protecting the environment.
As you know, our legal framework for environmental protection focuses on individual industrial sites that emit harmful chemicals and particulate into our water, our air and our soil. Since our entire legal structure is based on protecting the rights of the individual citizen, it makes sense that when applied to corporations and businesses, we treat them as “individuals.” While this makes sense given our country’s commitment to individual rights, it doesn’t make sense in light of solid science and, indeed, in light of common sense. It is time we rethink our regulatory framework, and I write to urge you to do just that. I write in support of a reform of our environmental regulatory framework so that the cumulative impact of individual business, otherwise treated as individuals, is subject to regulation.
If I pour paint down my drain at home in Cherry Hill, it will go in to the sewer system, and eventually reach a waste water treatment plant, be treated, and the water that carried my paint will be recirculated for use by citizens in this area. If I am the only one pouring paint into the system, that isn’t a problem. However, if my fellow citizens get into this habit, the waste water treatment system will, at some point, be unable to filter out the contaminants from the increasingly high volume of paint poured into our common waste water stream. The result is water used for consumption that isn’t free of harmful contaminants.
If a lone fishing boat is filled to capacity with fish, this isn’t a problem. But if every fishing boat is filled to capacity with fish, the day will come, and come quickly (as it has with certain species in various parts throughout the world), when there will be no more fish.
In Waterfront South, in Camden, NJ, a community with which I have been actively involved since 2000, there are numerous polluting industries, each of which has passed the New Jersey DEP’s regulations on air and water pollution. However, the cumulative impact of all of these industries on this one relatively small neighborhood of 1700 people far surpasses the impact of any one of them as individuals. So, while each industry meets regulatory standards, taken together they seriously threaten the health and welfare of the children, elderly and people with pre-existing conditions, like asthma, who live in this neighborhood. This situation is repeated all over urban America, since it is urban America which tends to attract the polluting industries that no suburban neighborhood wants in their area.
This is America. Justice for each individual is a guarantee in our founding documents. It is time that our way of regulating the industries that pollute our air, water and soil be reformed to include the cumulative impact of individual industrial actions. This makes sense of the science which provides evidence of the cumulative impact. More importantly, it passes the ultimate test of common sense: if several industries are polluting the same neighborhood, it is beyond doubt that together they are causing harm more severe than any of them could cause individually.
I call on the NJDEP to begin a legislative process that will end in reform of our regulatory framework, and join the vanguard of a movement for change whose day has come.
Thank you.
Mark Doorley, Ph.D.
Resident of Cherry Hill, NJ/Friend and advocate of Waterfront South, Camden, NJ
