Flint Water

Could what happened in Flint, Mich. happen in New Jersey? This Jan. 26, 2016 photo shows a sign over the Flint River in Flint. (Carlos Osorio | Associated Press)

By Jeff Tittel

What happened in Flint is a major public health crisis and a disaster. But the question is, could it happen here?

In Michigan, the emergency manager chosen by Gov. Rick Snyder decided to use a polluted water source to cut costs. He was a former industry lobbyist and political crony of Snyder.

Gov. Chris Christie has also stacked environmental and public health professionals with political friends and former lobbyists that worked for polluters. Just like in Michigan, Christie has rolled back clean water protections in New Jersey.

The governor of Michigan took over Flint because they were going bankrupt, but he has caused a water crisis with his anti-environmental agenda. We have serious concerns that what happened in Flint could happen in New Jersey because the Christie administration has continued to side with polluters and developers over protecting New Jersey's drinking water.

From his first day in office, Christie signed an executive order saying New Jersey cannot have any protections stronger than the federal government and then started to dismantle environmental protections.

That executive order came directly from ALEC and the Koch Brothers. Similar to Michigan, the Christie administration's head of water is a former lobbyist. Christie has even held secret "stakeholder" meetings where special interest groups have re-written rules for stormwater management, water quality management planning, flood hazard areas, protections on category one and stream buffers, and Highlands regulations in order to develop in environmentally sensitive areas.

The legislature has stood up to the governor as has the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and FEMA against the Christie administration's Flood Hazard Areas that will lead to overdevelopment add more pollution to our waterways. The administration have also proposed a new New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System that will allow more discharge from sewerage plants.

The Department of Environmental Protection has have even changed the rules so they can pump dirty water from the Passaic River into the Wanaque Reservoir, which serves almost all of Bergen County. Our DEP should really stand for the "Department of Excessive Pollution."

Our governor has basically gotten rid of the Drinking Water Quality Institute by not allowing them to meet for five years. The administration has not adopted new standards on the known carcinogen PFOA, perchlorate, PFNA, PFC, pharmaceuticals in our waterways, chromium and arsenic even though we have the science in place to adopt protections.

Christie's administration have downgraded and eviscerated the DEP Division of Science and have replaced it with the Science Advisory Board, which is primarily made up of polluters and corporate interests. Even worse is that the state has failed to update the 20-year-old Water Supply Master Plan, which determines water availability as well as water quality issues. This means the DEP may be allowing development in areas where there is not adequate water supply and taking from polluted sources.

If the Christie administration continues taking over cities instead of allowing cities file bankruptcy, Christie could be directly in charge of their water supply.

With an ongoing record of weakening of clean water protections in the Highlands and Pinelands, we are concerned what could happen with the government takeover in Atlantic City. Just like Flint, Christie has already allowed Camden's water to be privatized to cut costs in an area whose wells are in a place that are too contaminated. As a result, they are taking Camden's water from highly contaminated sources and even trying to get Pennsauken to take the water. In Atlantic City, there are plans for water privatization and their wells are threatened by a superfund site.

Like Snyder, Christie doesn't care if there is lead in our drinking water.

Christie recently vetoed a bill that would protect children from lead so he could grab the money for the budget. Under the Christie administration, environmental enforcement and inspections have been cut at least 60 percent. However, the DEP has failed to release no new data on inspections for the past four years so it could have been cut at least 80 percent.

New Jersey has serious problems when it comes to protecting our drinking water by increasing pollution in our waterways.

People said in Michigan there was a "crisis of leadership on all levels," but in New Jersey, Christie has not only failed to lead, but has deliberately rolled back protections in place for clean water.

Gov. Christie has put our environment and public health at risk and what happened in Flint could happen here.

Jeff Tittel is director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

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