Murphy steps in to halt vote on controversial power plant in Newark – NJ.com

Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday halted a vote to to begin building a controversial natural gas-fired power plant in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood and called for officials to more thoroughly review the environmental impact of the project.

The decision comes after a coalition of environmentalists, doctors, and local activists — who have been fighting the project for more than a year — implored the governor to stop the plans, saying the plant would harm an area already overburdened by air pollution.

The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission was slated to vote Thursday on granting a contract to begin work on the $180 million facility, designed as a backup to keep its main sewage treatment plant running should there be a power outage sparked by disasters.

But the commission dropped the vote from its meeting after Murphy interceded.

This doesn’t mean the project is killed. The governor’s office said Murphy asked the commission to “pause the process and postpone the vote” to further review the plans.

“Since taking office in 2018, Governor Murphy has made clear that New Jersey’s overburdened communities will no longer be a dumping ground for harmful pollutants,” Alexandra Altman, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office, said in a statement. “While the proposed back up generation put forth by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission is meant to provide a critical climate resilience solution, it is imperative that the project adheres to the administration’s core values on environmental justice.”

“The pause will allow the project to undergo a more thorough environmental justice review and robust public engagement process, ensuring that the voices of the community are heard,” Altman added.

Murphy told reporters Thursday after an unrelated event in Teaneck that he can’t judge whether there will ever be a natural gas-fired plant on the site.

“We’ve committed to a process,” he said. “I think the fact they’ve stepped back from a vote and there’s gonna be a continuation — there has been a process — but there’s now gonna be a more specific one over the next several months. We’ll see how that turns out.”

In a letter to Murphy last month, a coalition of activists called the plans “a massive violation” of Murphy’s “commitment to environmental justice.”

The governor had declined to comment on the matter Wednesday, leading one local activist, Maria Lopez-Nunez, to say Murphy was “leaving us to ourselves to fight for our lives.”

Lopez-Nunez, director of environmental justice and community development with the Ironbound Community Corporation, said Thursday that Murphy “has reaffirmed his commitment to environmental justice by canceling today’s vote.”

“We need to bring in real resources and experts to find a solution that does not hurt the lungs of our children and in no way contributes to climate change,” Lopez-Nunez said.

Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation voters, thanked Murphy for “agreeing with us that this is the last thing the residents of the Ironbound community need is another polluting fracked-gas power plant.”

Potosnak said his group looks forward to working with officials to “ensure the project is aligned with our clean energy goals and won’t add to the burden of carbon pollutants.”

The Passaic Valley Sewage Commission has been planning the backup plant after Hurricane Sandy caused its main sewage facility in Newark — which services more than a million homes in North Jersey — to lose power for three days, leading sewage to spill into nearby waterways.

Though opponents don’t dispute a backup is needed, they say the current plans for the new facility would bring more pollution to a neighborhood made up largely of Black and brown residents that already has three natural gas plants and suffers from poor air quality.

Instead, opponents have been asking the commission to rework the project with only alternative, clean-energy sources.

Scientists and doctors at the Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center wrote Murphy and the commission a separate letter saying the Newark project will “undoubtedly increase air pollutants linked to health problems such as respiratory and cardiovascular disease, autism, learning disabilities, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease.”

Opponents also argue the project would ironically contribute to climate change and more storms like Sandy.

The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission has said the backup plant is designed to use “state-of-the-art technology for both air quality protection and operating efficiency.”

The board said last year it considered using renewable energy at the plant instead but the large amount of power and the site’s location make that implausible.

The commissioner also notes it has made changes to improve the project’s environmental footprint. Though original plans were to run the plant initially on 100% natural gas, the commission said it announced last month the facility will speed up plans to have it run on “alternative green renewable fuels either in conjunction with natural gas, or, as the technology becomes available, as a complete replacement.”

But the coalition dismissed those as “false solutions.”

The existing sewage treatment plant is the state’s largest user of electricity and handles sewage for more than 1.5 million homes across 48 municipalities in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, and Passaic counties.

The PVCS said both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state DEP called on the commission to implement a “resiliency plan” for power outages and disasters. A loss of power for “any significant length of time,” along with heavy rains, would result in raw sewage backups in basements and street flooding throughout Newark, Jersey City, and Bayonne, the commission said.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @johnsb01.