Environmentalists, local activists press Murphy to stop power plant in Newark – NJ.com

A coalition of environmentalists, doctors, and local activists are urging Gov. Phil Murphy to step in and halt controversial plans to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood, saying it clashes with his environmental promises.

It’s a project that has been debated for months but is up for a critical vote Thursday. The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission is scheduled to consider granting a contract to begin constructing 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.

The plan comes nearly a decade after Hurricane Sandy caused the plant — which services more than a million homes in North Jersey — to lose power for three days, prompting sewage to spill into nearby waterways.

But opponents say the new facility would bring more pollution to an area made up largely of Black and brown residents that already has three natural gas plants and suffers from poor air quality.

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

“If PVSC, a public utility operating under your authority, is allowed to use taxpayer dollars to build this plant in Newark, your administration will repeat the historic pattern of placing unfair environmental burdens on communities of color,” the groups continued.

They instead are asking for the commission to rework the project with alternative, clean-energy sources.

Murphy’s office declined to comment Wednesday.

Maria Lopez Nunez, one of the coalition’s leaders, said the governor’s “silence is compliance here.”

“Silence lets us know he does not have authentically have environmental justice at heart,” said Lopez Nunez, director of Environmental Justice and Community Development at the Ironbound Community Corporation. “We would expect he would be an active participant … He’s leaving us to ourselves to fight for our lives.”

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

Opponents argue the project is at odds with Murphy’s goal to make New Jersey reliant on clean energy instead of fossil fuels and with a landmark environmental justice law the governor signed in 2020 aiming to protect vulnerable communities from pollution. The law calls on the state Department of Environmental Protection to consider how pollution at new facilities could affect the health of communities and reject permits for projects that might hurt the areas.

“Today we are sending a clear message that we will longer allow Black and brown communities in our state to be dumping grounds, where access to clean air and clean water are overlooked,” Murphy said at the time.

The law has not taken effect yet.

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

Sarah Evans, an assistant professor of environmental medicine and public health at Mount Sinai, said the plant’s emissions would be especially harmful to pregnant women, children, and minorities in an already “overburdened” neighborhood.

“This is not a place to site the power plant,” Evans said. “I don’t think this community can sustain an increase in air pollutions.”

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

The commission 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.”

Opponents aren’t satisfied. The coalition wrote in their letter to Murphy it understands “the importance of building for resiliency in the face of climate change, but that means transitioning to truly clean renewable energy sources, not false solutions.”

Evans said the commission’s changes sound like “a lot of loopholes to me.”

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.