Groups say toxic chemicals dumped into New Jersey waterways
By Jen Samuel, Managing Editor
TRENTON — Just how clean is the Delaware River?
This spring, Trenton-based Environment New Jersey released a report stating that industrial facilities had dumped 8.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals into New Jersey’s waterways in 2010 — including 5.4 million pounds of toxic waste by DuPont into the Delaware River.
"The focus on this report is to shine a light,” said Doug O’Malley, interim director of ENJ, on Tuesday. “This is legal. These companies aren’t breaking the law even though the amounts are quite extraordinary.”
Gov. Chris Christie’s press office declined multiple requests for comment.
The ENJ report, titled “Wasting Our Waterways: Industrial Toxic Pollution and the Unfulfilled Promise of the Clean Water Act,” declared that the Garden State came in fifth for highest amount of total toxic discharges in the nation.
"This report is ridiculous,” said Larry Ragonese, press director of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, on Tuesday. “We strongly repudiate the findings.”
The report listed the industrial facility of DuPont Chambers Works, located on Route 130 near the Delaware Memorial Bridge in Salem County, as the single largest polluter in New Jersey and the fourth largest polluter in the country.
NJDEP Press Officer Ragonese emphasized, “We are disputing completely that report.”
However, Mr. O’Malley said data in the report came from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory for 2010.
"We have not violated any EPA regulations,” said Public Affairs Specialist Meredith Avakian of the DuPont Chambers Works on Wednesday. “We have not . . . discharged anything that is not allowed by the state of Delaware (or state of) New Jersey.”
She said, “We release 8 (to) 10 million gallons of treated water per day from our wastewater treatment plant.”
According to the EPA, the DuPont Chambers Works facility is considered petrochemical manufacturing under the North American Industry Classification System code for the TRI reporting year 2010. Owned by E. I. du Pont De Nemours and Co. Inc., DuPont Chambers Works operates as a chemical industrial facility.
The TRI for 2010, which is posted on the EPA’s website, stated that the chemical data in pounds reported at DuPont Chambers Works was as follows: total on-site releases: 5,716,014; total off-site releases: 172,667; total transfers off-site for further waste management: 2,477,266; total waste managed: 64,602,834 pounds.
Specifically, 158 chemicals were listed as processed by the DuPont Chambers Works facility within 63 forms submitted to the TRI. The chemicals ranged from picric, formic and nitric acids, to hydrogen fluoride and cyanide, to mercury and lead compounds and methanol.
"DuPont has reduced its total Toxic Release Inventory environmental releases by nearly 60 percent since the first TRI report in 1987,” said Ms. Avakian of DuPont. “This is a substantial reduction considering the TRI program has expanded significantly to include 650 chemicals and chemical categories during that time.”
"The discharges reported to the U.S. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory are regulated, permitted discharges,” said Communications Assistant Katharine O’Hara of the Delaware River Basin Commission on Tuesday.
The DRBC is a regional oversight body composed of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York governors and a federal representative from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
According to the EPA, its TRI stated that 5,354,113 pounds were reported as surface water discharges while another 86,419 pounds were reported as point source air emissions by DuPont Chambers Works for 2010.
"Yes, the EPA numbers are accurate,” DuPont Public Affairs Specialist Avakian said.
The EPA also said that 4.4 million pounds of nitrate compounds were surface water discharges.
"The majority of the company’s wastewater discharges are from the Chambers Works, (New Jersey) site, and are due to a water treatment process specifically designed to reduce waste ammonia discharges by converting them to nitrates, which are considered less harmful to the environment,” said Ms. Avakian.
She stated, “In general nitrate is not considered to be a toxic release in any of the rivers to which DuPont sites discharge treated wastewater. DuPont continues to investigate programs to reduce these emissions.”
Of DuPont, Mr. O’Malley of Environment New Jersey said, “We think it’s important to highlight that 5.4 million pounds is a huge amount of pollution to be going into the Delaware.”
New Jersey DEP Press Director Ragonese countered, “They get EPA facts but they kind of skew them.”
Further, “That plant processes wastewater,” Mr. Ragonese said. “It removes the pollutants.”
Said Mr. O’Malley, “DuPont is doing everything by the books. They play by the rules. But our point is the rules are way too relaxed to allow over 5 million pounds to be dumped in the Delaware.”
He said President Barack Obama, “is poised to finalize guidelines that the Clean Water Act does apply to all of our waterways across this country.”
Of the Delaware River, NJDEP Press Director Ragonese said, “It’s a source of about 25 percent of our drinking water in our state.”
He said, “It is safe for residents to swim.”
As for pollution, he said, “You’re not seeing the old fashion releases of pollutants into the water. We’ve made tremendous strides as a society.”
In April, the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board voted 13-5 to give the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approval to further study a petition to upgrade to Exceptional Value more than 1,600 square miles of the basin, located in mostly forested and rural areas of the Keystone State’s Pike, Monroe and Wayne counties.
"The Delaware has come a long way,” said Mr. O’Malley of Environment New Jersey. “Just because it is beautiful in one part doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be protected elsewhere.”
"We need our state and federal agencies to step up and do their jobs better,” said Maya van Rossum, executive director of the Delaware Riverkeeper, on Tuesday.
Ms. van Rossum said, “The ‘right’ to pollute … is going to vary industry by industry, facility by facility, water body by water body.”
She said the original goal of the Clean Water Act, passed by Congress in 1972, was to have zero industrial pollution discharge into bodies of water by 1985.
Ms. van Rossum said it was a promise that was easily broken.
"People laugh,” she said. Yet, “it is achievable. It is a matter of trying to achieve it.”
"Discharges into the waterways of the Delaware River Basin, and across the country, are regulated by the states and federal government through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, which is the permit program authorized by the Clean Water Act of 1972,” said DRCM Communications Assistant O’Hara. “While a federal program, in most cases, it is administered by the states.”
Argued Ms. van Rossum, “The DRCM is in this place of acceptance.”
Said Spokeswoman O’Hara, “No penalties were levied by DRBC for illegal dumping into the Delaware River in 2010 or 2011.”
Environment New Jersey recommended that the Obama administration should clarify that the Clean Water Act applies to all waterways including the 4,087 miles of streams in New Jersey. It also said that the EPA and NJDEP should issue permits with tough, numeric limits for each type of pollution discharged.
New Jersey DEP Press Director Ragonese recalled “a few slaps on the wrists” in terms of fines against DuPont in recent years although he named nothing specific on Tuesday.
"(The 2010) oil spill in the Gulf Coast has taught us all to be more aware of the dangers that can come from any lack of oversight and responsibility towards our shared environmental stewardship,” said State Assemblyman Troy Singleton of the 7th district. “One of New Jersey’s great treasures is its miles of coastline and beaches. Protecting these vital resources is a responsibility that I take seriously and will remain diligent in ensuring that parties, both private and public, share in that diligence.”
Said Ms. van Rossum of the Delaware Riverkeeper, “We have to recognize that we can prevent pollution.”