NJ Bill to Reduce Plastic Bag Pollution and Support Barnegat Bay Passes Committee

NJ Bill to Reduce Plastic Bag Pollution and Support Barnegat Bay Passes Committee

Photo Credit: http://www.seaturtle.org/imagelib/?photo=4364

(Trenton, New Jersey) – Clean Ocean Action testified before the Senate Environment and Energy Committee  in general support of Senate Bill 812, the “Carryout Bag Reduction and Recycling Act,” a bill that would provide financial incentives to reduce the number of paper and plastic carryout bags distributed by stores.  The bill proposes that the funds generated would be directed to help improve water quality in Barnegat Bay and passed in Committee today.  However, COA urged that in the short term, a substantial portion of the proceeds go toward removing massive debris fields in the marine environment caused by Sandy.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Bob Smith, Chairman of the Committee, would require the operator of every convenience store, drugstore, supermarket or retail establishment that provides carryout bags to its customers to implement a $0.05 fee for every carryout bag distributed beginning January 1, 2014.   Additional incentives encourage customers to bring reusable bags.

Twice each year, Clean Ocean Action holds state-wide Beach Sweeps where volunteers from across New Jersey gather at over 70 locations from Cape May to Essex County, recording and tallying data of the amount of debris collected.  According to Clean Ocean Action’s Beach Sweeps report for 2011, 8,245 plastic shopping bags were collected in just two days (by 7,575 volunteers).

Testifying on behalf of COA, Zach McCue, Citizen Action Coordinator said, “While plastic bags may not be the number one item collected during beach sweeps, they still contribute significantly to the unnecessary amount of waste on our shores.  This bill takes action to reduce needless pollution while starting a much needed dialogue on the public’s usage of single use disposable plastic.”

Reducing the use of single use bags with financial incentives will dramatically reduce the consumption of plastic bags, as well as provide resources for reducing pollution. Many business leaders in NJ are already encouraging people to bring their own bags.  A statewide reduction of plastic bag use is necessary to ensure this law is fair and effective.

“According to Beach Sweep data, we have noticed an apparent decline in smoking related debris with the increase of smoking bans in public places,” stated Tavia Danch, Clean Ocean Action Education Coordinator.  “We are hoping to see a similar result with a plastic bag reduction law.  In addition, the purchase of cigarettes includes fees which help fund programs to improve public health.  Similarly, this Bag Reduction law will direct the funds generated by this environmental threat to help improve water quality,” added Danch. 

Clean Ocean Action supports, S812, in general with initial recommendations and may have further suggestions.  For the first 5 years, allowing a substantial portion of the revenues generated by the bill should be used to help municipalities fund the clean-up of marine debris caused by Hurricane Sandy, including communities of the Barnegat Bay.  Much of the debris, including displaced boats, cars, and refrigerators, are hazardous to habitats and wildlife and contain toxins. The price of cleaning shorelines and waterways may cost millions of dollars and funds from S812 could help defray those costs.

Following the initial 5 years, funds should then be directed solely to the Barnegat Bay to improve water quality.  After 10 years from passage, the bill should require a reassessment of funding structures to consider future needs to improve water quality.  Clean Ocean Action is also concerned with the enforceability of the bill, and asked the Committee to put measures in place to assure that the NJDEP will enforce the provisions and produce the reports that are stipulated in the bill.

“We are encouraged that NJ may join the growing efforts in the US and around the world to reduce this harmful, and avoidable source of pollution, waste, and litter, as well as fund important work to improve water quality,” said Cindy Zipf, Executive Director of COA.

Big Rise in Tiny Pollutants

According to a report from the BBC, "the quantity of small plastic fragments floating in the north-east Pacific Ocean has increased a hundred fold over the past 40 years"...

Big rise in North Pacific plastic waste

Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography documented the big rise when they trawled the waters off California.

They were able to compare their plastic "catch" with previous data for the region.

The group reports its findings in the journal Biology Letters.

"We did not expect to find this," says Scripps researcher Miriam Goldstein.

"When you go out into the North Pacific, what you find can be highly variable. So, to find such a clear pattern and such a large increase was very surprising," she told BBC News.

All the plastic discarded into the ocean that does not sink will eventually break down.

Sunlight and the action of the waves will degrade and shred the material over time into pieces the size of a fingernail, or smaller.

An obvious concern is that this micro-material could be ingested by marine organisms...

Read More Here

Chemical Pollution Increased Nationally and in New Jersey from 2009 to 2010

The EPA released its 25th annual report, the Toxic Release Inventory, on the reported toxic chemicals released to the environment in 2010 by industrial facilities.  Chemical releases also increased by 16 % nationally despite a downward trend over the last decade.  In New Jersey, 411 facilities report discharges of chemicals into the air, land, and water.  Over 16 million pounds of some 150 chemicals were released in NJ in 2010 – about 3 million pounds more than in 2009.  The change was attributed largely to increased wastewater discharges from the DuPont Chambers Works, Conoco Phillips and Paulsboro Refining Co. LLC.  New York’s releases were about 22.9 million pounds for both years.

Thanks to ocean champion New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, who authored legislation in 1986 as part of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, this information on pollution is compiled and made available to the public. This information is valuable to manage waste streams and identify whre pollution prevention can be most effective.

Chemical releases have costly and negative public health and environmental impacts – affecting our air and water quality.  Air pollutants, such as mercury, can end up our waterways and the ocean and enter marine food webs.  Toxins can injure and be deadly to marine life.  Poor air and drinking water quality and contamination of shellfish and fishery resources call all impact human health.  Chemical releases also can contaminate the seafloor - harming marine life and making sediments that fill in navigational channels and port areas more expensive to dredge and manage.  Overall - the public pays the high costs of this pollution.

Although many facilities have pollution control devices, more efforts are clearly needed to reduce chemical pollution form industrial facilities.

For more info, visit: http://goo.gl/xhV37

To view an area fact sheet, visit: http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/statefactsheet.htm 

For program overview, visit: http://www.epa.gov/tri/

EPA has a web application for mobile devices called, myRight-To-Know.   For any location or address, myRTK maps nearby facilities that report to then Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), as well as large permit holders in EPA's Air, Water or Hazardous Waste programs that are expected to produce, manage or release TRI-reportable chemicals. For myRTK, visit: http://www.epa.gov/tri/myrtk/

Take Back your Unused and Old Drugs on Saturday October 29, 2011!

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is hosting its third National Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at many local law enforcement offices and other locations across the country.  Proper and safe disposal of medicine can help prevent:  misuse and poisoning of children and pets as well as drug pollution from entering rivers, lakes and the ocean and harming aquatic life.  Don’t  flush drugs down the toilet or the drain, as drugs can pass through wastewater treatment plants and enter waterways.  To find a collection site near you, click here.  The national number to call for the nearest National Take Back Initiative location is: 1-800-882-9539.  If you can’t make it Saturday, click here to read about how to protect our waters and ocean by disposing of medicines properly. 

Algal Bloom in NY/NJ Bight: Help Needed!

A huge algal bloom, indicated by the green color in the ocean water, was observed on August 17, 2011 in this True Color Satellite Image.  The Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System, MARACOOS, has posted this image and additional information and data on its website, click here.  The bloom covered much of the New York/New Jersey Bight which extends from Montauk, NY (the tip of Long Island) to Cape May, NJ. 

The bloom consists of tiny algae, called phytoplankton, that contain the pigment, chlorophyll-a, which is measured in the satellite images.  MARACOOS webpage shows an image of the Bight area on July 1 under more normal conditions for this time of year.  The bloom initially began in mid-July along the middle to southern part of the Jersey Shore.  Winds from the southwest blowing northeast became dominant from July 23-30 driving surface waters toward the ocean and causing water to upwell along the NJ coast.  Nutrient-rich, cold waters from the ocean bottom rises during upwelling, fueling algal growth and blooms.  These waters combine with coastal surface waters that are also nutrient rich due to the Hudson River outflow and coastal runoff.

In the summer, southwesterly winds and the associated occasional coastal upwelling is normal along certain specific areas of the Jersey shore.  However, these blooms usually affect an area within about 9 - 12 miles (15-20 km) from shore, whereas the algal bloom this August extends to over 62 miles (100 km) into the ocean. 

As the algae in the bloom die, they settle to the seafloor and decay using up oxygen.  Reductions in dissolved oxygen to 4-5 mg/L have been observed by one of the autonomous underwater vehicles (Gliders) that have been deployed by Rutgers University to sample and monitor the Bight.  Updates on glider data can be found here.  Levels below the water quality of standard of 5 mg/L can stress and harm fish and other aquatic organisms.  Clean Ocean Action (COA) has previously advocated for a glider to be used along the NJ coast by NJDEP and EPA and it is great to see that this effort has been funded, especially given this massive bloom event.

In addition to the upwelling process, another coastal oceanographic process off the northern part of the Jersey Shore has developed over the last week apparently in response to the extensive rain over the weekend in the New York/New Jersey region that resulted in high volumes of runoff and combined sewer overflows in the metropolitan area that discharge into the Hudson River Estuary.  The bloom activity in the northern part of the Jersey Shore appears to be related to coastal runoff and the plume, the outflow, of the Hudson River.   

COA is requesting the help of divers, fishermen, and boaters in the area to look for tell-tale signs of low dissolved oxygen and document their locations.  Fishermen and boaters should be looking for fish floating on the surface or in their nets.  Divers should look for lobsters, crabs and fish that usually hide in crevices, but are now in the open and lethargic.  Also, divers should  look for fish that are located higher on the wrecks and/or breathing with difficulty.  If divers know how to use dissolved oxygen kits, they should take samples.  COA is also asking government agencies to sample and monitor the bloom and its impacts.