Health

Provide new state funding for water infrastructure, with a focus on environmental justice communities. Funds should prioritize lead pipe replacement (at least $500 million in principal forgiveness for low-income communities), addressing Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) (at least $400 million), and climate resilience ($300 million, with principal forgiveness for water infrastructure improvements that enhance climate resilience). Additionally, prioritize non-point source pollution, emerging contaminants, aging septic systems, and harmful algal blooms. Allow for a portion of the funds to be redirected if federal funding directly funds priorities and pursue a policy of maximizing the acquisition and use of federal funds for water infrastructure and pollution abatement.

Charge the Drinking Water Quality Institute with investigating options for addressing contaminants beyond the single-chemical approach, including regulating the PFAS class of chemicals as a class (as opposed to individual chemicals in drinking water standards) to also include surface water quality and groundwater standards.

Propose and adopt exemptions for small-scale food waste operations, such as community gardens, schools, and outdoor windrow composting systems.

Support urban and community forests and shade trees and parks, playgrounds or green spaces in environmental justice communities by prioritizing Green Acres, Natural Resource Damages, environmental settlements, and other state and federal funding for these projects in a transparent manner. Set a timeline towards the goal of ensuring that every person living in an environmental justice area has access to well-designed, well-funded, well-maintained, well-programmed parks, playgrounds, or green spaces within a 10-minute walk from home or workplace.

Continue and increase funding for the State’s Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund for brownfield cleanup, including its use for brownfield to greenfield park development projects and preparatory work for solar fields

Establish State support for open schoolyards and assist school districts to find ways to address concerns about public safety and maintenance in order to support this effective way to increase close-to-home access to park and recreational resources for many residents of New Jerseys’ urban neighborhoods.

Develop new trails and maintain existing trails through:
1. Enhance staffing and capacity to accelerate trails projects to ensure coordination and capacity across state agencies for recreational and circuit trails
2. Support of DEP’s Statewide Mapping Initiative and using the data to create a statewide network of trails
3. Increasing use of federal transportation funds for multi-use trails
4. Provide planning, design, and construction support to environmental justice communities to ensure the success of trail projects
5. Condition use of state funding for trails to ensure design and accessibility for people of all ages and abilities
6. Partner with and fund nonprofit organizations and community-based organizations to assist with maintenance, repair and construction of trails around the State
7. Update and implement the New Jersey Trails Plan in cooperation with the New Jersey Trails Council, including priority trail gaps and how to close them
8. Increase award size under the Recreational Trail Program grants in order to facilitate completion of major projects
9. Showcase Governor remarks during the 2022 Trails Summit that speak to the tremendous mental and physical health benefits, as well as tourism and economic benefits of trails
10. Convene stakeholder process to review permitting process for trail construction to identify obstacles that result in environmental degradation and threats to visitor safety

Ensure “Jersey Fresh” programs assists with marketing new farm products, including organic grains.

Support sustainable shellfish aquaculture through the coordinated activities of the Delaware Bay Aquaculture Development Zone and ongoing stakeholder groups that bring industry and conservation organizations together to resolve issues of concern.

Permanently protect additional lands in the Highlands and Pinelands regions, which provide clean drinking water to more than 75 percent of the state.

Initiate and fund a Vision Zero program that sets forth a Vision Zero goal of eliminating deaths by 2030 and creates a Vision Zero Task Force which will create an Action Plan to get there. Include the concept of “boulevarding,” which is the reconstruction of freeways as boulevards and focus on narrowing lanes, creating safer crossings and slowing speeds. Utilize funds from the American Rescue Plan and include community outreach as part of the study and design process.

Provide low-cost testing to private residences to encourage testing of wells outside of the change in ownership period

Utilize the sale of homes and required well test results for targeted outreach and testing of adjacent properties, depending of the test results.

Propose and adopt a new Lead and Copper Rule that protects public health through improved water sampling, quick public notification, proactive requirements for lead mitigation, corrosion control, and public education.

Ensure safe drinking water in child care centers by running an education campaign that informs parents and staff of the danger of lead in drinking water. The campaign should include a statewide map of test results, practical action steps and useful resources that prompt them to act.

Direct $100 million in already approved bond proceeds to school districts with the most lead poisoning.

Improve the Water Quality Management Planning process to include cumulative impacts, Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), and address interconnected ground waters and surface waters.

Strengthen the Tier A Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Permits to add clear, specific, measurable plan for impaired waters with Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). Provide guidance to municipalities to develop plans, encourage municipalities to address water quality-based requirements as part of a regional stormwater management plan, and require regular monitoring of basin outfalls to ensure approved designs are meeting the regulatory requirements.

Request that the Environmental Protection Agency designate the Raritan Bay as a “No Discharge Zone” to prevent vessels from discharging sewage into the water.

Issue the next five-year Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) permits with the following provisions:

1. Require permit holders to implement green infrastructure projects within five years, including looking at innovative projects at school yards
2. Provide climate change data and projections for use in the selection, implementation, and evaluation of CSO projects
3. Identify and prioritize environmental justice neighborhoods for CSO mitigation
4. Require the permit holders to continue public outreach on the projects that have been selected in the Long Term Control Plans
5. Ensure equitable financing of Long Term Control Plans, whereby costs are shared between sewage treatment utilities and municipalities to reduce impacts on ratepayers

Investigate the use of chemical mixture screening by the federal or state government to assess toxicity.

Explore use of water treatment-based standards to complement individual chemical-by-chemical standards. Fund large pilot projects to evaluate the effectiveness of large-scale contaminant removal by carbon (or other) treatment. In 2017, New Jersey conducted a pilot study at two water treatment plants and determined that carbon treatment removed a large percentage of unregulated contaminants from drinking water.

Update, enforce and implement existing Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) and move forward with identified TMDLs from integrated reports, as required under the federal Clean Water Act. Develop an annual action plan naming specific TMDLs to be completed each year, including a stakeholder process to improve the development and implementation of TMDLs.

Increase allocation of federal pass-through programs, like 319h and 604b, that fund stormwater management and nonpoint source pollution projects. The last round of funding was announced in February 2020 for up to $3.5 million total funding. Targets should be established, such as at least ten TMDLs per year, funding for at least ten water quality restoration plans per year, funding for implementation of at least ten watershed restoration plans per year.

Designate all beaches along the Raritan Bayshore as bathing beaches and perform regular, protective water quality testing to provide timely notification of water quality that creates health risks.

Develop a consistent and meaningful sampling program for Raritan Bay to track trends over time, isolate pollution sources and understand the health of the Bay.

Pilot a Community Design Advocates program that pays community leaders in overburdened communities to coordinate input from community members and ensure inclusion into the design and development of redevelopment projects.

Conduct local air quality monitoring research along roadways and along facility fence lines, in conjunction with increased ambient air quality monitoring, to quantify any changes to air pollution emissions levels (NOx and SOx) and ensure emissions reductions environmental justice communities.

Pursue Medicaid reimbursement for lead abatement services.

Designate American Rescue Plan funds for workforce development in lead-safe and energy efficiency sectors.

Create awareness through state-sponsored programs to developers, contractors, retailers, health care providers and directly to families about the health risks of cooking with gas stoves including that cooking with gas is associated with childhood asthma and that people with gas cooking stoves can reduce pollution by reducing use, ventilating and switching to electric stoves.

Require installation of outdoor-vented electric cooking stoves for new, low-income housing funded by the State.

Initiate a Main Street program that focuses on re-thinking and investing in state and county roads that serve as “Main Streets'' to make towns more pedestrian and business friendly. This should include making outdoor dining possible, encouraging open streets and pedestrian plazas, car-free downtowns, and making it easier for municipalities to lower speeds on state and county roads traveling through downtowns.

Quickly move forward with implementation of new law (P.L.2021, c.182) that requires landlords to obtain lead-safe certificates before units are rented.

Require that Section 8 rent-subsidized units be inspected for lead hazards prior to occupancy.

Train community health workers and designated home visitors for newborns who work with families in the principles of healthy, lead-free homes. Require health workers to conduct a healthy homes assessment in client homes and make referrals to lead services as needed.

Improve New Jersey’s Annual Lead Surveillance Report by continuing to enhance new online mapping tool that helps residents identify lead exposure risks in housing by adding lead exposure from other sources, such as leaded gasoline or pesticide-contaminated soil, and maps of Elevated Blood Lead levels per jurisdiction at the smallest geographic unit possible to protect privacy of affected children and families.

Set timetable for Whole House program review and begin expansion, which will deliver integrated lead (paint, water and soil), health, safety and weatherization improvements for homes in New Jersey’s most vulnerable communities. Include inspections to review potential exposures to household air pollution generated by cooking with gas and other options for funding to address any structural issues with homes that often defer weatherization or energy efficiency steps.

Offer no-cost or subsidized options for programs retrofitting low-income housing to switch to electric stoves which should include funding for electric panel upgrades, installation of outlets for electric stoves and shutting off gas lines.

Allocate resources to support proactive housing inspections of 5 percent of housing in high-risk areas of lead exposure.

Update building codes to require outdoor-vented gas stoves.

Support local initiatives to conduct community air quality monitoring, including through a “citizen science” approach and to monitor mobile and industry emissions.

Implement alternative roadway uses through policy and capital planning to eliminate the perceived need for additional lanes: identify shuttle and HOV lanes, electric vehicle access and amenities, bicycle/pedestrian paths along highways and bridges.

Institute a Bicycle Commuter Benefit for state employees, including metrics on adoption and ways to expand the program.

Prioritize clean transportation investments in projects that benefit communities most harmed by pollution, with at least 50 - 75 percent of funding from any air pollution settlements, regional emissions reduction agreements, federal funding or similar sources targeted in New Jersey’s more than 300 overburdened communities. Include additional investments in electrifying public transportation like buses and last-mile options.

Enact policies and regulations to mitigate the environmental harm from existing roads and bridges, such as using low carbon concrete, green infrastructure practices (e.g. porous pavement) that manages stormwater runoff to prevent flooding and accounts for impact on wildlife.

Resolve New Jersey Administrative Code (NJAC) challenges to allow for bicycle-share advertising opportunities that would fund bicycle share programs.

Continue to reduce congestion and employ smart growth strategies to spur density; and additional investments in electrifying public transportation like buses, last-mile options, and increasing funding for municipalities to foster walk- and bicycle-friendly communities.

Create non-lead zones in State Parks and Wildlife Management Areas used for hunting and fishing.

Adopt a policy to support reusable items, such as coffee cups and food containers brought into a store or restaurant for the purpose of filling an order, are safe to use.

Promote alternatives to lead in hunting and fishing materials, including in publications and license documentation.

Collaborate with other states in the region to create a standard for electronic-waste (e-waste) recycling that focuses on extended producer responsibility.

Ensure that the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) obtains and makes publically available critical information from the railroads that carry crude oil.

Provide Local Emergency Planning Committees for New Jersey’s counties and municipalities to make up-to-date Emergency Response Plans accessible for public review, including posting online and ensure Plans are written to inform neighbors about what to do in case of an emergency.

Amend Toxic Control Prevention Act (TCPA) program rules to require facilities to adopt safer alternatives to certain chemicals whenever feasible, including adopting Inherently Safer Technology (IST) and making IST reviews publicly available.

Produce an annual report about safer chemicals and processes identified and adopted by facilities, as well as facilities that fail to do so.