Talking to Legislators About Clean Water: New Jersey State House Education Day
By Kelly Knutson, State Policy Manager, Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed; Rebecca Hilbert, Policy Assistant, New Jersey League of Conservation Voters; Brielle Olshan, Policy Intern, Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed
On December 16th, the last voting session of 2019, the Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed (CDRW) and several member organizations—including the NJ League of Conservation Voters, the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, the NJ Highlands Coalition, the NJ Environmental Lobby, and the Watershed Institute—gathered for a state house education day in Trenton, NJ.
The Coalition had five legislative “asks” that would contribute to cleaner water and healthier communities across the state:
a statewide plastic bag ban,
full-share funding of the Delaware River Basin Commission,
appointments of qualified individuals to the Highlands Council and Pinelands Commission,
environmental justice legislation,
and funding for state agencies such as Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The first priority was to advocate in support of single-use plastic legislation, S2776/A4330, which would prohibit the use of single-use plastic carry-out bags, polystyrene foam food service products, and single-use plastic straws. Plastics pose a threat to our health and environment and require robust state-wide action to protect waterways and habitat. The Delaware River Basin Commission is charged with taking care of water quality and quantity of the Delaware River, but has not received the agreed upon $893,000 from New Jersey for the last several years. We advocated for the advancement of appointments of qualified individuals to the Highlands Council and Pinelands Commission who will support the mission of the agency. Once these bodies have been filled, the state must also provide strong support for these regional planning authorities.
We also asked legislators to support S1700/A5094, which would reduce environmental injustice in low-income communities and communities of color by allowing the Department of Environmental Protection to designate an area within a municipality as a “burdened community” after an evaluation; and would limit new or expanded energy or waste disposal facilities from being built. Our final legislative priority was to advocate for comprehensive funding for state agencies, such as NJ Department of Environmental Protection. Over the past 15 years the DEP has lost 1,200 staff members; and enforcement, inspections, and penalties and fines have decreased as much as 50% and greater in many programs.
To comprehensively advocate for these priorities, CDRW and partners met with Assemblyman Rooney, and staff from Senators Singleton’s and Senator Diegnan’s offices. During these meetings, we were able to emphasize the importance of the prioritized legislation, as well as thank legislators for their service and their support. Importantly, volunteers from environmental commissions in sixteen different communities (including Lambertville, Paramus, and Ridgewood to name a few) were able to give vital constituent representation when speaking to legislators, as well as discuss both the plastic policies enacted in their communities to limit single-use plastics, and the importance of state-wide policy.
Through this advocacy effort, we were collectively able to speak briefly to at least ten legislators, including Assemblymembers D’Angelo, Murphy, Mukherji, Land, Benson, Carter, Downey and Zwicker, and Senators Rice and Thompson en route to the voting chambers.
The Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions held a press conference about plastics on January 6, 2020 to remind legislators of the issue and to vote in favor of reducing single-use plastics. While plastics was not up for a vote on the day of our lobbying efforts, we hope the plastic bag ban is passed before the end of this legislative session. December 16th was the last voting session of the year, but there will be two voting sessions in the new year on Thursday, January 9th, and Monday, January 13th.
Despite the great turnout for our State House Education Day, we hope to have even more traction next year in connecting with legislators on these critical issues. We would like to thank all the member organizations and the environmental commissioners who joined us for this effort!