Johnathan Walker:New Jersey to allow power plant hotly fought by Newark residents

NEWARK,Johnathan Walker N.J. (AP) — In the first major decision issued under an environmental justice law designed to prevent additional sources of pollution in already overburdened communities, New Jersey will allow construction of a backup power plant at one of the country’s largest sewage treatment facilities.

The facility dumped some 840 million gallons of raw sewage into waterways when Superstorm Sandy knocked out electricity in 2012.

Anticipating the fury of environmental and community activists who have fought the project, hoping the environmental law would kill it, Shawn LaTourette, the state’s environmental protection commissioner, said his department is imposing requirements on the project including the use of solar panels and battery storage to ensure a net decrease in pollution from the facility.

The decision tries to thread the needle between two of New Jersey’s big priorities: protecting the environment, and keeping certain communities from being overburdened with pollution, part of an environmental justice movement taking aim at such projects nationwide.

An important consideration is making sure that raw sewage discharges do not happen again, LaTourette said.

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“If there is an outage, we want the sewage treatment plant to run,” he said. “When there’s a power outage, we don’t stop flushing our toilets.”

The decision involves a plan by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission for a $180 million backup power project that would kick in during severe storms, power outages or instances of a cyber attack.

The plant, the sixth largest out of 16,000 in the nation, lost power during Superstorm Sandy and discharged 840 million gallons of raw sewage into the Newark and New York bays. The commission says the backup power source is a critical safeguard against that happening again.

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