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Your Tax Dollars At Work…Or Not
I Didn’t Want To Have To Write This
Sandy Damage
Ortley Beach, NJ
This is an article that I wish I didn’t have to write. I’m an optimist and I want to believe that given the opportunity, people in positions of authority will do their best. I want to believe that even when I disagree with someone and their approach to a problem, that they are acting in good faith and just see a different path to a solution than I do. I always keep open the possibility that I’m wrong. After all, I’m not the first person in the history of the world to never make a mistake or come to an incorrect conclusion. Nobody in public life ever takes a particular action convinced that its wrong. I’ve also been in positions of authority, so I have some empathy for public officials charged with difficult or complex jobs. I tend to be tolerant of differing points of view because intelligent discourse usually leads to better policies. I say all of this because I want to give the benefit of the doubt to the folks guiding New Jersey’s recovery from Hurricane Sandy-but I can’t.
I would like to be be discussing the progressive and forward thinking approach to rebuilding that New Jersey has taken in the aftermath of Sandy. But I can’t. I would like to describe the intelligent and measured plan to spend the billions of dollars in federal Sandy aid that has poured into the state. But I can’t. I would like to list the dozens of coordinated programs designed to re-shape the future of New Jersey as a place where vulnerability to future storms and the effects of climate change on a coastal state are being adequately addressed. But I can’t. I would like to say that in response to Sandy’s destruction New Jersey is fundamentally re-assessing how and where we occupy vulnerable areas of the coast. But I can’t. What I can say is that something has gone wrong, very wrong, with the state’s handling of Sandy recovery.
Keep Your Eye On The Ball
It IS A Beautiful Bridge
While the byzantine details of the George Washington Bridge lane closures capture the attention of the public and the media, the state faces issues that have the potential to negatively effect New Jersey residents for generations to come. The failure to adequately plan New Jersey’s recovery from Sandy and the inability to properly allocate the billions in recovery aid will be the real scandal. 16 months after Sandy, the state has managed to spend money on housing projects in Belleville and New Brunswick that were on the books before the storm and pay millions to outside, politically connected, contractors to help administer and distribute homeowner assistance. This includes a $10 million settlement to fired contractor HGI and $5 million more for a Christie family beach movie. Think about what that money alone could have done. There is no sign of a transparent coordinated plan that addresses the breadth of issues that the state is facing.
What New Jersey needs is a common sense approach to recovery that goes beyond the distribution of individual assistance that helps people rebuild homes damaged by Sandy’s flooding. An integrated and comprehensive plan that recognizes the threats of climate change and sea level rise in a densely populated coastal state should, at a minimum, provide the guiding principals for recovery. What it appears that we have gotten is a muddled and highly political system for distribution of Sandy money without a clear vision or discernible long-term goals. More disturbingly, it appears that aid may have been distributed (or not) based in part upon political considerations. There is nothing more corrupt than squandering the state’s long-term future in exchange for short-term political advantage.
It didn’t have to be this way. The Federal Hurricane Sandy Task Force set out a series of recommendations to guide recovery efforts. The report laid out principals for rebuilding in the wake of Sandy that included requirements for addressing resiliency, vulnerability and responses to future threats posed by climate change, including sea level rise. Properly undertaking recovery would necessitate addressing infrastructure, housing, the environment and every other issue area that climate change effects. However, the Christie administration apparently knows better and is following their own path. The amount of damage done by Sandy was so enormous and the task of reshaping New Jersey is so vital that every available penny in aid needed to be spent accomplishing as much as possible. The Chrisitie administration’s failure to keep that fact as their guiding principal is a far bigger breech of the public trust, and far more damaging (albeit less entertaining), than whatever was going on at the George Washington Bridge.
Be Careful What You Wish For…
He Couldn’t Really “Do It All”
Another New Jersey governor who got himself in too deep was General George B. McClellan. When he was tapped to replace Winfield Scott at the outset of the Civil War and concerns were expressed about his ability to be both an army commander and the general-in-chief he famously stated,”I can do it all!”. McClellan’s hubris eventually proved his undoing. The Christie administration wanted total control over the billions in Hurricane Sandy aid coming to the state. Never mind the accounting challenge that distribution of that much money would present, the policy challenges of spending the money appropriately or the incredibly complex issues that require innovative and thoughtful solutions-they could “do it all!” The temptation of controlling that much money along with the political power it brings and the sheer hubris that his administration needed no assistance or guidance was a toxic combination. They got what they wanted and it has led us to where we are now. New Jersey will be paying for this failure for a long time.
Across the river in New York, an innovative program called New York Rising was created to respond to the damages caused by Sandy and the flooding of Hurricane Irene the year before. Formulating sensible and targeted spending strategies for disaster aid, implementation of intelligent and effective policies, regional planning solutions for threats that have a regional basis and most importantly, a clear and cogent approach to recovery are all integral to the operation of this program. These are all approaches that were suggested to the people at the Governor’s Office of Rebuilding and Recovery (GORR) in New Jersey. The folks at the GORR are smart and earnest, but they are also apparently not calling the shots. That responsibility rests somewhere else in the administration where the difficult work of actual disaster recovery is secondary to using Sandy recovery to burnish the governor’s political image . The logical and measured approach taken by New York was seemingly not palatable, or useful enough, for Christie’s inner circle.
What has this obsession with control of the funding and politics gotten us? A number of things-and none of them good. First and foremost the refusal to plan for and implement recovery measures on a regional basis insures that there will never be regional solutions. That puts each town in competition with one another for limited funding, creates a series of winners and losers and results in a fragmented and ultimately ineffectual approach to threats that have a regional basis. It results in funding not being spent wisely or efficiently. It insures that politics, not careful calculation, guides how and where the funding is directed. It’s deprived the state of a unified vision for recovery, resilience and reduction of vulnerability that meets the diverse conditions in a state that needs to implement solutions that are appropriate from the urbanized New York Harbor area to the rural shores of Delaware Bay. These are all colossal failures with generational consequences.
Is It Too Late?
Damaged Home In Union Beach
There were many members of Congress who were reticent to allocate billions in aid to our state after Sandy. Fears that the money would be squandered stood in the way of what seemingly should have been an easy and non-partisan vote to help our region recover from the storm’s devastation. Sadly, it seems that we have lived down to those expectations. Because of the approach that New Jersey has taken, especially in stark contrast to the approach taken in New York, the specter of ugly politics casts a shadow over all recovery efforts. Money given to projects unrelated to Sandy but championed by a political ally? Sandy money contingent on support for a project put forward by a close adviser? Aid flowing to towns with mayors who supported the governor and denied to those who didn’t? These questions have all arisen. They would be easily answered and dismissed (and probably wouldn’t have come up in the first place) if the state had taken a different tact. Instead, they all seem ominously credible.
There is still an awful lot of money that will come pouring into New Jersey. No matter where you live, you have a stake in this. Ensuring that tax dollars are appropriately and efficiently spent is important in its own right. However, making sure that recovery takes place in a manner that addresses the threats of climate change, that implements innovative solutions and takes the bold policy measures that are befitting forward thinking intelligent people has benefits that go beyond the borders of New Jersey. Getting politics out of the recovery process may be wishful thinking but providing intelligent guidance is not. Its a necessity. Perhaps now that the governor’s national political ambitions have taken a hit, attention can be directed towards visionary and effective rebuilding and political favoritism left behind. It doesn’t look too good right now, but as I started out, I am eternally an optimist.- Ben Spinelli
I Love That Dirty Water
The Hidden Damage of Coastal Storms
Irene Targeted 10% of the Nation’s Refining Capacity
When Hurricane Irene headed north late in the Summer of 2011, there was a lot of talk about the effect the storm would have on the nation’s gas prices. Irene’s track put 10% of the country’s refining capacity directly in the bulls eye as the category 2 hurricane steamrolled towards landfall on the New Jersey coast. Disruption of gasoline production at refineries in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey was a major concern. Irene turned out to be more of a rain-maker for the mid-Atlantic region with modest winds and a storm surge between 6 and 8 feet. While the storm produced record inland flooding resulting from rainfall of up to 15 inches, much of the oil industry’s infrastructure in coastal locations was spared.
The economic damage and turmoil that coastal storms can cause are certainly noteworthy, however, temporary interference with gasoline production is a minor concern compared with the more lasting impacts of severe weather hitting our nation’s industrial production centers. The combination of a changing climate and rising sea-levels is creating the potential for a public health disaster anywhere a tropical cyclone or nor’easter affects the U.S. coastline from Texas to Maine. While the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima disaster makes headlines and raises fears of a similar incident here in the U.S., a much different, but still highly dangerous, threat lurks below the radar. Oil refineries and petrol-chemical facilities dot the coast along this stretch. The anticipated onslaught of more frequent and more severe storms superimposed upon a higher base sea level places these installations at ever increasing risks of flooding. But the real damage isn’t to the economy or the infrastructure itself, it is to the environment and the population living in proximity to these locations. Additionally, a disproportionate number of the people living in these areas are economically disadvantaged raising issues of environmental justice.
Sandy Headed Right for the Oil Refineries of the Mid-Atlantic
When Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, a little over a year after Irene, it brought a storm surge of up to 16 feet to the New York metropolitan area. Unlike Irene, Sandy inundated refineries and chemical plants in New Jersey. There were an estimated 630 storm-related oil spills in New York City. However, New Jersey took the worst blow regarding oil contamination after a significant diesel fuel spill at the Motiva Refinery into the Arthur Kill. According to New Jersey environmental officials, 336,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the waterway after a storage tank ruptured from the storm surge. Major sewage treatment plants were disabled resulting in the discharge of an estimated 11 billion pounds of untreated effluent into the harbor and surrounding tidal rivers and bays. As the floodwaters spread inland, they carried large amounts of chemicals and petroleum products with them. When they receded they left behind a toxic residue that covered the ground, coated homes, and fouled the region’s wetlands and waterways.
In Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood, an area of the city that hosts both industrial plants and a vibrant and ethnically diverse residential community, Sandy’s storm surge pushed the waters of Newark Bay and the Passaic River into areas that had never experienced tidal flooding before. The water carried, not only highly contaminated sediments from these waterways, but chemicals from Superfund sites and industrial plants located along the shoreline. Compounding this, the Passaic Valley Sewage Commission’s main treatment facility, the nearby Newark Bay Pumping Station that handles sewer effluent for much of northern New Jersey, was shut down after being overwhelmed by the storm’s tidal surge.This resulted in 3.1 billion gallons of untreated sewage being released into the water. This noxious brew poured into basements, homes and businesses.
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.- Jacques Cousteau
Sandy’s Flood Waters Left Behind A Toxic Residue
Following the storm, once the flooding had receded, people were cleaning, trying to get back into their homes, unaware that there was much more left behind than just water. Information on what people were being exposed to was very difficult to come by. New Jersey’s environmental agency, the Department of Environmental Protection, provided little or no information to residents. Meanwhile, folks were pumping water and cleaning muck that was laden with PCB’s, Dioxin and the residue of raw sewage including high levels of E.Coli and coliform bacteria. Similar issues arose in Louisiana in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. Just as in Sandy, oil refineries, petrol-chemical installations and Superfund sites were flooded. Sewage treatment plants were knocked off-line and flooding was not just flooding. The damage to the environment and the threat to public health were not immediately recognized and under-reported until well after the storm and people had already been exposed. The National Academy of Engineering released a report in 2006 detailing many of the issues that arose.
The USGS is sampling water in Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath to develop an understanding of the changes in water quality across impacted regions. Contaminants such as pesticides and E. coli in water affect both human and wildlife health. On a longer time scale, excessive nutrients introduced to waterways by increased runoff from the land due to Hurricane Sandy has the potential to cause algal blooms across the region leading to the degradation of ecosystems and increased costs to treat drinking water. Lower oxygen levels caused by bio-degradation of petroleum products can lead to fish kills. There is also the potential for many of these contaminants to become caught up in the food chain. The New York Harbor region is a rich nursery for fish, shellfish and migratory birds and there is a strong likelihood that they will persist in the ecosystem for years. Many of these effects were observed in the Gulf Coast region following Katrina and are likely to be found in the mid-Atlantic now.
What A Mess
The real questions, however, aren’t about what happened. The important issue is what are we going to do to avoid a repeat of these conditions. Storms like Katrina and Sandy are going to happen again. With higher sea levels, even lesser storms may create similar conditions. The next one may make landfall in the Chesapeake region or perhaps along the New England coast. Wherever it may be, there will be sewage treatment plants, industrial facilities and contaminated sites in vulnerable locations. So, while a temporary spike in gas prices will dominate the news in advance of an impending storm, there are much higher costs to be paid in terms of public health and environmental damage.
We can’t make the argument that we didn’t know what could happen. We go to great lengths to protect against industrial accidents or terrorist attacks at many of these facilities. Yet we do little, if anything, to reduce or avoid vulnerability to the much more likely threats of extreme weather events. Requiring refineries and treatment plants to be retro-fitted and hardened against flooding hazards, putting stronger building codes for these installations in place or even moving them out of harm’s way is a relatively minor investment compared with the potential damage that will result from a failure to act. Further, these are not theoretical or perceived dangers. Something like this will occur again. We need to overcome our reticence to invest in infrastructure and prevention (and a significant portion of Sandy recovery money must be spent towards this end) because there is a much higher cost that will result from inaction. -Ben Spinelli
And oh yeah-don’t forget to listen to this!
Are We There Yet?
The Long Road to Recovery
How Far?
I’ve taken a break from this site for the past 8 months. I spent that time working for the President’s Hurricane Sandy Task Force as a Senior Policy Adviser on issues of local government and land use planning. My duties took me to Washington, DC and New York City, but more importantly, to every corner of New Jersey that was impacted by Sandy. I spent a great deal of time speaking with policy makers, government officials, scientific experts, business leaders and ordinary people from the shores of Delaware Bay to the Hackensack Meadowlands regarding their views and experiences both before and after the storm. That work has provided me with a perspective on the complexity and difficulty of dealing with the challenges that recovering from a disaster like Sandy presents. Of even greater significance is the necessity of undertaking these daunting tasks while confronting the reality of a changing world climate and rising sea-levels.
There is a strong urge in human nature to seek comfort. We like familiar surroundings and feel disoriented by change. These instincts are brought to the forefront following disasters. Homes are destroyed, landscapes are altered and lives are changed by major destructive events. Its only natural to want a return to “normal” when major disruptions, like Hurricane Sandy, take place. We want to get back to where we were as soon as possible. In terms of Sandy we can describe this feeling as we want the world of October 27, 2012 back and we want it now. However natural this feeling may be, it’s not a reasonable expectation, neither in terms of how long it will take to re-build or how we should rebuild.
Storms on the magnitude of Sandy have certainly happened before. There are a number of lessons that can be learned from past recovery efforts that are applicable in the aftermath of Sandy to assist in guiding rebuilding. What was unprecedented was the scope of the disaster. The density of the population, the value of property and the existing (and now vulnerable) infrastructure in the storm’s path was on a far different scale than anything that had been seen in the U.S. before. Two things were immediately evident; recovery from this storm was going to take a long time and building things back the way they were was not an option.
How Many Times Does This Have To Happen?
There is a basic premise that we must accept first before embarking on the monumental task of rebuilding. That is, we need to fundamentally alter the manner in which we occupy vulnerable areas of the coast, particularly in the densely populated northeast. The long-standing patterns of development established in an era where climate change and sea-level rise were not recognized threats have placed people, property and infrastructure in harm’s way. Before we put another shovel in the ground, before we spend another dime of public money, before we issue another permit for construction the question needs to be asked if we are simply wasting our investments and creating unreasonable exposure to risk by failing to take this disaster as an opportunity to remake our footprint in these at-risk areas.
If we don’t change direction soon we’re going to end up where we’re going- Professor Irwin Corey
Sea-Level Rise Risk Assessment Mid-Atlantic Region
It may seem like a fairly common sense way of approaching things. However, nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Back before Sandy, the USGS had been modeling the risks of sea level rise for over a decade. In the Spring of 2012 they released a report warning that sea-level rise was actually accelerating beyond their original projections. Then Sandy hit and the theoretical impacts became all too real. People got a first-hand look at what an increase of sea-level in terms of several meters was really like and the devastation and disruption it would bring. This should have been enough to make decisions easy. But it wasn’t. There are politics and economics and generations worth of investment in existing development patterns and the social and emotional impact on people’s lives to contend with. These factors, legitimate or not, exist and they make the path to recovery even more difficult and complex.
Evaluating our decisions going forward requires that we look at the full equation-that means looking at the full cost of everything we do. This includes assessing the cost of infrastructure investments in terms of the price of having to rebuild it again. Looking at the sustainability of the service area of infrastructure. Putting a value on a healthy intact environment. Assigning an appropriate cost measurement to human safety and lives that we might put at risk by failing to change. Accounting for likely conditions that we will face as a result of climate change and sea-level rise. These are the just some of the elements that need to be measured and quantified in order to chart a course forward. Political expediency and narrow selfish interest have no role in the calculation.
Just The Tip of the Iceberg
This discussion barely scratches the surface of the important policy issues we face. Even so, the important questions that exist are clear. As we proceed to rebuild in the wake of Sandy will we be ready to do things the right way? Will we make the right decisions that will reduce vulnerability and avoid future risk? Will we take the long-term view to insure that where and how we build will be sustainable? It won’t be easy. The right way rarely is. If we fail to act responsibly future generations will judge us harshly.and rightfully so.- Ben Spinelli
Time Has Come Today
The Dirty Work of Government
Its Later Than You Think
Now that the election is over, its time to get back to the business of governing. One of the prime functions of government is to provide the infrastructure that makes our society work. Roads, bridges, electrical distribution networks, and water and sewer facilities are all vital components of a healthy society. When it comes to the environment there are two essential elements of infrastructure that have a direct impact- water in and water out – our drinking water supply system and sewage treatment facilities. Infrastructure is probably one of the least interesting subjects to read about, but it may be one of the most important.
Talking about infrastructure may not have the cache’ of other environmental issues but it is the foundation of how our built environment interacts with the natural world. Where and how we obtain the drinking water that is essential to a functioning society is the hub for most environmental policies. What we do with that water and the impact of our methods of disposal of the by-products of our use of this resource is just as important an issue. When you start talking about water lines and sewage treatment plants, most people’s eyes start to glaze over. That’s unfortunate because the time has come (or has it really passed) for a serious discussion about infrastructure investment.
You may delay, but time will not-Benjamin Franklin
Time to Invest in Infrastructure
772 Communities Across The U.S. Still Utilize CSO’s
We get so lost in discussions of taxation and fiscal policy that we have forgotten basic principles of investment and re-investment in society. We are currently living off of the investments made by past generations and we are ignoring or refusing our obligation to pay those investments forward to the next generation. What’s the big deal? Well aside from kicking the can down the road and saddling our children and grand-children with an almost impossible task of renewing the nation’s infrastructure, we continue to inflict enormous damage on the environment. Over drawing aquifers, outstripping the capacity of water supplies, and disposing of improperly treated or untreated sewage effluent in the country’s waterways is taking a toll. In the current economic climate, nobody wants to discuss investing hundreds of billions of dollars into the unglamorous world that largely lies beneath the ground, out of sight and out of mind.
Narraganset Bay Commission’s CSO Project
The Narragansett Bay Commission recently undertook a massive project to solve the issue of CSO outflows that were seriously impacting the health of the bay. Their solution was to build a huge underground storage tunnel to store storm water until it could be safely released into Narragansett Bay. The cost for Phase I of this project was $350 million. The construction of this 3 mile tunnel underneath the City of Providence eliminated the discharge of 2.2 billion gallons of untreated sewage into the bay each year. An expensive endeavor, but was it worth the price? If you care about the health of the environment it certainly was. However, this isn’t the kind of investment where you get something that you can look at or score political points with. It’s just good sound government.
This is a political issue because this is a government responsibility. This is an environmental issue because every day we fail to address deficient infrastructure is one more day that we continue to foul our waterways or dangerously over-draw our water supplies. Every time there is a heavy rainfall, Combined Sewage Outflows (CSO’s) pour millions of gallons of raw sewage into streams, rivers, coastal bays and the ocean. Inadequate and outdated sewage treatment plants dump under-treated or poorly treated effluent into our waterways every minute of every day. The problem is that there is no constituency for this issue. As long as water comes out of the tap and the toilet flushes, nobody pays much attention to why these things actually happen. Meanwhile, we are oblivious to the self-inflicted looming threat that the failure to modernize the lifelines of our society represents. Without advocates, without a well of campaign cash behind it, without a compelling narrative, and with an expensive solution, infrastructure investment is the most important issue that nobody cares about. Good luck trying to get political leaders to address this unwanted step-child of public policy.
Do The Math
And Up Through The Ground Came A Bubblin’….
The infrastructure issue is, at its root, a math problem. Capital investments, by their nature, are long-term propositions. Large expenditures that are paid for over a period of years. The theory underlying these undertakings is that projects with multi-generational life spans and multi-generational benefits will be paid for over multiple generations. It makes a lot of sense. The scope of the necessary investment can be assessed and a rational financial plan for renewing and paying for a modern infrastructure system can be put in to place over a period of years. However, it takes someone to make the initial investment and set the wheels in motion. The problem is that nobody wants to take on the political risk of fulfilling this obligation. If it’s a 30 year undertaking and we waste a year, it’s just become a 31 year project. If we wait another year, it becomes 32 years.
I wish I had some pithy one-liner or a dramatic story to tell you to pique your interest. The problem is that this is just the real nuts and bolts of governing a modern society. Nothing exciting. Nothing glamorous. Unless you’re a water engineer or a long-term planner, you will never give a thought to these issues. Besides, our politicians are just so much more entertaining when they talk about things like taxes, abortion and guns that we forget to demand that they fulfill the real obligations of governing officials-make sure society works and make sure we plan for the future. Unfortunately, we can measure the costs of action fairly accurately. We have a very difficult time assessing the penalties for inaction in terms of dollars. So we obsess about the price of fulfilling our obligations, frightened by the financial investment needed, and in the end, do nothing.
Living on the Edge
NYC’s Water Tunnel #3 Under Construction
There are places where environmental infrastructure is being addressed. Aside from the Narragansett Bay Commission’s CSO project, New York City is in the home stretch of a construction project that started in 1970. The massive Water Tunnel Number 3 is scheduled for completion in 2020. A 50-year, $5 billion project that will insure the delivery of clean drinking water to our nation’s largest city. In all 50 states money from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) is leveraged with state funds for local infrastructure projects that address both drinking water and waste water treatment. Unfortunately, its just a drop in the bucket compared to what needs to be done. In reality, even the Water Tunnel Number 3 project was only undertaken because planners and engineers realized that they couldn’t even perform routine maintenance on the existing water tunnels without turning off the tap to 8 million people. We’re just living on the edge when it comes to infrastructure, just one failure away from serious problems.
So, no, this is hardly the most compelling story to tell when it comes to environmental issues. However, its one that we need to drag from the shadows of policy wonkism and out into the daylight for discussion. The next time you hear some politician droning on about taxes and deficits, ask them what they plan on doing about our pending infrastructure nightmare. What will it take? A massive sewage spill? No, we’ve had those and they have hardly raised an eyebrow. The failure of a major city’s water system? That might get some response. The notion that we need to see a major catastrophe before we act is a sad state of affairs, but also an apt commentary on the current state of our politics and our government.
What can we do? Start demanding answers to questions about infrastructure spending. At the very least you will force political leaders to do some research into an issue they would much rather ignore. This is a ticking bomb. Don’t wait until the tap is dry or the toilet doesn’t flush or you notice that a local waterway has taken on a distinctive new odor before asking for action. Politicians won’t react to this issue unless you compel them to. They need to drink clean water too. Give your state or federal representative’s office a call. Maybe we can start a movement.- Ben Spinelli
Politics of the Environment 