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        Yesterday I attended the N.J. Environmental Federation Annual Conference at Rutgers Law School in Newark (my 3rd year in a row). Most attendees are affiliated with organizations. My reason for being; I love clean air, water and being an author; there’s a sense to learn/absorb especially since labeling myself on a few websites(under personal information) as being an environmentalist. Conference summary: seven hours of note taking; information flew off the shelves, major league baseball opening day with amazing, knowledgeable speakers (pitchers and infielders, metaphor alive and well). By the sixth page(inning) of notes, a hard dull reality, as my head swelled as in subdural hematoma; I don’t know much about what’s going on. There’s so much going on. At the end of the day, I was upset with myself; all that I thought I was, NOT. Growing up in the sixties, I thought I was a civil rights activist. NOT. Dr. King spoke 8 blocks from my house in Newark in early 1963. Was I there? NOT. The March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Was I there? NOT. Did I know about environmental issues taking place in my Jersey backyard? NOT.

            Now I’m thirteen and watching ‘Frankenstein,’ a ghastly horror gives me goose-bumps, as I hear the Baron yell, “It’s alive!” Yesterday I heard that a small Massachusetts company wants to put a coal plant in Linden, New Jersey (the first and largest of its kind in the world). It’ll capture its own hazardous waste CO2 gas PLUS waste from other emitters in the region (there you go again, dump in Jersey, the new Love Canal) (NJ has more federally designated toxic sights than anywhere in America. Hey, we’re number One! Home state pride.) Then they’ll pipe all that garbage( a trillion pounds near 1.2 million people) 70 miles off the good old Jersey shore and pump it a mile and a half beneath the floor of OUR Atlantic Ocean, hoping it hangs there forever. The coal industry is praying (I’m still thinking of the mining disaster in West Virginia and the company ignoring all those safety violations) that the good old Government( capitalized) in Jersey lets them build the plant which will make air much worse in North Jersey; the soot and more asthma will probably kill a lot of people. I heard a DEP person say (in one breath) “no” and in another breath, “but it’ll take 5 to 7 years to build.” The coal industry is praying that somebody finds a way to make coal more environmentally friendly (this Linden plant is step one). There is a Frankenstein amount of money at stake here. So I asked a question. Why Linden? “It’s close to ocean for piping it out and close to railroad tracks for moving the coal.” And what wasn’t answered: Linden already has way above average asthma incidence (a perpetual flaming oil facility in Elizabeth is 3 miles away) If not Linden, than where? “Bayonne. Cartaret” Then I asked, “What about Short Hills or Rumson?” The room laughed. I was serious. Short Hills is not near railroad tracks. I said, “But Rumson(rather high household income) is near tracks and ocean.” The room laughed again (at my virginity) Why not Beverly Hills? The old “not in my backyard or coast” slogan. Actually, I’m not such a virgin; in my novel, I mention environmental justice and incinerators(like in Newark).

            I’m not an ethicist. But what I see here for Linden, New Jersey is a government (with new Governor) that may allow a coal plant to be built because it’s good for making money and jobs and to hell with the lungs of our people. People will die as a result. Railroad cars are also in this equation just like in 1939 Europe.  Is this a Dicken’s ‘Scrooge’ thing when he talked about “decreasing the surface population.”   I’ll stop here.

            More things I learned. Oyster Creek Nuclear in South Jersey is blackmailing the state, who insist they build cooling towers (Are millions and billions of sea life dying as the old system sucks them in and spits out warm heated water???) They threaten to shut down the plant if the state forces them (cockles of my heart are warmed). Wrapping this up, I learned (feels like fifth grade) that some new apartment buildings(condos) in New York City have their own water re-use systems(called Membrane Bio Reactor) which brings some water back, not potable. Water is going to get awfully expensive in years to come. Now I’ll have to really ponder the world before calling myself an “environmentalist;” ongoing and earned. Have a nice week.

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