It’s Not Over: Newark’s Ironbound Deserves Better Than a Fourth Fossil Fuel Power Plant

Another project that dumps on Newark should be called what it is: environmental injustice. On August 21, 2025, the Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC), Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, and other Ironbound residents and partners gathered in front of the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (PVSC) to make our voices heard. The message, loud and powerful over the noise of polluting trucks in the “chemical corridor,” was clear: the campaign against PVSC’s power plant is not over. We demand clean and breathable air for the residents of the Ironbound. We invite you to join our campaign against environmental injustice and the construction of a fourth fossil fuel power plant in Newark.

Despite four years of relentless organizing, endless public testimony, and expert warnings and advice about cheaper, more reliable, and non-polluting alternatives to the gas plant, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) gave PVSC the green light in April to build yet another gas-fired power plant in the Ironbound. It is already one of the most overburdened, polluted neighborhoods in the entire state. PVSC doubled down in June during a public meeting. PVSC’s Board of Commissioners approved a contract for the gas plant construction, turning their backs on four years of pleas from the people who actually live here. PVSC’s red carpet roll-out occurred under Governor Phil Murphy’s administration–one that made strong commitments to protect environmental (in)justice communities from even more pollution.

Newark must be protected. The Ironbound is asked, again and again, to sacrifice its health for everyone else. Our families—mostly immigrants, people of color, and low-income—have spent decades breathing dirty air, drinking contaminated water, and living in the shadow of toxic industry. What are the results? Children are hospitalized for asthma at 30 times the national rate. Rampant chronic illness that shortens lives. And a sense of dread every time another industrial project is announced. It is our most vulnerable who suffer the most. The existing pollution and its health impacts were documented in a letter to PVSC, Governor Murphy, and the NJDEP signed by 136 health care professionals and scientists who strongly opposed PVSC’s proposed  gas power plant, which would be the 4th such power plant built in the Ironbound. The letter concluded that the combined impacts of existing pollution and pollution from this 4th gas power plant would present a serious danger to public health. 

And for what? So the government can pretend its environmental justice law—once hailed as the strongest in the country—matters? Governor Murphy signed that law. Why is it not protecting the Ironbound? We demand that the law be applied as intended: to protect overburdened communities, like the Ironbound, from even more pollution. Join us in demanding better!

If elected officials and public agencies cared about our health, they would support cleaner, safer options, not rubber-stamp more fossil fuel infrastructure in neighborhoods already pushed to the brink. We are told this plant is “necessary,” and that we should accept more pollution, more sickness, more risk. But that is not just indefensible—it is inhumane. ICC is committed to challenging the daily reality of Ironbound residents.

That is why ICC, represented by attorneys at Earthjustice, is not stepping down. We took this injustice to the courts by filing two lawsuits challenging the approval of the plant. In May, we filed an appeal challenging NJDEP’s permitting decision for this newest gas-fired power plant as a violation of New Jersey’s Environmental Justice Law–the very environmental justice law we helped pass. A month later, we sued PVSC  for ignoring the people it claims to serve by approving this fourth gas power plant in Ironbound. The day before the press conference,  we filed two motions in each case—one in the lawsuit against NJDEP and the other in the lawsuit against PVSC—to prevent any construction while the cases are pending.

We do not stand alone. Over 1,000 allies have written to PVSC demanding that this project be stopped. Mayor Ras Baraka called the plant an “assault.” Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz called it “indefensible” and “hypocritical.” Councilman Michael Silva spelled it out: our kids get sicker than anywhere else in America.

Cities and towns across New Jersey—Newark, Kearny, Hoboken, Jersey City, Livingston, Maplewood, Secaucus, West New York, Union City, Bayonne, Weehawken, Alpine, and more—stand with us. The Essex County Board of Commissioners, Bergen League of Municipalities, and Hackensack Meadowlands Municipal Committee have all passed resolutions opposing this plant.

To Governor Murphy, we say: it is not too late to act. Prove your commitment to environmental justice and enforce the law, which we championed, properly. To New Jersey’s gubernatorial candidates, Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli, we ask: step up, because silence is complicity. If you want to lead this state, you must show that you are willing to stand with communities like the Ironbound. To the PVSC Board of Commissioners, we request: think about your legacy. Will you defend our right to clean air and a healthy future, or will you let this injustice continue?

We are lifting the voices of our kids, our elders, and our right to breathe clean air in the only home we have: the Ironbound. We are not going away. The Ironbound must be treated with the respect and dignity every community deserves.

Please join our campaign for clean air in the Ironbound, Newark. Call out environmental injustice when you see it. Shout with us: It’s NOT over.

TAKE ACTION:

• Join the PVSC Virtual Meeting—do not just log on, UNMUTE, and let the Commissioners know you refuse to accept this injustice.
  Thursday, September 18, 2025
  12:00 PM ET

ZOOM LINK FOR MEETING:
https://pvsc.zoom.us/meeting/register/TcfFnurOR4eeXCCSnZQPSA

• Follow us on Instagram to learn more about the campaign: @ironboundenvironmentaljustice

The Ironbound Community Corporation submits this Op-Ed in partnership with: Don’t Gas the Meadowlands Coalition; Earthjustice; Food & Water Watch;  GreenFaith; New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance; and South Ward Environmental Alliance.

We will not be sacrificed. Not now. Not ever.

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