Dupont Water Facility Bill Becomes Law

DuPont Water Facility S879 (Sweeney) passed by a vote of 73-0-0 today. This bill was passed by the Legislature but was Conditionally Vetoed by Governor Murphy and sent it back to the Legislature. He cited concern that “the bill does not contain specific safeguards to protect the health of our environment and the safety of our residents.” This concern is especially addressed towards the possibility of the bill’s language being interpreted to let a facility resume commercial processing operations. Murphy changed the language to include amendments stating that all facilities must require necessary permits before resuming these operations. He also asks for language stating that all facilities “fully comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations.”

“The bill that Governor Murphy CV’d would have put more pollution into the Delaware because it created a loophole that redefines a hazardous waste facility, allowing them to dump toxic chemicals. This could have been a dangerous bill because it would allow the DuPont facility to bring in more and different hazardous waste and potentially fracking waste to be treated in New Jersey. It catered to special interests over protecting the environment and communities of New Jersey. We could have seen more pollution in the Delaware River and Bay because of this bill and that’s why we opposed it,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.

The Senate and House have now passed the amended bill with Governor Murphy’s language which means S879(Sweeney) will now become law.

“We would have liked a full veto of this bill, but Governor Murphy’s changes at least make it better. The original bill would have allowed open season on clean water in the Delaware Bay by granting old permits to pollute our waterways. We want to thank Governor Murphy for amending this dirty water bill. We will continue to fight to protect the Delaware Valley from these hazardous waste facilities,” said Jeff Tittel. “Our concern going forward is that that if the DRBC lifts the ban on fracking waste, these facilities could bring that waste into New Jersey