For Immediate Release

April 4, 2019

Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100

McCabe Defends Murphy’s Budget Instead of DEP’s

The NJDEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe testified today before the Senate Budget Committee on the Governor Murphy’s proposed budget FY2020. The DEP budget has been cut by 17.8% in the spending plan and operations by 10%. Topics during the hearing involved staffing, lead in drinking water, VW settlement money, and public beach access. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club released the following statement:

“Commissioner McCabe is defending the status quo and not representing her own agency. She is going along with budget cuts, delaying programs and diverting money from DEP for other programs. She tried to downplay the two-year delay in rejoining RGGI and the lack of funding to fix New Jersey’s ongoing lead problem. DEP is still sitting on Volkswagen settlement that should have been spent to improve New Jersey’s EV infrastructure,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Commissioner McCabe is going along with the usual budget cuts and not fighting for resources that hold her agency together. The proposed budget still has a lot of money being diverted, close to $200 million. Operations are down by $27 million. This could mean cuts and layoffs, or further attrition where people don’t get hired.”

When the Senate Budget committee asked if DEP was understaffed, Commissioner McCabe replied that the department had 2500-2600 staffers. This number is down from 4,000 staffers.

“Right now Commissioner McCabe is defending fewer staff than under Christie. The current number for staffers in 2019 is at 2500-2600. This compares to 3,400 in 2008, and 4,400 in the mid-1990s. We need more funding for the DEP, so we have enough people to do the many jobs of the agency, including re-writing the rules Christie rolled back. We need staff to not only maintain our parks bur keep them open during the busy season. We’re down from 1,000 to 400 parks and forestry workers while we’ve added 40% more land to open space,” said Tittel. “This could lead to parks getting closes, hurting our economy. If we don’t have enough staff, we won’t be able to properly review permits from businesses and developers to grow our economy without delay.”

During the Budget hearing, Senator Greenstein asked Commissioner McCabe, “What is the DEP doing to address lead in drinking water?” Commissioner McCabe replied that DEP have to take steps to fix the chemistry, reduce corrosivity of water. If that doesn’t work, then they need to replaced the lead line in water systems and the DEP provides financing through a water bank. Some towns are eligible for low interest loans and other are eligible for grants, essentially. DEP did have to put a cap for those grants to communities who are affected by lead in their drinking water however.

“The fact that the DEP can no longer afford to give grants to communities affected by lead in their drinking water is a serious issue. Our water is at risk and we need to fix our old leaky pipes. We have a serious problem with lead in our drinking water because many cities in New Jersey, have old pipes and aging water infrastructure. This is a least a $8 billion problem that needs to be fixed immediately to keep the lead out of our schools. One quarter of our water is also leaking out of these pipes,” said Tittel.

Questions on when the Volkswagen settlement money will be spent were also raised during Commissioner McCabe’s testimony to the Senate Budget Committee. McCabe said that the DEP is expected to hear soon from the trustee for the first $11 million and they are vetting a full proposal within the Executive Branch. She was not certain if that proposal would include diesel trucks, she said she hoped it would.

“The VW Settlement Fund is supposed to jump start electric vehicles in New Jersey and DEP is still idling. While New York and other states started spending that money, we are starting another planning process on what we should do with that money. The biggest source of air pollution and greenhouse gases in our state comes from automobiles, which is why we need to increase electric vehicles to clean our air. DEP cannot replace our vehicles with diesel if they plan to actually reduce NOx pollution in affected communities,” said Tittel. “The department still need to move forward on programs for EV’s, resiliency, or climate programs. They also have not regulated C02 emissions for natural gas pipelines and power plants.”

A Senate Budget committee member asked if the DEP would support Christie’s public beach access rule or S1074(Smith)/ A4221(Pinkin) that has passed both Houses. Commissioner McCabe said as soon as the Governor signs the bill, the DEP will be using the new law.

“Commissioner McCabe supports the amended public beach access bill because the DEP added changes in the bill big enough to drive a bulldozer through. By supporting S1074/A4221, McCabe supports legislation that is so compromised and watered down that towns who were blocking access can still do it. Instead of putting the trust back into public trust, this bill undermines that trust. This bill was a consensus bill to improve public access to waterfront and beaches,” said Tittel. “Governor Murphy must CV the bill. We should also be working on another broader bill to deal with some of the other access issues of privatizing our public beaches, parks, and more.”

The Assembly Budget will hold a hearing on the FY202 State Budget for the DEP on Monday, April 8, 2019 at 10:00am.

“The DEP is losing funding and staff in this budget. This means there may not be enough people to do the job that needs to be done to grow the economy while protecting the environment. We cannot improve the environment without improving funding for those programs. In the past we have gone after Christie’s budget when it raided funds and cut programs. Unfortunately, Murphy’s budget is all too similar,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We need the Legislature and the Governor to put the resources in this budget that are necessary for the DEP to make sure our land is clean, our air is pure, and we are able to keep parks open for the people of New Jersey.”