Less Shelter from the Storm: Trump & Congressional Budgets Put New Jersey at Risk

Environment New Jersey

Trenton – After Hurricanes Harvey and Irma recently pummeled our coasts, Environment New Jersey warned that pending budget proposals from the Trump Administration and Congress threaten key programs that protect our communities from storm- related impacts.  The group documented threats to programs that prevent or curb flooding, sewage overflows and leaks from toxic waste sites. Environment New Jersey also called for preventing more global warming-fueled extreme weather in the future.

“If there is any lesson to be learned from these devastating hurricanes, it’s that New Jersey deserves better shelter from the storms,” said Doug O’Malley, director from Environment New Jersey. “Rather than protecting our most vulnerable communities, budget proposals on the table in Washington, D.C. right now threaten coastal resiliency, remove protections for flood-absorbing wetlands, neglect funding for stormwater and sewage treatment, and expose more Americans to toxic chemicals.”

Environment New Jersey’s analysis found:

• One in four Americans live within 3 miles of a Superfund site, the most toxic waste sites in the country, but the rate is much higher for New Jerseyans. New Jersey has the most Superfund sites in the nation with 114 sites, and the Superfund program is tasked with cleaning up these sites, responding to environmental crises, and protecting the public from hazardous substances, but the Trump Administration has proposed cutting the Superfund program by nearly one-third.
• Wetlands are nature’s flood control, and here in New Jersey we have 687,000 acres of wetlands. The House budget and Trump administration block the Clean Water Rule, leaving flood-absorbing wetlands more vulnerable to pollution and degradation.
• The Clean Water State Revolving Fund provided more than $54 million in 2016 for New Jersey to repair and build stormwater and sewage treatment infrastructure. Nationwide, our wastewater systems face a $271 billion backlog, yet the House and President’s spending bills fail to provide proper funding to this critical program.
• Here in New Jersey, we receive $3.9 million in grants that allow our communities to protect their coasts from storms and rising seas. These funds would be cut or eliminated under both the House and Trump administration’s budgets.

“We need to make our communities less susceptible to flooding, sewage overflows, and leaks from toxic waste sites, and of course we need to prevent even more intense global warming-fueled extreme weather in the future.  We’re counting on Senators Booker and Menendez to protect and pass a budget that puts our families’ health and community’s safety first one that will give New Jerseyans more shelter from the storms ahead,” O’Malley said.

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