Activists Keep Up Blitz Against Proposed Power Plant In Newark

NEWARK, NJ — Activists continue their blitz against a proposed power plant in Newark, despite the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s (PVSC) continued support of the plan.

Last week, three advocacy groups sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), asking it to “repurpose” funding for the project (read the full letter below).

Meanwhile, a rally in opposition to the plan – and in support of environmental justice in New Jersey – is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. on Monday, June 5 at Down Bottom Farms, 2 Saint Charles Street in Newark. It will be followed by a march to Riverfront Park, 1-3 Brill Street. The action is part of the “Our Planet Our Future” week of actions organized by Empower NJ, a coalition of more than 135 environmental, faith and social justice organizations.

The PVSC wants to build a natural gas power plant at its existing wastewater treatment facility at 600 Wilson Avenue. The long-running proposal is part of a resiliency blueprint that sprang up in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. During the now-infamous storm, the PVSC wastewater facility in Newark was flooded, spilling billions of gallons of raw or partially-treated sewage into the Passaic River. Read More: Superstorm Sandy Caused Flood Of Excrement In New Jersey 10 Years Ago

Since then, the PVSC has rolled out a sweeping series of renovations to avoid future calamities. Part of that plan includes building a plant which would provide backup power to their wastewater treatment plant if the grid goes down.

The PVSC has maintained that the plant will use state-of-the-art emission controls and will have a “negligible impact to the community.” Spokespeople have said the agency continues to explore clean energy alternatives for the facility, and is planning to integrate solar and batteries as part of the project. The agency said it is also working with Siemens – the manufacturer of the turbines that would be used to operate the facility – to transition the fuel used in the turbines from natural gas to a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen and then to 100% hydrogen. Read More: Sewerage Commission Defends Newark Power Plant Proposal, Cites Sandy

But while advocates say they understand the need to build resilience in the face of the climate crisis, they insist that the PVSC should do so with a solution that “prioritizes as much renewable energy as possible and doesn’t involve a new “dirty energy power plant,” especially in a neighborhood that’s been long-plagued with environmental hazards – including three other gas power plants.

• See Related: Opposition To Power Plant Growing In Newark; City Council Takes Vote
• See Related: Proposed Power Plant 'Not Good' For Newark, Essex Commissioner Says
• See Related: Put The Brakes On Power Plant In Newark, 20 NJ Lawmakers Say

ACTIVISTS: ‘CLEAN, SENSIBLE ALTERNATIVES EXIST’

On May 25, the Ironbound Community Corporation, the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and Earthjustice sent a letter to FEMA, urging federal officials to “repurpose” funding away from the proposed plant.

In 2014, FEMA authorized funding for PVSC to build its new gas plant. But the world has changed since then, and there are now cleaner and cost-saving alternative solutions, such as onsite renewables, storage and energy efficiency measures to meet energy needs, activists argue.

Activists offered some background about the area where the power plant would be built:

“The Ironbound neighborhood where PVSC seeks to build a new gas plant is a multi-ethnic, largely working-class neighborhood of 50,000 residents, covering four square miles of Newark’s East Ward. According to EPA EJSCREEN, the Ironbound neighborhood has Environmental Justice Indices in the 80th and 90th percentiles for nearly every environmental justice variable. Decades of industrial development have concentrated polluting industries here – nearly 4,000 facilities with environmental permits are located within the two zip codes that cover the Ironbound. These include the state’s largest waste incinerator, one of the country’s most contaminated superfund sites, port infrastructure, scrap metal yards, an animal-fat rendering plant, warehouses, commercial flight paths, and thousands of daily truck trips. In addition, the Ironbound is home to more gas plants than any other neighborhood in New Jersey, with the 705 MW Newark Energy Center, 122 MW Newark Bay Cogen Plant, and the 81 MW Essex Generating Station all located in the neighborhood.”

“Federal agencies can no longer support polluting fossil-fuel infrastructure in environmental justice communities – nor do they need to, because clean, sensible, cost-saving alternatives exist,” the groups stated.

Article continues below

Opposition to the proposed plant has begun to catch the eye of activists outside of Newark, as well.

When Veterans For Peace brought its famed anti-nuke, anti-war sailboat – the Golden Rule – to the Garden State for a series of public appearances in May, the proposed plant and the “ongoing environmental injustice struggles of Newark” were among the causes célèbre.

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Learn more about advertising on Patch here. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site. Don’t forget to visit the Patch Newark Facebook page.