Broad
Coalition Endorses Diesel Clean-Up Plan, Call on Gubernatorial
Candidates To Pledge To Reduce Diesel Emissions by 75% over next 10
years
As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release.
TRENTON
– NJPIRG joined with health professionals and advocates at the State
House on September 28 to endorse the “yes” vote for Ballot Question 2 for this
November’s election. The ballot question asks voters to allocate
dedicated environmental funding to the state’s diesel clean up plan,
which will clean up over 30,000 of the New Jersey’s dirty diesel
vehicles, including all school buses, transit buses, garbage trucks and
other publicly-owned vehicles.
“A
‘yes’ vote is an important first step towards making New Jersey’s air
safe to breathe,” said Ethan Lavine, NJPIRG’s Environmental Associate.
“Voter approval for the diesel clean up plan will make New Jersey a
healthier place to live. We urge everyone to vote Yes on Ballot
Question 2.”
New
Jersey’s dirty diesel vehicles contribute to the state’s incredibly
high levels of soot pollution. Thirteen of the state’s 21 counties
exceed the maximum levels for soot pollution allowed under standards
set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Exhaust from
large diesel burning vehicles makes up the majority of soot pollution
from mobile sources in New Jersey.
“Recent
studies have linked particulate matter air pollution to heart disease,
asthma, respiratory infections and other lung diseases,” said Dr.
Robert Laumbach, M.D., MPH, CIH, from the Environmental and
Occupational Health Sciences Institute at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School. “Diesel exhaust is of particular concern because people
are often close to the sources - the diesel engines in school buses,
trucks, other vehicles and construction equipment,” continued Laumbach.
A
‘yes’ vote would work to mitigate the negative health impact of diesel
soot pollution in the state. A Clean Air Task Force report, using EPA
methodology, showed that soot pollution – a known carcinogen – was
responsible for over 800 premature deaths, over 1,300 heart attacks and
over 17,000 asthma attacks annually in New Jersey and that the state
had the second worst cancer risk rate from diesel soot pollution in the
nation. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection estimates
place the annual healthcare costs resulting from diesel soot pollution
at over $10 billion.
If
funded by voters, the clean up plan will reduce New Jersey’s soot
levels by roughly 10 percent over the next decade, removing just over
400 tons of soot pollution from the air each year. Part of the
emissions reductions will be accomplished through the adoption of
clean-up technology, like diesel filters, which can reduce a vehicle’s
soot levels by up to 90 percent.
Approval
for funding must go to the state’s voters in November because the clean
up draws on existing revenue from the Corporate Business Tax’s
constitutionally dedicated environmental funds. The legislation
proposes to shift 17% of these existing environmental funds from site
remediation to reduce diesel pollution, as well as allowing a
kick-start appropriation of up to $10 million from an $80 million
surplus for underground storage tanks. The clean up plan will cost
roughly over $15.5 million a year over a 10-year period.
Representatives
on hand from health groups encouraged voters to approve funding.
Theresa Cavanaugh from the Learning Disabilities Association of New
Jersey and Laura Quinn from the American Lung Association of New Jersey
stressed the importance of this ballot question for the health of New
Jerseyans. “Evidence is mounting each year underscoring just how
dangerous air pollution really is,” said Quinn. “The more we learn, the
more critical cleaning up the air becomes.”
NJPIRG
has made raising public awareness of the ballot question a priority and
will continue to do so until Election Day. This summer, NJPIRG
canvassers visited 150 towns across the state and spoke to over 150,000
citizens across the state on diesel pollution. This fall, NJPIRG will
work to activate over 20,000 members to actively educate their
neighbors and voters by passing out educational materials on Ballot
Question 2 leading up to the election and hold house parties around the
gubernatorial debates to see if the candidates talk about environmental
issues.
“Looking
at our current air quality we find that far too many people are living
in unhealthy environments,” said Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-7), M.D.
“The diesel clean up plan is a start and more work needs to be done.”
While
voter approval is an important first step in addressing the critical
threat to public health posed by diesel soot pollution, New Jersey must
ultimately go further. To truly restore the air to a healthy level, New
Jersey should adopt health-based standards for regulating diesel
emissions. Research from the Clean Air Task Force recommends that
diesel particle emissions be reduced by 75 percent by 2015 and 85
percent by 2020 to make our air healthy to breath. New Jersey should
adopt these aggressive, yet attainable standards.
“As
the election draws near, it is important that the gubernatorial
candidates make clear that, if elected, cleaning up public and private
dirty diesel vehicles will be a real priority,” Lavine said. NJPIRG and
others have called upon the candidates to pledge to adopt a
health-based standard for soot pollution in the state and pledge to
reduce diesel soot pollution by 75 percent over the next decade.
The
gravity of the health threat posed by diesel soot pollution was
captured in the words of Maureen Heil, resident of Bellmawr, New
Jersey. Heil, an asthma sufferer and preschool teacher for over 15
years commented on the increasing number of children suffering from
respiratory conditions she observes each year in her classroom. “Air is
life!” exclaimed Heil. “Don’t children – as well as all citizens in our
state – deserve clean air to breathe?”
