Dive Brief:
- A New Jersey appeals court on Monday upheld the state’s environmental justice law meant to protect residents in communities overburdened by pollution. The New Jersey chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, now known as the Recycled Materials Association, was among those that challenged the regulations.
- The groups argued that the state’s Department of Environmental Protection overstepped the original intent of the law, which threatened recyclers’ ability to do their jobs in the state.
- But the New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division unanimously ruled that DEP did not exceed its statutory authority when interpreting the state law. It also found that economic benefits cannot be used as a reason to exempt a business from EJ-related permitting and siting rules.
Dive Insight:
The court’s decision to uphold New Jersey’s EJ law, considered one of the most stringent in the country, is significant during a time when the U.S. EPA under the Trump administration has discontinued or blocked efforts to incorporate environmental justice efforts.
The law requires certain facility operators to consider the environmental justice impacts on nearby communities when applying to expand a facility, construct a new one or renew permit authorizations. These facilities could include certain landfills, transfer stations, waste-to-energy facilities, sludge processing facilities, incinerators or recycling facilities meant to receive at least 100 tons of recyclable material per day, according to the law.
The law is meant to protect the state’s “low-income communities and communities of color, [who] historically have been subjected to a disproportionately high number of environmental and public health stressors,” according to DEP.
The EJ-related aspects of the permitting process include analyzing a facility’s potential environmental and public health stressors and holding public hearings to get feedback from the surrounding community.
The state can deny a permit if the facility “cannot avoid disproportionate impacts” on overburdened communities or prove that such facilities serve a “compelling public interest.” It’s the first state in the country with the ability to deny permits for those reasons, DEP says.
ReMA’s New Jersey chapter, along with the Engineers Labor Employer Cooperative of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825, first challenged the law when it took effect in 2023. ReMA says the chapter’s work is considered “critical for the environment.”
The groups argued that DEP unfairly required EJ-related permitting processes for projects in areas that aren’t considered an overburdened community.
Overburdened communities are characterized by neighborhoods where at least 35% of households qualify as low-income, 40% identify as a “minority or as members of a State recognized tribal community,” or at least 40% have limited English proficiency.
The ReMA chapter also disagreed with how DEP defined “new and expanding facilities” and the criteria it used to measure environmental and health stressors, according to the lawsuit.
The law defines potential stressors to include certain sources of air and water pollution, as well as the presence of “transfer stations or other solid waste facilities, recycling facilities [and] scrap yards.”
“The DEP gave itself unchecked power to deny these recyclers the ability to operate or to impose limitless restrictions on their operations, which wasn’t the intent of the Environmental Justice law and won’t advance its cause,” said Michael Miller, who was president of the New Jersey chapter in 2023 when the group appealed the EJ regulations. “We want to work together with the DEP and our neighbors in the community on common sense regulations that allow metal recyclers to keep contributing to our economy and our environment.”
But the court ruled that DEP has appropriately used its authority to determine relevant census block groups and make decisions about how permit applicants must comply with EJ-related specifications.
The health and safety of residents of overburdened communities must be a priority over business interests, the court found. “Neither DEP nor applicants for approvals are allowed to trade fewer pollution reductions for more jobs and tax rateables,” the court decision said.
Long-standing environmental justice groups in the state applauded the court decision, including Ironbound Community Corp., South Ward Environmental Alliance and New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance.
The ruling “protects the integrity of a law our communities fought for, and it ensures that residents who have borne the brunt of environmental harm for far too long will finally have the safeguards and accountability they deserve,” said Leah Owens, ports and policy analyst for South Ward Environmental Alliance, in a statement.
But the New Jersey Business & Industry Association said the decision will have a chilling effect on businesses in the state. Though the state’s EJ permitting rules have been in effect for more than two years, “only two applications have moved through the process,” said Ray Cantor, NJBIA’s deputy chief government affairs, in a statement.
It’s not clear whether the ReMA chapter and engineering union will try to appeal the court’s decision. ReMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story first appeared in the Waste Dive: Recycling newsletter. Sign up for the weekly emails here.
