As Jon Corzine settles into the Governor’s office this month, his new Administration will face a host of critical environmental and land use issues. Many of these issues are familiar concerns that previous administrations have grappled with repeatedly during the last 20 to 30 years, with varying degrees of success. Virtually all of these issues, however, remain as persistent challenges, and solutions to these problems will only be exacerbated by the state’s current precarious financial position.

Environmental and land use issues have long been key elements of the political landscape in the Garden State. As the most densely populated state in the nation, New Jersey is also the first (and perhaps only) state to be faced with complete build-out of all of its available land sometime within the next generation. Our state also has more Superfund sites than any other state, which is an indication of both our past heritage of manufacturing and heavy industry, as well as our aggressive regulatory climate. The fact remains, however, that public concerns about sprawl, traffic congestion and the safety of the air we breathe and the water we drink are as common as Jersey jokes on late night television.

Interestingly, these issues have dominated neither the polls nor election debates in the last several gubernatorial campaigns. Yet a host of environmental issues simmer just below the surface, and it is hard to pick up a newspaper, listen to a news or talk-show radio, or attend a session of the Legislature without seeing daily evidence that these issues remain in the forefront of our political consciousness. Add to that the numerous colorful but quotable partisans who work these issues on both sides from the State House to Main Street, and it becomes apparent that perspectives on the environment and land use are volatile issues which have serious regional and statewide political implications. Equally obvious is that skillful navigation of these issues could well help the new Governor advance his overall agenda in a variety of ways, while neglect or failure to adequately address these matters could herald a political crisis which will inevitably have broader consequences. Indeed, each of these issues fully illustrates the First Law of Ecology, which tells us that everything is in fact connected to everything else.
To put the issues facing the Corzine Administration into context, however, it is helpful to review the recent history of environmental and land use matters in New Jersey, to review the substantial progress which New Jersey has made, and to focus on the remaining principal challenges.

The Garden State is widely considered to be in the top small tier of states which have systematically and aggressively addressed environmental and land uses issues ever since the first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. In those last 35 years, Governors from Republican William Cahill through Democrat Richard Codey, as well as Legislatures controlled by both parties, have enacted an impressive avalanche of environmental laws, including measures to regulate a wide variety of activities and economic uses. In addition, New Jersey has enacted strict laws to limit virtually all forms of pollution, and the state has also assumed responsibility for administering all of the basic federal regulatory programs and laws, including those designed to limit the impacts of air pollution, water pollution, pesticides, radiation, and hazardous waste. In addition, New Jersey has often exceeded minimum federal standards and even the very scope of federal environmental programs by adopting comprehensive regulatory initiatives to prevent toxic catastrophes, to require the cleanup of industrial establishments prior to closure or transfer, to establish safe drinking water standards for a variety of unpronounceable chemical contaminants, to mandate recycling and pollution prevention, and to impose one of the strictest “polluter pays” liability regimes in the world.

In terms of addressing land use matters, New Jersey law provides special protections for our coastal areas, for the unique Meadowlands, Pinelands and Highlands regions, and for coastal and freshwater wetlands, flood plains, stream corridors, watershed lands, as well as threatened and endangered species. We have also permanently protected almost 25 percent of the land area of our state as open space or farmland through the combined efforts of state, county, municipal, and non-profit conservation agencies -- not to mention our statutory goal of adding another million acres of protected lands by 2009. If achieved, this ambitious goal would mean that some 40 percent of the total land area of the Garden State would be covered by some form of permanent protection.

Last but not least, New Jersey is one of the very few states that has adopted a statewide development and redevelopment plan which guides state investment in the various infrastructure (such as sewers, roads and water supplies) that supports development. And, in order to enforce and administer this complex regulatory scheme, we were one of the first states in the nation to establish a Department of Environmental Protection. Since 1970, that agency has since grown into an omnipresent and wide-ranging bureaucracy which now manages to touch virtually every aspect of human activity. In a number of instances, in our quest to insure a healthful environment, we have “deputized” county and municipal governments, and, at times, even the private sector, by devolving responsibilities to them for the implementation and enforcement of state environmental programs.

As a result of all of these efforts, most reasonable people would agree that we have in fact made significant strides in cleaning up our land, water and air, and that New Jersey is widely regarded as having some of the best laws and programs of any state to direct our efforts to address the remaining environmental challenges.

However, it is equally obvious that New Jersey is in no position to rest on its environmental laurels. For example, many areas of the state routinely fail to meet federally mandated ambient air quality standards, and many Garden State residents, particularly the very young, the very old, and those with asthma and emphysema, remain at risk from air pollution. Similarly, despite the many layers of protection, many of our rivers and streams continue to suffer from unacceptable water quality, and numerous communities are subject to historic or new contamination which threatens their water supplies. Farmland and open space continues to disappear at the alarming rate of some 50 acres per day, and sprawling development continues to gobble up lands desperately needed for active and passive recreation, as well as watershed protection, aquifer recharge and critical wildlife habitats. Mind-numbing traffic continues to plague residents throughout every corner of the state, and alternatives to the automobile remain out of reach in all but a few commuter corridors to New York or Philadelphia. Sadly, guiding development away from environmentally sensitive areas, and encouraging the redevelopment of our cities is not yet routinely within our grasp, and time seems to be quickly running out to shape development patterns in a way which would enhance the quality of life in both urban and rural areas. And, in the post 9/11 world, the need to protect New Jersey’s numerous chemical plants, power plants and vulnerable water supplies from the new insidious threat of terrorism looms large as the new administration takes office.

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