Environmental Issues in Camden

The City of Camden has perhaps the highest concentration of polluting facilities, diesel emmissions, and contaminated Superfund sites of any city of its size in New Jersey. Below is a list of some of the environmental hazards Camden residents have to live with on a daily basis.

CAMDEN’S ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS:

Contaminated Soil – a legacy of Camden’s industrial past:

• Camden City contains 2 federal Superfund sites and 114 known contaminated sites.  Common pollutants are lead, mercury, PCB’s (chemicals formerly used as coolants and lubricants in electrical equipment, now banned from use), solvents (TCE, PCE, and other volatile organic compounds, known as VOCs), arsenic, and petroleum products.

• Toxins in the soil can spread through the air or through groundwater. People can be harmed when they are directly exposed to them by skin contact, breathing them in, or drinking them. If a person touches contaminated soil, they could spread the contamination to food or water. Children playing in contaminated areas can breathe in or swallow the toxins.

“Dumping” in Camden

• The polluting facilities that no one wants are often “dumped” in Camden.  The DEP has identified over 350 operating facilities in the City which emit air pollutants, discharge contaminants to soil or water, and/or use hazardous substances. They include power plants, a cement grinding facility, a gypsum plant, and chemical, paint, and food processing companies. 

• Camden City is a center for waste disposal and “recycling” facilities, such as the regional incinerator, the county sewage treatment plant, and at least 30 businesses which recycle scrap metal, hazardous waste barrels, construction debris, and other contaminated waste.

• The South Jersey Port Corporation operates two port terminals in South Camden. The port operations cause diesel emissions from the 400 ships that visit the Port each year, and from diesel-operated loading equipment. The Port also provides space for heavy industrial uses.

• The Port operations and the industrial facilities bring in very heavy volumes of diesel truck traffic. As many as 328,500 trucks per year travel through South Camden neighborhoods.

Polluted air:

• Fine particulate (PM 10 and PM 2.5) pollution levels in South Camden are among the highest in the state.  Camden County has been declared in non-attainment of the new PM 2.5 standard, and a DEP study showed there are sections of the Waterfront South neighborhood that may have levels above the health-based standards for fine particulates.

• Inhalable particulates (PM 10 and PM 2.5) can be lodged in the lungs and aggravate asthma, emphysema, and bronchitis, and can cause stress to the heart, leading to premature death.

• Ozone levels in Camden County exceed air quality standards.  

• Ozone also aggravates respiratory conditions, such as difficulty breathing, chest pains, throat irritation, congestion, asthma, scarring of lung tissue, and premature death.

• The diesel emissions from trucks and ships are a major source of air pollution. Diesel exhaust contains many toxic substances, including formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, benzene, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). .

• Camden air also contains various hazardous air pollutants, including metals and VOCs. The air quality modeling conducted by DEP during its Air Toxics Study showed arsenic, cadmium, dioxin, hydrogen sulfide, lead, manganese, and nickel levels were potentially above the acceptable health benchmarks in some sections of Waterfront South.  A study of PCB deposition revealed Camden had the highest levels recorded in the state.

• Hazardous air pollutants can increase risk of cancer.

Poisoned water:

• For decades, until 1998, Camden’s drinking water came from wells, including the wells at the Puchack Well Field Superfund site in Pennsauken, that were severely contaminated with VOCs, hexavalent chromium, and other toxins.

• Camden water more recently has still shown some VOC contamination.

• The VOCs and chromium that has been found in Camden water can cause cancer, liver and kidney disease, and other illnesses.

Lead:

• Most houses in Camden were built before lead was banned in 1970 and contain lead paint.

• Lead levels in the drinking water in many homes and in Camden’s public schools have also been found at dangerously high levels.

• Chipping and exposed lead paint can be breathed in as dust or be swallowed.

• Children who become lead poisoned suffer from learning disabilities, delayed growth, brain damage, and behavior problems. Severe lead poisoning can cause coma and death.

The Toll on people’s health

• Studies show that Camden City residents have unusually high rates of respiratory diseases, especially asthma. People with asthma are particularly vulnerable to the effects of pollution.

• Camden City residents have elevated rates of cancer of the lung, esophagus, stomach, liver, kidney, and pancreas.  Lung cancer rates are especially high compared to the state-wide rates.

>>> read NJ DEP Report, August 2005

>>> take an online EJ Tour of Camden

South Jersey EJ Issues and Victories

SOUTH JERSEY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

The Southern counties of New Jersey face a myriad of environmental issues, some of which are similar to the northern and central parts of the state, while others are unique to SJ. In addition to problems of poor air quality and high concentrations of polluting facilities, which often violate clean air standards throughout the State -either because of poor enforcement practices or due to minimal fines from the Federal, State & Local Government Agencies- South Jersey also has the dubious distinction of serving as host to the oldest and most problematic nuclear power facility in the State.

Unique to South Jersey are also specific conservation and environmental issues associated with the Pinelands, Shore communities and Open Space and Farmlands preservation. Moreover, SJ counties are unequally represented in the balance of political power at the State level, which in turn affects our ability to address environmental issues at the legislative level.

RECENT SOUTH JERSEY ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS' VICTORIES

Deepwater, NJ. Effort stopped to make NJ Dumping Ground for US Army.
The U.S. Army's plan to ship stockpiles of dangerous VX nerve gas from Indiana to a DuPont chemical plant in southern New Jersey--to be dumped into the Delaware River is on hold, thanks to the hard work of a coalition of activists, incl. SJEJA and the Sierra Club and the political support of Congressmen Rob Andrews (D-Haddon Heights), Jim Saxton (R-Mt. Holly), and Frank LoBiondo (R-Ventnor).

Trenton, NJ. NJDEP sets high standards for PFOA
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has set the nation’s lowest drinking water guidance level for the controversial chemical PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid). PFOA has been labeled by EPA's Science Advisory Board as a likely human carcinogen and is now manufactured in the United States only by Dupont for use in a wide variety of products such as Teflon cookware, and food wrapper linings. New Jersey's guidance level is the toughest in the nation and reflects extensive independent scientific analysis on the part of the state.
The Dupont Accountability Coalition, made up of environmental and labor organizations from PFOA polluted communities around the country, views New Jersey's action as major progress toward ending Dupont's reckless manufacture and use of PFOA.
>>> more

National EJ Tour Visits Camden

A coalition of over 70 environmental justice, social justice, public health, human rights, and worker's rights groups have launched the Environmental Justice for All Tour '06 (September 24 - October 1) to highlight the devastating impact of toxic contamination on people of color and poor communities across the United States. In September, three bus caravans packed with activists, health researchers, environmental scientists, and public policy experts toured communities in the Northeast, South, and West Coast, where people are suffering serious health effects associated with toxic pollution. They came to Camden, NJ on September 29, 2006.

>>> Take an online EJ Tour of Camden, NJ

>>> Watch a Video of the Camden EJ Tour

World Social Forum

Four members of the South Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance traveled to the World Social Forum in Kenya to present workshops on environmental justice issues, such as the dumping of toxins in low income communities of color and the struggles of agricultural farm workers in New Jersey.

They developed contacts and promised to shared information with people facing similar issues in very different parts of the world. For example, one of the outcomes is that CATA staff is translating pesticides labels from Chinese to English that South African farm workers can read the instructions. Learning how important school supplies were to children in Kenya, Olga Pomar sent a package of school supplies to Nairobi.

Being part of the World Social Forum was an rich, rewarding, and unforgettable experience. All our SJEJA participants agreed with Nelson Carrasquillo's observation: "The opportunity to witness and understand the aspirations of people from other countries provided us with the opportunity to appreciate ourselves differently."

The media reported that more than 70,000 participants came together in Nairobi. They were nuns, slum dwellers, academics, activists, Nobel Prize winners, students, trade unionists, NGO staffers and government officials including Kenneth Kaunda, the former President of Zambia among the more than 1,400 participating organizations from 110 countries. (Alternet)
>>> more on the WSF (Immanuel Wallerstein)

SJEJA Presenters:
R. Mongaliso Davis, Eleanor Vine, Nelson Carrasquillo, Olga Pomar

>>> more pictures from the WSF at Nairobi, Kenya