[CPEO-BIF] New Jersey "officials didn't track the $281M ..."

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[Any reactions to "Now that the fund has run on hard times, DEP said,  
it’s reviewing whether it gave money to any sites that should have  
been cleaned by the polluters and not the public."? - LS]


N.J. officials didn't track the $281M spent from brownfields fund to  
clean polluted properties


By Christopher Baxter
nj.com
July 31, 2011

MOUNT HOLLY - A mural painted on an abandoned building in Mount Holly  
depicts brightly colored storefronts, the kind local officials had  
envisioned for this corner after applying to a state program designed  
to turn toxic land into new homes and bustling businesses.

But that may never happen, because the state brownfields fund to help  
clean polluted properties is nearly broke. And worse yet, officials  
concede no one knows for sure how well the public’s dollars have been  
spent.

Since 1994, New Jersey has doled out $281 million from the fund to  
investigate and clean up contaminated land, but in what would seem a  
fairly monumental oversight, state officials acknowledge they have  
never kept track of whether the roughly 1,600 sites were actually  
developed and are now on the tax rolls.

...

Now that the fund has run on hard times, DEP said, it’s reviewing  
whether it gave money to any sites that should have been cleaned by  
the polluters and not the public.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/ 
nj_officials_say_they_failed_t.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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