By Alison Mitchell, Co-Executive Director for New Jersey Conservation Foundation
There are many bragging rights that come with living in this state we’re in — the Jersey Shore, an abundance of diners, perfect tomatoes — but resilience to climate change, unfortunately, is not one of them.
New Jersey is warming faster than the rest of the Northeast and the world. Last year, a ranking of states most affected by climate change on the news site Earth.org listed our state among the top five for the highest risk of flooding.
So it was gratifying to get some good news this spring. In May, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) announced that Gov. Phil Murphy approved the release of a proposed new set of regulations meant to help protect us from some of the devastating effects of climate change. In fact, this push to better guard communities in the face of coastal flooding, shield our infrastructure, and improve stormwater management could earn us another bragging right: If the REAL rules are passed, we will be a nationwide leader in efforts to mitigate the consequences of a warming planet.
The proposed reforms, known as Protecting Against Climate Threats Resilient Environments and Landscapes (NJPACT REAL), are the first of their kind in the country to address an unsettling suite of state-specific projections. Among them: Nearly two-thirds of New Jersey’s coastline is at high or very high risk of coastal erosion. And by 2100, we’re due to see as much as 5.1 feet of sea level rise. The REAL reforms, published this summer, outline manageable, meaningful moves toward heading off those outcomes.
REAL, which is open for public comment until Nov. 3, is the subject of three public hearings — the final session happened Sept. 19 — and is being lauded by groups that make protecting public health and safety and the planet their business.
“Most of the environmental community is supportive of these rules,” said Michael L. Pisauro, policy director at the Watershed Institute in Pennington. “There’s a lot of good things in there, and a lot of things that are overdue.”
If he was in charge, the scope would be widened and the regulations stricter. “It’s not everything we would have asked for.” Still, he’s happy to move the ball forward.
A broad-brush picture of what Pisauro considers the most significant reforms include rules that prevent developers from ignoring the sea level rise problem — and better defined, more effective practices for managing stormwater. “The current rules, even if you meet them, are increasing flooding downstream,” he said. With REAL in effect, “redevelopers will not only have to reduce the volume of water, they’ll have to make runoff cleaner.” Other measures include adjusting coastal flood hazard zones through practical steps like higher first-floor elevations and bolstering the DEP’s permitting process to better track new construction projects from start to finish.
REAL’s push to protect the public from irresponsible development, initiated in 2020, relies on science to lead the way. Its research-backed measures address life and death scenarios. Requiring critical buildings like hospitals to be constructed with sea level rise in mind, for example, means future patients and the people sent to help them in an emergency will be safer. And there is a positive economic side to this, too. Encouraging green stormwater infrastructure, like parks and other open spaces, and enhancing wetlands are less expensive options for protecting the public from deadly threats caused by catastrophic weather events.
Even so, opposition to the reforms is significant. Some shore towns and many businesses have come out against them because of what the DEP characterizes as misinformation. A new page on the department’s website, “NJ PACT REAL Myths and Facts,” addresses falsehoods, among them that the proposal would create no-build zones, and that it would prohibit rebuilding storm-damaged homes.
“Some people have been convinced that this will somehow prevent them from having their dream house at the shore,” Pisauro said. It won’t. It simply requires us to build smarter. And I’m guessing that people in New Jersey would sooner be safe from catastrophic flood events than in harm’s way as climate change takes its toll on the shore and surrounding areas.
Thankfully, the state is trying to take an important step to help us adjust to our new reality. Much more action will be needed as we confront the future, but New Jerseyans should take this opportunity to weigh in – either by attending the final hearing or commenting online – to ensure these rules are adopted to protect people and the planet as we barrel towards a dramatically different environment than humans have ever experienced before.
Many of the negative impacts to our communities and environment are pretty “baked in” at this point. But we can work to mitigate and adapt to those effects, and we must reverse our business as usual activities that are driving even more devastating consequences to people’s health and safety. The REAL rules are an important opportunity to make progress – let’s make sure they are adopted!
To learn more about NJPACT REAL and how to comment on the rules, visit https://dep.nj.gov/njreal/.
For more information about what is real about REAL and what is misinformation, go to https://dep.nj.gov/njreal/facts/.
To learn more about preserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at https://www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.
