NJ Court Prohibits Construction of Controversial Newark Gas Plant

NJ Court Prohibits Construction of Controversial Newark Gas Plant

Victory

Project in limbo after PVSC ignored significant community opposition to the project

Contacts

Erin Fitzgerald,Earthjustice

Martin Torres, Ironbound Community Corporation

Today, the Essex County Superior Court sided with communities in Newark, and granted a stay in a lawsuit filed against the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission (PVSC) for recently approving the construction of a fourth gas plant in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark. This decision will preserve the status quo, halting any construction while the court undertakes the long process of considering the legal merits of the challengefiled by Earthjustice, on behalf of the Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC). The Court also consolidated ICC's case with a separate case filed by the City of Newark on the same issue, where a stay of construction was also recently granted.

"This ruling validates what our community has been saying for years-Newark's Ironbound should not be a dumping ground for polluting facilities. The Court's decision to pause construction gives residents a chance to keep fighting for the clean air and healthy future our families deserve," said Hazel Applewhite, CEO of Ironbound Community Corporation.

The facility would sit in one of the most polluted ZIP codes in New Jersey, where residents face higher rates of asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and shortened life spans. In just four square miles, over 50,000 residents, most of them working-class people of color, breathe the air pollution from existing gas plants, the state's largest trash incinerator, and nonstop diesel truck traffic from one of the largest ports in the country, along with sprawling warehouses, to name a few of the sources of pollution in this one neighborhood. In addition to the lawsuit filed against PVSC, the groups have also sued the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP)for approving a fourth gas power plant in Newark, despite strong community opposition.

"Today, the Court took the reasonable step of pausing construction of what would be the fourth gas plant in the most overburdened community in New Jersey," said Earthjustice attorney, Jonathan Smith. "PVSC has waited over a decade to build this expensive, polluting, and unreliable gas plant, and there's no need to rush construction now before the Court's final ruling on the legality of PVSC's decision."

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