New Jersey
The Fight Over New Jersey’s Tough Environmental Justice Law Is Now in the Courts – Inside Climate News
When New Jersey’s landmark environmental justice law was enacted in September 2020, there was plenty to celebrate for activists who had fought so hard to prevent more of the unrelenting pollution that has long plagued the Ironbound section of Newark, the state’s largest city.
More than five years later, the fight is still going on—but the stage has shifted largely to the courts.
In January, the state’s intermediate appellate court unanimously upheld the rules implemented to enforce the law. The recycling and construction industries that challenged the rules have asked the state Supreme Court to hear an appeal, but the state’s highest court has not yet decided whether to accept the case.
There are other legal skirmishes too—all revolving around the plan to build yet another power plant in the Ironbound. This plant, which would be the fourth in the Ironbound’s expansive industrial zone, has been proposed as a backup source of power at the Passaic Valley sewage treatment plant, the state’s largest waste treatment facility.
“It’s a very important moment,” said Ana Baptista, a longtime activist in the Ironbound and an associate professor in the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management program at The New School in New York.
And it’s all unfolding against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s cutting and gutting of environmental policies and protections. The state’s new governor, Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, has signaled a willingness to go up against Trump. But her administration, which includes a new head for the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), is just getting under way.
“I think this is going to be a very critical year,” said Baptista. “We’re paying very close attention.”
The new plant was proposed after the giant Passaic Valley sewage treatment plant lost power during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, spewing hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage into the streets. The sewage commission said it wanted the new natural-gas backup plant to prevent a repeat incident—and much to the disappointment of environmental activists, the DEP approved a permit for it, saying it was only for backup in case of emergency.
The Ironbound Community Corp., which provides educational, environmental and housing support to residents and advocated for the environmental justice law, is challenging the permit in the state’s Appellate Division. The ICC also has filed suit, along with the city of Newark, against the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission for approving the project in June. Two judges have ordered a halt in construction while the cases play out.
A Landmark Environmental Justice Law
Charles Lee, a former Environmental Protection Agency official who is recognized as one of the pioneers of the environmental justice movement, said New Jersey put considerable thought into how to proceed with what he said is now “an extremely strong law.”
“These are issues that have been crying out … to be addressed for decades,” said Lee, now a visiting scholar at the Howard University School of Law’s Environmental and Climate Justice Center.
Lee said the Ironbound, like Chicago’s South Side and Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, bears the burdens of pollution from an array of industries. “There’s just this incredible concentration of environmental burdens,” said Lee.
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The state’s business community has not embraced the law or the ensuing regulations.
In a statement in January after the appellate court affirmed the rules, the New Jersey Business and Industry Association expressed disappointment. The association’s deputy chief government affairs officer, Ray Cantor, said the rules have had “a chilling effect” on the business community because they go too far.
In its petition in February to the state Supreme Court, the New Jersey chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. called the rules an “existential threat” to the recycling industry and said they go beyond the scope of the environmental justice law. “The importance of this issue to New Jersey businesses cannot be overstated,” lawyers for the institute said.
In a court filing in the ICC lawsuit against the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, Denis Driscoll, a lawyer for the commission, said the complaint should be dismissed and that the proposed power plant would only be used for emergencies.
Under the 2020 law, the DEP must consider the impact of projects such as power plants on poor and minority communities already disproportionately harmed by pollution. It requires regulators to deny permits for any facility that cannot avoid adding pollution to an overburdened community unless the project will serve a compelling public interest and also requires consideration of the cumulative impact of pollution from an array of industries. It essentially adds another layer of scrutiny on top of existing environmental laws.
A number of states, including California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Massachusetts, have enacted similar laws or require analysis and consideration of similar issues. But the strength of New Jersey’s law is the mandate to deny permits that add pollution to an overburdened community and to require a cumulative impact analysis. New York passed a law in 2023 that some say may ultimately prove even tougher than New Jersey’s.
While the law protects communities across New Jersey, it is especially significant for the Ironbound, an eclectic neighborhood of homes, shops and restaurants on one side and a hulking industrial zone on the other. There is the giant Passaic Valley sewage treatment plant, the state’s biggest trash incinerator, the contaminated remains of an old Agent Orange factory and more, all in the gritty shadow of the New Jersey Turnpike, the port of Newark and Liberty International Airport.
The main street—Doremus Avenue—is known as the “Chemical Corridor” for its warehouses and plants. The diesel trucks crawl through as planes from the nearby airport take off or descend in the skies. Traffic seems to go in all directions, and the smells of all that industry waft through the community.
To the Ironbound Community Corp., the decades of pollution have taken a toll on the health of neighborhood residents, who face high asthma rates and an array of chronic health conditions.
Nicky Sheats, a longtime environmental activist in New Jersey, said it took a long time to get support for the idea of an environmental justice law—but the community’s persistence paid off.
“We’ve been talking about it for so long, maybe it makes sense … that we would be the first to do innovative things like this,” he said. Now, he said, the activist community will keep up the pressure to ensure that the law is enforced.
“We’re persistent,” he said.
Sheats and others in the Ironbound have been buoyed, meanwhile, by the appellate decision upholding the rules and by the interim orders halting construction of the new plant.
“It’s something to cheer and something to provide hope,” said Jonathan J. Smith, an attorney with Earthjustice who is representing the Ironbound community.
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In New Jersey, Mercer County officials have enacted new policies limiting the ability of federal immigration agents to access and use county property to conduct immigration enforcement operations.
Mercer County Executive Dan Benson issued an executive order and the Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution Friday that bans U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol from using any nonpublic area on county property to enforce immigration law, unless they have obtained a judicial warrant or judicial order.
“From Minneapolis to Delaney Hall, ICE has repeatedly shown a total disregard for the law and for the constitutional rights of citizens and non-citizens alike,” Benson said in a statement. “We respect the Federal Government’s authority to enforce immigration law, but we will not allow them to use County properties to harass our families.”
“With this resolution, we’re sending a clear message that everyone in our community can safely interact with County government, and access County services, without fear,” said Board of Commissioners Chair Terrance Stokes in a statement. “ICE’s actions threaten the fabric of our community, and we will take whatever steps we can, within the bounds of the law, to protect our residents.”
New Jersey and New York City commuters are facing extensive delays in and out of New York Penn Station Friday, with intensifying ripple effects, after an Amtrak work train car on one of the hub’s tracks caught fire.
The FDNY says it was called to the Midtown scene on 31st Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues, around 1:30 a.m. Nearly 100 personnel responded. Five civilians were evaluated at the scene by EMS, officials say.
It’s not clear what sparked the fire involving Amtrak’s contractor maintenance vehicles in one of the Hudson River Tunnels. It was knocked down well before 6 a.m., but service on New Jersey Transit, Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road and more was expected to see heavy impacts well into the morning rush, with Hudson River trains operating at reduced capacity. Amtrak said it didn’t expect to lift its suspension until at least noon.
Travel Advisory: Due to unforeseen track and signal maintenance resulting from a now extinguished fire in the New York area, all services traveling south of New York (NYP) are temporarily suspended. This suspension is anticipated to be in place until noon at a minimum. Services…
— Amtrak Northeast (@AmtrakNECAlerts) May 29, 2026
New Jersey Transit and LIRR also announced delays and cancellations. Cross-honoring and diversion programs were in effect as the situation developed. Complete LIRR service at NY Penn had resumed by around 7 a.m., Friday said, though equipment issues were causing cancellations. Get the latest transit information here.
Video from outside Penn Station showed smoke billowing in the pre-dawn hours, as emergency personnel stood by with stretchers awaiting any potential victims.
Amtrak is investigating the cause of the fire.
“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may cause,” the agency’s latest announcement said, pledging to provide updates as new information becomes available.
How are detainees at Delaney Hall being treated?
A statement issued by DHS said detainees receive comprehensive medical care and all are treated well.
“They are provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries. Illegal aliens also have access to phones to communicate with their family members and lawyers. Certified dieticians evaluate meals,” the department wrote.
The release accused Sherrill, Booker and U.S. Sen Andy Kim, as well as U.S. Reps. Rob Menendez, Nellie Pou, LaMonica McIver, Frank Pallone and Analilia Majia, of continuing “to peddle falsehoods about ICE facilities,” and “spreading smears about ICE law enforcement and the Delaney Hall ICE facility in New Jersey.”
Sinha said the assertion that individuals being arrested and taken to Delaney Hall are dangerous criminals is false.
“This is an administration that has repeatedly lied to us about what’s going on in immigration enforcement and immigration detention facilities,” Sinha said.
He added while Sherrill does not have the legal authority to enter Delaney Hall unannounced, that fact that she was denied entry is concerning.
“The federal government has denied her repeatedly, and it makes you question, ‘What is the federal government trying to hide?’” he asked. “They have no allegiance to any rule of law or semblance of democracy; they’re trying to rewrite the Constitution for people who are noncitizens.”
On Thursday, Sherrill issued a statement saying the New Jersey Department of Health attempted to conduct a inspection of Delaney Hall, but officials were only allowed to inspect only a limited part of the facility.
“We will review and share the department’s findings from the limited portion it was allowed to inspect, and we will continue to pursue all appropriate avenues for demanding transparency and ensuring humane conditions for the individuals being held at the facility,” she said in the statement. “As I’ve said repeatedly, refusing to provide full access raises serious questions about what ICE is trying to hide from public view.”
Sinha said a hunger strike among those inside the facility is continuing because they are being given spoiled food and inadequate medical care in deplorable conditions.
“People shouldn’t have to starve themselves to make their dignity known; people shouldn’t have to starve themselves to have their rights protected, but that’s what’s happening here,” he said.
Reports of escalating violence
Late Thursday afternoon there were reports of violence escalating within Delaney Hall.
Nedia Morsy, the director of Make the Road New Jersey, an immigration advocacy group, issued a statement saying multiple sources within the facility reported ICE agents attacking detainees and causing serious injuries.
“Right now there are ICE agents inside of Delaney Hall violently beating the hunger strikers,” Morsy said in the statement. “Someone will be killed if no one intervenes and shuts this down. These masked agents are acting as if they’re above the law. This is a modern-day concentration camp, and history will not forgive silence in this moment. We need to shut down Delaney Hall and free everyone inside.”
Resistencia en Accion, another immigrant rights group, also released a statement, calling for violence against detainees to end.
“We express our utmost disgust with the violence perpetrated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents today, May 28. Reports at approximately 1:40 p.m. reveal that ICE agents attacked the hunger strikers inside with batons and tear gas. Family members outside received calls from inside, confirming that there were people screaming, and according to their loved ones inside, unconscious detainees and blood on surfaces. ICE is the sole responsible actor for the escalation that has led to several wounded people inside and outside this week,” the statement reads.
WHYY News reached out to DHS late Thursday seeking comment about the reports of violence at Delaney Hall. A written statement was emailed to WHYY that said ICE agents had responded to a physical altercation involving detainees.
“In accordance with established ICE policies and their training, staff used the minimum amount of force to safely deescalate the situation,” DHS wrote. “Following the incident, all affected detainees were promptly evaluated by on-site medical personnel and were cleared with no serious injuries.”
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