The Sierra Club NJ has just issued an Action Alert to all New Jerseyans who would lose the right to know when toxic sources threaten surrounding locations in 19 of the 21 counties. The Alert is titled, "Tell Corzine Not to Cover Up Toxic Hazards!"

Note that Clean Water Action has issued the same alert (highlighted here and on GreenPoliticsNJ), which should double the motivation to tell the Governor to maintain fair public disclosure.

In its Action Alert to, the Sierra Club NJ says:

• A new rule proposed by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), pushed by the NJ Office of Homeland Security, would hide "off-site consequence" data and other risk information from 97 potentially hazardous chemical plants, oil refineries, water treatment operations, and other facilities using chlorine or other highly toxic or flammable substances.

The rationale for covering up this information is ostensibly to make it harder for potential terrorists to obtain. But the the major reason to maintain fair public disclosure is to keep the companies handling toxic chemicals accountable to the public and the environmental watchdogs -- who ultimately keep the toxic handlers honest. Far more ecological disasters have happened at the hands of unaccountable corporations than at the hands of anyone else. Cutting public disclosure increases abuse -- look no further than Wall Street this decade.

A former Director of the NJ Office of Counterterrorism told the Sierra Club NJ that the public is safer as a result of fair disclosure of toxic risk. Therefore, if the goal is really to protect our communities from chemical terrorism, the DEP's greater emphasis should be on increased security and adoption of safer chemicals, not secrecy that will ultimately harm the public.

Sierra Club NJ is urging people to call Governor Corzine at 609 292 6000. Or, use the link [here] to e-mail him via his Web site. The message is:

• Please eliminate confidentiality language from the proposed rules for the NJ Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act. Continued public access to this information is vital in protecting workers and our communities from harm.

To alert your NJ legislators of the dangerous proposed rule change, you may contact them too. A quick representative-lookup tool is here.

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