SCOTUS Turns a Blind Eye to Black Infant Mortality Rates - Replaces Affirmative Action with Affirmative Inaction

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

"The United States has never been color blind."

 So wrote Justice Ketanji Jackson in her scathing dissent of the conservative majority decision to end Affirmative Action and the holistic methods universities use to overcome the systemic advantages of white students in college admissions. All evidence in the case point to the fact that affirmative actions taken to overcome racial disadvantages in college admission decisions are working, over time, to narrow the historical gaps in outcomes of Black Americans in areas of health, wealth, and well-being.

One of many examples that Justice Jackson cited struck me as particularly disturbing. It is also emblematic of the problem-solving abilities of affirmative action programs to close a real-life, race-based disparity. Black infant mortality rates, which are 2 to 3 times higher than for white infants, are reduced by half when their doctors are also African-American.

I couldn’t believe it. I had to check.

“Although Black newborns are three times as likely to die as White newborns, when the doctor of record for Black newborns — primarily pediatricians, neonatologists and family practitioners — was also Black, their mortality rate, as compared with White newborns, was cut in half.” - Washington Post.

For the record, the mortality rate for white newborn infants treated by black physicians is the same as it is for white doctors. An underlying study lays it out more starkly:

"In the simple model absent controls, the Patient Black coefficient indicates that, under the care of White physicians, Black newborns experience triple the in-hospital mortality rate of White infants (column 1 of Table 1). Under the care of White physicians, the White newborn mortality rate is 290 per 100,000 births, as implied by the constant term (0.290). Black newborn mortality is estimated at 894 per 100,000 births (0.290 + 0.604). The Physician Black coefficient implies no significant difference in mortality among White newborns cared for by Black vs. White physicians (columns 1 to 5 of Table 1). In contrast, we observe a robust racial concordance benefit for Black newborns, as captured by the Physician Black * Patient Black interaction. Under the care of White physicians, Black newborns experience 430 more fatalities per 100,000 births than White newborns (column 4). Under the care of Black physicians, the mortality penalty for Black newborns is only 173 fatalities per 100,000 births above White newborns, a difference of 257 deaths per 100,000 births, and a 58% reduction in the racial mortality difference." - Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS)

Here is a clear example of where an affirmative intent to locate and educate highly qualified African-American students to perhaps become doctors can directly solve a horrible and long-standing racial gap in health outcomes for infants who are born Black. The transformational powers of Affirmative Action programs made it a target for the opponents of change.  The colorblind admissions criteria mandated by the Supreme Court turn a blind eye to tens of thousands of avoidable deaths of Black babies every year. How does this square with the sanctity of life principle behind last year's Dobb decision overturning abortion? How will requiring institutions of learning to avert their attention from the social impacts of racial disparities ever solve problems like this?

Black River in Kenvil Looks Good Despite the Odds Against It - Preliminary Stream Monitor Results

 by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

Here is my initial report on the Raritan Headwaters Association (RHA) monitoring of the Black River this year. The monitoring site is about 100 meters downstream from where it flows out of the Hercules Property in Kenvil (Roxbury Twp.), NJ.

Aerial view of the Black River monitoring site (white line) in Kenvil, NJ just after it emerges from the former Hercules Powder property. 

Unlike most headwaters, the Black River, a.k.a. the Lamington, originates under very threatening circumstances. It vents from the earth on a polluted tract of land where chemical explosives were manufactured for over one hundred and fifty years. Four hundred years ago this water source was a pristine wetland known as Great Spring. Early settlers two-hundred years later knew this stream and its cool, abundant water as the Black River. More recently it was relabeled as a drainage ditch for industrial chemical waste. Its name was removed from many modern maps. It was off limits to environmental scientists who studied this region, and it remains underappreciated for its contribution to the waters of the North Branch of the Raritan River.  

And there are other challenges. Unlike most streams in the Highland, this one flows over a stream bed of glacial sand without the benefit of the many rocks and riffles that add life-sustaining oxygen. Riffles also provide habitat for the bugs that live in the stream.

 Before this spring water travels 100 meters to the first RHA monitoring site, it crosses two busy roadways and receives the liquid burden of four major stormwater culverts. These storm drains contribute road salt in winter, tire dust, plastic trash, leaked motor oil, heavy metals, and who knows what else from Route 46, Hillside Avenue, and several large commercial parking lots. These challenges, threats, and a generally sub-optimal habitat always evoke a feeling of dread when I first enter the stream at the monitoring site. The question arises, "Will this be the year I discover the macroinvertebrates have disappeared?." 

Three other Raritan Headwaters Association stream monitors joined me this year. We spent half a day carefully assessing the status of the Black River site (known as BR07) off Hillside Avenue behind Krauser's. I was happy to have so many fresh eyes on the stream and their help collecting macroinvertebrates (small aquatic bugs living in the streambed) needed to test the water quality. 

The morning was clear and bright. The air was a comfortable 65°, and the recent air quality crisis from burning forests in Canida had cleared. The stream was a cool 58°, but the volume was less than usual.  The water height at the monitoring site was lower than normal but only about three inches lower than usual. It dropped an inch since it was last measured eight days earlier.  Less than an inch of rain fell in over a month. The last significant rain, about a half-inch, fell 21 days prior. This is a dry spell. 

Sampling for macroinvertebrates went better than expected. There was no difficulty obtaining the minimum sample size needed for the laboratory analysis. The variety of bugs was broader than in years past. The bugs' pollution tolerance ranged the full spectrum from pollution-intolerant to pollution-tolerant. We also caught a crayfish, three freshwater mussels, and three small fish (catch and release only) in the sample. I haven't identified the type of fish we caught yet, but we'll send the pictures to the experts. We also spotted three larger fish in the stream but couldn't get pictures or identify details. This was the biggest number of fish observed during stream monitoring at this site.

We were visited by two ducks, a squirrel, many species of birds. Deer tracks and other animal tracks were seen along the stream bank. A neighbor living by the stream told us she hears lots of frogs in the evening. She pointed to the spot where she saw six American Brook Lamprey this past April. These 380 million-year-old species of fish are considered a "species of concern" by the NJDEP. They are on the endangered list in several other states.  Freshwater brook lampreys' cannot survive in turbid, polluted, or overly warm water. The EPA lists them as a good bio-indicator species.  Their presence in the stream, and the good macroinvertebrate samples we gathered, indicate that this stretch of the Black River has miraculously overcome environmental adversity once again. We will await the laboratory results and subsequent chemical monitoring by RHA for confirmation. 

The other piece of good news is that despite the dry spell, the volume of water in the stream is good. Last year was a wet Spring carrying lots of stormwater into the Black River. This year there is no stormwater or even surface water runoff at all, yet the annualized volume of water is still over a billion gallons per year. 

Below are some of the raw monitoring data from the past three years. 

American Brook Lamprey Are Cool Fish That Need to Stay Cool

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

A difference of 5 degrees Centigrade (9°F) in stream water doesn’t sound like much, but for the American Brook Lamprey that lives in the Black River between Hercules and Sunset Lake, it could be the difference between survival and extinction.

American Brook Lamprey are prehistoric freshwater fish that have survived every natural calamity over the past 360 million years. It is essentially unchanged from the earliest fossil records dating back that far. No one knows for how many millennia these “living fossils” have inhabited the Black River in Kenvil, but their presence in the stream is the best proof that Ashland Chemical has that the array of toxic chemicals on the highly polluted Hercules property is staying put rather than migrating into the "Great Spring," which is what Native Americans called the southern wetlands on the Hercules site. The American Brook Lamprey wouldn't be seen there because they are pollution intolerant. They are also intolerant of high turbidity, high saltation, and water temperatures above 20 degrees Centigrade, which is 68 degrees Fahrenheit. 

For this reason, the US EPA considers the Brook Lamprey an excellent biological indicator of water quality in our streams.  If the waters flowing from the Great Spring on the Hercules property were tainted with toxins, turbid, salt, or too warm, the lamprey would not have been observed at the Raritan Headwaters's monitoring site over the past three years. 

I am the NJ DEP-certified stream monitor for that site. Each year, my volunteer colleagues and I collect samples of the macroinvertebrates that live in the stream's substrate for laboratory analysis. This reach of the stream isn't well suited for the HDMI index used to analyze water quality based on the macroinvertebrates because the stream flows over a smooth bed of glacial sand. There are no cobbles or riffles to add oxygen to the water. Because cold water holds more oxygen than warm water, the cool temperatures here are even more critical for all the aquatic life in this part of the river. We also measure the stream's temperature, volume, and turbidity every year. On the warmest June monitoring day in 2022, after 3/4" of rain fell 18 hours earlier, the water temperature was 20 degrees Centigrade (68 degrees F). This is the upper limit beyond which the American Brook Lamprey can not survive. 

Why should their survival matter?

Among the many good reasons, these ancient survivors have one of the most robust immune systems on the planet. Scientists are convinced they hold genetic secrets that might enhance our immune system someday. There is an urgency to study these fish because their numbers are dwindling. They require cool, clear, pollution-free water to survive.

The Hercules permit request is a renewal of an active but obsolete permit from years ago. It allowed Hercules Powder Company to discharge treated wastewater into the Black River, but the property has been vacant for 27 years. It’s being renewed because the proposed redevelopment will need to rebuild the waste treatment plant for the proposed warehouse complex. Among the provisions from the old permit carried over to the new one is the 25°c maximum temperature range for the treated wastewater. The maximum water temperature in which the American Brook Lamprey can survive is 20°C. Because water temperatures in New Jersey are already rising due to global warming, this old temperature restriction is obsolete. New temperature parameters need to be calculated based on our changing climate conditions.

This is where the public can help. During the prior public comments period, the Raritan Headwaters Association made DEP aware of the American Brook Lamprey in the Black River. The harmful impact of carrying over the old temperature limit for treated wastewater was raised, but the revised permit retained the limit. They won’t reconsider this question again in the current public review period without strong public support for reconsideration.

If you agree that the temperature restrictions on wastewater discharged into the Black River should be lower than 25°c, please call or write Bennett Moss at the DEP address below. Here is the DEP memo:


From: Moss, Bennett [DEP] <Bennett.Moss@dep.nj.gov>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2023, 7:52 AM
To: Moss, Bennett [DEP] <Bennett.Moss@dep.nj.gov>
Subject: Issuance of the Re-Draft Permit Action for NJPDES DSW NJ0000876

Good morning,

Please find attached the Re-Draft Discharge to Surface Water Renewal Permit Action issued for the following facility as prepared by the Bureau of Surface Water and Pretreatment Permitting:

Permit Class: B – Industrial Wastewater
Permittee: Hercules, LLC
Facility: Hercules, LLC - Kenvil
Township / County: Roxbury Township, Morris County
Program Interest Number: 46431

The Department has attached a PDF version of the re-draft permit to provide you an opportunity to submit formal comments. The public comment period will close on June 16, 2023 as detailed in the re-draft permit cover letter. Notice of this re-draft permit action appeared in the May 17, 2023 DEP Bulletin. The DEP Bulletin is available on the internet at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/bulletin.

Please note that the Department has only issued this permit action by email and a paper copy of the permit will not be mailed. If you have any questions regarding this permit action, please contact me either by e-mail or by phone at (609) 292-4860.


Thank you,
Bennett

Bennett Moss, Environmental Specialist
Bureau of Surface Water & Pretreatment Permitting
Division of Water Quality
NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection
Phone: (609) 292-4860


Re-Draft Permit Renewal for NJPDES DSW NJ0000876.pdf
2688K View as HTML Scan and download

In Search of Indian Spring

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

In 1973, the Indian Springs Water Company had already been a going concern in Rockaway township for many years. It delivered hundreds of five-gallon bottles of pure spring all over Northern New Jersey each day. Customers ranged from Doc Severinsen (Johnny Carson’s band leader), who lived in Sussex County, to the N.J. Statehouse in Trenton. The company was owned and operated by Joe Oram, a cantankerous yet likable old man. His spring and bottling plant was in a quiet, wooded ravine on the edge of White Meadow Lake, a residential community. His ancestors were among the founders of Morris County. Joe told me that the spring had been in his family for many generations.

A small spring house with a cobblestone floor covered the vent where water sprung from the ground. A layer of sand was spread over the floor to filter the water before it was pumped into a stainless-steel holding tank. The sand was periodically replaced. Spring water was pumped from the tank into the spring house during operations. The only other water treatment was from an ultraviolet filter near the spigot filling the bottles. It was pure, clean, and delicious water that was regularly tested to meet state regulations.

The bottling operation took place on weekdays in a modest cement-block bottling house. Three or four delivery drivers would unload wooden crates containing empty bottles from their trucks and stack the crates on one side of the loading dock. Next, they reloaded the trucks with full crates of water stacked on the other side of the dock before heading out to make their deliveries. A bottle washer carried all the empty bottles into the wash area and ran them through a bottle washing machine. The bottles were temporarily stored along the back wall if the bottle washer was working alone. When all the bottles were cleaned, he carried them to the other side of the bottling house where they were refilled and capped. The filled bottles were then carefully slipped back into wooden crates and stacked on the loading dock.

Production was modest. The bottle washing machine could only clean about 84 bottles per hour. With only one employee in the bottling house, only about 350 bottles could be filled in an eight-hour shift. Sometimes that was enough. 

The brains of this operation appeared to work part-time in a mobile office trailer beside the spring house. It was equipped with a desk, two chairs, a telephone, an old typewriter, filing cabinets, and lots of handwritten invoices and office supplies scattered about. The back half of the trailer was crammed with water coolers in various states and conditions. Joe Oram seemed to know the names and addresses of most of his customers by memory. This was a small, simple, but profitable business. By lunchtime, Joe was off to his favorite restaurant, The Three Sisters, for drinks and a meal. 

I worked for Joe in the summer of 1973 delivering spring water all over Northern N.J. I switched in the fall to be his bottle washer while attending college part-time. I helped a friend of mine get the delivery job I gave up. He eventually went into the spring water business himself and comfortably retired at an early age. Joe eventually sold Indian Spring. By then, the spring water business was changing due to mergers and acquisitions. One very large spring operation in Pennsylvania was able to sell bottled water wholesale to other companies at a cost that was less than some bottling operations. 

The fate of the actual Indian Spring was not so happy. Water tests some years later showed that the spring was becoming polluted from groundwater contamination migrating from Picatinny Arsenal, a U.S. Army Armament Research facility. By that time, the Indian Spring Water Company had other water sources, including the wholesale purchase of water from the plant in Pennsylvania. But, the Indian Springs plant was abandoned. The land was eventually sold to a developer.

That was fifty years ago. Recently I went looking for Indian Spring to see if it was still flowing. Hardly anyone I talked to about the spring (local residents, town road crew members, etc.) remembered it or the bottling company for whom I worked. It isn’t referenced in Google searches, doesn’t appear on Google Earth images, or appears in the NJDEP’s GeoWeb maps.

My first attempt to find the spring was not successful. I drove around, but nothing looked familiar. On my second attempt, however, I found it. It is hidden from view in a gully behind a townhouse in a development aptly named Indian Springs. 

Just a short way downstream from the vent, I watched it's water cascade over a low, moss-covered rock wall someone had built long ago. The sound of it was musical. I felt at peace knowing that despite the radical changes and damage we inflict on the natural world, this little spring just keeps flowing.

Conserving the Rain That Falls in Morris County

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

As the atmosphere in the Highlands of New Jersey warms up, we will see more heavy rainfall events. That’s because warm air holds more water vapor. Heavier rainfall will add to our considerable flood hazards. The recent proliferation of warehouses and the rapid land development for housing complexes in Morris County only compound the potential for severe flooding because it leaves less undeveloped land, called recharge areas, where rain can soak into the ground.

 

In reading how stormwater experts plan to manage future flooding, the focus relies on “smart stormwater” technologies and grand solutions. These require lots of taxpayer funding and a slow rollout of construction projects. Missing is a discussion on practical, simple, and less costly ideas to reduce stormwater in the short term, but first, some background.

Most rainwater runoff results from covering the ground with impervious surfaces such as roads, buildings, sidewalks, and driveways. This causes more rainwater to flow over the land rather than seep into the soil. The traditional solution has been to funnel stormwater into our natural streams and rivers to carry this excess back to the ocean. This extra water volume was tolerated by our river systems 100 years ago when the land was not highly developed, and one-hundred-year floods didn’t occur every decade.

Today, the volume of rainwater running off impervious areas overwhelms our rivers, erodes streambeds, destroys natural habitats, and turns streams into nearly lifeless drainage ditches. More rainwater rushing out to sea means less groundwater to replace what we draw from underground aquifers. Excessive stormwater overflows riverbanks and spills out beyond the natural floodplains to inundate whole communities. Annual flood damage costs us millions of dollars every year. Action is necessary.

What can Morris County residents do right now to begin reducing excess stormwater?

We can start where we live. Where does your rainwater go during a storm if you live in a single-family home? Most homeowners will answer that their excess stormwater runs into the street, nearby lake, or stream. This is especially true during heavy rainstorms when soil quickly becomes saturated as rain falls faster than it can be absorbed into the soil. This also means less infiltration to the roots where grass and trees need moisture. Roofs are a big source of excess stormwater. Most houses have gutters and leaders that direct water into the street. Impervious or semi-impervious driveways made of asphalt, cement, or pavers contribute to the stormwater volume. Sidewalks, patios, and pools where water can’t penetrate the ground also contribute to the problem. All these sources of excess runoff can be eliminated. Older homes can be modified, and new homes can be designed to conserve most of the four feet of annual rainfall Morris County receives.

How much of a difference would residential rain conservation measures make in controlling flood waters and saving the ecology of our river systems?

There are at least 204,000 single-family homes in Morris County on an average lot size of about 20.6% of an acre. In the aggregate, each lot has about 44% impervious cover. When you do the math, our homes generate about 2.4 trillion gallons of residential stormwater annually. The total impervious cover from all sources (roads, residential, and commercial development) comes to 6.3 trillion gallons annually. That means our homes alone account for 38% of the excess stormwater in the County. So yes, we can take many actions to conserve rainwater on our property, and it can make a real difference, both in controlling floods and preserving our streams and rivers.

       https://www.njfuture.org/2019/11/11/where-does-impervious-cover-have-the-biggest-impact/

Rain is an indispensable resource. Life on land only exists because it rains. Managing rainwater and maximizing its use is essential for a more sustainable world. Below are some links to articles on how to conserve rain for interested homeowners. But, I also hope to interest local municipal planners and stormwater utility officials. There is so much that local towns can do to update and tweak building codes and zoning regulations and support homeowner and business owner initiatives to reduce stormwater runoff.



What You Can Do to Soak Up the Rain (US EPA)
https://www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/what-you-can-do-soak-rain


Soak Up the Rain: Permeable Pavement (US EPA)
https://www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-permeable-pavement


Stormwater Drainage Wells (US EPA)
https://www.epa.gov/uic/stormwater-drainage-wells


Urbanization and Stormwater Runoff (US EPA)
https://www.epa.gov/sourcewaterprotection/urbanization-and-stormwater-runoff


Sustainable Landscapes: Designing a Rain Garden for Residential Property
https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/sustainable-landscapes-designing-a-rain-garden-for-residential-property.html


Stormwater Management: Rainwater Harvesting in Residential-Scale Landscapes
https://extensionpublications.unl.edu/assets/html/g2148/build/g2148.htm

Fact Sheet on Hercules Polluted Explosives Manufacturing Property in Kenvil, NJ

HERCULES of KENVL, NJ


PROPERTY FACT SHEET – DID YOU KNOW?





The Issues at the abandoned Hercules Property



Reports and Plans for the Hercules Site, currently owned by Ashland Global, an international chemical company, are not easily available to the public.

NJDEP (NJ Department of Environmental Protection) and the LSRP (Licensed Site Remediation Professional) assigned to oversee the private cleanup of contaminants on the site should provide access to their plans and public outreach to residents and groups concerned about the natural areas on the Hercules site. There should be public information about the impacts on water quality in underground aquifers, private wells, and the downstream outflows of the Black River.

The public should be invited to review information regarding the studies of the contaminants, the natural features of the site, and the remediation plans.

The public should have opportunities to discuss potential impacts that future development may have on natural features and the Black River’s downstream communities in Roxbury. Containment of the contaminated areas of the site and stormwater runoff from the Hercules property are major concerns in addition to impacts to natural areas on site.







The Great Spring and Black River

Approximately 15 acres of wetlands on the southern portion of the former Hercules Powder Company property have been the headwaters for the Black River since the end of the last ice age; the soil remediation project is occurring within the wetland or wetland buffer zone.

The Leni Lenape natives called these 15 acres of wetland the “Great Spring.” They lived near the spring and the Black River during the summer months. The spring appears to have received little notice in the Remediation Investigation Report, and the Black River is referred to as a drainage ditch.

Roxbury’s section of the Black River is home to a rare prehistoric species of fish that has existed for over 360 million years, well before the first dinosaurs. https://aseyeseesit.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-great-spring-home-to-earths-oldest.html

The Raritan Headwaters Association has a stream monitoring location downstream from the Hercules site. Water volume measure at the monitoring site indicates that the volume of water flowing from the Hercules Property may be as much as two billion gallons per year.

The Black River in the Upper Raritan River Watershed Region is a major tributary of the North Branch Raritan River. The Raritan River is the largest river contained entirely within New Jersey.

The Raritan River system provides drinking water for more than 1.8 million New Jersey residents.

The aquifers that flow under the Hercules Property are the same aquifers providing most of the commercial drinking water in the area and most of the private well water from Roxbury Township to Hunterdon County.






Hercules Powder Company

The 1,059-acre Hercules property has been privately owned for over 150 years and the site of commercial explosives manufacturing since 1871. The Facility was operated by various companies until 1912, when Hercules became the sole owner.

Between 1912 and 1996, Hercules manufactured propellants and explosives such as TNT, nitroglycerin, pentaerythritol tetranitrate or PETN, smokeless powder,

ammonium nitrate fuel oil or ANFO, and other specialty products for both military and commercial applications.

Over this 94-year period, archaic manufacturing processes, pre-regulated discharges of waste material into brooks and drainage ditches on the property, open burning of toxic chemicals, and cross-contamination of the soil and water due to explosions and construction activities severely polluted the Hercules site with a wide variety of toxins.

Since this large industrial site became inactive in 1996, forests, shrublands, meadows, and wetland habitats have regenerated over most of the property and are host to a variety of fish and wildlife species, including some that are rare or endangered in the state. However, there have not been thorough biological surveys of the site.

Remedial investigations of the Hercules site by Hercules began as part of an ongoing environmental investigation on March 10, 1995, in response to a Remedial Agreement reached between the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and Hercules.

Ashland Inc., who purchased the property from Hercules, continued funding decommissioning, remediation, and environmental studies of the site under the direct supervision of a privately hired Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) until May 2016. The 20-year contamination study culminated in the Phase II Remedial Investigation Report (RIR) submitted to the NJDEP.

The RIR found that after 20 years, areas of the property remain significantly polluted with TNT, PCBs, mercury, arsenic, and a host of other highly toxic chemicals. Different contaminants are found in excess in different areas on the property according to the manufacturing activity that took place at those locations.

In addition, many contaminants were spread throughout the site due to drainage ditches, past construction activity, burn pits, and explosions. This created mixed layering and cross-contamination. Soil samples in the TNT manufacturing area closest to Great Springs, for example, contain the highest levels of toxic TNT chemicals but also contaminants from different locations on the property.

The study also found evidence of polluted groundwater in the southwestern portion of the site. The plume appears to be stable and contained within the boundaries of the property.

The good news is that contaminated soils, sediments, and groundwater on the site remain in place and are not migrating beyond the property boundaries. This is partly attributed to the property being undisturbed by human activity for many years. This allowed for the regrowth of vegetation which stabilized the soil and prevented erosion and release of contaminates bound up in the soil and sediments.

As of 2016, the date of the environmental report, there were no contaminates entering the Black River waters flowing from the southeast corner of the property.








Soil Remediation Activity and Development Plans


Soil remediation activity and an announcement of industrial development plans for the Hercules property began in 2022 with little public disclosure or discussion of the extent to which the Hercules property remains contaminated.

Hartz Mountain Company plans to purchase over 200 acres of the Hercules land and build warehouses on a 200-acre complex near the center of the Hercules site that would serve as a protective cap over the tainted property. At a Roxbury Planning Board meeting in March, under oath, the company’s representatives were unaware of what remediation activity would take place on that site prior to it being capped by their redevelopment.

Soil remediation methods underway require the removal of vegetation overgrowth to expose and excavate contaminated soil. This soil disturbance increases the risk of releasing toxic contaminants into the surface water on the property, which flows into the Black River. There has been no public explanation of how risk factors are managed during the current remediation or development processes.

The site chosen to conduct the bioremediation of contaminated soil appears to be located within the boundaries of the Great Spring wetlands from which flows the Black River. No public explanation has been given for this decision.

The potential for significant environmental threats that the former Hercules property poses to residents of Roxbury Township and the surrounding region warrants substantial public disclosure of contamination risks and the opportunity for public participation in the Remediation and planning process.


• Caryn Barnes of Langan Engineering is the Licensed Site Remediation Specialist responsible for all remediation decisions for the Hercules site. Ed Meeks is the Senior Manager for Remediation at Ashland, LLC. Neither has responded to written requests for a meeting by the scientists at the Raritan Headwater Association.

  Prepared by Dr. Kristi Macdonald, Mara Tippit, and Brian T. Lynch

Public Oversight Needed in Clean-up of Toxic Chemicals at Former Hercules Plant in Kenvil

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

The clean-up of the 1,000-acre Hercules tract in Kenvil has always been a private enterprise with insufficient public oversight. That needs to change before March 1st, when the Roxbury Planning Board and the public will hear the case for approving a Hartz Mountain Corporation plan to build 57 acres of warehouses on this polluted land.

When 150 years of manufacturing explosives ended in 1996, it left behind perhaps the most toxic and complex land contaminations in the state of New Jersey. The list of toxins on the Hercules tract is long and varied. It includes explosives such as TNT, ammonium nitrate, and RDX; PCBs, arsenic, lead, chromium, and a host of volatile organic compounds.

A portion of the Hercules tract is the area to the right of the highway (Rt. 46) in this ariel photograph.

The massive site pollution created a major quandary for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and potentially a huge financial burden for taxpayers if the property were designated as a Superfund Site. That didn’t happen. Instead, under what was a new state law at the time, an agreement was reached with Hercules and later with the current owners, Ashland Global (an international chemical company), to privately conduct and pay for the analysis and site remediation at the Hercules plant.

Documentation: That private effort has been underway now for almost 3 decades. A trove of documents on the progress has been submitted to the DEP over the years. The information is public but not conveniently accessible. The work included a twenty-year-long, two-phase scientific study of the property. A final report summarizing the findings was completed six years ago and submitted to the DEP. It is called the Phase II Remedial Investigation Report (RIR). The report documents the extent of chemical contaminants in the soil, sediments, groundwater, and surface water on the property.

That 1,800-page RIR and tens of thousands of other Hercules documents were recently obtained by the Raritan Headwaters Association* under an OPRA request to the DEP. A review of these documents is underway, but potential environmental risks are already apparent. Here are samples of information contained in the RIR Summary. From the Report regarding the surface waters and sediments at the facility:

• Arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, vanadium, and zinc were detected in surface water and sediment.

• SVOCs were detected in sediment, but not in surface water at five of the seven co-located sample points.

• Beryllium, selenium, and silver were detected in sediment and not in surface water, indicating these constituents are not partitioning [moving] from sediment to surface water.

• Aluminum, barium, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and manganese were detected in both surface water and sediment samples from each co-location. Per the United States Geological Survey (1984), these metals are commonly found in surficial geologic material in the vicinity of the Facility.

And this:

In certain instances, constituents were present at concentrations that exceeded their aqueous solubility limits by two to four orders of magnitude, indicating that these constituents were associated with suspended sediment entrained in the surface water.

Here is another example of what the report says regarding soil in another area of the property:
From the Report:

TNT in soil exceeds its IGWSSL [Impact to Groundwater Soil Screening Levels] in the TNT Area, the PETN [Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate] Area, and the western portion of the Dynamite Area. TNT and related breakdown constituents (4-Amino-2,6-dinitrotoluene, 2,4/2,6-Dinitrotoluene, and 2-Amino-4,6-Dinitrotoluene) exceed their respective GWQS[Groundwater Quality Standards] in… [12]… monitoring wells… located downgradient of soil sample results exceeding the IGWSSL for TNT.

And this example is regarding groundwater under the property: 

RDX [1,3,5-Trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine, Hexahydro-1,3,5-Trinitro-1,3,5-Triazine] exceeds its GWQS in a monitoring well (MW-36) co-located with and/or downgradient of soil samples with RDX detections that exceed its IGWSSL.

Decommissioning of the site: A massive amount of demolition and decontamination work initially occurred in the early 2000s. Many buildings and other structures were demolished and disposed of. Miles of pipelines were drained of toxic chemicals and removed from the ground where they were buried, and the decades-long study of the site was begun.

Stability and Risk Factors: In the intervening years since the initial decommissioning work, the land has been largely undisturbed. The Remedial Investigation Report (RIR) summary found that the current hydrology, the regrowth of vegetative cover, and an absence of human activity have stabilized the many chemical and metal contaminants on the Hercules property, with the exception of contaminants that may be migrating offsite through groundwater and streams. This still leaves pockets of substances in highly toxic quantities scattered throughout the site. As a result, the Hercules property remains off-limits to the general public.

From the Report:

“Facility-related influences in environmental media result in unacceptable levels of [the] potential risk to ecological receptors based on the screening and conservative exposure modeling conducted in the EE/ERA… Current Facility use precludes human health exposure risks, as personnel permitted to access the Facility are trained in the identification and control/mitigation of potential exposures.”

When current stabilizing conditions on the Hercules property change, the contaminants, or "constituents of concern" (COC) as referenced in the report, could migrate off-site and result in significant health risks for Roxbury residents and anyone else downstream from the Black River. Many people are unaware that the Black River originates from the southern wetlands and prolific freshwater springs on the Hercules property; this is the headwaters of the Black River. The river emerges from its source, known as the Great Spring, as a fully formed stream with a volume of water that exceeds the rainfall total on the property. The river flows from the southern wetlands on the Hercules site into Sunset Lake on the border with Mine Hill, then into the Black River Pond. The Black River is also known as the Lamington River, a major tributary of the North Branch of the Raritan River. The river is part of the drinking water supply for 1.8 million residents in New Jersey.

Pollution Hot Spots: The entire Hercules site is cross-contaminated due to historical factors such as massive explosions, construction activity, chemical spills, and prior waste disposal practices. Still, concentrations of chemical pollutants in excess of present safety standards are mostly found in locations where those substances were stored or used in manufacturing. For example, in the section referred to as the Maintenance Area near the center of the property, there was once an electrical generation plant where Hercules made its own electricity. It contained many electrical components that used PCB as a coolant. The huge 1940 explosion destroyed this equipment spreading PCBs over the property, much of which seeped into the soil at that location. In the area where TNT and dynamite were made, spills, past explosions, and antiquated production practices left unsafe concentrations of toxic explosives and energetic chemicals (or E&E) in the soil.

Near Duck Pond to the north, chemical waste, and other polluted items were burned in a burn pit that released toxic chemicals into the air and surrounding soil. Further west of the burn pit, there is a licensed landfill covering multiple acres. According to documents recently reviewed, there is no record of what was deposited in that landfill in the early years of its operation. In another area, there is significant lead contamination in the soil where Hercules fabricated equipment made of lead (because it doesn’t spark when struck). There is also an inactive chemical waste treatment plant that is still licensed by the DEP to release up to 135,000 gallons of treated wastewater into the Black River daily. No wastewater has been released since 2002, and the license is up for renewal. An application to renew that license was just submitted to the DEP this month. The Raritan Headwaters Association has submitted a public comment on the proposed renewal asking for a public hearing before the approval.

The Maintenance area mentioned above is where tons of PCB-tainted soil was hauled away last spring to special landfills. The TNT and Dynamite Areas are the current focus of bioremediation activities. These remediation activities and future redevelopment require disturbing the soil and vegetation that keep toxic chemicals from migrating off the property. That’s why precautions being taken to prevent this from happening are essential to protect the environment and maintain human safety. The public has a right to know how we are being protected.

Redevelopment and Remediation Impacts: Hartz Mountain Corporation is proposing to build 57.4 acres of warehouses in the central and north-central areas of the property.  The redevelopment plan would encompass about 200 acres of the Hercules site, much of which would be covered by water-impervious surfaces (roofs, sidewalks, parking lots, roadways, etc.).

Covering such a large area of Hercules with impervious surfaces is a feature of the remediation plan. The purpose is to cap tainted soil to prevent it from migrating off-site. The redevelopment area will generate over one-hundred-million gallons of stormwater per year, based on rainfall averages. The plan calls for this rainwater to be captured, treated, and released to the Black River. Rainwater that falls on hot rooftops and blacktop is much warmer than water that falls on shaded soil. Warm water holds less oxygen and can threaten the survival of fish and other aquatic species that require cooler temperatures. Stormwater retention basins and spillways also alter the hydrology of the land and can potentially release contaminates trapped in the soil or sediments on the property into the groundwater or surface water.

The soil bioremediation project focuses on the presence of explosive and energetic chemicals concentrated in the soil in the areas where TNT and Dynamite were manufactured. The process requires exposing the soil by removing trees and overgrowth. The soil is then scraped up and ground up in a milling process to reduce the larger crystals of chemicals in the soil. Next, water and commercial bioactive agents are added to the soil to initiate a composting-like process designed to break down the contaminants into safer chemicals. The treated soil is stored in pods within the Black River wetlands buffer zone.

Public Oversight Needed: Critically, bioremediation and redevelopment activities require disturbing the soil and vegetation that keep toxic chemicals from migrating off the property. That is why taking precautions is so essential. The public has a right to know about, and comment on, the steps to keep them safe during the site remediation and redevelopment. The public has a right to know about, and comment on, potential impacts that future development may have on natural features on the property (springs, wetlands, aquifers, forests, and wildlife), local drinking water supplies from public and private wells, and the Black River’s downstream communities in Roxbury and beyond. Raritan Headwaters Association will be taking steps to have the NJDEP provide more information and hold more public hearings for local residents. 

The Roxbury Planning Board will begin the public review of Hartz Mountain’s site development plan on March 1, 2023, at 7:30pm at the Roxbury Township Town Hall, 1715 Route 46, Ledgewood. The meeting is open to the public.

  ______________________________________

* Raritan Headwaters Association is the watershed association that protects Watershed Management Area 8. With programs in science, advocacy, education, land preservation, and stewardship, it serves as the watchdog for the 470-square-mile North and South Branch Raritan watershed, a region covering 38 municipalities in New Jersey’s Hunterdon, Somerset, and Morris counties.

Cleaning the Polluted Hercules Site in Kenvil is of Regional Concern

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

In my opinion, what happens at the Hercules site in Kenvil should be of keen interest to Mine Hill (and Kenvil) residents.

From an environmental perspective, there are five things every resident of Mine Hill, Kenvil, and point south should know about the former Hercules Powder Company property in Kenvil.

1. After 150 years of manufacturing explosive chemicals, this 1,000 acres of land remains one of the most complex polluted sites in New Jersey.

2. Natural springs at the southern bottom lands of the property vent a copious amount of pure water to form the headwaters of the Black River, which immediately flows into Sunset Lake on the Mine Hill/Roxbury border

3. The Hercules property sits directly over an aquifer from which Mine Hill draws our municipal tap water a few miles downstream. 

4. Evidence has found that site pollution in the soil, groundwater, and sediments has remained confined to the property partly because of the regrowth of vegetation and the lack of human activity on the abandoned property over the past three decades. 

5. Active site remediation since last January requires a major disturbance of the vegetation and soils that have held the contaminants in place for decades. Insufficient information is available to reassure us that every safety precaution is being taken.

This is the Black River very near the spot where it emerges, fully formed, from the former Hercules Powder Company Property in Kenvil, NewJersey.

Map of the lower Hercules Property detailing some chemical findings near the wetlands area known as the Great Spring by early Native Americans. It is the headwaters of the Black River.  

Below are Google satellite images from before decommissioning the plant (Maintaniance Area view), After removal of the buildings and underground pipelines, and today.

Hercules 1940s Explosion a Harbinger of Threats to Our Democracy Today

by Brian T. Lynch, MSW 

I was listening to Rachael Maddow's podcast, Ultra, yesterday and was shocked that episode 3 opens with the 1940 explosion that leveled the Hercules Powder Plant in Kenvil, New Jersey. Fifty-one (or two) people were killed, and hundreds were injured. She gave a lot of detail that I didn't know. More importantly, Maddow puts to rest the idea that this disaster was an industrial accident or sabotage by German Nazy spies. It was, in fact, a planned attack by radicalized American fascists who trained and organized to overthrow the United States Government. It was an act of domestic terrorism. 

This group's plans to attack Hercules were publically revealed in Congressional hearings months before the attack. Congress forwarded the information to the FBI for investigation, but the allegations were not taken seriously. After the attack, the FBI suggested that the attack was probably an industrial accident. That story fell apart two months later when three similar coordinated attacks occurred within 20 minutes of each other in three other military manufacturing locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania

The moral of the story is that we have been here before where militant authoritarian "patriots," supported in part by fascist dictators abroad, have attempted to destroy our democracy. Even now, the extent to which these radicals went is whitewashed and lost in our history. Those who died at Hercules that day in 1940 were working to strengthen our magnificent country in the buildup to war against global fascism. They are working-class heroes to be honored. 

ULTRA-Episode 3

Those now working to undo democracy are not patriots. They are seditionists. And the Justice Department alone cannot stop them because they are part of a large movement with lots of political power. It is up to the Constitutional loyalists and the power of the ballot to stop these seditionists from succeeding. Clear thinking, careful vetting of candidates for office, and strategic voting is how we truly honor those who sacrificed their lives to keep us free. 

Governmental integrity is being called into question. Our democratic institutions have been infiltrated by constitutional disloyalists seeking to make our systems look weak, unwieldy, and ineffective. There has been a longstanding counter-narrative that our government is the problem, that We-the-People are somehow not the government, and that we are powerless to control it. 

The intended implication is that we need a strong authoritarian to bring the government under control. There is an organized effort to alienate us from democracy, and I never knew what to make of it. (Note: this is in addition to the fact that both parties have ignored large swaths of the low-income electorate for far too long). 

In the past three decades, the result has been a growing inability to compromise, rancorous behaviors, unfathomable bureaucratic roadblocks that sour the good intent of the laws on the books, political gridlock, an inability to pass even the most popular legislation, and a false sense that our two parties are evenly divided even when the breakdown along specific policies shows a majority of voters mostly agree on what should be. Democracy hasn't been working as it should for some time because it is being sabotaged. The saboteurs are in both parties but don't yet have equal influence in each. The situation is precarious.

Why Can't I Afford to Heat My Home?

What should we tell families that can’t heat their homes this winter? Tell them the truth. And push Congress to help them.

There is a full-blown fascist war of aggression against the peaceful democratic nation of Ukraine that is roiling Europe and the global economy. This disruption of world peace and normal commerce, coupled with a worldwide pandemic, are major factors causing food shortages in vulnerable nations and massive inflation everywhere. 

Spectacular leadership in the US by the Biden administration has nearly ended the global pandemic while strengthening our economy to the point where inflation in the U.S. is well below what it is in many allied nations. Job growth is at a record high, while unemployment is at a record low. Most folks here should be able to heat their homes this winter. 

But amid all this global turmoil, oil company profits are at an all-time high? Why? 

Because petroleum company executives and authoritarian OPEC nations have raised a barrel of crude oil prices above inflation rates to make the United States and Joe Biden look weak and ineffective. The fossil fuel billionaire stockholders in the U.S. don’t like Biden because he wants to reimpose fair taxes on them. More importantly, Biden threatens the long-term investment prospects of billionaires everywhere with his renewable energy plans, his steps to lower carbon emissions, and his work to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. While Biden and most global citizens want to save the planet, the petroleum interests want to save their profits. You can’t break an addiction without hurting your supplier’s profits… and the powerful suppliers are fighting back. 

An African proverb: When elephants fight, the grass dies. 

This is the truth. The road to recovery is never easy, especially for the most vulnerable families among us. They need our help to stay warm this winter. Congress must authorize financial assistance for vulnerable families to keep the heat on this winter. And the champions of democracy who are act to save the planet need our support support

Genesis Dream - In the Beginning

 by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

https://medium.com/@AmazonkaIV/the-scientific-proof-that-everything-and-everyone-is-connected-and-infinitive-6f8163423a5b 

Late one night I woke up from a dream, the details of which quickly faded. But the dream left me with an indelible insight I had never considered. It came as an answer to a question I had never asked about a few passages in Genesis. God made all things but didn't name anything. He left that up to Adam and Eve. Why?

The answer is that for God, all creation is one indivisible whole. His sweeping understanding of the universe is more than humans can possibly grasp. We must break everything down into innumerable smaller parts and study each to make sense of our world. The very act of naming a thing artificially separates it from everything else. A thing doesn't appear real to us until it has a name. Once named, we can see it, study it, and maybe even control it. But, in the act of naming things, we move further away from seeing everything holistically. This may be the source of our estrangement with nature. Even when we step back to look at the big picture we can never see the wholeness to which we belong.

This insight is a reminder to me that all our dichotomies are false. There is no mind vs. body, no man vs. nature, and no us vs. them. All distinctions are human constructs, therefore no human value judgments should firmly be attached to them. The act of making and naming things may be essential for our immediate understanding, but it doesn't explain our time or purpose for being here. For that, we must focus on all that connects us to each other and to all things rather than dwelling on the differences. 
This requires faith in all the things we cannot see.

And so it was written, "In the beginning..."

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY - Local Immigrant Origin Story

 by Brian T. Lynch, MSW

Today, October 11th, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day! We should take a moment to reflect on the fact that the ground beneath our feet was occupied for many thousands of years by intelligent, caring human beings who loved their families, cared for their children, and sacrificed when necessary for the welfare of their community. They lived in harmony with the natural land we now occupy.

America's indigenous people are a forgotten minority. Many of them live in small, impoverished enclaves that are often far from their ancestral homeland. They still struggle for recognition, fair treatment, and fulfillment of the broken promises we made to them. We should also accept the truth that 95% of us are the children of immigrants on this continent.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/10/08/a-proclamation-indigenous-peoples-day-2021/

Four years ago, in 2018, I wrote a Facebook post about the native New Jersey people at the time of the first European settlers in Morris County, NJ. I am reprinting it here. 

LOCAL ORIGINS

The first Europeans to set foot in this area were Dutch fur traders who arrived sometime around 1629, give or take a few years. It is believed that these trappers and fur traders gradually worked their way up the Raritan River basin from Perth Amboy. The river basin was a rich source of wildlife, such as fish, otters, beavers, deer, and bears. It was also fairly easy terrain to cross. It is relatively unobstructed land, and there were many animal trails and Indian trails to follow.

In the 10,500 years since the last ice age, the Leni Lenape natives of New Jersey probably made countless journeys along these trails on their migrations to the sea. It’s possible they may have wintered along the shore where seafood was plentiful, and temperatures were less severe. The Lenape migrated seasonally to take advantage of different natural resources. It is an underappreciated fact that many of the back roads in New Jersey today follow the game trails and pathways of these natives Americans.

The Leni Lenape was mostly a peaceful, gentile people occupying the territory from southern New York State, all of New Jersey south to Delaware, and from the Atlantic Ocean to eastern Pennsylvania on both sides of the Delaware River. Leni Lenape is the name they called themselves. Their self-identified name translates as Leni, which means "original," "real," or "pure,” and Lenape means “man.” In documented testimony of at least one Lenape tribesman, he clearly stated that his tribe was among the original people of the Earth. The English later referred to them as the Delaware Indians because of their strong connections to that river, which they called “wihittuck”, the river of the Lenape. (see map and pictures)

When English settlers came along, they often referred to Lenape villagers by the native name for the particular lake or river near which they camped. This may be how the Lenape addressed themselves to these foreigners, but it apparently is not how they thought of themselves as a people.

This naming protocol by the settlers would be like space aliens coming down and calling us the Mine Hillian tribe because we say we live here or calling the inhabitants just east of here the Doverite tribe. It was an expedient reference in the early 1700s, but it created the impression that there were many native tribes in the area, tribes with such place names as the Pascack (Passaic), Hopatcong, Succasunnia, Tuckahoe, Pequannock, Minisink, etc. All of these were Leni Lenape villagers from one of several large clans who were also members of the much larger Algonquin nation. For an interesting aside, check out the list of Lenape place names in New Jersey here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/.../List_of_place_names_of...

The Dutch traders got along well with the local natives they encountered along the way and treated them as trading partners. They probably traded metal tools, knives, blankets, hats, and clothing with the Lenape in exchange for the pelts and animal furs they sought.

The first English settlers followed the same route up the Raritan basin arriving in the Succasunna plains some 30 or 40 years after the Dutch fur traders. This corresponds to the period following the English takeover of New Amsterdam (New York City) and most of the other Dutch colonies in New Jersey, New York, and Delaware. According to the historians I’ve read, like the Dutch traders before them, the early English settlers to this area had an amicable relationship with the local natives. The peaceful, productive relationships that the Leni Lenape enjoyed with the Dutch no doubt set the tone for subsequent contacts with other European colonists.

There is more to be said about the Lenape and the early colonists in this area, but first, an homage must be extended to the original Dutch settlers. When the British took over the Dutch colonies, a conscious effort was made to destroy or suppress Dutch history. Dutch records and documents were destroyed by the British. This created a skewed historic view of the early colonies. Yet the character and culture of the Dutch in New York and New Jersey resulted in such successful colonies that the basic culture and structural institutions created in these colonies were left intact. As a result, the subsequent mixing of English and Dutch cultures combined to create a distinctly new "New World" culture that greatly influenced colonial America. To this day that early Dutch culture is best reflected in the culture of the largest Dutch colony, New York City.

For a full and fascinating tour of discovery on the liberal (formal meaning) nature and influence of our early Dutch history, I recommend a book by Russel Shorto titled “The Island at the Center of the World. The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America.”

And for those who didn't click on the Proclamation Link above:

A Proclamation on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2021

Since time immemorial, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians have built vibrant and diverse cultures — safeguarding land, language, spirit, knowledge, and tradition across the generations. On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, our Nation celebrates the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples, recognizes their inherent sovereignty, and commits to honoring the Federal Government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations.

Our country was conceived on a promise of equality and opportunity for all people — a promise that, despite the extraordinary progress we have made through the years, we have never fully lived up to. That is especially true when it comes to upholding the rights and dignity of the Indigenous people who were here long before colonization of the Americas began. For generations, Federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures. Today, we recognize Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society. We also recommit to supporting a new, brighter future of promise and equity for Tribal Nations — a future grounded in Tribal sovereignty and respect for the human rights of Indigenous people in the Americas and around the world.

In the first week of my Administration, I issued a memorandum reaffirming our Nation’s solemn trust and treaty obligations to American Indian and Alaska Native Tribal Nations and directed the heads of executive departments and agencies to engage in regular, meaningful, and robust consultation with Tribal officials. It is a priority of my Administration to make respect for Tribal sovereignty and self-governance the cornerstone of Federal Indian policy. History demonstrates that Native American people — and our Nation as a whole — are best served when Tribal governments are empowered to lead their communities and when Federal officials listen to and work together with Tribal leaders when formulating Federal policy that affects Tribal Nations.

The contributions that Indigenous peoples have made throughout history — in public service, entrepreneurship, scholarship, the arts, and countless other fields — are integral to our Nation, our culture, and our society. Indigenous peoples have served, and continue to serve, in the United States Armed Forces with distinction and honor — at one of the highest rates of any group — defending our security every day. And Native Americans have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, working essential jobs and carrying us through our gravest moments. Further, in recognition that the pandemic has harmed Indigenous peoples at an alarming and disproportionate rate, Native communities have led the way in connecting people with vaccination, boasting some of the highest rates of any racial or ethnic group.

The Federal Government has a solemn obligation to lift up and invest in the future of Indigenous people and empower Tribal Nations to govern their own communities and make their own decisions. We must never forget the centuries-long campaign of violence, displacement, assimilation, and terror wrought upon Native communities and Tribal Nations throughout our country. Today, we acknowledge the significant sacrifices made by Native peoples to this country — and recognize their many ongoing contributions to our Nation.

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor America’s first inhabitants and the Tribal Nations that continue to thrive today. I encourage everyone to celebrate and recognize the many Indigenous communities and cultures that make up our great country.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 11, 2021, as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also direct that the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the appointed day in honor of our diverse history and the Indigenous peoples who contribute to shaping this Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.