Topic: COMMUNITY INTEREST
No More Microbeads in NJ
By Tammy Duffy
Economic development is critical to the success of any city or town. The leadership in prospective towns have an obligation to ensure that this development is done ethically, analytically and take the safety and welfare of the residents first and foremost. When a town ignores this process, catastrophic things can happen.
During a Hamilton townships public meeting in the summer of 2014, it was mentioned that the company Salvona would be coming into Hamilton NJ. Salvona is a company that manufactures cosmetic raw materials for a multitude of products and microbeads. Their offices and manufacturing plant reside at 2521 Kuser Rd., Hamilton, NJ.
There are many changes occurring in the cosmetic raw material sector. In 2014, the state of Illinois was the first state to have banned (see attached link) the sale and manufacture of all products containing microbeads.
In 2014, Illinois banned the sale of cosmetics containing plastic microbeads, becoming the first state to legally take a strong stance against what researchers are calling a serious environmental problem. The plastic waste caused by the microbeads, which are not filtered out during sewage treatment, are damaging water ecosystems. A report recently published by the U.N. Environment Programme says plastic waste causes $13 billion in damage every year to marine life.
Since the beads are so small, fish and other marine life easily swallow them, causing DNA damage and even death. A 2008 study from the UK researchers showed that the plastics remained inside muscles for 48 days. Last year, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Superior reported at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society that there were 1,500 to 1.7 million plastic particles per square mile in the Great Lakes.
During the timeframe of this approval in Illinois, the Hamilton Township leadership approved the company Salvona to commence manufacture of microbeads.
Upon reaching out to the leadership in Hamilton Township, NJ, in June of 2014, we asked,” What will the leadership of Hamilton township do to ensure our water stays safe until these products are officially banned in NJ?
The microbeads that Salvona manufactures are 300 to 850 microns. (which is equal to 0.3 to 0.85 mm) The information on the types of beads that are being manufactured were readily available on Salvona’s corporate web site. The official ban limits are being set at any beads that are 5mm and smaller in size. As one can see, Salvona's beads are considerably smaller than that for they are fractions of a millimeter.
There is also legislation in the works in NJ, NY, Michigan, California and many other states as well to ban microbeads.
The township’s Director, of the Department of Water Pollution Control, Richard Watson replied to us on email with the following response, in June 2014.
“I have consulted with our onsite laboratory staff and they have indicated that to date, they have not seen any evidence of microbeads in our TSS sampling residue or during microscopic examination of the wastewater. I have requested that the lab personnel pay particular attention to these analyses to determine whether there exists a problem now (it does not appear to be a problem at this time) and whether problems develop once Salvona begins operations.
During our initial permitting investigations into the Salvona operations (at an existing operating facility), our industrial coordinator noted that Salvona attempts to recover as much product as possible during production, and during subsequent cleaning and maintenance operations. Salvona indicated that they will have filters on their floor drains to control the discharge of the microbeads to the Hamilton Wastewater Collection System At the time of the preliminary inspection, they were not sure what size (diameter) product they would be making (apparently it varies by market demand) or the size of the filter openings in the floor drains. I have asked the industrial coordinator to follow-up with Salvona to obtain the filter sizes. (remember this statement in bold as we progress into this article)
New Jersey currently does not specifically prohibit discharge of this material (it is treated as a suspended solid). Assembly Bill A3083 would require regulation of this material but this bill is currently in the Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee review.”
We will mention that in 2014, Salvona clearly demonstrated on their corporate web site the size of the microbeads they planned to manufacture. However, the Hamilton leadership was unaware of what sizes would be manufactured.
Governor Christie this past week signed a bill that makes NJ the second state in the USA to ban microbeads. There are many other states in the USA working on similar legislation. The new law will force manufacturers of microbeads to halt all production of microbeads by 2018. The Department of Environmental Protection has not released information on the execution of this bill, but it’s forthcoming. The bill also will prohibit the companies from selling any products starting in 2019 that contain any type of microbeads in the state of NJ.
We followed up with Mr. Watson at the Township of Hamilton after the new law was passed this week by Governor Christie. We asked if he had obtained the filter size information from Salvona during their inspection, prior to allowing the company to commence manufacture of their microbeads. His response was extremely disturbing.
“We will be following up on the filters the next time that we visit the Salvona site. The provisions of the A-3083 law do not begin to take effect until January 2018; the NJDEP has also not issued any regulations concerning this law as yet. We will address the issue when required “ replied Mr Rich Watson, Director, Department of Water Pollution Control,Hamilton Township, New Jersey. So in essence they did not do this during the inspection prior to the site opening and commencing manufacture of the microbeads. This is grossly unacceptable.
We have also reached out to Salvona with the following questions. They have not responded at this time.
1. What changes will Salvona be implementing in their business to abide by this new ruling? Will you keep your business here in NJ now that this law has been passed?
2. What TSS sampling has been done in conjunction with the Township of Hamilton to ensure that there is no residue currently entering the wastewater. Do you have copies of those reports?
3. How many times were samples performed with the twp of Hamilton? What were the dates of the samplings?
4. What size filter are you currently utilizing at your facility?
It is critical that these issues be properly addressed by the leadership of towns to ensure the public safety of the residents. Haphazard economic development is detrimental to residents, the enviroment and the well being of a town. We will be following up with the DEP and Governor Christie with our concerns on the handling by the Township.
