NJ Spotlight News Superfund Site Podcast, Hazard NJ, Visits Salem County to Investigate the Threat of Climate Change

Hazard NJis available through podcast platforms ApplePodcasts, Spotify, Amazon Musicand more, with additional reporting on the news division's website, NJSpotlightNews.org/hazardnj

October 6, 2022 - NEWARK, NJ - NJ PBS, New Jersey's public television network, announced that its news division, NJ Spotlight News, has dropped new episodes of its podcast, Hazard NJ,which covers the impacts of climate change on New Jersey's Superfund sites. Orange Fog and Creeping Saltwater, releasedthis week, investigates the N.L. Industries, Inc. Superfund site in Salem County's Pedricktown, a former lead smelting facility in close proximity to steadily creeping saltwater of Delaware Bay.

Hosted by journalist Jordan Gass-Pooré, the limited series Hazard NJ digs through contaminated sites, data and communities to get a clearer picture of the potentially volatile future of Superfund sites as environmental factors such as sea level rise and global temperature fluctuation continue to alter the planet's landscape.

This latest episode explains how the National Lead company spent years in the 1970s recycling car batteries at a factory in rural South Jersey, haphazardly draining battery acid onto the ground. The pollution left dangerous heavy metals in the site's soil and groundwater, contamination that is now on the verge of being cleaned up. But in an area along Delaware Bay, sea level rise is slowly pushing a new potential problem into the ground.

"These sites have layered, complex issues," says Gass-Pooré. "Our goal with this series is to dissect the physical and cultural components of these places, weigh what's at stake, from public health to political ramifications, with an eye on mapping out their future."

Last week, Hazard NJpaid tribute to the environmental legacy of New Jersey's late Governor Jim Florio, who wrote the Superfund law back in 1980. The special episode Remembering Jim Florioincludes an interview with him from earlier this year.

Prior episodes of Hazard NJstudy the Ringwood Mines, the American Cyanamidplant in Bridgewater and Diamond Alkaliin Newark and A Comeback on the Hackensack River. Additional bonus episodes and updates on previous podcasts can be found on the Hazard NJ website.

Hazard NJis available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Musicand other podcast platforms, with more reporting found on the news division's website, NJSpotlightNews.org/hazardnj.

NJ Spotlight News is an award-winning multiplatform news organization that provides reporting from across all 21 counties in New Jersey and beyond through a weeknight newscast, NJ Spotlight News with Briana Vannozzion NJ PBS, a robust website, social media platforms, daily newsletters and community engagement events. Learn more at NJSpotlightNews.org.

Support forHazard NJis provided byPeril and Promise,a public media reporting initiative covering the human stories of climate change and its solutions, with major funding provided by Dr. P. Roy Vagelos and Diana T. Vagelos. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise.

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