Protecting New Jersey's Environment: From Cancer Alley to the New Garden State

"Tom Belton is every bit as colorful as the characters he profiles. A fascinating, fresh approach to New Jersey's complex environmental issues."---Michael Catania, president of Conservation Resources, Inc.

Contaminants in fish. Ocean dumping. Biological diversity/integrity and endangered species. Pinelands and forest preservation. Wetlands protection. Watersheds and headwaters. In Protecting New Jersey's Environment these concerns translate into real human interest stories about people and their surroundings not only in the state-a critical site for the growth of environmentalism-but all around the country as well.

You can add even more to this list-ozone depletion, nuclear power, toxic waste, sprawl, racial inequity, brownfields remediation versus environmental justice concerns. Through a series of gripping accounts organized by geographic area, Thomas Belton considers key environmental issues in New Jersey and champions the ways common citizens have sought justice when faced with unseen health threats. Often, as people search for remedies in their neighborhoods, the challenges they face result in what Belton calls bare-knuckles environmental protection, replete with back-room political deals, infighting, criminal involvement, and hapless victims.

With people as its focus, Protecting New Jersey's Environment explores the science underpinning environmental issues and the struggles over public policy that go undocumented behind the scenes and beneath the controversies. Belton demonstrates the ways that scientists, regulators, lobbyists, and politicians interact and offers the public a go-to guide on how to seek environmental protection in practical ways.

Thomas Belton is a scientist with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Involved in environmental research for the past twenty-five years, he has investigated the impact of toxic chemicals on humans and wildlife.