Matt Denn’s Plan To Reduce The Environmental Health Hazards Faced By Delaware’s Children

Strict And Unyielding Enforcement Of Air Quality Standards: Air pollution from Delaware’s three major electrical power generators — Conectiv’s Edgemoor Generating Station, the City of Dover’s McKee Run Generating Station, and NRG’s Indian River Generating Station — has a particularly devastating impact on children. Nitrogen oxide produces ozone, which causes breathing problems that are most acute in children and the elderly. Sulfur dioxide is also associated with respiratory problems in young children, and has also been associated with premature birth, low birth weight, and increased risk for infant mortality. And mercury, when it makes its way into the food chain, has a devastating impact on children’s neurological development. .

The state has entered into an agreement with NRG that let the Indian River Power Plant put off meeting some of the deadlines in exchange for eliminating more pollution in the future. The agreement also allows NRG to petition the courts to get out of the deal if it thinks that circumstances prevent it from complying. The Dover plant entered into an agreement that contains the same deadlines as the regulation, but allows for the later deadlines to be revisited if the Dover plant has trouble meeting them.

Looking to the future, Matt Denn will urge enforcement of the state’s new emission regulations as written against the Wilmington Edgemoor plant, and to enforce the agreements with the Indian River and Dover plants as written even if those plants seek to get out of them. Going forward, we need to draw a line in the sand when it comes to these dangerous emissions that have such a devastating impact on our kids, and if that means going to court to defend our stance then so be it.

Reducing Children’s Exposure To Lead Paint: It is hard to overstate the danger of lead to young children. It affects the brain, kidneys, bone marrow, and other body systems, and leads to learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Delaware has come a long, long way in reducing the level of lead in its children’s blood. But we need to do better.

Delaware already has maximum legal lead levels for paint on exposed surfaces, and the legal means available to require property owners in violation of those lead standards to fix their properties. But in the future, the state needs to ensure that local communities that have put in place their own housing codes have appropriate lead paint limitations and whether they are being enforced. If not, those local governments must start enforcing appropriate lead standards, or the state should step in to provide them with the assistance they need to do so. For those few local governments without their own housing codes, the state must enforce the state’s lead limits aggressively. The goal, very simply, should be to eliminate lead paint on exposed surfaces in Delaware homes.