DEP chief comes to county on April 28 Future of Oyster Creek, the Toms River topics to be discussed BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer TOMS RIVER - State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa Jackson will be the keynote speaker at the League of Women Voters of Ocean County's annual meeting and luncheon on April 28. "We are absolutely delighted that she is coming," said League President Gail Marsh Saxer on Monday. "This is a county league and we will have a state commissioner here. We are very pleased." Jackson will address a number of Ocean County environmental issues, including the license renewal of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township, whether the plant should have closed cycle cooling towers and the DEP's consideration of the Category 1 designation of the Toms River, Saxer said. The event begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn on Route 37 West in Toms River. "We are asking her to bring us up to date on projects awaiting approval by the DEP," Saxer said. "We would also like her to bring us up to date on the DEP's feelings about Oyster Creek. The freeholders have said that if the DEP sues for a public hearing by the NRC, they will join. We are anxious to hear about that." All five members of the Ocean County Board of Freeholders were invited to attend, along with all 33 mayors in Ocean County and all environmental groups in the area, Saxer said. Freeholder Director John P. Kelly has already said he cannot attend, Saxer said. "I haven't heard from the others," she said. Island Heights Mayor David M. Siddons, who is chairman of the Ocean County Mayor's Association, and Berkeley Township Mayor Jason J. Varano plan to attend, Saxer said. "Everybody was invited that we thought would have some personal interest," she said. "It's important for us. The environment is our most precious resource and the most valuable one in terms of the economy." Other issues include the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's permission for AmerGen (Oyster Creek's owner) to use a more lenient standard in the margin of safety for metal fatigue in critical reactor coolant locations and whether there is sufficient backup power available in the event of a plant blackout. The event will feature a question-and-answer period after Jackson speaks, Saxer said. "If the environmental community comes out as we expect, they will have quite a bit to tell us," she said. The general public is invited. To reserve a place, send name, address and phone number along with a check for $25 payable to LWV OC to Virginia Merry, 407 Motor Road, Pine Beach, NJ 08741. For more information, call Saxer at (732) 914-0154. Jackson previously served as the DEP's Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Compliance and Enforcement. As the department's chief environmental enforcer, Jackson led pioneering compliance sweeps in Camden and Paterson, where families live in close proximity to regulated facilities. She worked with county officials, the State Police, DEP and the federal Environmental Protection Agency to mobilize more than 200 inspectors to conduct more than 2,100 compliance investigations and issue more than 500 violations in the two cities. Jackson served for 16 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), initially at its headquarters in Washington and more recently at its regional office in New York City before she joined the DEP. Jackson worked in the federal Superfund site remediation program and developed key hazardous waste cleanup regulations, oversaw hazardous waste cleanup projects throughout central New Jersey and directed multimillion-dollar cleanup operations during that time. She later served as deputy director and acting director of the region's enforcement division. Jackson, a New Orleans native, earned a master's degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Tulane University's School of Chemical Engineering.