Environmental advocates highlight the importanceof strong state flood rules following nor’easter

Contact: Anthony Campisi

(732) 266-8221

The nor’easter that hit New Jersey over the weekend caused flooding in communities across the Garden State. The storm inflicted millions of dollars in damage to homes, local businesses and municipal and critical infrastructure, including roads.

The storm highlighted the need for Governor Sherrill to announce strong new flood protection rules in the coming weeks. The NJPACT REAL rules would save working families, local businesses and state and local governments millions of dollars in rebuilding costs after future storms by requiring developers to build new homes and businesses designed to withstand extreme weather events.

New Jersey residents shouldn’t have to worry about whether they will be able to rebuild — they should be able to expect that their homes and businesses can withstand the increasingly severe weather conditions hitting our state.

Environmental advocates issued the following statements to highlight the need for quick action.

“New Jersey is no stranger to flooding. We have the data to know what to expect, and our government leaders now have the responsibility to enact science based policies that protect the lives and homes of residents,” said Jennifer M. Coffey, Executive Director of ANJEC. “This weekend’s extreme coastal flooding is exhibit A of why we need to update our building and construction requirements so that we build above the known flood elevation level. The NJPACT REAL rules are common sense and the Governor needs to reinstate them immediately.”

Sherrill’s Department of Environmental Protection rolled back flood rules last week while considering changes to them following a full-throated misinformation campaign driven by powerful corporate developers seeking to build cheaper, more vulnerable structures to increase their profits.

In its announcement, dep DEP cited the need to ensure “the efficiency of the Department’s permit processes “ while acknowledging “that delaying protective standards in the rules, like requiring that critical buildings and their access roads be elevated using the climate-adjusted flood elevation, will have a negative long-term impact on affordability and public safety.”

“Delaying strong NJ PACT Rules is just kicking the can down the road,” said Jaclyn Rhoads, Executive Director for the Pinelands Alliance. “Sooner or later, we will have to confront these challenges, and by then the costs to communities will be far greater than they are today. The Pinelands is no stranger to unique and strong rules. It is an example of how thinking about the future pays off. Many who once opposed them ultimately came to recognize their benefits, and efforts to dismantle the program faded as its success became clear. New Jersey leaders of the past recognized the economic benefits of environmental protection. New Jersey must continue this tradition.”

“This weekend’s nor’easter showed New Jersey how vulnerable we are to flooding,” said Danielle McCulloch, Executive Director of the American Littoral Society. “Flooded homes, stranded cars, emergency rescues, and another round of expensive damage and repairs are costs pushed onto homeowners, towns, and taxpayers. The REAL Rules that help New Jersey build safer and smarter for flooding, should be in place now. The choices our State leaders make today will affect families and communities for decades. Every delay in stronger building standards means they are accepting more avoidable damage and more costs we will pay for. We cannot stop the storms. But we can stop making the problem worse. Our state leaders should require homes, businesses, and infrastructure to be built for the flooding we see now and for the flooding we know is coming.”

“How many flooded roadways and cars floating down our streets will it take before we accept that flooding is getting worse? The summer of floods — and this weekend’s nor’easter — made the lesson inescapable: we cannot build to the standards of the past and expect a resilient future,” said Michael L. Pisauro, Policy Director of The Watershed Institute. “Delaying or weakening the REAL rules only guarantees more flooded roads, more ruined cars, more damaged homes and businesses. We call on the administration to move forward with the strong regulations that will protect all of New Jersey, today and for the future.”

“Another major storm hit New Jersey over the weekend, with heavy rain, strong winds and flooding. We need strong NJ PACT REAL rules and investments in resilient infrastructure, which are critical to protecting our communities, our health and our economy,” said Allison McLeod, Interim Executive Director of New Jersey LCV. “After repeated flooding and extreme weather, we’re seeing the growing costs of a changing climate, not only in damage to homes and infrastructure, but in the rising burden on families and communities. New Jersey must continue moving toward clean energy to reduce carbon pollution and slow the impacts of climate change.”

“Just after climate week, New Jersey was once again struck by extreme coastal flooding and caught unprepared, despite the all too familiar conditions. The flooding seen this weekend at unprecedented levels in certain areas of NJ is the exact reason why we need to implement the most stringent version of the NJ PACT REAL Rules to save lives and property by building above flood levels,” said Anjuli Ramos-Busot, Director for the NJ Sierra Club. “Now is not the time for delays, but the time for urgent action and protective policy that accounts for the severe weather realities of climate change that New Jerseyans are paying the price for.”

Advocates called on the governor to release strong rules quickly as the strongest response to the weekend flooding.

Environmental advocates disappointed by flood rule rollbacks, call on Sherrill to adopt nation-leading protections to lower costs, protect public safety

Contact: Anthony Campisi

Anthony@WalnutLaneStrategies.com

(732) 266-8221

New Jersey environmental advocates are disappointed by today’s rollback of Resilient Environment and Landscapes (REAL) flood rules designed to lower costs and protect public safety in the face of increasingly severe weather.

Coming off a summer of serious flooding that caused millions of dollars of property damage for families and local businesses, advocates are calling on the Sherrill administration work quickly to implement updated rules that set a new national standard for storm protection, saving working families, local businesses and state and local governments countless millions in rebuilding costs, lowering flood insurance premiums and saving lives.

“Rolling back flood protection regulations puts the people of New Jersey directly in harm’s way. Today, the Sherrill administration reinstated old flood regulations that use maps and standards that we know are wrong. This regulatory backsliding is at the request of big developers who have sowed disinformation about the REAL rules to the benefit of their own profit margins,” said Jennifer M. Coffey, Executive Director of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC). “We urge Governor Sherrill to re-adopt strong flood protection regulations immediately to protect the lives and homes of New Jersey residents.”

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s own website explains that the REAL land resource protection rules “better support New Jersey communities, residents, and businesses in building their resilience to sea-level rise, extreme weather, chronic flooding, and other impacts of our changing climate. Almost two-thirds of New Jersey’s coastline is already at high or very high risk to coastal erosion and 98% of the coastline is projected at medium or very high risk to sea level rise. Over half a million acres of New Jersey land are highly vulnerable to coastal hazards.”

“Any delay in implementing the REAL rules endangers our preserved lands, including the delicate ecosystem within the one million acres of the Pinelands, particularly the 17-trillion-gallon Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer that provides drinking water for about one million people, irrigation for 200,000 acres of farmland, and habitat to dozens of endangered species. Flooding threatens the quality of this vital water supply,” said Michael Klein, director of government relations for the Pinelands Alliance.

“In a densely developed state surrounded by water, the REAL rules address two of our biggest issues: flood safety and affordability,” said Danielle McCulloch, Executive Director of the American Littoral Society. “Strong, evidence-based construction standards will help New Jerseyans build safer homes and communities today, rather than leaving families and taxpayers to pay for preventable flood damage tomorrow.”

Many of the roads and buildings in service today on New Jersey’s coast will likely be unusable by the year 2100 given the increasing flooding impacts of sea level rise. New Jersey is one of the states most impacted by climate change — with the fastest increase in warming temperatures and the third-highest number of flood insurance claims in the nation. From 1980 through 2024, there were 72 confirmed weather disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each that affected New Jersey, according to the National Center for Environmental Information. On average, New Jersey experiences a $1 billion weather event every 32 weeks — an astounding figure that serves as a clarion call for adopting science-based rules designed to lower recovery costs.

“Delaying the NJPACT REAL rule delays the protections New Jersey families, businesses, and communities need from worsening floods,” said Jim Waltman, Executive Director of The Watershed Institute. “These commonsense, science-based standards would ensure that new homes and critical facilities are built above current and projected flood levels, while stronger stormwater requirements help reduce the runoff that overwhelms neighborhoods and infrastructure. At a time when extreme storms and chronic flooding are becoming more frequent, New Jersey must move forward with rules that protect people, property, and the natural systems that make our communities more resilient.”

In addition to adopting building elevation requirements for new residential development, the REAL rules include new stormwater management requirements for redevelopment projects previously exempt, new nature-based solutions permitting designed to accelerate restoration projects and additional protections for wetlands.

Listen to Jennifer Coffey from ANJEC, Ben Dziobek from Climate Revolution Action Network, and Jaclyn Dispensa Rhoads from Pinelands Alliance in a conversation about growing resistance to data centers across NJ.
Hosted by Bob Hennelly WBAI 99.5 FM
(Starts at: 1:09:10) https://wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=66828

July 23, 2026

Listen to Jennifer Coffey, ANJEC Executive Director, with Jenna Flanagan on WBAI on Frontline Voices discussing how to reduce flood risk in NJ.
Click here to hear the recording.(starting at 26:45)

Press Release:

Governor Sherrill’s DEP Holds Exclusive Meetings After Formally Proposing Rollbacks to Flood Protection and Stormwater Management Regulations, Sides with Builders’ Profits

July 23, 2026

CONTACT:

Jennifer M. Coffey, ANJEC Executive Director, jcoffey@anjec.org

Michael Pisauro, Policy Director, mpisauro@thewatershed.org

Danielle, McCulloch, American Littoral Society, Executive Director, danielle@littoralsociety.org

Trenton – After two devastating flash flood events across the State this month, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) began exclusive meetings today with builders and representatives opposing more protective flood protection and stormwater management rules referred to as New Jersey Protecting Against Climate Threat Resilient Environment and Landscapes (NJPACT REAL). Environmental and public safety advocates overwhelmingly support NJPACT REAL, while building and business organizations have opposed this long-term policy in favor of short-term profits. Two organizations representing builders suing the State over the REAL rules were invited into this series of rule re-negotiation meetings where revisions to the rule are being discussed over the next six weeks.

On June 1, 2026, Governor Sherrill’s NJDEP formally proposed a rollback to the NJPACT REAL rules that went into effect on July 20, 2026.

“The REAL rules need to remain in place. The flooding we have seen this July is evidence that New Jersey must take action,” said Jennifer Coffey, ANJEC Executive Director. “Rolling back and delaying the flooding rules while negotiating directly with builders who are suing the State sends a clear message about the Governor’s priorities and places public safety directly in harm’s way.”

The NJPACT REAL rules require new residential and new critical infrastructure including hospitals, schools, police and fire stations to be built above flood elevation. The REAL rules update old and inaccurate FEMA maps by using data from the 2025 New Jersey Science and Technical Advisory Panel on Sea-Level Rise and Coastal Storms (STAP), so that buildings constructed in flood-prone areas today protect lives and are less likely to become tomorrow’s repetitive-loss properties.

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation with much of her development pre-dating modern stormwater rules to manage flooding and protect water quality first adopted in 2004. The NJPACT REAL rules also included provisions for requiring stormwater management on redevelopment projects. Functionally, redevelopment projects are currently exempt from stormwater management. Failure to address flooding originating from old parking lots and strip malls, for example, as they are redeveloped impedes the reduction of repeated localized flooding.

“Every day that REAL is delayed means more development and redevelopment that is approved under standards that put people in harm’s way and burdens already overwhelmed municipal capacities,” said Mike Pisauro, Policy Director for The Watershed Institute. “Municipalities already are dealing with ever intensifying flooding. Delay in REAL, increases the costs on municipalities and their property owners. These costs are already too much and will continue to rise. New Jerseyans cannot afford these costs in loss of life and expenses.”

Sea-level rise in New Jersey is also outpacing much of the country. Since 1912, sea level at Atlantic City has risen by about 1.5 feet, which is roughly three times the global average. Because sea level rise is not linear, the past is not a predictor of the future. The NJPACT REAL rules would update New Jersey’s building standards to reflect current and future flooding, rather than relying on data from old historical flood levels.

“Beyond New Jersey’s built space, any delay in implementing the REAL rules endangers our preserved lands, including the delicate ecosystem within the one million acres of the Pinelands, particularly the 17-trillion-gallon Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer that provides drinking water for about one million people, irrigation for 200,000 acres of farmland, and habitat to dozens of endangered species. Flooding threatens the quality of this vital water supply,” said Michael Klein, director of government relations for the Pinelands Alliance.

Failure to act to reduce New Jersey’s flooding problems will also exacerbate economic and insurance challenges. From 1980–2024, there have been 72 confirmed weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each in New Jersey, according to the National Center for Environmental Information. Whereas the federal government has long been a partner in recovery aid after flooding disasters, New Jersey can no longer rely on federal funds and must cover the cost of flooding damage using state and local community funds. In a state that ranks first in the country for highest flood damage costs per square mile, we need to evaluate if this is a risk we can afford. Delaying the NJPACT REAL rules will cause economic harm to New Jersey by worsening flood conditions and flood damage.

The repeal of the NJPACT REAL flood protection rules supports increases in insurance costs.

“Per Moody’s Ratings, effective governance and risk management often correlate with lower physical climate risk vulnerability in regions of high exposure, supported by preparedness measures (including alert systems and adaptation steps), dedicated reserves, relief funds and infrastructure maintenance, as well as zoning, regulation and building codes. Investment in adaptation and resilience can reduce the protection gap by lowering risk exposure as well as contributing to insurance market stability,” according to Moody’s update May 26, 2026.