That won’t happen after the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority adopted a resolution Thursday that puts the institute under the control of Rutgers-Newark’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
School and sports authority officials said it would bolster the ability of both institutions to obtain grant money, give Rutgers professors and students a field station to conduct research and still provide the technical assistance such as mapping software used by 14 towns in the Meadowlands. The move would also save the sports authority more than $1 million annually.
"We’re always looking to be fiscally prudent, so yes, this helps with that," said Wayne Hasenbalg, president of the sports authority.
For more than a decade, MERI had been the scientific arm of the state Meadowlands Commission conducting scores of scientific projects to help the region’s wetlands, long polluted by industrial waste and landfills. Its accomplishments include capping toxic sediment in marshes, reestablishing native vegetation wiped out by invasive plants and detailing areas most vulnerable to catastrophic flooding in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.
For the full story: http://www.northjersey.com/news/environment/rutgers-to-take-over-state-lab-in-meadowlands-1.1376107