The world’s past problems didn’t disappear because of COVID-19, an economic recession and a racial crisis in the United States. No, old problems such as climate change, a nuclear North Korea, terrorism and world-wide migration still exist. Like Douglas MacArthur’s old soldiers, they didn’t die – they just faded away, at least from public view.

However, the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection didn’t forget a problem that arose last summer in the state and threatens to return in what is…