Legislature Passes Bill Allowing Licensed Site Professionals to Oversee Site Cleanups
By: Henry T. Chou, Esq.
In response to the massive backlog of contaminated sites in need of remediation, the New Jersey Legislature has passed a bill that would grant private consultants and engineers the authority oversee site cleanups in place of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).
The bill, passed by both the Assembly and Senate on March 16, 2009, is supported by the NJDEP and awaits the signature of Governor Corzine. If signed into law by the Governor, the bill would create a 13-member board comprised of public and private representatives that licenses professionals to oversee site cleanups that are currently under the jurisdiction of NJDEP. While NJDEP would delegate most tasks to the private professionals, it retains the right to review the private consultants' work to ensure compliance with agency standards. Additionally, the board would conduct audits of at least ten percent of the private clean-up projects.
Environmental groups have expressed concern that NJDEP is ceding too much regulatory oversight to the private sector to the detriment of public interests; however, both the bill's sponsors and NJDEP maintain that the legislation is necessary to address NJDEP's backlog of over 20,000 site cleanups, and to relieve NJDEP's overburdened remediation staff, many of whom oversee 200 site cleanups each.
The development community also generally supports the measure, as it would speed up approval times for remediation plans and subsequent use of property. All indications are that the Governor will sign the bill into law shortly.