NJDEP Extends Deadline for Wastewater Management Plans
By: Stephen Eisdorfer, Esq.
The Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has issued a highly anticipated administrative order, which creates new opportunities for property owners and builders to protect their rights to develop with public sanitary sewer service.
The NJDEP’s March 23 administrative order extends the deadline for municipalities and counties to submit revised wasterwater management plans. It also granted individual property owners additional rights and opportunities for input.
Under the Water Quality Planning Act, municipal and county wastewater management plans are legally binding documents that specify which areas can be served by public sanitary sewers and which areas can be served only by septic systems or other alternative wastewater disposal mechanisms. In regulations issued in July 2008, the NJDEP declared virtually all existing municipal and county wastewater management plans obsolete and provided that if any municipality or county failed to submit a revised plan within nine months, its existing plan would be deemed invalid and no further connections would be permitted to existing sanitary sewer systems. This deadline was later extended to 2009.
Continued Application Approval
The new administrative order extends the deadline until April 2011. In the meantime, NJDEP will continue to approve applications for extensions of existing sewer service systems and for construction of treatments, including pump stations and the like, during the period even if the municipality or county has not submitted a revised plan.
The administrative order also gives property owners new rights. It provides that a property can file a written request to be included in a sewer service area. The NJDEP will response to that request within 90 days. If the property meets certain specified criteria, the NJDEP will include the property within the sewer service area even if it was not included in the proposed plan submitted by the county or the municipality.
In addition, the administrative order provides protection for properties in sewer service areas under existing wastewater management plans. If a property is within a service area under an existing wastewater management plan and has certain development approvals, it cannot be removed from the sewer service area under any new wastewater management plan.
View the administrative order here. http://198.138.68.115/siteimages/file/legislative/2010-03_ADMINISTRATIVE_ORDER.pdf