Deadline Alert: Public Notification For Ongoing Remediation Projects

The New Jersey legislature amended the Industrial Site Recovery Act, N.J.S.A. 13:1K et seq . (“ISRA”), following the April 2006 discovery of mercury contamination at Kiddie Kollege in Gloucester County, requiring increased public notification for industrial facilities subject to ISRA remediation. These amendments became effective on January 11, 2007. Thereafter, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection also amended the New Jersey Technical Requirements for Site Remediation, N.J.A.C. 7:26E, requiring enhanced public notification for remedial work at virtually all contaminated sites, including new and ongoing projects and ISRA and non-ISRA remediation projects. With these amendments, all remediation projects must comply with the public notification obligations of the Technical Requirements by September 2. Please bear in mind that with the enactment of the Site Remediation Reform Act on May 7, introducing sweeping and monumental changes to site remediations in New Jersey, further revisions to the public notification obligations will be necessary to bring the existing statutes and regulations into compliance with the new site remediation program that will be reliant upon Licensed Site Remediation Professionals. This article outlines the public notification obligations of the technical requirements.

The amended technical requirements provide for enhanced public notification and outreach requirements associated with remediation activities conducted at contaminated sites in New Jersey. NJDEP intended to create a forum for proactive communication between the regulated community and the local citizens surrounding the properties subject to remediation. As of the effective date of the amended technical requirements, September 2, 2008, if a property is discovered to be contaminated, the person responsible for conducting the remediation must provide public notification and outreach at the initiation of field activities associated with remedial investigation of a multiphase remediation or the initiation of a single-phase remediation. N.J.A.C. 7:26-1.4(h)-(i). The technical requirements provide a one-year “phase-in” period for sites at which the remedial investigation or the single-phase remediation was underway prior to September 2, 2008. Therefore, those sites with an on-going remediation, as of the September 2, 2008, effective date, must comply with the enhanced public notification and outreach requirements no later than September 2 of the present year. These notification requirements do not apply to the remediation of an underground storage tank storing heating oil for on-site consumption at a one- to-four-family residential dwelling or to an emergency response action.