Late Monday afternoon the legislature released what is likely to be the final draft of the State’s proposed revisions to its site remediation laws. I have written about the bill proposal before (here). The administration has continued to push a solution that will not enhance the protections we all deserve and will in fact likely reduce those protections.
Several groups including the group I represent, New Jersey Environmental Lobby, have been opposing this bill and held a press conference on Wed. outlining the environmental communities’ concerns over the bill. A copy of the press release can be found LSP Press Release.
One of the biggest issues surrounding this bill is that the administration is bent on sending the responsibility for cleanups to third parties. Those third parties are the companies that are being paid by the responsible party to investigate the site, develop the cleanup plan and to actually undertake the remediation. While I believe that there are good consultants at there, something is very broken. Over the last several years we have seen too many instances of properties that were supposed to be clean but were not. Just a few examples: Kiddie Kollege, W.R. Grace in Hamilton, the Edison Ford Plant, Martin Luther Middle School in Trenton. These are the very same consultants that will be responsible for certifying to the DEP that they are doing everything that is required under the statutes and regulations.
Another very interesting thing about this process is that DEP routinely receives documents that are incomplete or inaccurate from the very same consultants that will be trusted with overseeing the cleanups. DEP employees then have to spend time and effort to have these submissions corrected. This is time and effort that could be better spent on ensuring that cleanups are proceeding according to the law.
Lastly, these DEP employees are funded by the permit fees submitted by applicants. These employees are not a drain on taxpayers.
There is no question that site remediation is broken, but the “LSP” bill is not the solution.
The Senate Environment Committee will be holding a hearing on Monday, Feb. 2nd where the committee will be taking testimony. There will be a second hearing where the committee will not be taking testimony but will be voting on the bill.