New Law Broadens Notification Requirements for New Jersey Site Remediation Projects

In-Sites
(Paul M. Hauge)
February 27, 2008
Recent amendments to New Jersey’s contaminated site remediation statute expand the list of local and county officials that parties responsible for a remediation must notify of those activities. The changes, signed into law by Governor Corzine on January 14, 2008, also add to the list of documents that parties responsible for a remediation must make available to those officials.

The legislation (S. 2199), passed unanimously in both the Senate and the Assembly, amends Sections 24.1 through 24.4 of N.J.S.A. 58:10B, known since 1998 as the Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act. It expands the duties of parties who are responsible for conducting remediation activities by adding county health departments and local health agencies to the list of officials whom they must notify prior to the initiation of remediation activities. (Previously, they were required to notify only the municipal clerk, and only upon the initiation of those activities.) Parties responsible for a remediation now must also tell the same officials that they may request a copy of the site health and safety plans, in addition to the remediation action workplan and updates or status reports. Finally, the new legislation also directs the Department of Environmental Protection, previously required to notify the governing body of every New Jersey municipality of the existence and on-line availability of a master list of all known hazardous sites in the state, to give the same information to every county health department and local health agency within thirty days of the legislation’s effective date.