Gibbons Law Alert
Today New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced that New Jersey, along with the other members of the Transportation and Climate Initiative, have received a federal grant of nearly $1 million to start planning a network of charging stations for electric vehicles. The initiative is expected to spur job creation and the use of electric vehicles (EVs).
On August 16, 2011, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) issued its final rule on chemical reporting which will apply to the next reporting period running from February 1, 2012 through June 30, 2012. Adopted pursuant to section 8(a) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the rule increases the type and amount of information USEPA will collect on commercial chemicals from chemical manufacturers, including importers, allowing USEPA to better identify and publish information on the manufacturing, processing, and use of commercial chemical substances and mixtures on the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory (TSCA Inventory).
On August 18, 2011, DEP Commissioner Bob Martin and DOT Commissioner James Simpson released a set of guidelines to revamp and apply consistency to New Jersey’s land leasing process for State Lands. A panel of ten State Agencies was convened to analyze the current lease policies and compile a Lease Valuation Report that offers recommendations on leases for Tidelands; Linear Corridor Projects (other than Tidelands); Publicly Bid, Market-Based and Nominal Fee leases; Telecommunications Towers and Antennas, Aquaculture, and leases Related to Transportation Corridors. The guidelines will be adopted by all State agencies, with most of the guidelines implemented immediately.
On August 15, 2011, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) issued proposed Final Rules to implement the Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA) adopted in May 2009. These rules are intended to be the final implementation step in the phased transition of New Jersey’s site remediation process from NJDEP command and control to private oversight by Licensed Site Remediation Professionals (LSRPs). Instead of NJDEP overseeing every step of a cleanup, the LSRP, licensed by a 13-member Licensed Site Remediation Professional Board with investigative and disciplinary powers, is responsible for making day-to-day decisions about a clean-up. Certain categories of cleanups remain under NJDEP oversight, such as where the responsible party has a history of non-compliance or has failed to meet mandatory deadlines. The rule proposal appeared in the New Jersey Register on August 15, 2011 and can be viewed online. Comments can be submitted until October 14, 2011.
In what is described as the country’s biggest Superfund site, Judge William Griesbach of the Eastern District of Wisconsin on July 5, 2011, rejected the United States’ attempts to compel defendants Appleton Papers Inc. and NCR Corporation to comply with an EPA directive requiring sediment remediation in the Fox River at a rate substantially similar to the rate at which they had remediated sediment over the last few years.
On the weekend of June 24-26, 2011, the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education (“NJICLE”) in cooperation with the New Jersey State Bar Association (“NJSBA”), and New Jersey Corporate Counsel Association, held its annual Environmental Law Section Forum Weekend (“the Forum”). Taking place in Avalon, New Jersey, the Forum featured three days of seminars covering various hot-button environmental topics including, Funding for Remediating Sites, Vapor Intrusion, the LSRP Program, Non-Governmental Organizations’ Perspectives on Issues and Resolutions, the well-known NJDEP v. Occidental case also referred to as the Lower Passaic River litigation, Climate Change, and rounded out the weekend with two programs on Ethical Issues including Alternative Fee Arrangements and Multi-Party Settlements.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on July 7 finalized a new rule aimed at reducing interstate air pollution across the eastern half of the country. The Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) requires reductions in power plant emissions in 27 states that cause or contribute to ozone and/or fine particulate pollution in other states.
Reversing the Second Circuit, the Supreme Court on June 20, 2011 held, in American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut, that the Clean Air Act, along with EPA regulatory action that it authorizes, displaces any federal common-law right to seek abatement of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from power plants. The Court’s decision means that for the foreseeable future, the debate over the proper scope of federal GHG regulation will take place in the executive and legislative branches and not the courts. It also leaves unanswered the question whether traditional state common-law remedies still have a role to play in GHG regulation.
On Monday, January 3, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency published in the Federal Register, 76 Fed. Reg. 5,370 (Jan. 31, 2011), a Notice of Opportunity for Public Input on the Potential Addition of Vapor Intrusion Component to the Hazard Ranking System (the “HRS”). Should this proposal become a rule it would add another contamination pathway to analyze in connection with listing sites on the National Priorities List (the “NPL”).
The EPA has announced that six different New Jersey communities will receive a total of $3.4 million under the agency’s brownfield grant program in FY 2011. The grants will fund assessment and cleanup efforts at contaminated sites so that the sites can be returned to productive use. The grant program, part of EPA’s larger brownfield efforts, will award some $76 million in grants this year, and has awarded over $800 million since its inception. New Jersey’s grants will fund activities at thirteen sites or areas in Newark, Jersey City, Trenton, Elizabeth, Mantua Township, and Maurice River Township.