The new site cleanup program for all contaminated sites in New Jersey —brownfields as well as sites with no redevelopment envisioned-- is date driven, and an important one is approaching in a little over a year.
 

When the New Jersey legislature enacted the Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA), one of its important provisions was the requirement for owners and operators, a.k.a persons responsible for conducting the remediation (PRCRs) for sites that had reported releases prior to May 7, 1999 to complete the site characterization process by May 7, 2014.

This process involves delineation of contamination and submittal of the Remedial Investigation (RI) Report by a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP). Although not codified in either the Administrative Requirements for the Remediation of Contaminated Sites (ARRCS – N.J.A.C. 7:26C) or the revised Technical Requirements for Site Remediation (Tech Regs – N.J.A.C. 7:26E) the requirement for completion of delineation is now only 16 months away. The thought behind the date is that it shouldn’t take more than 15 years to complete a remedial investigation. However, many of the sites in this category are large and extremely complex.

Failure to complete the RI for this subset of sites will result in the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) placing the facility into direct oversight, which essentially allows NJDEP to determine how remedial activities will be carried out on the property and allows NJDEP to control the flow of money for the cleanup.

Depending on current or anticipated site uses and hydrogeologic conditions, finishing the RI requires defining soil contamination to residential, non-residential, or impact to ground water standards or screening levels.

Sampling may extend up to and beyond the property boundary. Similarly, outlining the area of impacted ground water, horizontally and vertically, requires identifying the outermost extent of contaminants that are present at concentrations above water quality standards. This process may be complicated by other, non-PRCR related contaminant sources or naturally occurring water quality impacts.
 

It is unclear how NJDEP will track and enforce compliance with this statutory requirement. However, over the next few months PRCRs and their LSRPs will need to prioritize the technical and financial resources needed to be able to demonstrate that they have a solid understanding of the nature and distribution of soil, ground water, and vapor impacts associated with the releases that have been reported on their property. Direct oversight of remedial activities by NJDEP is not an outcome that aligns well with the business objectives of PRCRs.

Robert Blauvelt is with LSRP while Sue Boyle, GEI Consultants, Inc., also serves as the Executive Director of the LSRP Association in New Jersey.