Gibbons Law Alert

Gibbons Law Alert

Author: Paul R. Recupero

Governor Murphy Announces First-in-the-Nation Environmental Justice Rules

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Posted in Development/Redevelopment / Environmental and Green Issues

On April 20, 2023

On Monday, April 17,  2023, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced the adoption of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Environmental Justice Rules (EJ Rules) implementing New Jersey’s landmark Environmental Justice (EJ) Law signed in 2020. The EJ Law and implementing rules are the first in the nation aimed at reducing pollution in historically overburdened communities that have been subjected to a disproportionately high number of environmental and public health stressors. In his announcement, Governor Murphy stated, “As we enter Earth Week 2023, the final adoption of DEP’s EJ Rules will further the promise of environmental justice by prioritizing meaningful community engagement, reducing public health risks through the use of innovative pollution controls, and limiting adverse impacts that new pollution-generating facilities can have in already vulnerable communities.” DEP Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette added that, “With the adoption of the nation’s first EJ Rules, New Jersey is on a course to more equitably protect public health and the environment we share.” Under the new rules, which are effective immediately, state environmental officials considering permit requests of eight specific types of facilities must include impacts to residents of affected communities in their decision-making process. The eight types of facilities that must comply with the new EJ Rules are: gas-fired power plants, cogeneration facilities, and other...

2023 Is Shaping Up to Be a Big Year for the Clean Water Act and Its “Waters of the United States”

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Posted in Environmental and Green Issues

On April 17, 2023

In January, the Biden Administration promulgated the federal government’s latest rule defining “waters of the United States” (WOTUS Rule). The WOTUS Rule, which defines the waters that are subject to federal permitting and oversight under the Clean Water Act (CWA) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), went into effect on March 20, 2023. As with past attempts to define “waters of the United States,” the new WOTUS Rule is already triggering legal challenges. Since the enactment of the CWA in 1972, courts, agencies, and landowners have struggled to define the statute’s geographic scope, especially with respect to wetlands, which do not fit neatly within familiar notions of “water” or “land.” The statute prohibits unpermitted discharges of pollutants (including fill material) into “navigable waters” but defines that term broadly as “the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas.” The Biden Administration’s WOTUS Rule replaces the Trump Administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR), which was promulgated in 2020 but subsequently vacated by two federal district courts. The NWPR followed the Trump Administration’s 2019 repeal of a 2015 Obama Administration rule (the 2015 Clean Water Rule) that had taken a categorical approach to defining “waters of the United States.” The Biden Administration’s WOTUS Rule seeks to return to...

NJDEP Posts Guidance for Prospective Purchasers of Contaminated Sites to Obtain Adjustments to Direct Oversight Requirements

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Posted in Environmental and Green Issues

On October 21, 2022

On September 9, 2022, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) issued its Pre-Purchase Administrative Consent Order Guidance through the NJDEP’s Contaminated Site Remediation & Redevelopment Program. The guidance document explains how prospective purchasers of contaminated sites subject to Direct Oversight can obtain a Pre-Purchase Administrative Consent Order (ACO), allowing for adjustments to Direct Oversight requirements. Under the Site Remediation Reform Act, if the person responsible for conducting remediation of a contaminated site fails to complete the investigation and remediation within mandatory timeframes, the NJDEP automatically places the site into Direct Oversight. The Direct Oversight requirements are a more prescriptive remediation process for the person responsible for conducting remediation. Some of the Direct Oversight requirements include: NJDEP selection of the remedial action for the site; NJDEP approval of each document submitted by a licensed site remediation professional; establishment of a remediation funding source in the amount needed to complete remediation; performance of a remedial action feasibility study for NJDEP approval; and compliance with an NJDEP-approved public participation plan. Once a potential buyer of a site closes on a contaminated property subject to Direct Oversight, the potential buyer becomes a person “in any way responsible” for remediating the site pursuant to the Spill Compensation and Control Act (“Spill Act”). By entering into a Pre-Purchase ACO,...

NJ Seeks to Expand Reach of the Spill Act in PCB Contamination Suit Against Monsanto and Others

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Posted in Environmental and Green Issues

On August 10, 2022

On August 4, 2022, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) issued a press release announcing a lawsuit of sweeping, breathtaking scope against Monsanto, Solutia, and Pharmacia ─ all linked to the original Monsanto (“Old Monsanto”), which reorganized its businesses into three separate corporations in the late 1990s ─ seeking natural resource damages (NRDs) for polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination across the entire state of New Jersey. Old Monsanto formerly operated a large industrial facility in Bridgeport, an unincorporated community in Logan Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey (the “Bridgeport Site”). In addition to the claims for statewide PCB contamination, the complaint seeks NRDs and other relief in connection with the Bridgeport Site. The suit alleges the three defendants contaminated the area in and around the Bridgeport Site through discharges of many chemicals, including PCBs, over decades of operations at that site. PCBs are a class of toxic synthetic organic chemical compounds that enter the environment by escaping their intended applications, passing into water bodies, sediment, and soils. In a statement announcing the suit, Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said that “PCBs contamination has harmed natural resources and threatened the health of humans and wildlife in every corner of New Jersey . . . includ[ing] many environmental justice communities ─ communities throughout our State that...

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