out that it could take a decade to rectify a
site to the satisfaction of the DEP, which
is responsible for issuing the prized “No
Further Action” letter to a developer. For
example, a project the company started
in Cranbury in 2000 has just gotten its No
Further Action letter.
Adler further points to his firm’s ongoing remediation project in Woodbridge,
which he says requires another seven to
10 years of cleanup work. “That is the difficulty with brownfields—it’s not like putting up a building and turning it over to
someone else,” Adler states. “You are often
involved in the site for quite a bit longer.”
Yet the Garden State certainly wants to
see more such endeavors and is trying to
remove obstacles to their completion. In
2002, the state created the Office of Brownfield Reuse to oversee brownfields redevelopment in New Jersey. One of its initiatives,
the Brownfield Reimbursement Program,
reimburses developers up to 75% of remediation costs based on certain new taxes
generated from a cleanup project.
And in an effort to speed up the cleanup
of brownfields around the state, Gov. Corzine recently signed into law the Licensed
Site Remediation Professional program.
Modeled after a similar initiative in Massachusetts, the NJDEP would license outside
professionals to oversee the
cleanup of certain brownfields.
The department would still be
responsible for the oversight
of heavily contaminated sites,
while the LSRPs could handle
other, less environmentally impaired locations.
Newly appointed DEP Commissioner Mark Mauriello
has been on a speaking tour
of sorts, addressing industry
groups about the implementation of the LSRP program and
what it means to the state’s development
community. Mauriello took over as commissioner following the departure of Lisa
Jackson, who left to serve as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection
Agency under President Barack Obama.
In June, Mauriello spoke at an event
sponsored by the Economic Development
Association of New Jersey, in which he
reported that there are currently 20,000
known contaminated sites in the state.
“The key word is known, because we find
others as we do investigations,” he said.
“We have 200 people that manage the
cases, which range from simple things, like
leaking oil tanks, to superfund sites, and
it’s created a burden on the staff.”
And Mauriello reminded the audience
during a NJ-Naiop “Regulatory Update”
meeting in June, the DEP is under the
same fiscal pressures as the overall state
government. Staff cuts, among other pull-backs, have hurt the department over the
past 10 years, he said, noting that in 1999
DEP employees numbered 4,000 as compared to today’s 3,000-person staff. The
department currently has a three-year hiring freeze in place.
However, he said that by November, li-
not only lift a burden from the DEP staff,
but also help towns by speeding up the
cleanup process. “It’s not just an environment issue,” he said. “To communities,
these are lost opportunities for redevelopment if these sites continue to languish.”
Nevertheless, the LSRP legislation has
come under fire, most stridently from
the environmental community that maintains the law amounts to the “fox watching
the hen house.” In response, Mauriello
stressed that the new legislation includes
“strong oversight and audit provisions” as
well as penalties. Mauriello further stated
the new bill gives the NJDEP the ability to
prioritize cases and in some instances, impose remedies for contaminated sites. The
Before and After:
After three years, J.G.
Petrucci turned a
12-acre contaminated
site in Hillside into a
155,000-square-foot,
state-of-the-art food
distribution facility for
Gargiulo Produce.
censed site professionals will be available to
do work throughout the state. The commissioner further stated that the department
is working to implement the goals of its
permit efficiency task force. To date, one-quarter of the recommendations have been
implemented, including IT upgrades that
facilitate electronic permitting and reporting. “People ask, ‘What took you so long?’
Well, we’re a big, bureaucratic agency,” he
joked. “That’s why it’s taken so long.”
The LSRP program, he asserted, will
department, he said, is formulating certification standards, establishing a licensing
board and developing audit procedures.
Roxanne E. Jayne, an environment attorney with Sterns & Weinroth in Trenton,
also spoke at the Economic Development
Association of New Jersey session with
Mauriello. She termed the new law “a sea
change in how we do site cleanups in New
Jersey.” She noted that 10% of all LSRP
submissions will be reviewed by the DEP
and all documents submitted by LSRPs will
