In a decision last week that has raised both concern and speculation, a New Jersey appellate court ruled that owners of properties containing small amounts of
pollution do not have to prove the properties are clean before selling
them.  

The New Jersey Sierra Club responded with an immediate declaration that the court had  “ruled in favor of polluters over the public health.”

 “With over 20,000 contaminated sites in the state, virtually all residents will be impacted by this Court decision,” warned Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel. 

For thorough coverage of environmental news, issues, legislation and regulation in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, try a free subscription to EnviroPolitics, our daily newsletter that also tracks environment/energy bills–from introduction to enactment
***********************************************************************************************************

Sounds pretty drastic, doesn’t it? 

Yes, except for the fact that the appellate panel took pains to note that their decision would not have a wide environmental impact. The court wrote that the decision answered a “narrow question” over whether the DEP was authorized to adopt such a regulatory requirement under applicable state environmental cleanup laws, primarily ISRA, the Industrial Site Recovery Act of 1993.

In its July 6 decision, the court also suggested a way to fix the problem, noting that the state Legislature could act to “explicitly and
unambiguously” require such cleanup assurances (by amending the law) or lawmakers could give the DEP the power to adopt and enforce those types of regulations.

The court also stayed its decision for 30 days, giving the state time to decide whether to appeal.  

In a bulletin to clients of the firm, Cole Schotz environmental attorney Gerard M. Giordano writes:

“There has been much press recently indicating that this is a big “win”
for business.  However, the reality is that this is a very limited
decision with very limited applicability.  

 “The ISRA statute specifically allows an exemption to its requirements if
an applicant can show that it handled less than certain specific
quantities of hazardous substances.  NJDEP added one more requirement
while updating the regulations promulgated under the statute; that the
applicant must also certify to the best of their knowledge that the
property is not contaminated. Simply put, the court found that NJDEP’s
additional requirement was not authorized by the ISRA statute, and that
NJDEP went beyond the bounds of its authority when it adopted that
regulation.

“This decision does not change the fact that if there is contamination at
the property, the owner or operator may still be required to
investigate and cleanup the contamination under other environmental
statutes.”

You can read Mr. Giordano’s full comments here.

• A workshop on natural gas vehicles (July 12)
• An EPA seminar: Applying Green Building Research Today (July 17)
• A chance for the NJ public to sound off on burdensome regulation (July 17)
• A family-oriented exploration of the NJ Pinelands aquatic environment (July 19)
• A Permaculture Design Certificate Course (July 19-21)
• Advice from master gardeners what’s ailing your plant (July 21)
  

Tips for successful event listings

Tip #1:
Please follow our style to get your listing posted extra fast. The more
we have to re-type or re-format, the less motivated we get.

Tip #2: Before you schedule an event,
check our calendar to see if someone else in your location or area of
interest is holding their event on or near the same date.No sense in competing if you don’t have to.

Tip #3: Federal,
state and local government agencies–and trade associations, too–will
find our calendar to be a great way to spread the word about
regularly scheduled meetings. But please let us know when you need to cancel or postpone an event. 

Tip #4: Tell your friends,
colleagues and PR staff about this great service. They’ll think you’re a genius.

Stay on top of all upcoming events with free email alerts 

 

Hop on over to Enviro-Events Calendar and sign up for free email alerts.
 

You’ll also find a form to use if you want our updates to appear in your Google Reader, or any other web reader that you may be using.  

Questions?  Comments?  We’d love to hear from you. Please use the response box below.