The NRDC takes a bow for a recent court victory that keeps alive its chances of forcing Pittsburgh-based PPG to meet hexavalent chromium cleanup standards at a site in Jersey City that exceed what the New Jersey DEP is requiring.

In the NRDC online publication, Switchboard, Senior Attorney Mark Izeman, yesterday writes:

“Last year, NRDC, together with two community groups, Interfaith Community Organization and GRACO, filed a federal lawsuit in New Jersey to compel PPG Industries Inc. – a Pittsburgh-based corporation responsible for toxic hexavalent chromium contamination of a densely populated area of Jersey City – to clean up the hazardous waste it created decades ago.  “Massive quantities of hexavalent chromium, a potent carcinogen and the villain in the film Erin Brokovich, continue to contaminate the former production site, groundwater beneath the site, and surrounding neighborhoods.  These dangerous levels of hexavalent chromium are a real threat to the health of community residents – and the toxin has been found in their homes, on their lawns, and in their basements.”

Izeman says that the state of New Jersey, for more than 35 years, failed to force PPG to clean up the site.

“But shortly after NRDC filed its lawsuit, the State, the City of Jersey City, and PPG announced that they had settled all outstanding claims in state court.  They then filed a motion in our federal case claiming on several legal grounds that our lawsuit should be dismissed because their agreement was sufficient.”

How do you read that?  To me it sounds like the state was doing nothing until the NRDC embarrassed it into action by virtue of
its lawsuit. That, however, overlooks the fact that, back in June, 2005,
New Jersey’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against PPG and
two other companies whose predecessors processed chromium—Honeywell and Occidental Chemical Corp. That legal action eventually resulted in the settlement that the NRDC does not
want to let stand. It may be legitimate to ask why it took five years for the state to reach its settlement. But disputes over who did what when have more political and public relations value than the questions that likely will be addressed in the NRDC’s continuing federal lawsuit. Apparently at the crux of the continuing legal dispute is the familiar environmental question: How clean is clean?  As in, what cleanup standard for hexavalent chromium needs to be reached for a cleanup to be declared complete?  And, perhaps, the equally important question of who gets to decide what standards must be met.  Is that the state’s DEP’s call? The EPA’s?  The court’s?   Use the  comment box below to share your thoughts on the issue. 
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Jerold L. Zaro, chief of the New Jersey Office of Economic Growth under former Governor Jon Corzine, will join the law firm of Sills Cummis & Gross effective May 1 and work out of the firm’s New York and New Jersey offices.
Zaro, who continued in his state position for several months under the administration of present Governor Chris Christie, said:

“Working in the public sector truly has been one of the highlights of my career. I am fortunate to have had the rare privilege of serving under outstanding governors from both parties. I look forward to returning to practicing law and am extremely proud to join Sills Cummis & Gross, one of the premier firms in the New York metropolitan area.”
In a news release, the law firm credited Zaro with playing a “pivotal role in the decision of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTTC) to move to Jersey City, bringing 1600 jobs to the State.”  It also  said that he was “instrumental in laying the groundwork for the New Jersey Nets eventual decision to move from the Izod Arena to the Prudential Center Arena in Newark.”

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Businesses are going to see meaningful changes to New Jersey’s regulatory system and see them quickly, according to top members of Governor Chris Christie’s Red Tape Review Group.

The bipartisan group, which has spent 90 days reviewing New Jersey’s regulatory system,  will release its report April 19 .

Speaking April 6 at a New Jersey Business and Industry Association briefing, Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, State Senator Steven Oroho, and Assemblymen John Burzichelli and Scott Rumana said the State will become an easier place in which to do business. 

Guadagno told the audience that the report would recommend eliminating 8,000 civil service classifications and 200 of the State’s 700 independent boards and commissions.

It would also recommend pushing what should be local regulation issues back to the towns and counties. Guadagno cited a multi-million dollar project in Wildwood that has been held up for five years because it lacks two parking spaces.

The report would also recommend streamlining the State’s rule-making process to make it easier to change proposed regulations based on public comment.

NJBIA’s Capitol Memo reported today that the legislative members of the Red Tape Review Group echoed Guadagno’s sentiments.

Burzichelli, chairman of the newly formed Assembly Regulatory Oversight Committee, said he was particularly concerned about the use of guidance documents by the NJ Department of Environmental Protection. The documents are supposed to give applicants compliance advice, but often they are enforced by agency officials as if they had the force of law. 

"People (at the DEP) were essentially setting up a second tier of regulations," Burzichelli said.

Burzichelli is sponsoring legislation, A2464,  that would clarify that guidance documents are voluntary. The measure has passed the Assembly.  He also is the sponsor of A2486 , a bill that  that would limit the circumstances under which a State agency could adopt regulations or standards that exceed comparable federal standards.

Oroho pointed out that regulations have a direct impact on the State’s private-sector economy. He noted there are 26,000 pages of regulations in New Jersey, all of which have a five-year sunset provision so they can be periodically reviewed to determine if they are still needed. Yet, almost no regulations ever go away; they simply keep being renewed.

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