NJDEP

Subscribe to NJDEP

On Monday, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued a Compliance Advisory Update announcing the implementation of streamlined changes to the Hazardous Waste Manifest submission process.  Pursuant to the Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment Act, beginning on June 30, 2018, EPA will launch a new e-Manifest system nationwide, allowing Hazardous Waste Manifests to be created and submitted via the EPA website. Consequently, EPA will no longer be accepting paper manifests and paper manifests submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection will not be forwarded to EPA.

Among those most impacted will be treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (“TSDs”) which receive and report hazardous waste to EPA. The e-Manifest system will not be required for very small quantity generators (“VSQGs”), medical waste generators, used oil generators, universal waste generators, and others who are not required to have an EPA ID nor use the uniform hazardous waste manifest (EPA Form 8700-22).

To avoid confusion over compliance as the new e-Manifest system launches, EPA will phase in the rule based 30 day deadline such that all manifests expected to be delivered to EPA between June 30 and September 1, 2018 may be submitted to EPA as late as September 30, 2018.  More information on the e-Manifest system is available via the EPA website.

 

The next time a government inspector comes to a business and inspects its dumpster, do not be surprised if the resulting legal problem involves both environmental and consumer fraud actions. During the last few years, a number of national corporations have found themselves in legal trouble because the inspector found both hazardous waste and customer records containing personal information in a dumpster. If the business is in New Jersey that means it will be dealing with both the Department of Environmental Protection and the Division of Consumer Affairs’ Office of Consumer Protection. Needless to say, it is a situation to avoid.

Many items routinely handled by a business, including retail businesses, become a hazardous waste when disposed. These may include returned or excess inventory consumer products as well as cleaning and building maintenance products used at the business. Determining if they become hazardous waste when disposed often requires analysis not readily available at the disposing facility. Failure to know if disposed material is a hazardous waste can lead to substantial fines and even criminal prosecutions if it is improperly disposed. Any business should have a plan for determining if the materials disposed are hazardous waste subject to regulation and, if so, to ensure that the hazardous waste is handled and disposed of legally.

Many businesses are aware of the hazardous waste issues referenced above. Fewer are aware of this obligation imposed by New Jersey law with regard to disposal of customer information. “A business or public entity shall destroy, or arrange for destruction of, a customer’s records within its custody or control containing personal information, which is no longer to be retained by the business or public entity, by shredding, erasing, or otherwise modifying the personal information in those records to make it unreadable, undecipherable or nonreconstructable through generally means.” New Jersey is not alone in regulating the disposal of customer records. In states with such laws or regulations, any business having such records should also have a plan for their legal disposal. In New Jersey, the amount of actual damage to a consumer is automatically tripled, the consumer is automatically awarded attorney fees and costs and fines may be imposed up to $10,000 for a first violation and up to $20,000 for each subsequent violation. In some states, each disposed customer record is a separate violation.

The recent cases against national companies are likely only a prelude to similar actions against state or local business. When the inspector comes, those business should know that what is in their dumpsters does not include hazardous waste or discarded customer records containing personal information.

Can groundwater discharges violate the Clean Water Act and require NPDES permits?  Two federal court cases coming out of the 4th and 9th Circuits dealing with the applicability of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to groundwater are creating real concern over how expansive the court’s holdings and application of the Act can be.  The decisions were rendered by US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Upstate Forever v. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and the 9th Circuit in Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui.

In each case, the courts held that groundwater can be regulated under the CWA when it acts as a conduit through which pollutants from a spill of hazardous substances, septic waste or injection can be traced to protected surface waters.  While the burden of proof is significant, if a nexus can be established between the contaminant detected in the surface water and groundwater where the release originally occurred, then exposure to CWA fines is real and the need for a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit appears to be required.  The 4th Circuit’s holding is even broader than the 9th Circuit in that it applies to residual or historic contamination.  In other words, if released contamination ever reaches surface water protected by the CWA, then it doesn’t matter when the spill contaminants were first released to the environment.

In the 9th Circuit case, the County of Maui has already informed the court that it will seek Supreme Court review and for good reason.  If upheld, these rulings have far reaching implications for not only regulated industries, such as oil and gas, but also private home owners with septic systems and municipalities with leaking sewer pipes.  Here in NJ, where there is a robust state regulatory program requiring remediation of discharges to the environment, CWA regulation will add another regulatory scheme to be considered and may end up regulating septic tanks, which are common in New Jersey, and other systems designed to release materials below ground level.  Releases, both recent, as well as historic, could create a set of liabilities no private citizen even remotely considered.   Moreover, these decisions could cause the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to require re-investigation and re-assessment of sites that have been remediated pursuant to state law to determine if a previously unaddressed contaminant pathway between groundwater and surface water exists.

It remains to be seen how EPA will integrate these decisions, if they stand, into practice.  Once it does, the question will become how state delegated clean water programs will be affected.

In a recent unreported opinion, the Appellate Division affirmed a trial court’s decision imposing Spill Act liability on the sole shareholder of a dry cleaning business. (Morris Plains Holding VF, LLC v. Milano French Cleaners, Inc., Dkt. No. A-0604-16T1.) The case serves as a reminder that shareholder status does not protect individuals who are otherwise liable for contamination pursuant to the Spill Act.

The trial judge found that Milano French Cleaners operated for 25 years in a strip mall owned by the plaintiff. PCE was detected in the soil in 1999. After approximately 10 years of remediation the business went bankrupt. The landowner then assumed responsibility for the remediation and filed the subject action against the bankrupt corporation and its sole shareholder. The trial judge held both the sole shareholder and the corporation jointly liable for all remediation costs.

On appeal, the shareholder argued that imposing Spill Act liability on him improperly pierced the corporate veil. The Appellate Division disagreed, relying on NJDEP v. Dimant, 212 N.J. 153 (2002). As set forth in Dimant, to recover damages under the Spill Act, a plaintiff must establish a “reasonable nexus” between the discharge and the environmental damage, and a “reasonable link between the discharge, the putative discharger, and the contamination at the specifically damaged site.” Relying on the trial courts factual determinations, the appellate panel found a “reasonable nexus” because PCE contamination was found directly below dry cleaning machines with no other credible source in the area. In addition, the shareholder operated the dry cleaning equipment, was responsible for overseeing and handling the PCE used, and was responsible for ensuring legal and regulatory compliance of the corporation. Taken together, the record satisfied Dimant’s reasonable nexus standard and established individual liability.

Liability protection is clearly available to shareholders of close corporations in Spill Act actions. As recently as 2016 the appellate division remanded a decision imposing personal liability on shareholders for failure to conduct the fact intensive analysis necessary to pierce the corporate veil. See NJDEP v. Navillus Group, App. Div. Dkt. No. A-4726-13T3 (Jan. 14, 2016). However, in this case, given the nexus between the individual shareholder and the contamination, the appellate division refused to allow shareholder status to be used as a shield to individual liability. Rather, liability arose from a “reasonable link” between the discharger and the contamination, without regard for shareholder status.

It may be much harder to fill property in New Jersey.  In a recent decision, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection v. Bleimaier, 2018 WL 1513152, (App. Div. 2018), the New Jersey Appellate Division in effect has held that the placement of more than five-yards of fill material always changes the existing topography and a permit is required.

In the case, a homeowner was issued an Administrative Order and Notice of Civil Administrative Penalty Assessment after the homeowner filled and graded their property, which fell within a delineated-flood-hazard-area, without a permit. The homeowner argued that a permit was not required because they were not altering the pre-existing topography and were merely remediating recent soil erosion.

The Department disagreed because the stated purpose of N.J.A.C. 7:13-2.4(a)(1) was to require a permit for “any topographic alteration, such as excavation, grading, or placement of fill.” Agreeing with the Department, the Appellate Division reasoned that if it were to accept the homeowner’s argument, a landowner could choose an arbitrary point in time and claim that they were restoring the topography to that particular point.

While the Appellate Division explains that the Department’s interpretation of the regulation was consistent with its stated purpose and in the public’s interest, the Department appears to be taking the position that the placement of more than five-yards of fill changes the pre-existing topography and, in effect, a permit is always required. The question becomes, was this the result the Department intended?

In the latest chapter on the issue regarding public access to beaches and waterfronts, on February 5, 2018, the Senate Environment and Energy Committee passed a bill that attempts to codify public access requirements as it applies to NJDEP coastal permitting programs. S-1074 (1R) sponsored by Senators Smith and Bateman, requires that NJDEP issue any permits, approvals, administrative actions or consent decrees under the Coastal Area Facilities Review Act (CAFRA), the Wetlands Act of 1970 (Coastal Wetlands Act), the Flood Hazard Area Control Act or the Coast Zone Management Act consistent with the public trust doctrine. In sum, any party taking action pursuant to these coastal programs that provides for a change in the existing footprint of a structure, or a change in use of the property, must review the existing public access to tidal waters and adjacent shorelines and require that additional public access be provided.

If enacted, the bill would also amend the Municipal Land Use Law to require municipalities to include, as part of their master plan, a public access plan for tidal areas and adjacent shorelines. The bill would require a public access to inventory public access points and facilities (i.e. parking, boat ramps, etc.); assess the need for additional public access; include a statement of goals and administrative mechanisms to ensure that access will be permanently protected; and provide strategy and implementation schedule addressing forms of access necessary to satisfy the municipality’s need. These provisions would codify NJDEP’s prior efforts to provide for planning at the municipal level. After a significant stakeholder process, NJDEP adopted Public Access Rule amendments in 2012 providing for municipalities to adopt Municipal Public Access Plan as a mechanism to determine public access requirements. Those provisions were struck down by the Appellate Division in 2015 being considered beyond the scope of both the “public trust doctrine” and current law.

Notably, the bill provides certain exemptions for facilities that are subject to certain site security or safety situations. The excluded facilities include the following: (1) facilities required to submit a facilities security plan under the “Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002;” (2) facilities required to develop and adhere to a transportation security plan for hazardous materials pursuant to the regulations adopted by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration; (3) facilities required to participate in the US Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program; (4) facilities located at any airport, railroad yard or nuclear power facility; or (5) facilities requiring exclusion of the public for security reasons pursuant to rules issued by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

After being referenced by the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, S-1074(1R) has been referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

On January 16, 2018, Governor Christie signed into law P.L.2017, c.325, which revised previous law concerning the use of recycled asphalt pavement (the “Act”).  The Act broadens the permissible methods that asphalt pavement can be reused.  Specifically, recycled asphalt pavement can be used as follows:

  1. Unbound in bedrock quarry reclamation;
  2. Unbound underneath a guardrail of a public road or highway;
  3. Unbound or mixed with other materials for use a base or subbase material in accordance with applicable engineering designs;
  4. Unbound as surface material for a parking lot, farm road, or pathway, or in any other location as authorized by NJDEP; or
  5. In any other use authorized by NJDEP.

Reuse is generally prohibited in very acidic soil (pH of 4 or less) absent the demonstration that groundwater will not be impacted.

It should be noted that the Act is not effective until September 2018, but allows NJDEP to take action beforehand to implement the new law.

 

NJDEP has published a web page addressing Contaminants of Emerging Concern (“CECs”). CECs are described by NJDEP as “chemicals that recently have been shown to occur in water resources and identified as being a potential environmental or public health risk.” LSRPs must consider CECs when the remedial objective is an entire site final remediation document and the site has stored, handled or used CECs.

The new web page currently addresses Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), which are associated with a wide variety of industrial and commercial processes. Guidance criteria for PFAS include the following:

  • Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) – recommended MCL of 0.014 ppb (October 2017);
  • Perfluorononanoic Acid (PFNA) – proposed amendment to Safe Drinking Water Act to add PFNA as an MCL (August 2017); interim specific ground water quality criterion of 0.010 ppb (November 2015);
  • Perfuorooctanesulfonic Acid (PFOS) – USEPA drinking water health advisory for PFOA and PFOS at 0.070 ppb individually or combined (May 2016).

The NJDEP web page includes links to additional resources and is expected to be expanded to further address PFAS as well as other CECs.