On January 11, 2007, Governor Corzine of New Jersey signed into law a requirement that the air quality at new child-care centers built on or near known contaminated sites be monitored prior to receiving a license to operate.  The law specifically requires the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to establish air-quality guidelines for child-care centers, and to ensure that the operators meet the air-quality standards before the facilities are licensed to open.  The air-quality standards also must be met upon renewal of a child-care center license. 

The law will also require, as of June 2007, that all new child-care centers conduct a Preliminary Assessment/Site Investigation (PA/SI) and obtain a No Further Action (NFA) letter from the NJDEP.  For sites that previously contained dry cleaning establishments, drinking water testing and testing of soils in areas where children play is also required under this new measure, due to the possibility that chlorinated solvents from dry cleaning operations may have impacted drinking water and/or soils at the property.

Additionally, the new law stipulates that no construction permit shall be issued for the construction or alteration of any building or structure to be used as a licensed child-care center, or for educational or residential purposes, on a site that was previously used for industrial, storage, or high hazard purposes such as a nail salon,  dry cleaning facility, or gasoline station, or on a contaminated site, on a site on which there is suspected contamination, or on an industrial site subject to the Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA), except after submission by the applicant to the construction official of an NJDEP approved Remedial Action Workplan (RAW) for the entire site or that the site has been remediated consistent with the NJDEP remediation standards and a No Further Action (NFA) letter has been issued by the NJDEP for the entire site.

Wolf Skacel, the Assistant NJDEP Commissioner for Compliance and Enforcement, said the agency has thus far inspected 142 of the 1,400 child-care centers that are located within 400 feet of sites that are regulated by the NJDEP.  The sites include businesses for which the NJDEP issues permits, as well as properties on the NJDEP’s Known Contaminated Site List.  The initial inspections were promoted by a new NJDEP enforcement initiative that was begun shortly after the July 2006 discovery of mercury vapors in a child-care center that was located in a former thermometer factory.  The newly signed child-care air monitoring law was prompted by this same July 2006 discovery.