Timely Response. Time-proven Solutions.

Beginning September 5, 2006, generators of hazardous waste will be required by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and state environmental regulators to use a new uniform hazardous waste manifest.  The uniform hazardous waste manifest was developed by USEPA to simplify and standardize hazardous waste manifesting throughout the United States.  All previous hazardous waste manifest versions are obsolete after the implementation date, and will not be accepted by USEPA licensed disposal facilities or federal and state hazardous waste regulators. 

The uniform hazardous waste manifest streamlines and standardizes the waste manifesting process via a number of important improvements, including:

Traditional environmental remediation methods of cleaning up soil and ground water contaminated with chlorinated solvents, such as soil excavation and disposal or ground water pumping and treatment, are often prohibitively expensive or impractical due to site conditions.  An alternative environmental remediation method used to cleanup chlorinated solvents, known as in-situ chemical oxidation, is growing in popularity and gaining industry and regulatory acceptance as it is proven to be a cost-effective, time-efficient and less intrusive alternative remedial method to achieve compliance with environmental cleanup standards.
  
In general, chlorinated solvent contaminants exist in the subsurface in multiple phases; vapor, dissolved, adsorbed and liquid, which is known as DNAPL.  When the original chlorinated solvent liquid is lost into the subsurface, portions of it may volatilize and become a component of the air in the vadose zone (dry soil), dissolve into and become a component of the ground water, become adsorbed (molecularly bound or “stuck”) to individual soil particles, or remain as a liquid.

On December 20, 2006, President Bush signed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 into law.  The new law includes both an extension and an expansion of the Federal government’s Brownfields Tax Incentive.  Originally signed into law in August 1997, the Taxpayer Relief Act (Public Law 105-34) included a tax incentive to spur the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields in distressed urban and rural areas.  The new law extends the incentive to December 31, 2007 and makes it retroactive from December 31, 2005.  Under the Brownfields Tax Incentive, environmental cleanup costs are fully deductible in the year they are incurred, rather than having to be capitalized over a period of time, thus making redevelopment of brownfields more financially appealing.  The government estimates that approximately 8,000 brownfield properties will be returned to productive use, making the tax incentive a valuable tool for restoring brownfields and spurring economic growth.

In December 2006, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a final rule amending the requirements and deadlines for facilities subject to EPA’s Oil Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations.  The SPCC regulations require covered facilities to prevent, prepare for and respond to oil discharges.  The final rule will provide alternative compliance options for certain regulated facilities.

In particular, they clarified rules pertaining to facilities with smaller oil storage capacities, qualified oil-filled operational equipment, motive power containers, and certain vehicle fuel tanks and other on-board bulk oil storage containers.  EPA also removed sections of the rule that are not appropriate for facilities with animal fats and vegetable oils, and extended the compliance dates for farms.

The New Jersey State Department Of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has developed a new and more stringent standard for removing chromium waste from contaminated soil.

In a new effort to reduce and thwart the effects of toxic substances within New Jersey soil, sites designated to be developed for housing or educational facilities may not contain more than 20 parts per million of hexavalent chromium.  The previous standard had been 240 parts per million, which is still a safe level according to the NJDEP. However, the less hexavalent chromium present the better. Hexavalent chromium, commonly found where industrial production occurs, is recognized as a human carcinogen. Long term exposure to the compound has been found to cause lung cancer.  The chromium ore waste has been a problem for New Jersey, a large industrial state, for years. The new NJDEP standard would affect 184 sites in Hudson county, once a busy area for chromium ore refineries.  As Hudson county has seen a surge of redeveloment in the recent years, the standard of 20 parts per million in new developments will surely protect the health of current and future residents and the environment.

Due to concerns regarding contaminated recycled concrete being reused as fill, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) recently issued guidelines that require the characterization, via sampling and analysis, of concrete at all demolition and construction sites overseen by NJDEP’s Site Remediation and Waste Management Program (SRWMP). Concrete sampling and analysis is required when concrete is designated for either recycling or beneficial use. This characterization requirement applies to demolished buildings, concrete roadways and related structures such as sidewalks and curbing, and will have a significant impact on the cost and feasibility of a developer’s concrete reuse and recycling practices.

The NJDEP developed the concrete sampling and analysis guidelines to ensure that concrete which is reused or recycled is free of contamination and will not contaminate otherwise clean properties.

Due to recent contamination findings at a day care facility in Glouster County, New Jersey, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has begun inspecting 1,846 sites throughout the State that are suspected of containing contamination.  These sites were previously removed from the NJDEP list of Known Contaminated Sites, but as a result of the recent day care contamination case, have been reinstated, pending further review. 

Slated for inspection are the over 4,200 day care centers across the state, for any signs of contamination. “We will try to figure out which ones might be near some proximal risk and then go out and take a look at those,” said Irene Kropp, Assistant Commissioner for Site Remediation at the NJDEP.

The New York City Department of Buildings (NYCDOB) has issued new regulations pertaining to notifications to be made pursuant to earthwork permits. An earthwork permit is required for any type of work which consists of altering a foundation, new construction and the excavation and filling of soils or other earthen materials.

Those holding a permit for any type of earth work mentioned above may not begin work unless they notify the Department of Buildings within twenty-four to forty-eight hours before beginning work.  Permit holders must notify the NYCDOB by phone, fax or email and must state the date on which the work will begin.  If beginning work on a holiday or weekend, notification must be made on the last business day before the stated work date.  In the past, permit holders needed to only notify adjoining property owners within five days of start of construction or excavation. The regulation also calls for the permit holder to notify the Department of Buildings if work will not begin as scheduled.  Notification must be made no later than the day originally slated for the work to begin and a new date must be filed following the same guidelines as stated above.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) recently amended the site remediation Oversight Rule to accelerate the NJDEP review process for sites undergoing remediation.  As part of the newly enacted accelerated review, NJDEP is now requiring strict compliance with all technical and scheduling aspects of the site remediation rules and regulations.  Failure to comply with the strict compliance requirements could result in significant penalties.

While intended to accelerate and streamline the site remediation process, the amended Oversight Rule (commonly referred to as the “Grace Period Rules”) can trigger penalties that were previously rarely assessed by NJDEP.  In a departure from more lenient past procedures, NJDEP issues a Notice of Deficiency (NOD) to an applicant that submits reports that are not in full compliance with the remediation rules and regulations or fails to conduct required work.