On Tuesday, March 17th, the Assembly and House passed a bill for a new professional program in New Jersey designed to speed up the clean-up of contaminated sites around the State by establishing a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP).  The goal of the program is to reduce the State’s backlog of open cleanup cases and boost site redevelopment.  The bill gives private-practice professionals who have met certain standards established by an advisory board the authority to certify that clean-up projects have met all State requirements.  A percentage of the closure opinions or findings will be audited by DEP and not all sites qualify for closure by an LSRP. 
     The LSRP will have limited, carefully bracketed authority to issue a No Further Action letter/opinion or similar closure “approval” known as a Remedial Action Outcome or RAO for a site where a release has occurred and has been properly investigated and remediated.  Similar programs are in place in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ohio (as well as other states) and have been successful in significantly reducing case backlogs and in spurring Brownfield redevelopment.  The bill contains safeguards against abuse of the program and to ensure that licensed professionals are acting in the public interest.  It requires the licensees to meet rigorous standards and adhere to a strict code of conduct to protect against conflicts of interest.  The bill also creates an independent licensing board which is given strong enforcement authority over conduct and ethical standards.  And finally, the bill requires that the most polluted priority sites remain subject to DEP approval only, and would not fall under the provisions of the LSRP program.
      By establishing a LSRP program, more clean-up projects can get underway, while allowing DEP staff to make sure those clean-ups will be performed in accordance with all environmental standards.  Managers at EWMA are qualified to become LSRPs and will be participating in the temporary licensing plan called for in this groundbreaking piece of legislation.  We are following the progress of the bill very closely and will advise when the Governor has signed it into law.