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New Jersey state auditors have determined during the last 10 years the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has failed to collect approximately $10 million in fees assessed to owners of contaminated properties that underwent state monitored cleanups throughout the state.  The properties range from small residential properties to large industrial properties.

In an effort to reform its Site Remediation Program and to collect outstanding fees, the NJDEP plans to send out approximately 5,000 letters to delinquent property owners in early 2007.  Most of the delinquent fees are minor, amounting to less than $1,000.  The fees were assessed for NJDEP oversight of property cleanups.  Some of the fees were assessed as far back as the 1990s, and remain unpaid because the NJDEP did not follow up on initial billings or require payment prior to issuance of a No Further Action (NFA) letter.

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has issued an Enforcement Alert for new record keeping requirements and rules for emergency generators effective March 7, 2007. Any facility that operates an emergency generator with a rated capacity larger then 37 kilowatts (Kw) is affected by these changes even if no air pollution permit is required. A 37 Kw generator is equivalent to 50 horsepower and is typically used as emergency back up power at small businesses.

Any owner or operator of an emergency generator with a maximum rated output of 37 Kw is required to maintain on site a logbook or computer data system with the following records:

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has proposed new soil remediation standards. The Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act (”Brownfields Act”) directs the Department to adopt minimum remediation standards for soil, ground water and surface water necessary for the remediation of contaminated sites.

Polychlorinated biphenyls, more commonly known as PCBs, are so hazardous that the United States government banned their usage in 1977.  Most people associate PCBs with oils used to cool industrial electrical transformers, and do not realize that some common caulking materials used in American buildings contained PCBs, until they were banned in the late 1970s.  The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), considers PCBs found in concentrations greater than fifty (50) ppm as hazardous.

The existence of PCBs-based caulking materials in American buildings of all types and sizes is fairly common, with one study by the Harvard School of Public Health finding PCBs-based caulking materials that exceed the USEPA fifty (50) ppm limit in one-third of the buildings examined.  Furthermore, the study found elevated PCBs levels in air samples both within the rooms of the buildings that contained PCBs-based caulking materials and the building’s ventilation systems.