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58:10B-1. Definitions.
23. As used in sections 23 through 43 and section 45 of P.L.1993, c.139 (C.58:10B-1 et seq.), as may be amended and supplemented:
~Area of concern~ means any location where contaminants are or were known or suspected to have been discharged, generated, manufactured, refined, transported, stored, handled, treated, or disposed, or where contaminants have or may have migrated;
~Authority~ means the New Jersey Economic Development Authority established pursuant to P.L.1974, c.80 (C.34:1B-1 et seq.);
~Brownfield development area~ means an area that has been so designated by the department, in writing, pursuant to the provisions of section 7 of P.L.2005, c.223 (C.58:10B-25.1);
~Brownfield site~ means any former or current commercial or industrial site that is currently vacant or underutilized and on which there has been, or there is suspected to have been, a discharge of a contaminant;
~Contamination~ or ~contaminant~ means any discharged hazardous substance as defined pursuant to section 3 of P.L.1976, c.141 (C.58:10-23.11b), hazardous waste as defined pursuant to section 1 of P.L.1976, c.99 (C.13:1E-38), or pollutant as defined pursuant to section 3 of P.L.1977, c.74 (C.58:10A-3);
~Department~ means the Department of Environmental Protection;
~Discharge~ means an intentional or unintentional action or omission resulting in the releasing, spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping of a contaminant onto the land or into the waters of the State;
~Engineering controls~ means any mechanism to contain or stabilize contamination or ensure the effectiveness of a remedial action. Engineering controls may include, without limitation, caps, covers, dikes, trenches, leachate collection systems, signs, fences and physical access controls;
~Environmental opportunity zone~ has the meaning given that term pursuant to section 3 of P.L.1995, c.413 (C.54:4-3.152);
~Financial assistance~ means loans or loan guarantees;
~Institutional controls~ means a mechanism used to limit human activities at or near a contaminated site, or to ensure the effectiveness of the remedial action over time, when contaminants remain at a contaminated site in levels or concentrations above the applicable remediation standard that would allow unrestricted use of that property. Institutional controls may include, without limitation, structure, land, and natural resource use restrictions, well restriction areas, and deed notices;
~Limited restricted use remedial action~ means any remedial action that requires the continued use of institutional controls but does not require the use of an engineering control;
~No further action letter~ means a written determination by the department that based upon an evaluation of the historical use of a particular site, or of an area of concern or areas of concern at that site, as applicable, and any other investigation or action the department deems necessary, there are no discharged contaminants present at the site, at the area of concern or areas of concern, at any other site to which a discharge originating at the site has migrated, or that any discharged contaminants present at the site or that have migrated from the site have been remediated in accordance with applicable remediation regulations;
~Person~ means an individual, corporation, company, partnership, firm, or other private business entity;
~Preliminary assessment~ means the first phase in the process of identifying areas of concern and determining whether contaminants are or were present at a site or have migrated or are migrating from a site, and shall include the initial search for and evaluation of, existing site specific operational and environmental information, both current and historic, to determine if further investigation concerning the documented, alleged, suspected or latent discharge of any contaminant is required. The evaluation of historic information shall be conducted from 1932 to the present, except that the department may require the search for and evaluation of additional information relating to ownership and use of the site prior to 1932 if such information is available through diligent inquiry of the public records;
~Recreation and conservation purposes~ means the use of lands for beaches, biological or ecological study, boating, camping, fishing, forests, greenways, hunting, natural areas, parks, playgrounds, protecting historic properties, water reserves, watershed protection, wildlife preserves, active sports, or a similar use for either public outdoor recreation or conservation of natural resources, or both;
~Remedial action~ means those actions taken at a site or offsite if a contaminant has migrated or is migrating therefrom, as may be required by the department, including the removal, treatment, containment, transportation, securing, or other engineering or treatment measures, whether to an unrestricted use or otherwise, designed to ensure that any discharged contaminant at the site or that has migrated or is migrating from the site, is remediated in compliance with the applicable health risk or environmental standards;
~Remedial action workplan~ means a plan for the remedial action to be undertaken at a site, or at any area to which a discharge originating at a site is migrating or has migrated; a description of the remedial action to be used to remediate a site; a time schedule and cost estimate of the implementation of the remedial action; and any other information the department deems necessary;
~Remedial investigation~ means a process to determine the nature and extent of a discharge of a contaminant at a site or a discharge of a contaminant that has migrated or is migrating from the site and the problems presented by a discharge, and may include data collected, site characterization, sampling, monitoring, and the gathering of any other sufficient and relevant information necessary to determine the necessity for remedial action and to support the evaluation of remedial actions if necessary;
~Remediation~ or ~remediate~ means all necessary actions to investigate and clean up or respond to any known, suspected, or threatened discharge of contaminants, including, as necessary, the preliminary assessment, site investigation, remedial investigation, and remedial action, provided, however, that ~remediation~ or ~remediate~ shall not include the payment of compensation for damage to, or loss of, natural resources;
~Remediation fund~ means the Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund established pursuant to section 26 of P.L.1993, c.139 (C.58:10B-4);
~Remediation funding source~ means the methods of financing the remediation of a discharge required to be established by a person performing the remediation pursuant to section 25 of P.L.1993, c.139 (C.58:10B-3);
~Remediation standards~ means the combination of numeric standards that establish a level or concentration, and narrative standards to which contaminants must be treated, removed, or otherwise cleaned for soil, groundwater, or surface water, as provided by the department pursuant to section 35 of P.L.1993, c.139 (C.58:10B-12) in order to meet the health risk or environmental standards;
~Restricted use remedial action~ means any remedial action that requires the continued use of engineering and institutional controls in order to meet the established health risk or environmental standards;
~Site investigation~ means the collection and evaluation of data adequate to determine whether or not discharged contaminants exist at a site or have migrated or are migrating from the site at levels in excess of the applicable remediation standards. A site investigation shall be developed based upon the information collected pursuant to the preliminary assessment;
~Unrestricted use remedial action~ means any remedial action that does not require the continued use of engineering or institutional controls in order to meet the established health risk or environmental standards;
~Voluntarily perform a remediation~ means performing a remediation without having been ordered or directed to do so by the department or by a court and without being compelled to perform a remediation pursuant to the provisions of P.L.1983, c.330 (C.13:1K-6 et al.).
L.1993,c.139,s.23; amended 1997, c.278, s.9; 2001, c.154, s.3; 2005, c.223, s.1.
58:10B-1.1. Short title
1. Sections 23 through 43 and section 45 of P.L.1993, c.139 (C.58:10B-1 et seq.), as may be amended and supplemented, shall be known and may be cited as the ~Brownfield and Contaminated Site Remediation Act.~
L.1997,c.278,s.1.
58:10B-1.2. Findings, declarations relative to remediation of contaminated sites
2. The Legislature finds and declares that due to New Jersey@s industrial history, large areas in the State@s urban and suburban areas formerly used for commercial and industrial purposes are underused or abandoned; that many of these properties, often referred to as brownfields, are contaminated with hazardous substances and pose a health risk to the nearby residents and a threat to the environment; and that these sites can be a blight to the neighborhood and a financial drain on a municipality because they have no productive use, and fail to generate property taxes and jobs. The Legislature further finds that often there are legal, financial, technical, and institutional impediments to the efficient and cost-effective cleanup of brownfield sites as well as all other contaminated sites wherever they may be. The Legislature finds and declares that the State needs to ensure that the public health and safety and the environment are protected from the risks posed by contaminated sites and that strict standards coupled with a risk based and flexible regulatory system will result in more cleanups and thus the elimination of the public@s exposure to these hazardous substances and the environmental degradation that contamination causes.
The Legislature therefore declares that strict remediation standards are necessary to protect public health and safety and the environment; that these standards should be adopted based upon the risk posed by discharged hazardous substances; that unrestricted remedies for contaminated sites are preferable and the State must adopt policies that encourage their use; that institutional and engineering controls should be allowed only when the public health risk and environmental protection standards are met; and that in order to encourage the cleanup of contaminated sites, there must be finality in the process, the provision of financial incentives, liability protection for innocent parties who clean up, cleanup procedures that are cost effective and regulatory action that is timely and efficient.
L.1997, c.278,s.2.
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