News / Blog
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy recently signed into law A-5293, or what is affectionately dubbed SRRA 2.0. While SRRA 2.0 essentially “tweaks” the current NJDEP regulatory scheme governing site remediation, the tweaks are nonetheless significant (and can be easily overlooked.)
If you are a current owner of a contaminated site or are considering purchasing a known (or suspected) contaminated property, you will need to pay attention to some of the key amendments contained in SRRA 2.0.
The Good news: SRRA 2.0 added a surety bond as a Remedial Funding Source (RFS) option. In many cases, a surety bond is a less costly option than the other RFS options, such as, posting all cash in a RFS Trust Fund account and/or a Letter of Credit.
More good news: If you find yourself in the dreaded Direct Oversight program (typically when a Person Responsible for Conducting Remediation, or PRCR, misses a regulatory deadline), SRRA 2.0 provides a few possible ways out—including (but not limited to) a demonstrated showing of “financial hardship that prevents the performance of the remediation due to the imposition of direct oversight.”
Beware: Sites that are in “Direct Oversight” now stay in “Direct Oversight” because SRRA 2.0 provides that Direct Oversight “runs with the land”- regardless of who now owns the property or whether there was a previous sale or transfer of the property.
Buyer Beware: SRRA 2.0 clarifies that only LSRPs can perform “remediation.” The language in SRRA 2.0 is unequivocal: “[A] person who is not a licensed site remediation professional shall not perform remediation unless the remediation is managed, supervised, or periodically reviewed and evaluated” by a LSRP. So if you require remediation on your site, make certain that you use a LSRP.
Don’t Be Surprised: SRRA 2.0 codified an increasingly more common enforcement approach by NJDEP: Enforcing provisions of SRRA in municipal court. So don’t be surprised (or think it’s a parking ticket) if you receive a summons to appear in municipal court for violations of the Spill Act (N.J.S.A. 58:1—23.11 et seq.)
These are just some of the key amendments contained in SRRA 2.0. If you are a current owner of a contaminated site or a considering purchasing a known (or suspected) contaminated property, please feel free to contact me with your questions.
