USA – NEW JERSEY Trends and Developments Contributed by: Christina Sartorio Ku, Nicole Dory, Meredith Rubin and Camryn Goldstein, Connell Foley LLP
to include a spouse, domestic partner, partner in a civil union, child, parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, first cousin, grandparent, grandchild, father- in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, stepparent, stepchild, stepbrother, stepsister, half- brother, or half-sister, whether the individual is related by blood, marriage, or adoption. The state is thereaf- ter authorised to do a full background investigation of any of these identified individuals. It goes without saying that for many companies, and in particular for employee-owned corporations, this clearly would be extremely burdensome. Finally, despite the anticipated long and arduous appli- cation process for a new A-901 licence, the proposed rules leave it to the NJDEP’s discretion as to whether a company can continue their operations while waiting for an A-901 licence. While proposed in the beginning of 2025, these rules are currently expected to be adopted and take effect in early 2026. Amendments to Site Remediation Regulations In October 2024, the NJDEP also proposed new rules, repeals, and amendments to several of its site reme- diation regulations. The proposed changes codify and implement certain provisions in the amendment of the Site Remediation and Reform Act, commonly known as SRRA 2.0, which became effective on 23 August 2019. The proposed changes impact and amend a number of state regulations addressing site remedia- tion, including the Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA) Rules (N.J.A.C. 7:26B), the Administrative Require- ments for the Remediation of Contaminated Sites (N.J.A.C. 7:26C), the Technical Requirements for Site Remediation (N.J.A.C. 7:26E), and the Heating Oil Tank System Remediation Rules (N.J.A.C. 7:26F). One of the most critical proposed changes is a requirement for any person with knowledge of a spill or discharge of hazardous substances to notify both the NJDEP and the property owner. This is a dras- tic change from the current regulations, which only require such reporting from current property own- ers or operators or their Licensed Site Remediation Professionals of record. In fact, the new requirement would even apply in the context of environmental due
diligence, which could then potentially result in costly lingering investigative and remedial obligations on the property owner, even if the potential buyer walks away from the transaction. Other significant changes in the proposed amend- ments include the following. • Expansion of the scope of notice required to be provided by site owners/operators in response to public inquiries. Specifically, a person responsible for conducting remediation on site would now be required to provide either documents responsive to the public inquiry or a written summary status report for the remediation. • Expansion of the definition of “immediate envi- ronmental concern” to include migration of con- tamination into unoccupied structures. However, proposed amendments to other regulations would exempt unoccupied structures from remediation requirements applicable to immediate environmen- tal concerns. • Amendments to regulations governing the estab- lishment of remediation funding sources, includ- ing how and when those sources may be used, dispersed, and released. • Introduction of new remedial action permit types (Permit I, Permit II, Permit III, Permit IV, and Permit V), expansion of remedial action permits to indoor air, and changes allowing for the combination of all impacted media into a single remedial action permit with one biennial certification schedule. • Introduction of new institutional controls for indoor air called an “indoor air notification area”. • Introduction of “annulment” of Response Action Outcomes (RAO) for instances when an LSRP is no longer available to make changes to an RAO, and “revocation” of a remedial action permit when the site has been brought into compliance with the applicable standards. • Prohibition of the use of extrapolation or modelling in the delineation of contamination. These rule proposals and amendments are expected to be adopted and made effective in early 2026.
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