New Jersey § 13:1k-7

§ 13:1k-7.

The Legislature finds that discharges of toxic chemicals dating back to early industrialization

have left a legacy of contaminated industrial property in this State; that in 1983,

due to the growing public awareness and concern of the risks to the public health

and the environment and the potential costs to the State to clean up abandoned contaminated

sites, the “Environmental Cleanup and Responsibility Act” was enacted. The Legislature also finds that the act's imposition of a cleanup plan approval

before the transfer or upon the closing of an industrial establishment and the requirement

to establish a funding source for the cleanup are in the general public interest by

ensuring the discovery of contamination, by assuring that funding for cleanup is set

aside at the time it is available from a transfer or closing, and by assuring that

contaminated property is not abandoned to the State for cleanup. The Legislature further finds that at the time of the act's passage, the extent

of the State's industrial contamination and the cost and complexity of remediations

were not well understood; that in the intervening years, there has been a significant

advance in the body of knowledge concerning how to remediate contaminated sites effectively

and how to manage the remediation efficiently; that the regulated and financial communities

are now more familiar with the liabilities involving contaminated property and with

the necessity to discover and remediate that contamination; and that it is in the

interest of the environment and the State's economic health to promote certainty in

the regulatory process by incorporating that knowledge to create a more efficient

regulatory structure and to allow greater privatization of that process where it is

possible to do so without incurring unnecessary risks to the public health or the

environment. The Legislature therefore declares that it is the policy of this State to protect

the public health, safety, and the environment, to promote efficient and timely cleanups,

and to eliminate any unnecessary financial burden of remediating contaminated sites;

that these policies can be achieved by streamlining the regulatory process, by establishing

summary administrative procedures for industrial establishments that have previously

undergone an environmental review, and by reducing oversight of those industrial establishments

where less extensive regulatory review will ensure the same degree of protection to

public health, safety, and the environment; and that the new procedures established

pursuant to this act shall be designed to guard against redundancy from the regulatory

process and to minimize governmental involvement in certain business transactions.