On November 17, 2017, Baron Environmental attended the 16th Annual Regulatory Update Conference hosted by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA). Commissioner Bob Martin opened the conference by discussing permit coordination between enforcement and permitting in the various sectors. He touched on regulatory reform including permit cleanup and making more permits and permit applications available online. The Commissioner praised the Hurricane Sandy cleanup progress as well as the various coastal project systems that have started as a result.
Below is a short summary of topics we feel were most relevant that were discussed during the meeting:
Site Remediation and the Waste Management Program
Mark Pedersen, Assistant Commissioner - Site Remediation discussed the progress made on the amount of active, new, and closed cases between 2011 and 2016. There has been much compliance assistance and many cases that were able to be rectified without enforcement’s involvement. Enforcement initiatives and technical guidance documents are available on the site remediation guidance library webpage (www.nj.gov/dep/srp/).
Compliance & Enforcement
Ray Bukowski, Assistant Commissioner - Compliance and Enforcement spoke on Compliance & Enforcement updates, which included discussing Rich Paul who will soon be moving from Chief of the Northern Bureau office to become the director of Compliance & Enforcement by mid December. A pilot of electronic notice of violation (E-NOV) was launched late summer 2017 and has allowed for faster compliance and increased discussions with companies to resolve issues.
Richelle Wormley, Director - Air Compliance and Enforcement presented on the ongoing push to have cross media training for air inspectors to be able to inspect other aspects of environmental departments while on a site as well as for permit writers and inspectors to have the same knowledge of permits and on site operations in order to make compliance for facilities easier for everyone.
Mike Hastry – Director Division of Waste Enforcement, Pesticides and Release Prevention reviewed the new hazardous waste generator improvements rule, which includes:
Reorganization of regulations, so they are all under 40 CFR 262
Consolidation of Very Small Quantity Generator (VSQG) waste to a Large Quantity Generator (LQG) if within the same company
LQG’s can get a waiver from a fire marshal for the 50-foot requirement if other precautions are in place
Episodic Generation is allowed once per calendar year for facilities to clean out their warehouses of large amounts of hazardous waste and maintain their existing waste generator category.
All LGQs are required to have a Quick Reference Guide in their Contingency Plans.
Hazardous containers must now indicate the hazards of the container contents.
Small Quantity Generators (SQG) must re-notify the DEP every 4 years that they will remain a SQG. This is to start sometime in 2021.
LQGs must notify the DEP and EPA of their closure if they fail to have a clean closure of the site.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
The Office of Dispute Resolution can assist with resolution and communication between the regulated community and the DEP. The Office of Dispute Resolution acts as a neutral third party and offers mediation assistance on cases other than those that are disagreements between two parties, in which neither are the DEP and those that directly challenge a DEP regulation. For more information, please visit: www.nj.gov/dep/odr.
NJ Environmental Justice Projects and Initiatives –Regulatory Update
The DEP is currently piloting two initiatives to help achieve better compliance and communication between the public and regulated communities. A multi-lingual hotline is currently being piloted through its toll-free 24-hour hotline number (1-877-WARN- DEP) in order to make it more accessible to everyone. This phone number can be used to report environmental incidents in New Jersey including illegal dumping, illegal discharges, odors, etc. The DEP is also piloting an automatic email notification system to better reach the community and provide information on permit activity including new permit applications.
Air Program
There have been some date updates regarding rule making & technical manuals that have been mentioned earlier in our blog article from the most recent ISG meeting (http://www.baronenv.com/single-post/2017/10/02/Quarterly-Industrial-Stakeholder-Group-meeting):
The CTG/NOx RACT rule update is operative as of 11/6/17
PM2.5/ Sulfur Startup, Shutdown, & Malfunction (SSM) rule update will be operative as of 12/9/17
Stage II/ t-butyl acetate (TBAC)/ Air Permitting rule update will be operative as of 12/23/17
Resiliency and Air Toxics has yet to be adopted and a date is TBD
New General Permits (GPs/ GOPs) were discussed and no updates were mentioned since the ISG meeting. Please visit our blog article from the most recent ISG meeting (http://www.baronenv.com/single-post/2017/10/02/Quarterly-Industrial-Stakeholder-Group-meeting) for details on the new general permits.