Although the Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA) will not have a dramatic impact on the Industrial Site Recovery Act (ISRA) program as it does with the remediation process in general, SRRA has not left the ISRA program untouched. SRRA has added some additional options with respect to ISRA compliance.
Remediation Certification
The most significant new addition to ISRA is the opportunity to use a Remediation Certification, rather than a Remediation Agreement (formerly an Administrative Consent Order), to close a transaction prior to achieving ISRA compliance. » Read the rest of this entry «
If things go according to NJDEP’s plans, all but a handful of sites will proceed through remediation at a much faster pace under the direction of newly minted Licensed Site Remediation Professionals (LSRPs) and without intervention by NJDEP (except through performance of the occasional audit). LSRPs will meet mandatory time frames, implement LSRP-selected remedies or any presumptive remedies, where applicable, and issue the Response Action Outcome (RAO) confirming that remediation is complete. In a few circumstances, however, NJDEP will remain involved in and have direct oversight of the remediation process. SRRA makes that oversight mandatory in certain cases. In other cases, NJDEP will be able to assume direct oversight at its discretion. 
The No Further Action Letter or NFA is a familiar document to the regulated community and its lenders in New Jersey. A certain comfort level has developed over time with the NFA issued by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). As with any new regulatory concept, the introduction of the Response Action Outcome (RAO) issued by a newly permitted Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) will undoubtedly cause some initial concern. 
Currently, the majority of persons that have responsibility for remediating contaminated sites engage one or more independent environmental consultants to perform the actual remediation work and to provide technical advice and support when dealing with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). Now, pursuant to SRRA, “persons responsible for conducting remediation” (PRCR) (i.e., the client) are required to hire a Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) (i.e., the client’s environmental consultant) to oversee and approve the remediation. Already, some environmental consulting firms are working on having their employees licensed as LSRPs and soon some PRCRs may discover that environmental consultants they currently employ have become LSRPs. A newly constituted Site Remediation Professional Licensing Board (Board) will regulate the conduct of LSRPs and insure their compliance with the many provisions of SRRA intended to guide or govern LSRPs’ decision-making. The new LSRP program raises several issues concerning how the relationship between PRCRs and the environmental consultants they hire will look going forward: 
Eventually, the requirement to hire an Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) pursuant to the Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA) will apply to virtually everyone conducting a remediation. Moreover, an LSRP cannot be a salaried employee of the person responsible for conducting remediation, so the LSRP must be someone outside the company. The time for hiring an LSRP depends on your circumstances:
The investigation and clean up of contaminated sites in New Jersey will never be the same. Gov. Jon S. Corzine’s May 7, 2009, adoption of the Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA) started a new chapter in the state’s environmental regulatory history. Under SRRA, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) takes on a significantly reduced level of direct oversight with respect to the vast majority of cleanups. In such cases, the NJDEP will no longer be issuing No Further Action letters, or (NFAs). Rather, qualified private consultants will be authorized as Licensed Site Remediation Professionals (LSRPs), and these professionals will conduct and approve the cleanup of the contaminated sites. LSRPs will issue Response Action Outcomes, or (RAOs), to certify completion of the investigation and cleanup of a contaminated site in accordance with state standards. Each LSRP’s work product and approved RAOs may be subject to an audit by the NJDEP and a newly formed Licensed Site Remediation Professional Board and its NJDEP staff. 
Under current law, a municipality may issue a new plenary retail consumption license to a person who operates a hotel or motel containing 100 guest sleeping rooms. Newly adopted legislation now prohibits a municipality from requiring a minimum bid of more than $25,000 plus $50 per sleeping room for the issuance of the license if the dining facilities of the hotel or motel are regularly and principally used to provide only meals for catered events and breakfast for guests of the hotel or motel. The new legislation also clarifies that its provisions are not to be construed to prohibit a municipality from requiring a minimum bid for the issuance of a license to a hotel or motel that uses its dining facilities for purposes other than the provision of meals for catered events and breakfast for guests.
