[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 665

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

 

 

By Assemblymen BAGGER and WEINGARTEN

 

 

An Act creating the Upper Rahway River Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee and supplementing Title 58 of the Revised Statutes.

 

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the "Upper Rahway River Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee Act."

 

    2. The Legislature finds and declares that the upper Rahway river is an important natural, recreational, and economic resource utilized and enjoyed by the citizens of the State; that the value of this resource is heavily dependent upon water quality, and poor water quality is a potential threat to the public health, safety, and welfare, and to the environment; that the river has suffered in the past, and continues to suffer, from abuse and neglect due to point and nonpoint source pollution discharges, stormwater runoff, illegal dumping of litter and other debris, and other environmental and aesthetic insults.

    The Legislature therefore determines that it is appropriate for the municipalities and counties within which the upper Rahway river is located to form an intergovernmental cooperative working group to (1) develop recommended regional planning strategies and other regional policies, procedures, and model ordinances and resolutions, which would be implemented by each member municipality and county on a voluntary basis, (2) where appropriate, coordinate efforts of member municipalities and counties to clean up the upper Rahway river system or any tributary or watershed land thereof, (3) recommend appropriate State legislation and administrative action, and (4) advocate, and where appropriate, act as a coordinating, distributing, or recipient agency for, federal and State funding of environmental protection projects in river municipalities and river counties, all for the purpose of achieving the State goal of fully restoring, promoting, preserving, and maintaining the environmental health and water quality of the upper Rahway river system.

 

    3. As used in this act:

    "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Environmental Protection.

    "Committee" means the "Upper Rahway River Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee" created pursuant to section 4 of this act.

    "Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection.

    "Environmental protection project" means any work the purpose of which is to reduce point or nonpoint source pollution discharges, stormwater runoff, illegal dumping of litter and other debris, and other environmental and aesthetic insults to the upper Rahway river system, or to otherwise maintain or enhance the environmental health and water quality of the upper Rahway river system or any tributary or watershed land thereof.

    "River counties" means Union county and Essex county.

    "River municipalities" means the Union county municipalities of Clark, Cranford, Garwood, Kenilworth, Mountainside, Rahway, Springfield, Summit, Union, Westfield, and Winfield, the Essex county municipalities of Maplewood, Millburn, Orange, South Orange, and West Orange, and any other Union or Essex county municipality that chooses to participate, and is accepted, as a member of the committee as provided in section 4 of this act.

 

    4. a. There is created the "Upper Rahway River Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee," which shall be composed of: (1) a representative of each river municipality, who shall be selected by the governing body of that municipality and who shall be a voting member of the committee; (2) a representative of Union county, who shall be selected by the governing body of that county and who shall be a voting member of the committee; (3) a representative of Essex county, who shall be selected by the 1[governing body] county executive1 of that county and who shall be a voting member of the committee; and (4) the commissioner, or the commissioner's designee, who shall serve ex officio and who shall be a nonvoting member of the committee.

    Any municipality in Union county or Essex county that is not a river municipality may, through its governing body, request membership, with full voting privileges, on the committee. Such membership shall be granted upon a majority vote of the voting membership of the committee.

    b. Vacancies in the positions on the committee shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointments were made.

    c. Members of the committee shall serve without compensation, but may, within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the committee, be reimbursed for actual expenses necessarily incurred in the discharge of their official duties.

    d. A member of the committee may be removed at any time for any reason by the municipal or county governing body, 1or the county executive,1 as the case may be, that appointed that member.

 

    5. a. The committee shall organize as soon as may be practicable after the appointment of its members and shall select a chairperson and a vice-chairperson from among its members. The department shall provide technical and planning assistance to the committee.

    b. A majority of the voting membership of the committee shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of committee business. Action may be taken and motions and resolutions adopted by the committee at any meeting thereof by the affirmative vote of a majority of the full voting membership of the committee.

    c. The committee shall meet regularly as it may determine, and shall also meet at the call of the chairperson of the committee, the commissioner, or the Governor.

 

    6. In order to facilitate achievement of the State goal, as set forth in this act, to fully restore, promote, preserve, and maintain the environmental health and water quality of the upper Rahway river system, the committee shall:

    a. develop recommended regional planning strategies and other regional policies, procedures, and model ordinances and resolutions, which would be implemented by each member municipality and county on a voluntary basis;

    b. where appropriate, coordinate efforts of member municipalities and counties to clean up the upper Rahway river system or any tributary or watershed land thereof;

    c. recommend appropriate State legislation and administrative action; and

    d. advocate, and where appropriate, act as a coordinating, distributing, or recipient agency for, federal and State funding of environmental protection projects in river municipalities and river counties, which projects may include the work of the committee.

 

    7. The committee shall be entitled to call to its assistance and avail itself of the services of such employees of any State, county, or municipal department, board, bureau, commission, agency, or authority as it may require and as may be available to it for the purpose of carrying out its duties under this act, and to employ such staff or experts and incur such traveling and other miscellaneous expenses as it may deem necessary in order to perform its duties, and as may be within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available to it for those purposes.

 

    8. The meetings of the committee shall be subject to the provisions and requirements of the "Open Public Meetings Act," P.L.1975, c.231 (C.10:4-6 et seq.).

 

    9. a. The committee shall report its findings and conclusions, together with any recommendations for legislation or administrative action to abate environmental threats to the upper Rahway river system or to otherwise further the State goal to fully restore, promote, preserve, and maintain the environmental health and water quality of that river system, to the Governor, the Legislature, and the commissioner within one year after the date of enactment of this act and periodically as necessary thereafter.

    b. The committee shall dissolve ten years after the date of enactment of this act unless the voting membership of the committee unanimously votes to continue its existence. Thereafter, such a vote shall be held annually, and failing the receipt of a unanimous vote of the voting membership to continue the existence of the committee for another year, the committee shall thereupon dissolve.

 

    10. This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

 

Creates Upper Rahway River Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee.