ASSEMBLY, No. 1361

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblyman STUHLTRAGER

An Act concerning plans to prevent and respond to the discharge of certain hazardous substances at certain facilities and amending P.L.1976, c.141.

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

    1. Section 5 of P.L.1976, c.141 (C.58:10-23.11d) is amended to read as follows:

    5. Each owner or operator of a major facility shall submit to the department the following information:

    a. The number of barrels or another measurement of the storage capacity of the facility;

    b. Average daily throughput of the facility;

    c. A primary and contingency cleanup and removal plan which includes, but is not limited to, an inventory of:

    (1) The storage and transfer capacity of the facility;

    (2) The containment and removal equipment, including, but not limited to, vehicles, vessels, pumps, skimmers, booms, chemicals, and communication devices, to which the facility has access through direct ownership or by contract or membership in a discharge cleanup organization recognized by the department, as well as the time lapse following a discharge which precedes such access;

    (3) The trained personnel which are required and available to operate such containment and removal equipment and the time lapse following a discharge which precedes such availability;

    (4) All equipment and trained personnel used or employed in any capacity at the facility to prevent discharges of hazardous substances;

    (5) The terms of agreement and operation plan of any discharge cleanup organization to which the owner or operator of the facility belongs;

    (6) The type and amount of hazardous substances transferred, refined, processed or stored at the facility;

    (7) A map of environmentally sensitive areas in the immediate geographical area of the major facility that may be impacted by a discharge of a hazardous substance from that facility. The map shall be accompanied by a narrative describing any particular seasonal variations of environmental concern in those areas or in the general area of the major facility;

    d. The steps taken to insure prevention of a discharge;

    e. The source, nature of, and conditions of financial responsibility;

    f. The department shall promulgate rules and regulations, as provided in section 21 of this act, establishing standards for the availability of preventative, cleanup and removal procedures, personnel and equipment at any major facility with a total combined above-ground or buried storage capacity of 400,000 gallons or more of hazardous substances, as well as requiring the formulation of cleanup and removal plans for each such major facility, where such plans are not required by existing Federal statute, rule or regulation. Compliance with such standards and plans shall not be deemed a defense in addition to the defenses enumerated in subsection d. of section 8 of this act.

    g. The information, and any updates to that information, required to be submitted to the department pursuant to this section shall be made reasonably available for public inspection. Any person, upon inspecting the information, may submit written comments to the department concerning any deficiency in that information. Upon review of the written comments, the department may require the owner or operator of the major facility to submit additional information in response to the written comments.

(cf: P.L.1980, c.73, s.2)

    2. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill requires that owners and operators of major facilities, as defined under the "Spill Compensation and Control Act," as part of their discharge cleanup and removal plans, to provide maps to the department on environmentally sensitive areas in the immediate geographical area that may be impacted by a discharge of a hazardous substance from that facility. Additionally, information on environmentally significant seasonal variations, either in those areas or elsewhere in the area, would accompany those maps. This information will allow the owner or operator to take measures to protect environmentally sensitive areas in the event of a discharge.

    This bill also provides for public comment on any discharge cleanup and removal plan or discharge prevention, containment and countermeasure plans submitted to the Department of Environmental Protection pursuant to the "Spill Compensation and Control Act." The department may than request the owner or operator of a major facility to submit additional information to respond to those public comments. Because members of the public often possess information valuable to the preparation and implementation of these plans, allowing for public comment may result in changes to these plans resulting in safer operations and better cleanups in the event of a discharge.

    The need for this bill became obvious after a recent discharge of fuel oil into the Arthur Kill from an Exxon pipeline. Initial responders to the discharge used environmentally sensitive wetlands as containment areas for the oil subjecting those areas to greater environmental damage. Had maps of environmentally sensitive areas been made part of the cleanup plans this mistake would not have occurred. Additionally, members of the public possessed information, which if part of the plan, would have made the cleanup environmentally safer.

Provides for mapping of environmentally sensitive areas as part of discharge cleanup and removal plans and provides for public participation.