ASSEMBLY, No. 2650
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
INTRODUCED JANUARY 9, 1997
By Assemblyman CORODEMUS
An Act concerning the remediation of contaminated sites and making an appropriation.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. There is appropriated from the special account in the General Fund created pursuant to Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution, to the Department of Environmental Protection, the sum of $12,000,000. This money shall be used by the department only for paying or financing the costs incurred by the State for the remediation of discharges of hazardous substances, including the cost of performing necessary operation and maintenance activities relating to remedial actions, and the cost of providing alternative sources of public or private water supplies when a water supply has been, or is suspected of being, contaminated by a discharge of a hazardous substance.
b. Of the moneys appropriated pursuant to subsection a. of this section, not more than $2,160,000 may be expended by the Department of Environmental Protection for the direct program administrative costs relating to the purposes for which the money may be expended pursuant to subsection a. of this section. No moneys appropriated pursuant to subsection a. of this section may be expended for any indirect administrative costs of the department. The expenditure of moneys appropriated pursuant to this section is limited by the provisions of Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution.
2. a. The Department of Environmental Protection shall for each fiscal year develop a project priority list for publicly funded site remediation projects and a financial plan for the department's responsible party site remediation program and the publicly funded site remediation program. The project priority list and financial plan shall be submitted to the Legislature on or before January 15 of 1998 and each year thereafter on a day when both Houses are meeting. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the General Assembly shall cause the date of submission to be entered upon the Senate Journal and the Minutes of the General Assembly, respectively, and shall cause copies of the documents to be submitted to the relevant legislative committees for their consideration and review.
b. The project priority list shall consist of a list of site remediation projects to be funded by the State in the next fiscal year, including sites for which the State will provide the State share for money provided by the federal government. The list shall include a description of each project and its purpose, impact, cost, priority ranking, and construction schedule. For each project to be funded the list shall estimate the capital costs involved, the operational and maintenance costs, the cost of any work that will be performed pursuant to contract, and the State administrative costs associated with the project.
c. The financial plan shall contain:
(1) the anticipated capital, contractual, operational and maintenance, administrative, and other expenses of the department related to both the responsible party and publicly funded site remediation programs within the department and the anticipated number of site remediation projects to be funded by the private sector for which the department will provide oversight;
(2) a summary of the various funding sources to be used for each project including any bond funds, general funds, monies dedicated pursuant to Article VIII, Section II, paragraph 6 of the New Jersey Constitution, moneys from the "New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund" established pursuant to the "Spill Compensation and Control Act," P.L. 1976, c.141 (C. 58:10-23.11 et seq.), moneys derived from fees, charges, or from cost recovery actions, federal funds, responsible party financing, or any other source of funding;
(3) a summary of the revenue sources for the site remediation program within the Department of Environmental Protection and the proposed expenditure of funds from each of the revenue sources, including the amount from each revenue source to be used for direct administrative costs, indirect administrative costs, fringe benefit costs, project expenditures, operation and maintenance, federal matches, and other costs incurred by the site remediation program;
(4) an explanation of the method used by the department to determine the allocation of expenditures from the various revenue sources; and
(5) a list of all job titles in the Department of Environmental Protection and other State departments and agencies funded in whole or in part by the revenue sources of the site remediation program.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
In November, 1996 the voters of the State of New Jersey overwhelmingly supported an amendment to the Constitution to dedicate moneys, on an annual basis, for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. The voters recognized the essential nature of this type of State activity and fully supported the State's efforts to cleanup these sites.
This bill would begin the implementation of the public's will by appropriating the first of the dedicated moneys to the Department of Environmental Protection for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. This bill appropriates $12 million for those purposes which sum represents one half of the moneys constitutionally dedicated for hazardous waste cleanups. Only one half of the money is being appropriated because the constitutional dedication was enacted in the middle of the fiscal year. This sum will double in the next fiscal year when the constitutionally dedicated moneys will be collected for an entire year. Of the sum appropriated in this bill, only $2,160,000 may be used for the direct administrative costs of the State which are those costs directly related to the operation of the publicly funded site remediation program. The State may not use any of this money for indirect costs, which includes fringe benefit costs and any other costs not directly related to the cleanup program.
The bill also requires the department to submit annual project priority lists and financial plans to the Legislature so that the Legislature can better exercise its oversight function. The project priority list is also necessary because the Legislature needs to make annual appropriations to the department from the moneys that have been constitutionally dedicated.
Appropriates dedicated funds for publicly funded site remediation program; requires certain information be submitted by DEP.