SENATE, No. 313

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Senator SCOTT

An Act concerning the environmental regulation of small businesses and supplementing Title 13 of the Revised Statutes.

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

    1. The Legislature finds that there is a pressing need to provide economic relief to small businesses within the State of New Jersey from certain overburdensome environmental regulatory requirements; that regulations imposing burdens on industry such as financial assurances for remediations or as part of discharge prevention, countermeausre, and containment plans have questionable utility and needlessly restricts the use of capital rather than allowing the capital to be used to create jobs; and that it is appropriate to exempt certain small business from various overlyburdensome environmental regulations.

    2. As used in this act:

    "Small business" means any independently owned and operated private sector business;

    (1) That has 150 employees or less defined in terms of full time equivalent workers, that is 2080 hours (52 weeks/years x 40 hours/week) of employment per year. The number of individuals employed to achieve this level is inconsequential. A business which provides less than 312,000 hours of employment (150 x 2080 hours) in a calendar year meets the employment criterion, or

    (2) A manufacturer whose sales are less than $100,000,000 per year including any parent, affiliate and subsidiary corporations.

    3. Nothwithstanding any other law, regulation, rule, order, or agreement to the contrary, a small business shall be exempt from the compliance with the following requirements:

    a. The preparation of pollution prevention plans, plan summaries and plan progress reports pursuant to the "Pollution Prevention Act," P.L.1991, c.235 (C.13:1D-35 et seq.). The provisions of this subsection do not apply to the identification of a voluntary goal of use reductions as appropriate;

    b. The preparation of mapping of environmentally sensitive areas subject to the "Spill Compensation and Control Act," P.L.1976, c.141 (C.58:10-23.11 et seq.), or any other law;

    c. The requirement of obtaining financial assurance whether through insurance means or through the posting of a financial obligation under the "Spill Compensation and Control Act," P.L.1976, c.141 (C.58:10-23.11 et seq.) or the "Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act," P.L.1983, c.330 (C.13:1K-6 et seq.). The provisions of this subsection do not apply to any requirement to obtain financial assurance that is required by federal law or by any administrative order issued by any state agency;

    d. The preparation and submission of any report, filing, or information, pursuant to any law administred by the Department of Environmental Protection or regualtion adopted by the department, unless the report, filing, or information is specifically required by federal law.

    4. Nothwithstanding any other law, regulation, rule, order, or agreement to the contrary, a small business shall not be required to pay any one or more fees to the Department of Environmental Protection, that individually or cumulatively exceeds $15,000 in any one calendar year.

    5. Nothwithstanding any other law, regulation, rule, order, or agreement to the contrary, a small business that has been assessed or ordered to pay an administrative penalty, a civil penalty, an assessment, fine, or cost by the Department of Environmental Protection, or by a court for the violation of any law that is administered by the Department of Environmental Protection, shall have that portion of the administrative penalty, civil penalty, assessment, fine, or cost, that is in excess of $15,000 reduced by 50% and the entire amount paid by the small business shall be collected by the State and deposited into the General Fund.

    6. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill exempts small businesses from certain overburdensome environmental laws and regulations, including certain plan preparations required pursuant to the "Pollution Prevention Act," mapping requirements pursuant to the "Spill Compensation Control Act," financial assurance requirements pursuant to the "Spill Compensation Control Act" or the "Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act," and from any submission requirements of any State law.

    As used in the bill, a "small business" means a private sector business that either has less than 150 employees or that is a manufacturer and has annual sales of less than $100 million.

Exempts certain small businesses from certain environmental laws and regulations.