SENATE RESOLUTION No. 52

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED JUNE 3, 1996

By Senator CODEY

A Senate Resolution requesting the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee to maintain the Bureau of Emergency Response in the Department of Environmental Protection at its Fiscal Year 1996 budget and staffing level.

Whereas, The Bureau of Emergency Response in the Department of Environmental Protection is the front-line State agency responsible for immediate on-site response to spills and discharges of oil and hazardous substances, chemical plant explosions and fires, and train derailments, and for oversight of the cleanup of such environmental disasters by private contractors; and

Whereas, New Jersey, with its many miles of exposed shorelines, and its location in the midst of a huge concentration of the petro-chemical industry, is especially dependent on a first-rate emergency response capability, and over the years the Bureau of Emergency Response has never failed to fill this important role; and

Whereas, The recent 40,000 gallon oil spill in the waters off the beaches of Cape May and Atlantic Counties was the most recent example of the State's vulnerability to oil spills and its need for a well trained and experienced emergency response team; and

Whereas, The Governor's proposed Fiscal Year 1997 budget potentially would reduce the number of emergency response specialists in the Bureau of Emergency Response from 16 to 13, which, when the effects of "bumping" are taken into account, may leave the Bureau with less than ten experienced emergency response specialists, all at a time when the annual number of environmental emergencies requiring the Bureau's response is increasing; now, therefore,

    Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of New Jersey:

    1. The Senate of the State of New Jersey finds that the proposed Fiscal Year Reductions in the staffing levels of the Bureau of Emergency Response in the Department of environmental Protection would seriously weaken the State's ability to respond to environmental disasters, and therefore the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee is requested to restore the Bureau of Emergency Response in the Department of Environmental Protection to its Fiscal Year 1996 staffing level.

    2. A duly authenticated copy of this resolution, signed by the President of the Senate and attested to by the Secretary thereof, shall be transmitted to the Governor, the State Treasurer, and the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection.

STATEMENT

    This Senate Resolution would request the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee to restore the Bureau of Emergency Response in the Department of Environmental Protection to its Fiscal Year 1996 staffing level. The Governor's proposed Fiscal Year 1997 Budget potentially would reduce the staffing level from 16 to 13, which would leave the State inadequately prepared to respond to an environmental disaster.

Requests Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee to restore FY 97 cuts in staffing of Bureau of Emergency response.