New Jersey environmental officials want to outsource cleanup work on two-thirds of the state’s 20,000-plus contaminated sites, according to testimony given to a joint legislative committee on April 15. The recommendation came just weeks after the creation of a new Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) task force charged with streamlining the rest of the agency’s permitting processes.
The DEP proposal would turn over site remediation on 14,000 properties to private "licensed site professionals," and would reduce state oversight for an additional 4,000 sites with "low-level" problems.
According to the DEP Web site, there are 2,111 "known contaminated sites" either active or pending closure in Bergen County. Of these, 252 are in the South Bergenite area: 59 in Carlstadt, 58 in East Rutherford, 51 in Lyndhurst, 30 in North Arlington and 54 in Rutherford. Another 243 sites in the area have already been closed.
The recommendations were the product of an internal review by the department of the site remediation program, and are aimed at cutting costs and alleviating a massive backlog of pending cleanups, some of which have lingered for decades.
"It is no secret that we in the cabinet are all being asked to figure out how to do more with less," said DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson in testimony before the committee in January, adding that the DEP had cut roughly 200 full-time employees during her two years in office.
But environmentalists and legislators worry that privatization will lead to enforcement problems and potential conflicts of interest.
Senator Robert Gordon (D-Fair Lawn) said the DEP needed to assure the state "that we are really going to see some enforcement for the standards we are setting for these professionals," while Republican Assemblyman John Rooney of Northvale emphasized the need to avoid awarding cleanup contracts to politically-connected firms.
In a press release, Bill Wolfe, New Jersey director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), called the outsourcing scheme a "fool’s errand."
"Consultants and their polluter clients have huge economic incentives to cut corners, ignore regulations and compromise public health and environmental protection," said Wolfe.
Meanwhile, the new The DEP Permit Efficiency Task Force, whose purview includes all aspects of DEP permit approval and enforcement except site remediation, has been criticized for over-representing homebuilders at the expense of the environmental community.
The 19-member panel includes representatives from several major developers, but none from the state’s major environmental groups.
"These are all lobbyists and financial contributors," said one former DEP official on the composition of the task force.
Christopher Daggett will chair the group. Daggett served as DEP Commissioner from September 1988 to December 1989. Previously, Daggett had been cabinet secretary and deputy chief of staff to Governor Thomas Kean, before being appointed regional administrator for the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1984.
As a Kean aide, Daggett spearheaded efforts to manage dioxin contamination in Newark and helped formulate the state’s policy on acid rain. As an EPA administrator and DEP commissioner, he earned a reputation for strictly interpreting federal laws to prevent over-development in the 20,000-acre Meadowlands district and pushed for Superfund money to investigate radiation contamination throughout the state.
Daggett is currently an executive at the environmental management and consulting firm JM Sorge Inc., which provides services for a number of developers and law firms throughout New Jersey.
Jane Kenny, another former EPA regional administrator, one-time DCA commissioner, and current partner at Whitman Strategy Group—an environmental consulting firm headed by former Governor and EPA Chief Christine Todd Whitman—will also serve. So too will Jack Lettiere, a former NJ Department of Transportation head turned private consultant.
Several other prominent representatives from the private sector sit on the task force.
Member Richard Johnson is a senior vice president at Matrix Development Group, which controls about 20 industrial, residential and commercial properties throughout the state, including several golf courses.
Joe Riggs is a group president at K. Hovnanian homes, the largest for-sale homebuilder in the state. Riggs is a former president and active member of the New Jersey Builders Association, a powerful lobbying group and political contributor.
"The permitting process in the state is absolutely oppressive," said Hovnanian spokesman Doug Fenichel, adding that builders need as many as 150 separate permits from five levels of government to build a house.
"Mr. Riggs is going to bring to the process many years of experience in home-building, and understands the effects of this permitting process on being able to afford a home in New Jersey," said Fenichel.
Task force members Frank Banisch, Christine Foglio and Bob Medina represent firms that do environmental and engineering work for both municipalities and private sector clients in the state.
Seven government officials also have seats, including representatives from the Corzine administration and a number of local and regional planning authorities.
Karen Kominsky, the only task force member listed in the DEP press release for whom no occupation is mentioned, is a long-time Democratic strategist in New Jersey, having served under several New Jersey governors. Kominsky currently heads Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign in the state.
Membership is rounded out by a pair of environmental lawyers and Peter Kasabach, the executive director of New Jersey Future, a smart-growth think tank.
When asked whether it was a conflict of interest for builders with open DEP applications to recommend changes to the permit-granting process, Fenichel said "absolutely not."
