Enforcement Power of NJDEP Increased

On January 4, 2008, the New Jersey legislature passed the Environmental Enforcement Enhancement Act. This Act enhances the enforcement authority of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) under ten environmental statutes: Waterfront Development Act, Pesticide Control Act of 1971, Wetlands Act of 1970, Freshwater Protection Act, Coastal Area Facility Review Act, Endangered and Nongame Species Conservation Act, Water Supply Management Act, Safe Dam Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Flood Hazard Area Control Act. The Act also amends the DEP enabling statute by clarifying DEP’s authority to inspect facilities, collect samples and copy documents to determine compliance with environmental laws, regulations, permits, and orders.

The Act strengthens the enforcement provisions of the ten statutes listed above and substantially increases the penalties DEP may seek against violators. The Act greatly broadens the enforcement authority of the DEP by authorizing it to issue an order requiring any person to comply, to bring a civil action, to levy a civil administrative penalty, or to petition the attorney general to bring a criminal action if a violation occurs. The amendments are substantial because many statutes prior to the passage of the Act only contained minimal penalties for violators or did not contain any provisions for assessing administrative penalties. For example, the Waterfront Development Act’s previous maximum penalty was $1,000 with an additional fine of $100 for each day the violation continued. As amended the penalty is increased to $25,000 per violation, per day. 

To help ensure compliance with environmental statutes, the Act significantly increases civil and criminal penalties including the following changes: (1) uniformly increases the maximum civil penalty amount to $25,000 per day; (2) authorizes daily penalty assessments for continuing violations; (3) authorizes the recovery of compensatory damages for loss or destruction of natural resources (e.g.-creates authority for DEP to recover natural resource damages, which are money damages from anyone responsible for spills or discharges of hazardous substances); (4) authorizes the DEP to recover reasonable costs incurred by the State in removing or correcting a violation, and to recover all reasonable costs incurred in bringing a civil action, which could be interpreted to mean recovery of attorneys’ fees; and (4) clarifies and in some statutes creates criminal provisions for purposeful, knowing, and reckless violations or falsifications. In addition, the Act broadens the DEP’s authority to compel a property owner to record a deed notice on its property where an alleged violation has occurred, under acts such as the Dam Safety Act or the Flood Hazard Protection Act. Prior to the Act’s passage the DEP only had this authority for a violation of the Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act. In fact, the Act allows DEP to require the recording of such a notice based only upon an allegation prior to adjudication.

With the passage of this Act, DEP has increased its enforcement authority and permits it to seek higher penalties for violations that may have previously been cost effective to commit and new avenues to seek such penalties. Its passage will likely lead to an increase in enforcement actions brought by the DEP.