Many site remediation cases at which persons responsible to conduct remediation (PRCR) were required to complete the remedial action (RA) by May 6, 2021, which is the statutory timeframe defined by the Site Remediation Reform Act (SRRA). These cases received a one year extension of this mandatory deadline to May 6, 2022 by New Jersey Executive Order No. 103. While an extension is beneficial, proper planning is still necessary to ensure your submittal is on time and compliant.
If your RA includes institutional and engineering controls, then completing and submitting associated documents is required to satisfy the deadline. This can include establishing or updating a Classification Exception Area (CEA) for groundwater, recording a Deed Notice (DN) for soil, constructing engineering controls, and submitting Remedial Action Permit (RAP) Applications. RAP Applications which must be approved by the Department to satisfy the deadline, making it a critical step. NJ regulations give the NJDEP 120 days to review RAP Applications. Therefore, in order to meet the May 6, 2022 RA deadline, required documents and applications should be submitted to NJDEP no later than December 6, 2021 to allow DEP review, time to respond to their comments, and time to issue a Response Action Outcome (RAO), which is also required to satisfy the deadline.
If current planning indicates that you cannot meet the deadline, an extension request can be submitted to NJDEP between November 6, 2021 and March 6, 2022, The regulations do not limit the amount of time you can request, however, the justification must be appropriate and very detailed. Also, unlike a regulatory deadline extension request, there is no guarantee that NJDEP will grant the extension for a mandatory timeframe. Jeffrey Campbell