Publicly Funded Cleanups Site Status Report 1998 Section I. Introduction

	Pressure continues to force private cleanups One of the Site Remediation Program's most powerful tools to compel private parties to perform cleanups is the strong publicly funded cleanup program. With the enactment of the Spill Compensation and Control Act in 1976, the New Jersey State Legislature dictated that the cleanup of contamination was of primary importance, and compelling responsible parties to perform the cleanup was preferred over using public funds. To do this the Legislature established several funding sources to provide public funds to ensure that the contamination would be remediated first, and any disagreements over who should pay could be resolved after the cleanup. However, in order to provide incentive for responsible parties to assume the cleanup before public funds are used, the Legislature included a "treble damage" penalty for responsible parties that decline to do the cleanup when directed by the state. If public funds are used for a cleanup, the law provides for the state to recover up to three times its cost from the responsible parties. The potential for treble damages is a strong incentive for responsible parties to do the work. The key to this strategy, though, is a strong, well-funded public cleanup program. The treble damages penalty works only if the state has the money to back up its directive. This tool in the "Polluter Pays" strategy continues to ensure that the majority of the money to clean up the state's contaminated sites comes from the responsible parties. This year, as in past years, the Site Remediation Program had considerable success in persuading private parties to assume remedial actions. In State Fiscal Year 1998, private parties have agreed to implement cleanups at five sites with an estimated total cleanup cost of over $10 million. A summary of these five sites is provided in Figure 3, and a list of all of the sites to date that have started as publicly funded and finished with private funds is available on page 281 of Section III. The most significant of the cases transferred to private parties during State Fiscal Year 1998 was the Peabody Clean Industries site in Paulsboro, Gloucester County. The site was a former oil refinery and was used by a cleanup contractor as a storage facility. The site has considerable soil and ground water contamination due to past operations and will require extensive remedial action. The private parties will conduct this work under the supervision of the Site Remediation Program's Division of Responsible Party Site Remediation.   Sites Transferred from Publicly Funded to Responsible Party Division in SFY 98 Site Name Municipality County Type Alford Industries MoorestownTownship Burlington Non-Superfund Branchburg Motor Fuels Branchburg Township Somerset Non-Superfund Ewan Property Shamong Township Burlington Superfund Hopkins Farm Plumsted Township Ocean Superfund Peabody Clean Industries Paulsboro Borough Gloucester Non-Superfund   Figure 3
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Last revision: 11 August 1999