Roux Insurance Update: NJDEP Extends Certain Timeframes for Remediation Activities

To help keep you up to date on current developments, Roux is providing this information to summarize topics pertinent to the insurance industry that you may find useful. 

On February 1, 2021, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) issued an extension of certain timeframes for remediation activities. Specifically, the key take-aways are:

• For site remediation cases that pre-date 1999 that were previously subject to a regulatory or mandatory deadline of May 6, 2021, the timeframe to complete the Remedial Action has been extended to May 6, 2022. If you now have a May 6, 2022 regulatory deadline, extension requests must be submitted by the end of March 2022 (30 days before the deadline). If you now have a May 6, 2022 mandatory deadline, extension requests must be submitted by the end of February 2022 (60 days before the deadline).
• For other site remediation cases, the remediation timeframes have been extended by a total of 455 days, which includes the 270-day extension under the April and August 2020 Executive Order 103 (EO 103). This extension applies, provided that the timeframe in question ends during the public health emergency established under EO 103.
• For extended regulatory and mandatory timeframes that will be coming due between June 7, 2021 (455 days from signing of EO 103) and August 16, 2021, inclusive, the NJDEP will allow for submittal of extension requests as follows. The person responsible for conducting the remediation will be given until August 16, 2021 to submit a timeframe extension request (whether for a regulatory timeframe or mandatory timeframe). Extension requests submitted after August 16, 2021 will not be approved. Effectively, the NJDEP is waiving the 30-day and 60-day submittal before the deadline requirement for extension requests.
• For timeframes on or after August 17, 2021, the person responsible for conducting the remediation is required to submit timeframe extension requests a minimum of either 30 (regulatory) or 60 (mandatory) days prior to the timeframe.
• If a regulatory deadline was extended to a mandatory deadline, both timeframes are extended the same amount of time (i.e., the mandatory deadline is not reset to two years from the new regulatory deadline).
• For timeframes due between March 9, 2020 and January 31, 2021, inclusive, if the person responsible for conducting the remediation did not retain an LSRP by March 18, 2021 (45 days after issuance of the February 1, 2021 Notice), then the timeframe is extended 270 days in accordance with the August 17, 2020 Notice. However, in accordance with the February 1, 2021 Notice, for timeframes due on or after February 1, 2021, if the person responsible for conducting the remediation did not retain an LSRP by March 18, 2021 (45 days after issuance of the February 1, 2021 Notice), then the timeframe will not be extended any number of days.

The NJDEP stated that if EO 103 is rescinded, the NJDEP will issue additional guidance detailing whether and how extension requests may be submitted to the NJDEP for timeframes due immediately after the EO is rescinded (that is, sites with deadlines that do not fall within the time frame of EO 103).

For more information about the timeframe extensions or how your remediation projects may be affected, please contact Roux below: