What We Do

The Office of Pollution Prevention and Right to Know carries out a variety of functions that supplement and enhance the Department's traditional permitting processes. These functions include:

Pollution Prevention Planning
The Pollution Prevention Act establishes a comprehensive program of mandatory planning and voluntary implementation based on economic incentives for the approximately 600 manufacturing businesses that are covered under the federal Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The program currently covers approximately 650 chemicals on the federal TRI list. The planning program objectives include:

1. Reducing the generation of hazardous substance non-product output (waste prior to treatment) by 50% and significantly reducing use of hazardous substances;
2. Building pollution prevention into the permitting process;
3. Transforming the existing regulatory framework to one based on pollution prevention.

Right to Know Program
The Community Right to Know (CRTK) program collects, processes, and disseminates the chemical inventory, environmental release and materials accounting data required to be reported under the New Jersey Worker and Community Right to Know Act, N.J.S.A.34:5A (New Jersey Legislature Home Page) and the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA). EPCRA is also known as Title III of the Superfund Amendments and reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA). This information is used by the public, emergency planners, and first responders to determine the chemical hazards in the community.

Facility-wide Permitting
The Pollution Prevention Act also requires the Department to undertake a pilot program with no more than 18 companies in developing a single environmental permit for each facility that combines the facility's air, water, and hazardous waste requirements with its pollution prevention requirements. The program has two goals:

1. Making pollution prevention the first course of action in environmental regulation by building its consideration into the permitting process;
2. Testing an approach to permitting that is based on a better understanding of a facilities overall impact on the environment.

Permit Coordination
This program implements an innovative NJDEP approach to regulatory processes called One-Stop. The One-Stop concept is based on a single point of contact called a Team Leader, who leads a multimedia, multifunctional team to assist proposed and existing facilities with their environmental responsibilities. The program benefits include:

1. Thorough identification of all regulatory requirements and coordination among the various NJDEP programs;
2. Improved sequencing of major permit and construction milestones and potential public comment periods;
3. More opportunities to integrate pollution prevention concepts within each applicable project. Initially, new major projects and 40 other operational facilities seeking major modifications and permit renewals will be the focus of the One-Stop process.

Small Business Assistance
The Small Business Assistance Program (SBAP) (as required by the federal Clean Air Act of 1990) provides direct multimedia compliance assistance to small businesses with specific technical, administrative and compliance problems. The SBAP coordinates workshops on issues of interest to small businesses, conducts presentations for trade groups, and develops materials and makes information available to the small businesses.