Public Notification and Outreach Guidance for Retail Gasoline Service Stations
Updated 25 January 2010
Revised Public Notification and Outreach timeline for contamination discovered during the course of work on a regulated UST that was not in response to a known release but which results in triggering remedial activity.
If a release is identified during a regulated UST system closure or other onsite repair or maintenance activities that are not conducted in response to a known release, a common industry practice is to immediately respond to the newly discovered release by removing the tank(s) contents; excavating the tank system, fill material and known contaminated soils; and stockpiling and sampling for disposal or reuse. The department considers these immediate actions part of a bias for action (N.J.A.C. 7:26E-1.11) and fully supports and encourages the continuation of this practice. Specifically, N.J.A.C. 7:14B-8.1(a) requires “immediate” action to “mitigate the effects of the discharge.”
When conducting these immediate actions in an efficient single phase, the Department recognizes that this results in the identification of the contamination, initiation of the remedial investigation and remedial action. Since the remedial investigation trigger for public notification requirements occurs during the response action, the Department will not require the activity to stop in order for the public notification requirements to be initiated. Instead, the Department will provide a three week window for public notification and outreach activities to commence upon the discovery of unanticipated contamination during the course of regulated UST work not conducted in response to a known release and which results in triggering remedial activity. Please note that this does not exempt a party from complying with any local, state or federal permits for the removal, installation and modification of any part of the UST system.
The Department believes that applying this approach balances the need for the public to be notified of the remedial activities and the need for a common sense response to the identified discharge.
Fact Sheet Templates
The templates below are provided for use by the person(s) responsible for conducting the remediation of retail gasoline service station(s) to fulfill the requirement to publish a fact sheet in cases where the contamination has migrated from the property of the discharge. Please see 7:26E-1.4(k)5i and (k)6i.
Use of these templates provide presumed approval only for gasoline service stations where contamination is limited to gasoline constituents. If contamination not related to a discharge of gasoline has been detected at a service station site, the person responsible for conducting the remediation must comply with 7:26E-1.4(l) in its entirety or seek approval from the DEP case manager prior to publication of any abbreviated version.
The wording provided in the template is the minimum required language. Addtitional information can be added to the template as needed.
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