Public Notification & Outreach for Site Cleanups

Early, two-way communication with residents, business owners and local officials potentially affected by remediation activities can be critical to a successful investigation and cleanup. This may be especially true when future uses include public recreation or housing. With an effective outreach strategy, the parties responsible for the remediation can anticipate the needs and concerns of the community and deal with them proactively. Effective outreach creates a forum to share information and raise and address community concerns about future use early in the remediation process. This effort can save time and money and build critical community support.

For this reason, in September 2008, the Department adopted amendments to the Technical Requirements for Site Remediation to require the person responsible for conducting the remediation of a contaminated site to perform public notification and outreach beginning at the onset of the remedial investigation phase.

More than three years after implementation of the first amendments, the Department again adopted amendments to the rule to address concerns from the community. Included in these amendments is the recodifing of Subchapter 1.4 of the Technical Requirements for Site Remediation in its entirety at the Administrative Requirements for the Remediation of Contaminated Sites (ARRCS) N.J.A.C. 7:26C-1.7, where the rules with amendments can now be found.