Compliance and Enforcement’s (C&E) mission is to ensure that New Jersey’s environment is clean, safe, enjoyable, and maintained  for future generations.  Our vision is to continue building a nationally recognized organization that empowers our trained and dedicated professionals to do their jobs well resulting in environmental stewardship and compliance at our regulated facilities. See our C&E Strategic Plan for more information.

We are organized into three divisions, whose main function is to enforce hundreds of environmental laws, rules and regulations administered by DEP regulatory programs and delegated federal authority.  C&E deters violations of those laws that would otherwise threaten our environment and the health of our citizens. We also engage and educate our regulated community through a robust compliance assistance and training program and encourage voluntary “beyond compliance” efforts through our environmental stewardship program.

C&E inspectors perform more than 24,000 inspections and compliance evaluations per year and issue approximately 6,000 enforcement actions.  Inspectors also respond and investigate citizen complaints and other environmental matters referred to the DEP by county, state and federal agencies as well as local officials.  Often, these investigations lead us to finding and fixing environmental problems that would have otherwise remained unnoticed. In years past, C&E responded to more than 5,000 incidents and investigated more than 2,700 complaints.  
 
To accomplish our vision we practice strategic management principles and innovation while striking a balance among enforcement, compliance assistance and education.  We regularly focus on cross-media problem solving and strategic enforcement targeting. This model allows our inspectors to take a comprehensive enforcement approach that focuses on the right places for the right reasons to secure environmental compliance swiftly and effectively.