Protecting Your Community

The battle to keep tainted soil out of New Jersey starts most effectively at the municipal level.

You Have the Power

This model ordinance can help municipal leadership get started. The ordinance is based on existing soil and fill ordinances in place throughout the state. Municipalities can modify and adapt the model ordinance, as necessary and appropriate, to fit their needs.

Guard Your Backyard Power

Examples of Municipal Laws at Work

In Wantage, township officials approved an ordinance in May 2019 requiring anyone receiving more than 25 cubic yards of soil in a calendar year to obtain a soil importing permit. Read more at www.njherald.com/20190613/wantage-law-takes-hard-line-on-dirty-dirt.

The Frankford Township Committee in April 2019 adopted an ordinance that requires a permit to allow the placement of soil from outside the township on local land. To learn more details about the ordinance, go to www.njherald.com/20190407/frankford-seeks-to-keep-out-dirty-dirt.

Officials in Lafayette in May 2019 approved a measure requiring that a permit be secured before disturbing the soil “… by soil removal, soil importation or cut and fill operations on any premises in the Township.” And in Hampton, the Township Committee also has considered an ordinance regulating soil transfer. Find out more about these plans at www.njherald.com/20190513/lafayette-hampton-address-soil-dumping.

In November 2019, Plumsted Township approved a soil importation ordinance No. 2019-11 in the Zoning chapter of their Land Use Legislation following news releases, in August of that year, related to State enforcement action against an unlawful solid waste disposal operation in the town. The ordinance can be viewed through the Township’s online listing of ordinances at www.plumsted.org/clerk/links/ordinances.

The Township Council of Jackson approved Ordinance 04-20 in April 2020 to add Chapter 364 “Soil/Fill Importation Permit” to the Township code thereby creating regulations modeled on the NJDEP ordinance. This linked news article provides additional descriptions: www.jerseyshoreonline.com/jackson/ordinance-would-require-developers-to-prove-soil-is-clean/.