Glossary

• Classification Exception Area (CEA) - A designation established whenever ground water standards in a particular area are not met. It is intended to ensure the use of the ground water in that area is restricted until standards are achieved.
• Deed Notice - A notification added to the title of a property when contamination will remain above NJDEP's residential/unrestricted soil remediation standards, N.J.A.C. 7:26D. A Deed Notice requires a property owner's concurrence and specifies the location and concentration of all contaminants and how they must be controlled, maintained or monitored. Every two years, the party responsible for conducting the remediation must certify the remedy continues to be protective.
• Direct Department Oversight - Under certain conditions or circumstances, as outlined in N.J.S.A. 58:10C-27, the department shall review each document submitted by an LSRP and approve or deny each submission. The Department shall also select the remedial action for the site and require a remediation trust fund be established in the amount of the estimated cost of the cleanup. Go to the attached link for a full list of conditions and requirements relating to this subsection.
• Ecological Health Receptor - Ecological areas represented by GIS Layers used to determine potential impact on the surrounding ecological environment. This does not include human health exposure.
• Exceedance Quotient (EQ) - is a normalized value that enables SRP to compare analytes with different properties and different concentrations across distance and time. Each analyte that is sampled will be converted into an EQ. More information on the Exceedance Quotient can be found in the Basis and Background document.
• Extent Area - The potential area of contamination at or surrounding the site. The RPS uses this area to evaluate the relationship between a site and the surrounding environment. If no data is available, a surrogate extent area is created for Ground Water. This is based on an analysis of classification exception areas (CEAs) for sites of similar nature within an operational unit (eg. ISRA, BUST).
• Feedback Loop - A short term mechanism used to gather information from responsible entities to update the data used that will be used in the RPS model, which will be published in January 2013.
• Geographic Information System (GIS) - is a computer application that is used to store, analyze and display geographically referenced data. GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis, and database technology.
• Ground Water Quality Standards (GWQS) - Standards that specify quality criteria and designated uses for ground water for the purposes of remediation of contaminated sites.
• GIS Layers - is a wide variety of spatial data which includes but are not limited to census data, municipal well locations, mapping of lakes, streams, wetlands, schools and other significant receptors.
• Haz Site/Compass- An internal SRP database that stores all analytical data that has been submitted electronically to the Department (https://www.nj.gov/dep/srp/hazsite/).
• Human Health Receptor - Human population areas represented by GIS layers used to determine impact on the surrounding human population via ingestion, inhalation and dermal exposures.
• Immediate Environmental Concern (IEC) - A condition at a contaminated site where people are exposed to contamination at levels that exceed applicable screening levels or standards.
• Jenk's Natural Breaks - a data classification method designed to place values into the best arrangement of different classes. This is done by seeking to minimize each class's average deviation from the class mean, while maximizing each class's deviation from the means of the other groups. In short, it groups sites with similar characteristics together and conversely separates sites with dissimilar characteristics into separate categories. The RPS Model uses Jenk's Natural Breaks to assign an RPS Category to a site. More information can be found in the Basis and Background document.
• Known Contaminated Sites in New Jersey Report - Reports that includes a listing of: "Active Sites with Confirmed Contamination", "Pending Sites with Confirmed Contamination", and "Closed Sites with Remediated Contamination"
• New Jersey Environmental Management System (NJEMS) - The NJDEP's department-wide enterprise database system that integrates all data related to its regulated activities for the purpose of sharing and reporting data, improving workflow and business practices, and making better environmental decisions. NJEMS stores, tracks and reports data related to all certifications, registrations, permits, cases, inspections, violations, and enforcement actions as well as assessments and collections. It is also a repository for documents submitted to and created by NJDEP.
• Parcel - Lot and block of a property.
• Pathway Score - is the potential routes contaminants can travel to expose a person or the environment. A value of 0 is applied if there is no exposure and a value of 1 is applied if there is potential for exposure.
• Receptor Score - a calculated value that represents the sum of all the receptor layer values evaluated by the model.
• Remedial Priority System - The Remedial Priority System System is a computerized model designed to help the Department to categorize contaminated sites based on potential risk to public health, safety or the environment as well as other relevant factors deemed appropriate by the Department.
• RPS Ecological Health Score - is a single value which represents the impact of the site on potential Ecological Health Receptors. This is determined by the Ecological Receptor Score multiplied by a Pathway Score.
• RPS "flags" - A RPS designation that qualifies additional information related to the Site. Several flags identify specific chemicals as mandated by SRRA (chromate, polychlorinated biphenyl, mercury, arsenic and dioxin). Other flags identify characteristics of a site such as hiring an LSRP.
• RPS Categories - Grouping of sites with similar characteristics which are then assigned to categories 1-5. Jenk's Natural Breaks is the methodology used to determine the categories. These five categories represent the potential risk assigned to these sites. Category 1 represents the lowest potential risk through Category 5 which represents the greatest potential risk. There is separate Human Health Score and a separate Ecological Health Score
• RPS Human Health Score - is a single value which represents the impact of the site on potential Human Health Receptors. This is determined by the Human Health Receptor Score multiplied by the Site Condition Score multiplied by a Pathway Score for each media (water, soil and vapor) which are then summed to produce the value for each site.
• Site Condition Score - is a single value which represents the site by the type and extent of contaminants present at the site.
• Unregulated Heating Oil Tanks - Underground and above ground storage tanks containing heating oil for on-site consumption in a residential building, or tanks with a capacity of 2,000 gallons or less for on-site consumption in a nonresidential building.

Bureau of Information System (BIS)
609-292-9418