CLARIFICATION REGARDING THE NEED FOR THE SIGNATURE OF THE CURRENT PROPERTY OWNER ON A REMEDIAL ACTION PERMIT APPLICATION

The identification of who is a permittee for a remedial action permit and their responsibilities are clearly stated in N.J.A.C. 7:26C-7.4. The Department has revised its policy regarding the requirement that the current property owner’s signature be included on the remedial action permit application. The intent of this requirement is to ensure that the current property owner is aware of the remedial action permit, as well as his/her responsibilities under the remedial action permit.

As noted above, the Department prefers that the signature of the current property owner be obtained on the Remedial Action Permit application. However, if there are mitigating circumstances so that obtaining the signature of the current property owner is not possible, then the Department will allow the person applying for the remedial action permit to provide proof to the Department (as part of the remedial action permit application) that the current property owner has received a complete copy of the remedial action permit application prior to, or simultaneously with, submission of the remedial action permit application to the Department. Such proof could include, but is not limited to, a copy of the cover letter that accompanied the completed Remedial Action Permit application that was sent to the current property owner.

The instructions for both the Remedial Action Permit Application Form Ground Water (Section N) and Soil (Section L) have been updated as follows to reflect this new approach:

NOTE: There may be circumstances where the property owner signature cannot be obtained, in these situations a copy of the completed permit application excluding the property owner signature should be provided to the property owner. To document that the property owner was provided a copy of the permit application a copy of the letter transmitting the permit application copy needs to be included with the application submitted to the Department.