New Jersey to Press Additional Claims Against Polluters Consultant Warns

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New Jersey to Press Additional Claims Against Polluters Consultant Warns

BEM Systems, Inc., to offer seminar on State's plans to pursue natural resources damages

CHATHAM, NEW JERSEY, Feb. 12 -/E-Wire/-- This spring, hundreds or thousands of New Jersey businesses, property owners, and insurers may be required to pay for injury to or loss of natural resources such as groundwater and wetlands, as the state's Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) begins to aggressively pursue Natural Resource Damages (NRD) claims against polluters and other responsible parties. Under New Jersey's Spill Compensation and Control Act and other existing laws and regulations, site owners responsible for oil spills or discharge of hazardous substances are required to conduct ecological evaluations of resulting damage to natural resources. The responsible party or parties may then be required to pay compensation for natural resource damages, independent of any other required remedial actions. Until recently, the state has rarely pursued such claims, but that seems likely to change soon.

"Governor McGreevey's administration has clearly stated its intention to pursue NRD damages much more aggressively than in the past, and we expect the number of claims in New Jersey to start rising dramatically within weeks," explained Doug Beal, P.G., Senior Project Manager for Chatham, N.J.-based environmental consulting firm BEM Systems, Inc. Mr. Beal was recently named to chair a new Natural Resource Damages subcommittee for the Environmental Business Council of the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey.

"By a conservative estimate, there are at least 12,000 sites in New Jersey that could be assessed damages, from dry cleaning plants and gas stations to major industrial and manufacturing facilities," Mr. Beal noted. "If only two-thirds of these sites are non-residential, with an average groundwater contamination claim of $100,000, the total damages statewide could quickly pass $750 million for groundwater claims alone. In many cases, owners and operators who already have approved cleanup programs in place or have obtained conditional No Further Action letters may still have to pay for natural resource damages."

To help potentially affected companies understand and prepare to respond to the new policy, BEM Systems will host a free breakfast program early this spring on natural resource damage regulations and their impact. The date will be announced in early March.

NJDEP has not announced details of how it will calculate compensation for damages, but the agency's Office of Natural Resource Restoration has retained outside legal counsel to develop a target list of NRDA candidate sites. Late last year, NJDEP announced a $3-million settlement with multiple parties for contamination of a local drinking water supply in New Jersey's Morris County. Industry observers anticipate a large number of claims to follow, perhaps as early as February.

"It is logical to expect that mid-sized to large site owners will be among the first targets, especially those in manufacturing and in industries such as refining, fuels, chemicals and pharmaceuticals," Mr. Beal notes. "Owners and businesses in groundwater deficit areas, such as Monmouth and Ocean counties, may be particularly hard-hit, since the state can charge a premium for groundwater damages in areas where groundwater resources are particularly vulnerable."

Although New Jersey is the first state to launch such an aggressive NRDA program, others are expected to follow suit shortly. "The regulatory agencies are looking for ways to offset their budget deficits, and this is one way to do it," Mr. Beal observed. "There is a lot of concern in many states that this approach could potentially reopen remediation cases that seemed to have been settled years ago." Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration and other federal trustees have also shown increased willingness to assert NRD claims against responsible parties as part of the CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or "Superfund") remediation process.

BEM Systems' Natural Resource Damages program will be a free, multidisciplinary seminar intended for corporate environmental officers, attorneys, insurers, and other stakeholders, Mr. Beal said. Speakers will address the major technical, legal, regulatory, insurance, and other aspects of the new NRDA policy and review the available options for coping with the changes. Information about the seminar will be posted on the BEM Systems website, www.bemsys.com, in early March.

About BEM Systems

BEM Systems, Inc., is a full-service, employee-owned, multidisciplinary environmental consulting firm. Headquartered in Chatham, N.J., with offices in Florida, Arizona, New Mexico, Missouri, and Fairfax and Newport News, Virginia, BEM's environmental engineers and scientists provide a full range of environmental compliance, cleanup, prevention, and risk management services for public- and private sector clients nationwide. For further information on BEM and its NRDA services, including advanced groundwater modeling and ecological risk assessment, readers are invited to contact Principal Environmental Scientist Sharon Stecker or Senior Project Manager Doug Beal by phone at (908)598-2600 or by email at sstecker@bemsys.com, or to visit the BEM Systems Website at www.bemsys.com.

	/SOURCE:	BEM Systems, Inc.
	-0-	02-12-2003
	/CONTACT:	Peter Salwen Salwen Business Communications Tel: 212-873-1944 peter@salwen.com Sharon Stecker BEM Systems, Inc. Tel: 908-598-2600 sstecker@bemsys.com
	/WEB SITE:	http://http://www.bemsys.com

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