The coronavirus is forcing New Jersey to adjust a few environmental rules, and the change could slow some construction projects across the Garden State.
Gov. Phil Murphy announced at his daily press briefing Saturday in Trenton that he would sign an executive order relaxing deadlines for issuing environmental permits during the COVID-19 pandemic, to give the state more time to make critical decisions.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection normally has 90 days to make a decision on construction permits, including for developments in coastal areas, flood zones and wetlands. If that 90-day deadline is missed, the permit is automatically approved.
Saturday’s order suspends that 90-day deadline, DEP Chief of Staff Shawn LaTourette told NJ Advance Media, meaning that there is now effectively no deadline for the state to make a decision on such permits. Murphy said the extension of the deadlines is meant to give the DEP more time to work under the new circumstances created by the coronavirus.
"This order will ensure that the DEP has the necessary time to get the information it needs to make fully informed decisions,” Murphy said.
The governor shut down all nonessential construction projects in the state last month. Some construction, however, is still allowed to continue if the projects include hospitals, schools, affordable housing, transportation, utility work, emergency repairs and individual housing sites that can continue to operate under strict social distancing guidelines.
Ed Potosnak, the executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said his group supported the move.
“It’s common sense that environmental permitting may take more time," Potosnack said in a statement. "We support the governor’s executive order to ensure that the Department has the time it needs to use the best available science and make decisions to ensure New Jersey’s rigorous environmental standards are upheld to protect the health and wellbeing of New Jersey families.”
LaTourette said that while this order is intended to give more flexibility to the DEP, regulated entities and the concerned public through the permitting process, the DEP intends to stay as true to the original 90-day deadline as possible. He added that DEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe “wouldn’t stand for” the order to be used to indefinitely hold up developments.
“What the executive order is trying to do is achieve some balance between our typical operations in our permitting timelines and reality,” LaTourette said.
Murphy’s new order also relaxes reporting deadlines for recycling and solid waste facilities, a move that is similar to new guidance on air pollution monitoring announced by the DEP earlier this week.
In response to the air pollution guidance, the Ironbound Community Corporation, which advocates for environmental justice in Newark, said in a letter to the DEP that it worried such grace periods would mean less transparency for residents affected by pollution from facilities near their homes.
LaTourette said that neither the order for recycling and solid waste reporting nor the guidance on air pollution monitoring impacted the state’s enforcement of environmental standards. He said that the state’s environmental enforcement continues as normal, those he did concede that the pandemic has forced DEP to focus on known problems before seeking out new issues.
“It’s not a matter of relaxation in any sense," LaTourette said DEP enforcement. "It’s a matter of prioritization.”
Finally, Murphy’s new order delays the implementation of a new law that is aimed to crack down on illegal dumping in the Garden State. LaTourette said the delay is to allow more time for the DEP to sort out exactly how it will enforce the law, and what people or businesses will be affected by it.
Jeff Tittel, the director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, warned in a statement that this delay will only allow for currently unregulated dirt brokers to continue operating as they have for years in New Jersey.
Last week, a coalition of environmental groups called Empower NJ sent a letter to Murphy urging him to slow down permitting processes on highway projects and natural gas infrastructure development until the coronavirus pandemic had passed, so that the public could fully participate.
Some of those groups made a similar request a day later — on Earth Day — at a virtual hearing for an air pollution permit application submitted by developers seeking to build a liquified natural gas terminal on the Delaware River.
“They have been holding remote hearings via Zoom and telephone, but people can’t get information for them because [public records requests are] delayed,” Tittel said of the DEP’s efforts to hold public hearings during the pandemic. "New York has extended public comment periods by 60 days, and New Jersey should do at least the same.”
LaTourette said that the DEP expects to release a new administrative order extending public comment periods in coming days.