EXPERIENCES WITH NEW JERSEY'S ENVIRONMENTAL
CLEANUP RESPONSIBILITY ACT: HEAVEN OR HELL?
Gary T. Boyer, Project Manager
Richard A. Jasaitis, Environmental Geologist
Van Note-Harvey Associates
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
INTRODUCTION
An Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act (ECRA) will be coming to your State. The idea
appeals to the public because such laws try to fix responsibility for the pollution with the polluter and
get the pollution cleaned up. However, it is important to note New Jersey's experience with ECRA in
order to avoid copying our mistakes.
WHAT?
ECRA is an act unique to our State passed in late 1983 which says that before an industrial
establishment is closed or transferred it must undergo a study for contamination. If the study shows
contamination, then the site must be cleaned up.
WHY?
This law came about for two reasons. First, in several cases, the State has required buyers of land to
clean up contamination that the seller caused. The buyer either didn't want to clean up or didn't have
the money. So the legislature decided that it really should be the seller's responsibility to clean up the
land before it gets transferred.
The most famous case of this in New Jersey was the Ventron case where a company sold a piece of
property to the buyer who then was asked by the State to clean up. The seller had reprocessed mercury
at this plant and there was a lot of mercury that had been spilled and had gotten into the food chain.
The buyer then had to sue the seller for the money they had to spend on clean up.
The second reason for ECRA is that the public gets stuck with a clean up when a private party hides
or goes bankrupt. For example, in the Signo Vista case, an urban warehouse was filled with chemicals, experienced fires, and was cleaned up at public expense. Only a small amount of the expense was
recovered. Many Superfund cases turn out this way.
WHO?
The law doesn't apply to everything you might think of as an industrial establishment that would
cause pollution. For example, gasoline stations, which are one of the most common sources of soil,
water or air contamination, are not covered by this law.
What is covered is something the State terms "industrial establishments." ECRA defines an industrial establishment as a place of business which generates or handles "hazardous substances." New
Jersey's definition of hazardous substances is quite broad. It includes not only chemicals or mixtures
on various State and Federal lists, but also petroleum products like heating oil. Thus, many more
businesses are affected than you would normally anticipate because they heat their building with oil
from an underground tank.
The definition of an industrial establishment includes the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)
Code. This is a four digit number from a classification system often used by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The SIC Codes that are covered by ECRA include manufacturing such as electrical equipment,
chemicals, rubber, plastics, machinery, electronics, wood treating (Table I). Also included are transportation industries and certain kinds of warehousing involving chemicals or hazardous substances.
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