NJ Environmental Justice Rulemaking — Permit Conditions and Compelling Public Interest

Please respond by May 19

View the powerpoint from the stakeholder meeting: www.nj.gov/dep/ej/docs/ej-pres-20210407.pdf

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* 1. How should the Department define “new facility”?

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* 2. How should the Department define “expanded facility”?

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* 3. How should the Department treat proposed facilities and/or activities that reduce certain stressors, but raise others?

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* 4. Should the Department apply conditions on construction, expansion, or renewal of Title V permits to protect public health?

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* 5. Should the Department consider a mandatory permit condition that avoids or minimizes contributions to stressors in Overburdened Communities?

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* 6. For Title V renewals, should a Best Available Control Technology/State of the Art standard be imposed?

Yes

No

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* 7. If yes, what should the renewal timeframe be?

Every 5 years (standard renewal timeframe)

Longer

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* 8. Where contributions from a proposed facility and/or activity cannot be avoided, should the Department consider additional measures to improve baseline environmental and public health stressors in the host Overburdened Community? If yes, what additional measures?

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* 9. When considering measures for the reduction stressors elsewhere in the Overburdened Community, should the Department require the reduction of stressors in order from the highest to lowest contributors? If yes, to what degree?

Compelling Public Interest

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* 10. What determines a Compelling Public Interest?

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* 11. How should the Department determine if a proposed facility and/or activity will serve a Compelling Public Interest in an Overburdened Community?

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* 12. Should the Department require an alternatives analyses, including siting alternatives?

Yes

No

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* 13. What specific projects or activities, if any, should be considered in a Compelling Public Interest analysis?

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* 14. What specific projects or activities, if any, should NOT be considered in a Compelling Public Interest analysis?

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* 15. If a facility does serve a Compelling Public Interest, what additional measures should the Department require to improve baseline stressors in the Overburdened Community? For example, should the Department require the reduction of like-kind or other stressors from offsite sources in the Overburdened Community? Should the Department require the applicant to deliver a net environmental benefit that improves the baseline environmental and public health stressors in the Overburdened Community?

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* 16. If the members of an Overburdened Community support a proposed facility and/or activity, is that sufficient to establish Compelling Public Interest?

Yes

No

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* 17. How can the Department ensure an accurate assessment of community support of a proposed facility and/or activity in an Overburdened Community?

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* 18. Please provide feedback on the following:“A Compelling Public Interest means, based on specific facts, an interest which is universally considered of value to the Overburdened Community because it fundamentally serves the public good, will specifically serve an essential health or safety need of the Overburdened Community, that the public health and safety benefit from the proposed use, and that the proposed use is required to serve existing needs of the residents of the Overburdened Community, and that there is no other means available to meet the established health or safety need."

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* 19. Please provide feedback on the following:
“An applicant shall be deemed to have established a compelling public interest if the applicant demonstrates, based on specific facts, and the NJDEP verifies that the proposed facility must serve an essential health or safety need of the Overburdened Community in which the proposed facility is located, and:

i. The applicant demonstrates that the project’s adverse impacts will be mitigated in kind within the Overburdened Community;

ii. The applicant demonstrates that the proposed facility is required to serve public health and safety needs of the residents of the Overburdened Community; and

iii. The applicant demonstrates that no feasible alternatives can be sited outside the Overburdened Community to meet the established public interest. In order to make this demonstration, the applicant must show that there are no alternatives which would avoid or substantially reduce the anticipated adverse impacts of the project to the Overburdened Community, and that the project would not compromise the reasonable requirements of public health, safety and welfare, or the environment in the Overburdened Community. In making this determination, economic factors are not to be considered; or

iv. The Department may find that the compelling public interest standard is met where there is a significant degree of public interest in favor of an application.

Certain projects, including scrap yards, are not eligible to meet the compelling public interest exception.”