Problem:   The state of New Jersey faced hazardous waste cleanup 
problems at a number of industrial sites around the state.  The 
process was generally slow, and the contamination led to legal 
complications when the sites were sold.

Proposed solution:  The Environmental Cleanup Responsibility Act 
(ECRA) was passed in 1983 to deal with environmental contamination 
of industrial sites.  The law requires environmental audits of 
these sites before they are sold or abandoned; contamination must 
be cleaned up before the transaction is permitted; a state 
inspection is required.  The penalties give the plan its 
effectiveness; fines for violations and penalties for false 
information are stiff, and the state or the purchaser can void a 
sale if the seller is found to have violated the act.  Because of 
this last clause, banks and title companies will avoid 
transactions not cleared by the Department of Environmental 
Protection; this leaves companies with no alternative to 
compliance.

Evaluation:  Thus far the program has been a success.  In the 
largest cases, a former Ford plant and a former Singer factory 
were both cleaned up.  In other cases, the pre-sale inspections 
have led to the discovery and elimination of contamination earlier 
than would have been the case without the program.  

Contact:  Bureau of Industrial Site Evaluation, New Jersey 
Department of Environmental Protection

Citation:  "A New Tactic Against Hazardous Waste."  EPA Journal, 
v. 11 (April 1985), pp. 16-17.

Keywords:  environment hazardous waste cleanup

Disclaimer: The file contained in the box above or displayed in a separate window from a link in the box above is NOT owned nor implied to be owned by BeYoND THe iLLuSioN. Most files at BeYoND THe iLLuSioN are originally from public Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) which were popular in the days before the Internet or from gopher, web, and FTP sites from the early days of the Internet which no longer exist today. Essentially, all files were acquired from the public domain in one for or another.

However, there have been occasions when copyright protected material has appeared on BeYoND THe iLLuSIoN without permission of the copyright holder. In these instances, we have and will continue to remove the copyright protected file as soon as it is brought to our attention. This can now be done using our Report Copyright Material form. Fill out the form, and the webmaster will be notified of the situation.

There are also times when files found on BeYoND THe iLLuSioN have a real home somewhere else on the Internet. In these instances, we will gladly replace the file with a link to its true home whenever it is brought to our attention. If you know of the true home of any of these files, you can use our Report Original URL form to bring it yo our attention.