[greenyes] The Unraveling of Regulation

["Peter Anderson" <anderson@no.address>]

NEW JERSEY STAR LEDGER - 5/30/05

DEP, lawmakers alter protections for environment
Critics decry outsourced tasks
BY ALEXANDER LANE


A new style of environmental protection is quietly taking hold in New 
Jersey, prompting applause from industry groups and jeers from 
environmentalists.
Recent changes at the Department of Environmental Protection have resulted 
in more outsourcing -- builders' engineers certifying their own building 
permits, toxic waste consultants reviewing their own cleanups and industrial 
companies writing their own smokestack permits.
Surprisingly, the move to outsourcing has not come from Republican 
small-government crusaders, but from Democratic governors, legislators and 
regulators.
DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell, the force behind several of the changes, 
said hewantsto save department staff from mountains of rote paperwork. That 
leaves more time for real environmental protection, he said.
Jim Sinclair of the Business and Industry Association said that when it 
comes to increasing the DEP's efficiency by letting companies share its 
duties, the Democrats had outdone even the administration of Gov. Christie 
Whitman, who famously declared the state "open for business" soon after 
taking office.
"The Democrats have more leeway to use the tools," Sinclair said. "They're 
sort of like Nixon going to China."
Some environmentalists, however, are unhappy. They say businesses always 
will be looking for ways to build more houses, emit more pollution or cut 
more corners on cleanups, and that giving them a role in their own 
regulation provides them more opportunities.
"You don't get protection of public health and the environment by putting 
more of the onus on the private sector. It just doesn't work," said Bill 
Wolfe, a former aide to Campbell who is starting a state chapter of the 
group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "It's a theme 
that's being implemented across the department and it's very bad."
Of most concern to Wolfe and other critics is a provision in last year's 
Smart Growth bill -- a Democrat-crafted law that fast-tracks building in 
urban and suburban areas -- allowing builders' engineers to certify that 
their permit applications are complete and meet all requirements.
"Very few people understand what that would mean on the ground," Wolfe said, 
asserting it could reduce the opportunities for the public to speak out 
against projects.
That change, which is yet to be implemented, came from lawmakers. Others 
resulted from rule changes within the DEP. Campbell's Cleanup Star program 
allows qualified environmental consultants to essentially approve their own 
simple cleanups. Since the program began last year, more than 60 projects 
have been approved, the DEP said.
Campbell also has crafted a secret agreement with the chemical industry, 
early drafts of which allowed companies to follow security guidelines 
recommended by industry trade groups rather than stricter guidelines created 
by the government. Chemical plants capable of releasing deadly clouds of 
toxic gas are seen as vulnerable terrorist targets, and there are at least 
eight facilities in New Jersey that could release clouds deadly enough to 
harm more than a million people in surrounding areas, the Environmental 
Protection Agency has said.
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For his part, Campbell said the state was forced by budgetary pressures to 
do some creative thinking. In addition, Campbell said, his office has"set 
the toughest standards and enforcement to protect public health and the 
environment. Within that context, I make no apology for identifying those 
areas where we are going to make more progress by using the resources of the 
private sector."
Campbell also said the chemical-security agreement, though signed, has not 
been implemented, and he was listening to critics who are calling for a more 
public process and stricter standards. He also said he had reservations 
about the fast-track legislation, and would do his best to implement it in a 
way that did not compromise environmental protection.
That did little to quell the concerns of Jeff Tittel, head of the state 
Sierra Club. He said the philosophical change is detectable in the language 
it employs. A decade ago businesses that required environmental permits were 
called "applicants," he said. Under Whitman that changed to "the regulated 
community." More recently, the department has referred to them as "clients."
"Next year it's going to be bedfellows," Tittel said.
Alexander Lane covers the environment. He may be reached at 
alane@no.address or (973) 392-1970.


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