1996 was an important year that saw many environmental law developments nationally. The following is a description of some key national and local developments.

Brownfields Cleanups ...
Nationally, to promote brownfields recycling (industrial property recycling), we saw the emergence of a prospective purchaser agreement, or a P.P.A., developed to protect purchasers from EPA lawsuits relating to the property contamination. Various states have also provided some protection from suit.

For example, New Jersey issued one P.P.A. in 1996 and several bills now under consideration would provide the same benefit. One such Bill just passed the New Jersey Assembly in November and is now being considered by the State Senate.

Pennsylvania's Act 2 already provides liability protection to certain property owners.

Successes
In Pennsylvania, 13 sites have been cleaned under its voluntary program and many other sites are moving towards completion. Likewise, under Delaware's Superfund program 43 sites are being cleaned, and 22 have been cleaned. In New Jersey, DEP Assistant Commissioner Richard J. Gimello reports that in 1996 1,700 remediations were completed.

Other Developments ...

• EPA and Delaware, New Jersey, California and other state regulators entered into Performance Partnership Agreements in 1996, which better defines the responsibilities of each agency and establishes measurable goals to evaluate cleanup initiatives. Pennsylvania is in negotiations with EPA to do the same.

• The Asset Conservation, Lender Liability, and Deposit Insurance Protection Act of 1996 was approved in September 1996. This federal law protects lenders from environmental cleanup liability in many instances.

• In September 1996, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg introduced Senate Bill No. 2096, entitled The Environmental Crimes and Enforcement Act of 1996 enhancing criminal enforcement options for various environmental law violations.

• In 1971, Delaware enacted the Coastal Zone Act, which sought to ensure that no net increase in environmental effect would occur along the state coast line caused by development. In 1996, some 25 years later, regulations were finally adopted to implement the statute.

• In 1996 New Jersey saw the enactment of the Environmental Opportunity Zone Act and the Urban Redevelopment Act, two revolutionary property recycling laws. Other states are doing much the same.

• In the November elections, New Jersey voters approved amending the State Constitution to dedicate 4% of corporate tax revenues to various environmental programs.

• In New Jersey, several reported court cases favored policy holders seeking insurance coverage to fund environmental cleanups in 1996. A key decision was that policy holders do not own the ground water. Other state courts have also reached this conclusion, freeing millions of dollars to fund policyholder cleanups.

• Pennsylvania recently imposed a record $5.4 million dollar penalty against the Westinghouse Electric Corporation for alleged groundwater discharges of TCE, an industrial solvent. A whopping $2.7 million of this penalty was assessed for failing to provide timely notice of the discharge. NOTE: BIG PENALTY EXPOSURE FOR NON-REPORTING.
  

The information provided in this column is written by Stuart Lieberman,a practicing environmental attorney, and is for general information purposes only. It is not legal advice and should not be used in place of legal advice.

Stuart Lieberman, Esq., and IRED.Com, Inc., will not accept any responsibilty for any reliance on the information in this column or any damages whatsoever resulting from reading this column.