Bill Text: NJ A2960 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes grant program in DEP to provide financial assistance to municipalities for infrastructure and other physical upgrades to certain municipally owned sanitary landfill facilities closed before June 1987; appropriates $10 million.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste Committee [A2960 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A2960-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman TENNILLE R. MCCOY
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
Establishes grant program in DEP to provide financial assistance to municipalities for infrastructure and other physical upgrades to certain municipally owned sanitary landfill facilities closed before June 1987; appropriates $10 million.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act establishing a grant program in Department of Environmental Protection to finance upgrades to certain municipally owned sanitary landfill facilities, supplementing Title 13 of the Revised Statutes, and making an appropriation.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. As used in this act:
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Environmental Protection.
"Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection.
"Grant program" or "program" means the "Municipal Landfill Upgrading and Infrastructure Improvement Grant Program," established pursuant to section 2 of this act.
"Improperly closed sanitary landfill facility" or "improperly closed" means a sanitary landfill facility, or a portion of a sanitary landfill facility, at which operations were terminated prior to June 1, 1987 and for which performance is not complete with respect to all activities associated with the design, installation, purchase, or construction of structures or equipment, or with respect to the implementation of other appropriate measures, as may be required by the department, pursuant to law, for proper facility closure, including, but not limited to, activities involving the placement or installation of earthen or vegetative cover, methane gas vents, methane gas monitors, air pollution control devices, and leachate monitoring wells or collection systems.
"Municipal landfill upgrading and infrastructure costs" or "costs" means the financial costs incurred by a municipality in association with its implementation and ongoing maintenance and management of infrastructure improvements and other physical upgrades to a municipally owned and improperly closed sanitary landfill facility.
"Sanitary landfill facility" means the same as that term is defined in section 3 of P.L.1970, c.39 (C.13:1E-3).
2. a. The "Municipal Landfill Upgrading and Infrastructure Improvement Grant Program" is established in the Department of Environmental Protection to provide financial assistance to pay municipal landfill upgrading and infrastructure costs incurred by a municipality, which costs are necessary to ensure that the municipality:
(1) comports with the department's standards and regulations concerning the proper closure, capping, and post-closure care of sanitary landfill facilities; and
(2) has the capacity to effectively prevent, minimize, eliminate, or monitor pollution and other health hazards resulting from a municipally owned and improperly closed sanitary landfill facility.
b. Any municipality that owns an improperly closed sanitary landfill facility shall be eligible to apply for a grant under the program.
c. An eligible municipality seeking to obtain a program grant shall submit an application therefor, in a form and manner prescribed by the commissioner. The grant application shall include the following information:
(1) a certification stating that the sanitary landfill facility, which is the subject of the grant application, is owned by the municipality and was improperly closed prior to June 1, 1987;
(2) a statement indicating the total amount of funding that is being sought under the grant program;
(3) a list of other financial resources, including federal financial assistance, that may be available to finance the municipal landfill upgrading and infrastructure costs;
(4) a description of the specific project or projects for which grant funding is being sought, including: the type of infrastructure improvement or other physical upgrade being proposed; the reason why such infrastructure improvement or other physical upgrade is necessary; the environmental and health-related impacts that are expected to result from the improvement or upgrade; the total anticipated costs of the project, including the total anticipated expenses associated with the municipality's ongoing maintenance and management of completed project components; the permits and approvals that will required for project commencement; and the anticipated dates on which the project will be commenced and completed; and
(5) any other information required by the commissioner.
d. A grant awarded under the program shall be used only to finance those municipal landfill upgrading and infrastructure costs that are directly incurred and paid by the municipality. In any case where a federal agency is financing a portion of the municipal landfill upgrading and infrastructure costs, the total costs used to determine the amount of the grant to be awarded under the program shall be reduced by the amount of the federal contribution.
e. Within 180 days after the effective date of this act, the commissioner shall develop a project priority system, which shall identify the ranking criteria and funding policies that will be used by the department to prioritize projects for grant awards under the program. At a minimum, the project priority system shall provide for the prioritization of those projects that will have the most significant impacts with respect to enabling the ongoing municipal prevention, reduction, elimination, or monitoring of pollution and other health hazards resulting from an improperly closed sanitary landfill facility.
f. Each municipality receiving a grant award under the program shall submit to the department, on an annual or more frequent basis, as required by the commissioner, a grant fund expenditures report that describes how the awarded grant funds are being used by the municipality. Each report shall be submitted in a form and manner prescribed by the commissioner.
g. The commissioner shall annually submit a written report to the Governor, and, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature, on the implementation and effectiveness of the grant program. The annual report shall, at a minimum:
(1) identify the total number and dollar amount of grant awards issued during the current reporting period, the total number and dollar amount of grant awards issued, to date, since the program was commenced, and the total number of funded projects that have been completed;
(2) for those projects that received a grant during the current reporting period, indicate the purpose for which each grant was awarded, and describe the anticipated or actual environmental and health-related impacts associated with the grant award;
(3) indicate the amount of appropriated funds that remain available to finance future grant awards under the program; and
(4) evaluate whether, and the extent to which, the grant program has been successful in facilitating municipal compliance with department standards and regulations governing the proper closure, capping, and post-closure care of sanitary landfill facilities, and whether, and the extent to which, grant-funded projects have succeeded in enabling the more effective municipal prevention, minimization, elimination, or monitoring of pollution and other health hazards resulting from these facilities.
3. a. The commissioner shall adopt rules and regulations, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), as may be necessary to implement the provisions of this act.
b. The rules and regulations shall identify, at a minimum:
(1) the procedures to be used by municipalities when submitting grant applications;
(2) the standards to be used by the department when evaluating grant applications and when awarding program grants in accordance with the priority system developed pursuant to subsection e. of section 2 of this act;
(3) any limitations, restrictions, or other requirements concerning the use of grant funds awarded under the program; and
(4) the requisite content of the grant fund expenditures reports that are to be submitted by grant recipients, pursuant to subsection f. of section 2 of this act, and the requisite timeframes for submission of the reports.
4. There is appropriated, from the General Fund to the Department of Environmental Protection, the sum of $10,000,000 for the purposes of financing grants to municipalities, as provided by this act.
5. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill would establish, in the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), a "Municipal Landfill Upgrading and Infrastructure Improvement Grant Program." The program would provide financial assistance to pay municipal landfill upgrading and infrastructure costs - i.e., those financial costs that are incurred by a municipality in association with its implementation and ongoing maintenance and management of infrastructure improvements and other physical upgrades to a municipally owned and improperly closed sanitary landfill facility - which costs are necessary to ensure that the municipality: (1) comports with the DEP's standards and regulations concerning the proper closure, capping, and post-closure care of sanitary landfill facilities, which were initially adopted on June 1, 1987; and (2) has the capacity to effectively prevent, minimize, eliminate, or monitor pollution and other health hazards resulting from the improperly closed sanitary landfill facility.
A municipality that owns an improperly closed sanitary landfill facility would be eligible to apply for a grant under the program. The bill defines an "improperly closed sanitary landfill facility" to mean a sanitary landfill facility, or a portion of a sanitary landfill facility, at which operations were terminated prior to June 1, 1987 and for which performance is not complete with respect to all activities associated with the design, installation, purchase, or construction of structures or equipment, or with respect to the implementation of other appropriate measures, as may be required by the DEP, pursuant to law, for proper facility closure, including, but not limited to, activities involving the placement or installation of earthen or vegetative cover, methane gas vents, methane gas monitors, air pollution control devices, and leachate monitoring wells or collection systems.
In addition to any other information that may be required by the DEP commissioner, an application for a program grant submitted by an eligible municipality under the bill would need to include: (1) a certification stating that the sanitary landfill facility, which is the subject of the grant application, is owned by the municipality and was improperly closed prior to June 1, 1987; (2) a statement indicating the total amount of grant funding that is being sought pursuant to the bill; (3) a list of any other financial resources, including federal financial assistance, that may be available to finance the municipal landfill upgrading and infrastructure costs; and (4) a description of the specific project or projects for which grant funding is being sought. The project description is to identify: the type of infrastructure improvement or other physical upgrade being proposed; the reason why the infrastructure improvement or other physical upgrade is necessary; the environmental impacts that are expected to result from the improvement or upgrade; the total anticipated costs of the project, including the total anticipated expenses associated with the municipality's ongoing maintenance and management of completed project components; the permits and approvals that will be required for project commencement; and the anticipated dates on which the project will be commenced and completed.
A grant awarded under the program may be used to finance only those municipal landfill upgrading and infrastructure costs that are directly incurred by a municipality. In any case where a federal agency is financing a portion of the municipal landfill upgrading and infrastructure costs, the total costs used in determining the amount of the grant to be awarded under the grant program would be reduced by the amount of the federal contribution.
The bill requires the DEP commissioner, within 180 days after the bill's effective date, to develop a project priority system that identifies the ranking criteria and funding policies to be used by the DEP when prioritizing projects for grant awards under the program. At a minimum, the project priority system is to provide for the prioritization of those projects that will have the most significant impacts with respect to enabling the ongoing municipal prevention, reduction, elimination, or monitoring of pollution and other health hazards resulting from an improperly closed sanitary landfill facility.
Each municipality receiving a grant award under the program would be required to regularly submit to the DEP, a grant fund expenditures report that describes how the awarded grant funds are being used by the municipality. The commissioner would be required to adopt rules and regulations that, among other things, specify the requisite content of these expenditure reports. The bill also requires the DEP commissioner to annually submit, to the Governor and the Legislature, a written report on the implementation and effectiveness of the grant program, which is to include, among other things, an accounting of the appropriated funds that remain available for future project grants.
The bill would appropriate $10 million from the General Fund to the DEP for the purposes of financing grants under the program.
