A Message from the LSRPA

On Mar 1, 2018

Have you noticed anything different? Maybe you saw an old factory is gone, that a new town center has opened, or a new residential high-rise or school is under construction in places like Camden, Passaic, Newark and Jersey City.

Throughout the state, New Jersey is cleaning contaminated sites and turning them into productive, attractive facilities – and the state’s Licensed Site Remediation Professionals (LSRPs) are proud to be part of this success. In January 2018, New Jersey reached a milestone – 11,000 environmental cleanups under the Site Remediation Reform Act of 2009, which created the LSRP program.

LSRPs, a new concept in 2009, are now an integral part of New Jersey’s environmental remediation process. They identify and document the steps necessary for remediation, keeping projects on track to meet the timeframes of both regulators and the parties seeking to bring properties back to productive use.

The LSRP program was created to help responsible parties move their environmental projects to completion – and it has. Before then, New Jersey identified 26,000 sites in need of remediation and most were on a waiting list with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).

Now, with the assistance of LSRPs, that number has been reduced to around 14,000 sites. LSRPs’ work also has freed up the NJDEP’s staff to focus on sites posing an immediate threat to our citizens where a responsible party is not identified or available.

The Licensed Site Remediation Professionals Association (LSRPA) is proud to represent our membership. The LSRPA advances the profession by providing information, education and technical resources to our membership, as well as promoting the standard of care and use of professional judgment while fulfilling our primary objective of protecting public health, safety and the environment.

The LSRPA meets regularly with all levels of the NJDEP to address the concerns of all involved parties: remediating parties, developers, environmental advocates, and communities. We have partnered with NJDEP and other stakeholders to develop a library of guidance documents to assist LSRPs. This shared technical expertise has improved the quality of life in the Garden State by cleaning up contaminated sites and returning them to productive uses.

As you will read in the following section, LSRPs are leaders as well as technical experts. They play a key role in the ongoing development and improvement of New Jersey’s environment, contributing to NJDEP guidance and regulations along with assisting clients to understand and observe them.

It is this level of trust and openness that has allowed New Jersey to achieve 11,000 completed environmental cleanups and will be vital to the next 11,000.

Sincerely,

Rodger A. Ferguson, Jr., LSRP,
President of LSRPA

Mr. Ferguson is President of PennJersey Environmental Consulting.

 

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