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In 2025, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) adopted significant changes to several of its site remediation regulations, including the Technical Requirements for Site Remediation (N.J.A.C. 7:26E), Industrial Site Recovery Act Rules (N.J.A.C. 7:26B), Heating Oil Tank System Remediation Rules (N.J.A.C. 7:26F), and the Administrative Requirements for the Remediation of Contamination Sites (ARRCS) (N.J.A.C. 7:26C). These changes follow the October 21, 2024 proposed rule which is described more fully in our 2025 Forecast article on the same. These changes follow other key regulatory adoptions and largely align regulations with the 2021 amendments to the Site Remediation Reform Act (N.J.S.A. 58:10c-1 to 58:10c-29), referred to as "SRRA 2.0".
The October 2024 proposed rule introduced a change to discharge reporting requirements pursuant to ARRCS whereby persons conducting all appropriate inquiry, which includes the performance of a preliminary assessment and potential site investigation pursuant to the Spill Compensation and Control Act (N.J.S.A. 58:10-23.11 et. seq.), as part of a contemplated real estate transaction would be required to report any contamination identified at the real property to both the property owner and the NJDEP. Previously, only the person responsible for conducting the remediation and their Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) had statutory liability to report a discharge to the NJDEP, and the initial proposed rule expanded the discharge reporting obligation to include any party that obtained knowledge of a discharge. In response to objections from the regulated community citing the potential chilling effect that this requirement could have on real estate transactions, the NJDEP published a Notice of Substantial Change (NOSC) in November 2025 to repropose the due diligence discharge reporting rule. The NOSC clarifies that a person conducting due diligence must only notify the property owner if contamination is identified at the property, and that the person responsible for conducting the remediation (including property owners and current operators) notify NJDEP of previously unknown contamination reported to the property owner by a party conducting all appropriate inquiry.
The reproposed discharge reporting requirements will represent a meaningful shift in how due diligence is performed during property transactions in New Jersey. If implemented, this change would require that any contamination discovered through all appropriate inquiry during due diligence be reported to the property owner, regardless of any provisions of any contracted agreement to the contrary, and regardless of whether that investigation was performed by a LSRP. The property owner would then incur a mandatory reporting and potential cleanup obligations to NJDEP for any contamination that had not been previously reported to the agency. Any parties engaging in the transfer of potentially contaminated properties in New Jersey should be aware of these reporting obligations and their potential impact on the transaction,
Public comments on the NOSC closed January 16, 2026. The NOSC must be signed into law by April 2026 or the proposed rule will expire, requiring a prompt review of comments to prevent that outcome.
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