Environmental Regulatory

Environmental regulations, especially those with heavy consequences for mistakes or missed deadlines, can overwhelm even experienced property owners and staff. Adding to the confusion, confounding language and frequent changes to rules and laws at the federal and state levels make it difficult for those responsible to stay current.

Fortunately, Lockatong’s professional environmental engineering expertise gives us the advantage when compared to other firms that may rely on a course-trained environmental “expert” on staff. Our experience of local regulations and familiarity with programs and personnel, especially in New Jersey, makes us a valuable partner in our clients’ ventures. Along with delivering a stream of timely and pertinent information to our clients, we welcome questions and concerns regarding how regulations may affect their facility.

New Jersey is one of the most regulated states in the nation, and a facility here must comply with the regulations of the NJDEP as well as the EPA. The depth of Lockatong’s environmental engineering familiarity and expertise within this heavily regulated state means we are significantly more capable of quickly accessing, comprehending, and accommodating any differences in the regulations of other states, expanding our value across state lines.

Within New Jersey alone, for example, many federal environmental programs are administered by the NJDEP, which performs permit-granting and most other agency functions. In fact, clean air, clean water, and hazardous waste-related activities are the largest programs administered by NJDEP, which can conduct unannounced inspections. In some jurisdictions, NJDEP has also delegated enforcement responsibility to county departments of health, whose personnel can also conduct inspections.

Regulatory Compliance Audits

A Lockatong environmental audit of a facility reviews current policies that address compliance with federal and state environmental regulations.

Do the policies provide clear, unambiguous direction as to the means, methods, personal responsibility, and procedures to be followed?
Do they comply with the regulation’s expectations?
Do department managers confirm that all staff members are familiar with the policies and follow the guidelines and procedures?

Following our review, we report to the client any deficiencies we have identified and our recommendations for improvement.

Lockatong can manage permit compliance for a project, analyze systems for potential environmental issues and design systems that comply with regulations and with record-keeping and reporting requirements. In fact, many clients rely on us to regularly audit their performance to keep them in compliance.

By visiting client sites regularly and staying in touch, we can communicate responsibly—and without delay—regarding new environmental regulations and how they might apply to a client’s unique operations. We also provide onsite training and review the required record-keeping forms so client staff are adequately prepared for regulatory inspections from state and local jurisdictions.

Air Emissions

“Air emission” refers to the substances released into the atmosphere by human, mechanical and natural activities that can cause environmental problems such as decreased air quality, depletion of the ozone layer, pollution of ecosystems by hazardous substances, and global climate change. Medical and industrial facilities that utilize large oil or natural gas boilers and generators are common sources of air pollution, including particulate matter, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide.

Storage Tanks

Underground and aboveground storage tanks (USTs and ASTs) are regulated in New Jersey: those that contain fuel for onsite combustion equipment must be properly maintained, inspected, monitored, and repaired when needed.

The risk of a fuel spill or leak into surface, subsurface, and groundwater is a near-certain result of improperly maintained tanks, with the potential for creating devastating environmental impacts on humans and the natural world for years to come.

New Jersey’s Underground Storage Tank Compliance Act makes it “unlawful to deliver to, deposit into, or accept a regulated substance into an underground storage tank at a facility” unless the tank complies with UST regulations.

We provide annual compliance reviews of a client’s facility to evaluate if its staff is conducting routine inspections, maintaining the tanks in accordance with the regulations and properly documenting activity. As licensed Professional Engineers, we can also supply design, specifications, drawings, and construction oversight for newly installed USTs and ASTs.

Water Supply/Usage

Should a facility wish to divert more than 100,000 gallons of ground or surface water per day for more than 30 days a year for a purpose other than agriculture, aquaculture or horticulture, New Jersey requires a Water Allocation Permit. That means a Water Allocation Permit is needed to divert water for the public water supply, industrial processing and cooling, irrigation, sand and gravel operations, remediation, power generation, and similar uses.

Lockatong engineers assess the need for a permit and then complete the process to achieve it. We prepare the Water Conservation and Drought Plan, which includes water conservation components, analysis of water use, unaccounted-for water from leaks, water rates (if applicable), public education and awareness steps (if applicable), and drought or water supply emergency management components, before submitting it to the State.

NJDEP Air Permitting

We provide air permitting for Title V, synthetic minor, and natural minor facilities, including hospitals, manufacturers, commercial, and industrial facilities. We review and evaluate existing equipment, operating parameters, and recordkeeping to determine if the permits in place are those best suited to a client’s needs. When the time comes to replace equipment or expand a facility, we work directly with the client from the initial planning stages to full completion, providing guidance to our client’s personnel and the contractor and evaluating if the proposed equipment meets current regulations. We outline the proposed permit conditions, limitations, and requirements for the facility so the staff is aware from the beginning of the project what future compliance obligations will be.

When the regulatory agency issues the final permit, we review the permit conditions and recordkeeping requirements with onsite staff to make them aware of what is expected from them on a daily basis to confirm compliance. We routinely review the NJDEP and EPA regulations and any changes made to permit requirements that may affect a facility. In short, we do the hard work so our clients don’t have to.

New Jersey’s different air permits depend on the type of equipment and its planned operation. General permits for minor source facilities, with an established set of applicability requirements and compliance conditions, are commonly used for boilers, emergency generators, fuel dispensing tanks, and other standard equipment. If the equipment does not meet the general permit requirements, it will likely require a pre-construction permit (PCP). PCP permits are site- and source-specific with regards to the equipment, operation, and compliance conditions.

Phase I Environmental<br />
Site Assessments

Phase I Environmental Site Assessments

When Lockatong conducts a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA), we follow the ASTM Standard 1527 format. We perform a physical inspection of the site, review relevant records, and interview occupants, owners, neighbors, and selected officials. The scope can be expanded to address issues specific to the subject property.

Our goal for these ESA studies is to identify recognized environmental conditions (RECs) associated with each property as well as business environmental risks (BERs) as defined within ASTM. Our site investigation seeks visual evidence indicating a likely existing release, past release or threat of a release of any hazardous substances or petroleum products onto the property.

In addition to the site inspections, we conduct other research that falls within the ESA scope.

Apparent current and prior uses of all adjacent properties with respect to the potential for migration of contaminants to the subject property
Readily available public records (local, state and federal) and previous reports and studies to identify existing or potential sources of contamination to the site
Interviews with present or past owners or tenants or other knowledgeable individuals, to the extent they are available, to assess their knowledge of stored, created or discharged hazardous materials or waste
Review whether appropriate procedures, safeguards, permits, and notices are in place

Spill Prevention Control<br />
and Countermeasures

Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures

Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures

As part of the EPA’s Oil Pollution Prevention regulation, its Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule outlines requirements for the prevention of, preparedness for and response to oil discharges that might reach navigable waters or adjoining shorelines (40 CFR part 112).

As licensed Professional Engineers, Lockatong meets the EPA’s stipulation that regulated facilities have a licensed Professional Engineer prepare and certify SPCC Plans to establish procedures and equipment requirements. We are also qualified to review and update the Plan every five years once it has been developed and implemented.

Lockatong Engineering conducts an onsite inspection of fuel storage locations and the areas where discharges might occur. We review your current spill containment procedures, fuel delivery policy, and recordkeeping practices; we also interview management and staff to identify any historic spills as well as any systems in the infrastructure vulnerable to a fuel release into the environment. We provide recommendations to improve management of spills and identify any deficiencies we’ve found in the current policies and procedures.

The SPCC rule applies to owners or operators of non-transportation-related facilities that drill, produce, store, process, refine, transfer, distribute, use or consume oil or oil products; and could reasonably be expected to discharge oil to U.S. navigable waters or adjoining shorelines.

Facilities are subject to the rule if they meet at least one of the following capacity thresholds:

Aboveground oil storage capacity greater than 1,320 U.S. gallons
Completely buried oil storage capacity greater than 42,000 U.S. gallons