58:10-23.20 - Legislative findings and declarations - New Jersey Statutes

58:10-23.20.  Legislative findings and declarations    The Legislature finds and declares that:

    a.  The recognition of the threat of serious, and in some cases irreversible, environmental pollution by toxic chemicals stored, legally or otherwise, at various sites around the State has prompted the recent need for a  systematic and consistent approach to the detoxification of those sites;

    b.  Pioneering efforts in responding to those environmental threats have been undertaken by agencies of this State thereby adding to the store of knowledge and experience necessary for prompt and efficient hazardous discharge  response;

    c.  Serious allegations have been made that efforts to detoxify sites of hazardous discharge have been fraught with ineffective administration, resulting in less than the most cost effective approach to the cleanup of those  sites, and the waste of funds made precious by scarcity and the large number of  sites needing remedial action;

    d.  To assure the adequate and most cost effective response to chemical contamination, it is altogether fitting and proper to utilize the expertise of industry, academia and environmentally concerned citizens to study prior cleanup efforts, identify programmatic inefficiencies and ineffectiveness, and to recommend a contingency response plan which shall serve as the basis for a Statewide master plan for the cleanup of chemical contamination.

     L.1983, c. 222, s. 1, eff. June 27, 1983.