In September 2022, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Environmental Restoration (OER) will draft a rule proposing to establish OER’s authority to initiate enforcement action against parties who fail to comply with OER-approved Site Management Plans (SMPs). has been published. The proposed rule would allow OER to issue returnable subpoenas before administrative trials and hearings to seek civil penalties against the OER SMP or other parties who violate her OER program requirements. increase. Anyone who owns a NYC site that is subject to E-designation or Environmental Restriction Declaration should be aware of these proposed rules. A qualified owner should have a qualified environmental professional complete the required OER reports and ensure that the necessary institutional and/or technical controls are in place to protect human health and the environment. I have. .
In addition to granting OER new enforcement powers, the proposed rule would clarify existing OER SMP requirements for owners of E-designated and environmental restriction declared sites subject to ongoing site management obligations. increase. This includes:
- If the OER SMP requires periodic reporting, the asset owner must submit the certification annually unless a different schedule is agreed in writing by OER. This certification must be completed by a qualified environmental professional for all active or passive remediation systems, but facility owners should ensure that facility management is related only to usage restrictions or site coverage requirements. You can submit an annual certification for your site.
- Certain information included in the certification, including but not limited to the following statements:
- A field survey was conducted.
- Institutional and/or engineering controls are in place.
- No incidents have occurred that have compromised the ability of controls to protect public health and the environment or have led to violations or non-compliance with SMPs.When
- The Owner continues to allow OER to access the Site to assess the maintenance of such controls.
- In the event of failure of institutional or technical controls to the extent that the above certification is not possible, the Property Owner shall timely notify OER of the cause of such failure and establish a work plan and schedule to address the failure. must be submitted.
Proposed rule would give OER enforcement powers to impose a minimum penalty of $10,000 for failure of OER to submit Agency/Technical Control Certificates in an acceptable form, with proposed penalty of $20,000 for non-compliance is. However, if the property owner receives a subpoena for non-compliance, the property owner may submit a certificate of rectification in response. If within 45 days of the date of service of the subpoena he receives a correction certificate in a form acceptable to OER, OER will withdraw the subpoena and the defendant will not be assessed any penalty.
OER is open for public comment until October 28th.than online hearing is scheduled for October 28th 11 am.
