NJDEP’s Interim PFAS Soil Remediation Standards

On October 17^th, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) published Interim Soil Remediation Standards for four kinds of PFAS chemicals and was effective immediately. NJDEP’s standards come on the heels of the United States Environmental Protection Agency recently proposing to designate certain PFAS compounds as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) thus increasing the scope of federal liability and suggesting that these compounds must always be included in Phase I due diligence.

If you currently own or operate a site that is undergoing remediation activities in New Jersey, then you may have to consider performing an onsite soil investigation of the recently regulated PFAS. Certain historic site uses have a higher probability of having PFAS in the soil and may require soil sampling for PFAS potential source areas. If any of these contaminants are found during the soil investigation NJDEP requires they be remediated to below the NJDEP standard reflected in table below. These new standards raise new challenges for property owners, including necessary compliance with NJDEP timeframes and increased cost of investigation and remediation of PFAS chemicals. In certain instances, the NJDEP will allow the development of site-specific Alternative Remediation Standards, in lieu of meeting these generic standards.