"Expediency and Accessibility in State Environmental Permitting Act"; appropriates $3,750,000.

A4234

ASSEMBLY, No. 4234

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 19, 2026

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman� CODY D. MILLER

District 4 (Atlantic, Camden and Gloucester)

Assemblyman� DAN HUTCHISON

District 4 (Atlantic, Camden and Gloucester)

SYNOPSIS

����

�Expediency and Accessibility in State Environmental
Permitting Act�; appropriates $3,750,000.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� As introduced.

��

An Act
concerning certain environmental permits, supplementing
Title 13 of the Revised Statutes, and making an appropriation.

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.� This act shall be known
and may be cited as the �Expediency and Accessibility in State Environmental
Permitting Act.�

���� 2.� a.� The Legislature finds
and declares that:

���� (1) �having endured a long
history of industrial pollution and natural resource degradation from which its
natural environment is still recovering, the State has advanced and must
continue to implement policies to improve and protect public health, safety, and
the environment, and which promote smart growth and sustainable economic
development;

���� (2) �the people of New Jersey,
their communities, and businesses depend upon the State to secure healthy air,
clean water, safe lands, and a stable climate;

���� (3) �both legacy and emerging
environmental hazards demand that the State advance the science and technology
necessary to develop and implement strong public health, safety, and
environmental standards;

���� (4) State policies to protect
residents from exposure to unnecessary pollution, reduce the risk of
environmental hazards, and restore and conserve our valuable natural resources
require expedient and technologically adept governance; and

���� (5) �the implementation of Statewide
public health, safety, and environmental programs must be efficiently and
timely deployed to ensure their protective ends while facilitating the economic
and community development that enriches quality of life for all New Jerseyans.

���� b.� The Legislature further
finds and declares that:

���� (1) �improving and maintaining
environmental quality and economic development requires that the State ensure
that its process for implementing Statewide public health, safety, and
environmental programs are transparent and accessible to regulated entities and
the general public;

���� (2) �the State must pursue
continual process improvement consistent with the pace of technological
developments; and

���� (3) �the State must
consistently invest in and leverage information technology in order to expedite
the environmental review and permitting of commercial, industrial, and public
development, and to ensure the accountability of all permit process
participants.

���� 3.� As used in this act:

���� �Department� means the
Department of Environmental Protection.

���� �Expediency and Accessibility
in State Environmental Permitting Portal� or �EASE Permitting Portal� means the
online permit transparency portal developed by the department pursuant to
subsection a. of section 4 of this act.

���� �New Jersey Environmental
Management System� or �NJEMS� means the integrated database management tool
utilized by the department in the administration of Statewide public health,
safety, and environmental programs, including, but not limited to, the receipt
and processing of permit applications for individual, commercial, industrial,
and public development. �NJEMS� includes the legacy, existing, and potential
future iterations of the NJEMS.

���� �Permit� means any general or
individual permit, registration, or license issued by the department
establishing the regulatory and management requirements for a regulated
activity under the following State laws:

���� (1) �R.S.12:5-1 et seq.;

���� (2) �P.L.1975, c.232
(C.13:1D-29 et al.);

���� (3) �the �Solid Waste
Management Act,� P.L.1970, c.39 (C.13:1E-1 et seq.);

���� (4) �section 17 of P.L.1975,
c.326 (C.13:1E-26);

���� (5) �the �Comprehensive
Regulated Medical Waste Management Act,� sections 1 through 25 of P.L.1989,
c.34 (C.13:1E-48.1 et seq.);

���� (6) �P.L.1989, c.151
(C.13:1E-99.21a et al.);

���� (7) �the �New Jersey Statewide
Mandatory Source Separation and Recycling Act,� P.L.1987, c.102 (C.13:1E-99.11
et al.);

���� (8) �the �Pesticide Control
Act of 1971,� P.L.1971, c.176 (C.13:1F-1 et seq.);

���� (9) ��The Wetlands Act of
1970,� P.L.1970, c.272 (C.13:9A-1 et seq.);

���� (10) �the �Freshwater Wetlands
Protection Act,� P.L.1987, c.156 (C.13:9B-1 et al.);

���� (11) �the �Coastal Area
Facility Review Act,� P.L.1973, c.185 (C.13:19-1 et seq.);

���� (12) �the �Highlands Water
Protection and Planning Act,� P.L.2004, c.120 (C.13:20-1 et seq.);

���� (13) �the �Air Pollution
Control Act (1954),� P.L.1954, c.212 (C.26:2C-1 et seq.);

���� (14) �the �Water Supply
Management Act,� P.L.1981, c.262 (C.58:1A-1 et al.);

���� (15) �P.L.1947, c.377
(C.58:4A-5 et seq.);

���� (16) �the �Water Pollution
Control Act,� P.L.1977, c.74 (C.58:10A-1 et seq.);

���� (17) �P.L.1986, c.102
(C.58:10A-21 et seq.); or

���� (18) �the �Flood Hazard Area
Control Act,� P.L.1962, c.19 (C.58:16A-50 et seq.).

���� �Permit� shall not include any
authorization or approval necessary to perform a remediation, as defined
pursuant to section 23 of P.L.1993, c.139 (C.58:10B-1).

���� 4.� a.� The department shall
develop and maintain on its Internet website an accessible online permit
transparency portal utilizing publicly accessible NJEMS data, which portal
shall be unidirectional and provide information sufficient to enable permit
applicants and the general public to remotely monitor the submission, progress,
and disposition of permit applications. �The portal shall be known as the
Expediency and Accessibility in State Environmental Permitting Portal or EASE
Permitting Portal.

���� b.� The department shall
ensure that the EASE Permitting Portal reflects, at a minimum:

���� (1) �the department�s receipt
of a permit application;

���� (2) �the completeness of a
permit application, including its administrative and technical completeness, any
applicant or agent deficiencies in attaining application completeness, and the
applicant or agent responsible for curing the application deficiencies;

���� (3) �stages of permit
application review;

���� (4) �process ownership by
stage of review; and

���� (5) the projected timeline to
final disposition of the permit application.

���� c.� The department shall
deploy the EASE Permitting Portal in a sequential phased manner by permitting
divisions within the department, as follows:

���� (1) �no later than 12 months
after the effective date of this act or the availability of necessary
appropriations, whichever is later, the department shall make the portal
available for the monitoring of permit applications pending before the
department�s Division of Land Resource Protection;

���� (2) �no later than 18 months
after the effective date of this act or the availability of necessary
appropriations, whichever is later, the department shall make the portal
available for the monitoring of permit applications pending before the
department�s Division of Air Quality and Radiation Protection;

���� (3) �no later than 24 months
after the effective date of this act or the availability of necessary
appropriations, whichever is later, the department shall make the portal
available for the monitoring of permit applications pending before the
department�s Division of Sustainable Waste Management; and

���� (4) �no later than 30 months
after the effective date of this act or the availability of necessary
appropriations, whichever is later, the department shall make the portal
available for the monitoring of permit applications pending before the
department�s Division of Water Quality.

���� d.� In order to ensure the
effective implementation of Statewide public health, safety, and environmental
programs, the department shall consistently review its processes and procedures
to identify and address barriers to the accessibility of environmental data and
information, assist permit applicants and the general public in navigating
department processes and information technology systems, promote accountability
permit applicants, and collect and evaluate program management diagnostics
necessary to support permit and process efficiency and streamlining efforts.� The
department shall pursue continual process and information technology
improvements consistent with the pace of technological developments in the
broader economy.

���� 5.� a.� The department shall
plan for, and prepare to transition its legacy and existing permit management
platforms, including NJEMS, to a permitting workflow management system that
features a permit applicant interface for application submission, tracking,
management, and bidirectional communication between applicants and the department,
such that all permitting activities and communications occur within a single
unified database and user interface.

���� b.� The department, in
consultation with its information technology providers, shall develop a needs
assessment, workplan, and order of magnitude cost estimate for implementing the
transition described in subsection a. of this section over a 36-month period.

���� c.� No later than 12 months
after the effective date of this act or the availability of necessary
appropriations, whichever is later, the department shall report the needs
assessment, workplan, and cost estimate to the Governor and, pursuant to
section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature.

���� 6.� a.� To establish and
maintain the information technology necessary to expedite the environmental
review of permits for residential, commercial, industrial, and public
development, and to ensure the accountability of all permit process
participants, the department shall assess a three percent technology surcharge
on all permit fees, the proceeds of which shall be placed in a dedicated
account accessible only to the department for purposes of supporting technology
improvements consistent with the provisions of this act.

���� b. �In each State fiscal year
following the enactment of this act, the department shall report, pursuant to
section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature on the status
and use of funds dedicated to technology improvements pursuant to this act.

���� 7.� There is appropriated from
the General Fund to the Department of Environmental Protection the sum of
$3,750,000, of which $3,000,000 shall be used to implement the provisions of
section 4 of this act and $750,000 shall be used to implement the provisions of
section 5 of this act.

���� 8.� This act shall take effect
immediately.

STATEMENT

���� This bill, to be known as the �Expediency
and Accessibility in State Environmental Permitting Act,� would require the
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to develop an accessible online
permit transparency portal, which would be known as the Expediency and
Accessibility in State Environmental Permitting Portal or EASE Permitting
Portal.

���� The portal would enable permit
applicants and the general public to remotely monitor the submission, progress,
and disposition of permit applications, in particular for those permits
enumerated in the bill�s definition of �permit.�� The bill would establish
certain minimum requirements for the portal, for example that it allows an
applicant to view the completeness of a permit application, including its
administrative and technical completeness, any applicant or agent deficiencies
in attaining application completeness, and the applicant or agent responsible
for curing these application deficiencies.

���� The bill would also direct the
DEP to develop a needs assessment, workplan, and order of magnitude cost
estimate for implementing a transition in its permitting processes over a
36-month period.� The transition would be to a permitting workflow management
system that features a permit applicant interface for application submission,
tracking, management, and bidirectional communication between applicants and
the department, such that all permitting activities and communications occur
within a single unified database and user interface.

���� The bill would authorize the
DEP to assess a three percent technology surcharge on permit fees, for those
permits covered under the bill. �The proceeds of the surcharge would be used to
support the technology improvements described by the bill.� The bill would also
appropriate $3,750,000 from the General Fund to the DEP.� $3 million would be
used to establish the EASE Permitting Portal and $750,000 would be used to
develop the permitting process upgrade needs assessment.