New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 7 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Chapter 14 - WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT › Subchapter 8 - CIVIL ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTIES AND REQUESTS FOR ADJUDICATORY HEARINGS › Section 7:14-8.4 - Procedures to request an adjudicatory hearing to contest an administrative order, a notice of civil administrative penalty assessment, or a notice of civil administrative cost assessment; procedures for conducting adjudicatory hearings

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
(a) To request an adjudicatory hearing to
				contest an administrative order, a notice of civil administrative penalty
				assessment, or a notice of civil administrative cost assessment issued by the
				Department pursuant to the Water Pollution Control Act, the New Jersey
				Underground Storage of Hazardous Substances Act, or the Water Supply and
				Wastewater Operators' Licensing Act, the violator shall submit the original
				request in writing to the Department at New Jersey Department of Environmental
				Protection, Office of Administrative Hearings and Dispute Resolution,
				ATTENTION: Adjudicatory Hearing Requests, 401 E. State Street, Mail Code
				401-07A, PO Box 420, Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0420 and a copy of the request
				to the enforcement bureau which issued the enforcement document. Any written
				request shall include the following information:
1. The name, address, and telephone number of
				the violator and its authorized representative;
2. The date the violator received the
				enforcement document being contested;
3. A copy of the enforcement document and a
				list of all issues being appealed;
4. The violator's defenses to each of the
				findings of fact stated in short and plain terms;
5. An admission or denial of each of the
				findings of fact. If the violator is without knowledge or information
				sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of a finding, the violator shall so
				state and this shall have the effect of a denial. A denial shall fairly meet
				the substance of the findings denied. When the violator intends in good faith
				to deny only a part or a qualification of a finding, the violator shall specify
				so much of it as is true and material and deny only the remainder. The violator
				may not generally deny all of the findings but shall make all denials as
				specific denials of designated findings. For each finding the violator denies,
				the violator shall allege the fact or facts as the violator believes it or them
				to be;
6. Information supporting
				the request and specific reference to or copies of other written documents
				relied upon to support the request;
7. An estimate of the time required for the
				hearing (in days and/or hours);
8.
				A request, if necessary, for a barrier-free hearing location for physically
				disabled persons;
9. Proof of
				compliance with all of the requirements in
				7:14A-6.10 if the violator intends
				to:
i. Raise an affirmative defense to
				liability for a civil administrative penalty pursuant to
				7:14-8.5(a)  or
				8.16(a) for the violation of an effluent limitation on the basis that a
				violation of an effluent limitation occurred as a result of an upset, an
				approved anticipated bypass or unanticipated bypass, a testing laboratory
				error, or a permitted groundwater remedial action; and
ii. To request that the Department determine
				through an administrative hearing whether or not it agrees with the violator's
				allegations concerning the matter; and
10. For a notice of civil administrative
				penalty assessment pursuant to
				7:14-8.9(e), the
				following as applicable:
i. Documentation of
				compliance with the requirements in
				7:14-8.9(e)  that
				the violator notify the Department in writing, within 30 days after the date
				the violator was required to submit the information to the Department, of
				extenuating circumstances that prevented timely submission of a complete
				discharge monitoring report;
ii.
				Documentation of the violator's correction of the violation by submitting the
				omitted information within 10 days after the violator's receipt of the notice
				of the omission; a violator's failure to comply with the notice requirements in
				7:14-8.9(e)  will
				be a waiver of the violator's right to correct the violation within the
				required 10-day period and thus avert liability; or
iii. Documentation that the violator complied
				with 7:14-8.9(e)  3, if
				the violator intends to contest a civil administrative penalty assessed
				pursuant to
				7:14-8.9(e)  based
				on the existence of extenuating circumstances beyond the violator's control; if
				the violator fails to submit the required information within this 30-day
				period, the violator shall have waived its right to contest the civil
				administrative penalty in this manner and be barred from doing so;
				and
11. A statement as
				to whether the violator agrees to the Department's holding the request for 90
				days prior to referral to the Office of Administrative Law for purposes of
				allowing time to negotiate a settlement of the dispute as provided by
				1:1-8.1(b).