Opinion ID: 1992142
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Does the act require the DEP to recover the costs incurred in processing individual permits, or may the agency develop a fee schedule to recover costs in the aggregate?

Text: This issue requires us to consider only the first prong of the three-part test for review of agency action, whether the Department followed the mandate of its enabling act to develop a cost-based permit program. All agree that the Water Pollution Control Act is not a revenue-raiser. As such, the Commissioner's regulatory power includes the right to charge fees designed to defray costs as long as such fees do not `exceed the bounds of reason considered in connection with the service and the cost of the service granted.' Moyant v. Borough of Paramus, 30 N.J. 528, 546 (1959) (quoting Daniels v. Borough of Point Pleasant, 23 N.J. 357, 361 (1957)). The fees are presumed to be reasonable until the objectors prove to the contrary. Bellington v. East Windsor, 17 N.J. 558, 568-69 (1955). The core of the thermal dischargers' argument here is that the conjunctive language in N.J.S.A. 58:10A-9 mandates that the State institute a fee program that will develop costs for the processing of each individual permit, and that only those demonstrated costs may be recovered from individual permit holders. We disagree that the Legislature mandated such an effect. The act states broadly that the Commissioner shall establish and charge reasonable annual administrative fees, which fees shall be based upon, and shall not exceed, the estimated cost of processing, monitoring and administering the NJPDES permits.  Id. (emphasis added). We interpret this to mean all of the permits. As the Appellate Division noted, when the Legislature has intended that individual licensees be charged fees related to the specific costs of administering the program features relative to each individual licensee, it has done so. Cf. N.J.S.A. 5:12-139 (casino licensees must reimburse Casino Control Commission for actual costs of investigation). Nothing in the history of N.J.S.A. 58:10A-9 suggests a comparable legislative intent here. In the course of extended hearings over the rate schedules, some observers noted that the process advocated by these thermal dischargers would burden the DEP with unnecessary red tape, which, in turn, would vastly increase the costs of administering the program. We are satisfied that the DEP correctly construed its enabling legislation in concluding that the Legislature mandated that the fees not be a revenue measure, but be broadly related to the overall costs that it incurs in processing, monitoring, and administering all of the NJPDES permits in the aggregate.