N.J. Admin. Code § 7:7-15.6

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 21, November 4, 2024

Section 7:7-15.6 - Public facility

(a) Public facilities include a broad range of public works for production, transfer, transmission, and recovery of water, sewerage and other utilities. The presence of an adequate infrastructure makes possible future development and responds to the needs created by present development.

(b) Solid waste facility means any system, site, equipment, or building which is utilized for the storage, collection, processing, transfer, transportation, separation, recycling, recovering, or disposal of solid waste, but shall not include a recycling center, a regulated medical waste collection facility authorized pursuant to N.J.A.C. 7:26-3A.39, or an intermodal container facility authorized pursuant to N.J.A.C. 7:26-3.6.

1. Solid waste facilities are conditionally acceptable provided:

i. Solid waste conservation techniques such as recycling, resource and energy recovery, and volume reduction are explored and proved infeasible before a new or expanded sanitary landfill, preferably at a regional scale, is deemed acceptable;

ii. The solid waste facility is not located in coastal wetlands as provided at 7:7-2.3(b); and iii. The solid waste facility complies with the solid and hazardous waste rule at 7:7-16.14.

(c) Wastewater treatment facilities are conditionally acceptable provided:

1. The wastewater treatment facility, including sewer lines, is consistent with an approved Water Quality Management (208) Plan;

2. The secondary impacts associated with the facility are consistent with this chapter; and

3. The facility shall provide for multiple use of the site, including open space and recreation use, to the maximum extent feasible.

(d) New or expanded public facilities other than those listed at (b) and (c) above are conditionally acceptable provided:

1. The public facility would serve a demonstrated need that cannot be met by an existing public facility at the site or region;

2. Alternate technologies, including conservation, are an impractical or infeasible approach to meeting all or part of the need for the public facility; and

3. The public facility would not generate significant secondary impacts inconsistent with this chapter.

(e) Rationale: The development of public facilities responds to the needs created by existing development and may make possible future development. Public facilities should serve a current need and should not have secondary impacts, such as increasing sprawl.

Alternatives to developing new public facilities must be considered. For example, solid waste is a resource whose potential for recovery must be evaluated before locating new sanitary landfills. Recovery/recycling are preferred over utilizing precious coastal land area for a landfill. Further regional solutions to solid waste management are mandated under State law. In addition, the development of new landfills is subject to the regulation of the Department's Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste.

Wastewater treatment systems range in scale from on-site sewage disposal systems to regional treatment systems with centralized plants, major interceptors, and ocean outfalls. In the past decades, considerable wastewater treatment facility construction has taken place or been authorized in developing parts of the coastal zone with corresponding improvements to water quality. New wastewater treatment systems must be carefully evaluated in terms of water quality impacts and secondary impacts.

The Federal Clean Water Act encourages Federally funded wastewater treatment facilities to provide for multiple use of the site. The Coastal Zone Management rules support and extend this Federal policy by requiring that all new wastewater treatment facilities in the coastal zone consider the feasibility of multiple use.

N.J. Admin. Code § 7:7-15.6

Renumbered from 7:7E-7.6 by 47 N.J.R. 1392(a), effective 7/6/2015

Amended by 50 N.J.R. 361(a), effective 1/16/2018