Vol. 3 No. 2 Fall 1995
A Newsletter About New Jersey's Water Quality Programs

New Jersey is one of about a dozen states to participate in the pilot project with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In a letter to EPA Regional Administrator Jeanne Fox, Shinn pledged the state's involvement in the National Environmental Performance Partnership System, which calls for setting environmental goals and provides states greater flexibility to achieve them.

"Under this program, EPA will begin to rely less on counting the number of permits issued and the number of enforcement actions taken to evaluate how well DEP carries out its responsibilities, and instead will rely more on environmental improvement as the measure of success," said Shinn.

According to Shinn, the DEP's clean air, drinking water, and water quality programs will be the first areas within the department where this new approach to environmental management will be tested, beginning October l, the start of the federal fiscal year. Shinn plans to continue on-going negotiations with EPA so that all of DEP's remaining EPA-delegated programs participate as of October 1, 1996.

"This partnership will result in a shift from accounting to accountability. It will allow us to set priorities and goals specific to New Jersey and will involve developing good environmental indicators to meet those goals. It will enable us to make better decisions about environmental management," Shinn said. In a move that will support this new approach, EPA will seek Congressional authorization that would allow various EPA grants to be combined into partnership grants, providing the states with the flexibility to devote resources to areas of greatest need.

"Expressing the results by using environmental indicators will help the public better understand the work we do and how it affects them," said Catherine Cowan, DEP's assistant commissioner for Environmental Regulation. DEP staff members are currently developing environmental indicators for the three programs involved in this year's pilot.

A notice of the new federal/state partnership will be published in the Federal Register this winter to solicit public comment. DEP's plans also call for public participation in this new environmental management partnership. It will seek input from the environmental and regulated communities, as well as local and county officials, later this year.