DEP’S ROLE AS TRUSTEE

As the trustee of all of the State’s natural resources, the DEP has the fiduciary obligation to ensure not only the primary restoration (i.e., return of the resource to its pre-discharge condition) of natural resources impacted by contamination, but also the compensatory restoration, which is compensation for the lost value of these natural resources for the entire period the resource is not in its pre-discharge quality, quantity, function, and value.

The Office of Natural Resource Restoration may coordinate restoration projects by partnering with federal trustees, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as other NJDEP elements, such as the Green Acres program, the Division of Fish and Wildlife, the Division of Parks and Forestry, and Water Resource Management, Land use Management and Site Remediation programs, and environmental organizations.