WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey faces significant threats to its water, air and earth from pollution; and

WHEREAS, conquering those threats and ensuring a high quality of life for all New Jerseyans would be furthered by the creation of a system of coordinated, coherent and effective criminal, civil and administrative enforcement, including swift and sure criminal and/or civil and/or administrative enforcement in matters involving either a chronic environmental offender or a situation which poses a serious threat to public health or to the environment (hereinafter "priority cases"); and

WHEREAS, a coordinated enforcement policy and effective criminal and/or civil and/or administrative prosecution of priority cases would best be achieved by creation of the position of Environmental Prosecutor with centralized responsibility to achieve a coordinated enforcement policy and to oversee the prosecution of enforcement actions in priority cases;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JAMES J. FLORIO, Governor of the State of New Jersey, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of New Jersey, do hereby ORDER and DIRECT:

1. The position of Environmental Prosecutor is hereby created in the Department of Law and Public Safety with the rank of Assistant Attorney General. The Environmental Prosecutor shall be appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the Governor, and shall serve under the supervision and direction of the Attorney General.

2. The Environmental Prosecutor shall have access to the support and resources of the Department of Law and Public Safety including, without limitation, such clerical and support staff as may be necessary to discharge his or her responsibilities, access to the Environmental Prosecution Unit within the Division of Criminal Justice and access to the Environmental Section of the Division of Law.

3. The Environmental Prosecutor shall establish a coordinated enforcement policy and shall oversee the prosecution of enforcement actions in priority cases.

In furtherance of these responsibilities, the Environmental Prosecutor shall, under the supervision of the Attorney General as aforesaid, have the following powers and obligations:

(A) The Environmental Prosecutor shall have access to all information concerning environmental enforcement which is in the possession of all State agencies. Such information will include agency inspection reports and license information, individual case files, and intelligence information such as that compiled and maintained by the Divisions of State Police and Criminal Justice.

(B) The Environmental Prosecutor shall meet on a regular basis with representatives of all State departments and agencies with environmental enforcement responsibilities: (i) to identify individual matters as priority cases; (ii) to set specific goals and strategies for the most effective resolution of each such case, whether by criminal or civil or administrative enforcement action of some combination thereof; and (iii) to formulate and evaluate proposals for legislative, administrative and/or judicial initiatives to strengthen environmental enforcement and to further a coordinated enforcement policy.

(C) The Environmental Prosecutor shall oversee the processing, progress and prosecution of individual priority cases. He or she shall work with Directors of the Division of Law and Criminal Justice when such matters are receiving, or should receive, the attention of the Attorney General. He or she shall also work through the heads of other departments and agencies to oversee administrative enforcement activities in priority cases which do not involve direct Attorney General attention.

(D) In connection with environmental enforcement activities, the Environmental Prosecutor shall act as the liaison for the Executive Branch of government with agencies involved in environmental enforcement outside the Executive Branch including federal agencies and the judiciary. In this connection, an initiative currently being developed for the judiciary would, if adopted, create a chronic environmental offender program. Among other things, the program would involve the assignment of a judge to review pending cases in an effort to insure that egregious matters are moved and disposed of with dispatch. The Environmental Prosecutor would coordinate and link his or her activities with the overseer of any such judicial initiative.

4. All departments and agencies of State government with environmental enforcement responsibilities are hereby directed to cooperate with and to support fully the Environmental Prosecutor in the discharge of his of her responsibilities and obligations.

5. The Environmental Prosecutor shall report to the Governor and to the Attorney General after six (6) months of service, and at reasonable and appropriate intervals thereafter, as to the progress of his or her work and as to whether any further administrative and/or legislative action would be desirable to assist in the discharge of his or her duties.

6. This Order shall take effect immediately.

GIVEN, under my hand and seal
this 24th day of January in the Year
of Our Lord, one thousand nine
hundred and ninety, and of the
Independence of the United States,
the two hundred and fourteenth.

/s/ James J. Florio
GOVERNOR

Attest:

/s/ John A. Sweeney
Counsel to the Governor