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Enforcement Fees to Be Assessed

Take note that, as stated in the HEPSCD Additional Fees & Expenses documentation, the District will be billing starting January 1, 2022, for the cost of district time expended in enforcement of the Soil Erosion & Sediment Control Act. 

ENFORCEMENT AND INSPECTIONS

Noncompliance /Extraordinary Expenses– A fee of $95.00 per hour for additional inspections required as a result of noncompliance with the certified soil erosion and sediment control plan or for chronic failure to maintain necessary erosion controls.  Projects under construction, which have not provided the District with a Start Notice 48 hours prior to any soil disturbing activities will be considered in noncompliance.  When extraordinary expense has been incurred by the District in order to gain compliance, and the original fees have been exhausted, written notification will be made to the applicant. Such notification will state that fiscal deficiencies exist and will state the amount to be remitted to the District for further inspection and/or review services. No Report of Compliance authorizing a Certificate of Occupancy or Temporary Certificate of Occupancy will be released until all fees are paid in full. 

Re-inspection – A fee of $95.00 per hour will be charged when a requested inspection for the issuance of a Report of Compliance is performed and no reasonable effort has been made to complete the stabilization in accordance with the Standards for Soil Erosion and Sediment Control for New Jersey.   This fee shall also be charged where temporary stabilization is required but not completed in accordance with the performance deposit application schedule.

Stop Work Order – In the event a Stop Construction Order is issued by the District, additional fees will be charged for reimbursement of legal, administrative, review, certification and inspection costs incurred.  An itemized list of fees will be furnished to the applicant or said violator.  The Stop Construction Order will not be vacated until all imposed fees are paid in full and the site has been brought into reasonable compliance as deemed by the District.   All District fees will be billed at $95.00 per hour.

Job Opening

NOW HIRING: Environmental Inspector/Plan Reviewer for Soil Erosion & Sediment Control

Hudson Essex Passaic Soil Conservation District – Bloomfield, NJ

8 am – 4 pm, M – F, Salary $42,000 ++ commensurate with experience

Benefits include:

  • Medical & Dental Insurance
  • Life Insurance
  • Paid Holidays/Personal/Sick Days
  • NJ State Pension

 

Duties:

  • Provide oversight to ensure that construction projects implement the State of NJ’s Soil Erosion & Sediment Control standards, including storm water management, dust control, revegetation, and Best Management Practices
  • Coordinate with regulatory agencies including local municipalities, state, and federal agencies as needed
  • Organization of paperwork, files, and records
  • Travel to sites to perform inspections within Essex, Passaic, & Hudson counties
  • Other duties as assigned

 

Requirements:

  • Ability to operate a motor vehicle/Valid driver’s license
  • Travel/walk on uneven and unpaved surfaces
  • Must use your private vehicle to travel to construction sites / Mileage reimbursed at Federal Level (currently $.67/mile)
  • Strong organizational, computer, reporting and communication skills

 

Education/Experience Preferred:

  • Experience with soils and/or erosion control/water resources
  • College degree in agriculture/natural resources/geosciences or a related field
  • Knowledge of construction practices

 

Submit resume via mail or e-mail to:

Hudson Essex Passaic Soil Conservation District

80 Orchard St.

Bloomfield, NJ 07003

information@hepscd.org

All qualified candidates will be considered without regard to Race, Creed, Color, Sex, Age, Handicap, or National Origin.

USDA Opportunity for Composting & Food Waste Reduction

 

WASHINGTON, June 12, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting applications for Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) pilot projects for fiscal year 2024. The cooperative agreements, using remaining funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, are jointly administered by USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Selected projects will develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost plans and food waste reduction plans and are part of USDA’s broader efforts to support urban agriculture. 

USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP) – led by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) – will accept applications on Grants.gov until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Sept. 4, 2024. Projects must be two years in duration with an estimated start date of June 1, 2025.  More Info

USDA-NRCS NJ Urban/Community Agriculture Grant Opportunity

The NRCS NJ Urban Grant opportunity has opened today (April 4th) and will be open until June 7th.  The NRCS Notice of Funding Opportunity (NFO), Opportunity Number USDA-NRCS-NJ-CGARD-24-NOFO0001359, has been posted to Grants.gov and is open for applications through June 7th, 2024.  The opportunity can be found easily on Grants.gov through the basic search criteria by using the opportunity number, searching the CFDA of 10.902, or from this direct link:  https://grants.gov/search-results-detail/3533 It can also be found by filtering for All Department of Agriculture.  Grant Opportunity Information.

This year, the grant looks a little different than it has in the past.  We are only able to implement conservation practices on established USDA People’s Gardens, but we can more broadly support conservation education and outreach experiences.    The process of getting registered as a People’s Garden is pretty straight forward.  If you are interested, please visit the following site:

 

The goals of this grant opportunity are as follows:

  1. Provide conservation learning experiences and/or outreach activities related to

conservation implementation to urban and underserved communities.

  1. Support The People’s Garden Initiative at established People’s Gardens by

implementing conservation activities that cover one or more of the following:

  1. Conservation and climate-smart agriculture demonstrations
  2. Storm water control or water quality improvement
  3. Soil protection from erosion
  4. Habitat for wildlife, including pollinators

 

3. Leverage non-federal resources to achieve positive natural resource

conservation outcomes.

  1. Provide a method to follow-up with the historically underserved growers to

measure rate of success of their participation in both technical and financial

assistance by NRCS staff.

  1. Provide outreach to increase participation among historically underserved

participants in NRCS conservation programs and service

 

 

 

2024 Local Workgroup Meeting

Join us for a Local Work Group meeting as we aim to identify important natural resources issues, concerns, and opportunities within Hudson-Essex-Passaic counties.
The purpose of this meeting is to provide information to help direct technical and financial resources for conservation and urban agriculture programs and efforts locally and across the state.

Date:
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Time:
6:00 pm
Location:
HEPSCD Conference Room
80 Orchard Street
Bloomfield, NJ 07003

RSVP:
Limited space. Fill out this form to reserve your space.

HEPSCD in partnership with USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service

USDA-NRCS is an EEO employer and provider.

Dept of Ag adopts Short Form Basin Summary

NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
STATE SOIL CONSERVATION COMMITTEE
Chapter 251, PL 1975 as amended,
Engineering Policies- Technical Bulletin
Technical Bulletin:
2023-02
Effective Date:
November 28, 2023
Subject:
Use of Basin Summary Short Form
From:
John E. Showler, P.E.,
State Erosion Control Engineer
1.01
PURPOSE
To simplify the collection of stormwater basin summary information for use and upload to the New Jersey Department of Agriculture Hydrologic Modeling Database (aka detention basin mapping database) when a comprehensive stormwater report is collected in digital format and uploaded to the database.
1.02
SUMMARY
Recent adoption of new and revised rules by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection which regulate the design of storm water management systems has resulted in a sizable increase in the number of stormwater basins needed to comply with Green Infrastructure (GI) requirements within NJDEP rules. This has significantly increased the time required by both design engineers and soil conservation district staff to fill out and process these forms.
To help reduce this burden, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture has adopted a revised, shorter summary form for collecting basin data when used with a digital upload of the complete stormwater management design report. If a digital version of the comprehensive stormwater report is unavailable for upload, then the current ‘long form’ should continue to be used to collect basin data.
The ‘short form’ contains the same parent project information such as ownership and location information, but omits the individual basin engineering data (since this is contained in the stormwater report) and instead contains a table with multiple rows where each row represents a single basin and lists basic information such as ID, type of basin, location etc. Multiple basins can be entered into a
SSCC Basin Summary Short Form 11/23
single form within the table. Additional forms may be appended if necessary to accommodate projects with a greater number of basins.
Soil Conservation Districts should make this form available on their website and include copies of the form in correspondence to design engineers to expedite its use, as needed.

[The above Technical Bulletin may be downloaded here .]

Rutgers Cooperative Extension Seeks County Agent III (Assistant Professor)

Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Essex County is hiring! Please share this posting with those who may be interested in applying for this urban agriculture and community horticulture position.

 

Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Essex County located in Newark and Roseland, NJ (two offices)

County Agent III (Assistant Professor)

Full time Rutgers tenure track faculty position
Responsibilities include:

  • Coordinate and supervise the Rutgers Master Gardener of Essex County class and volunteer program
  • Provide resources and technical expertise to urban growers and community gardeners
  • Deliver educational programming for the public
  • Respond to home horticulture questions from the public

 

Learn more at: https://jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/203850

Farm Bill & Pollinators

NRCS works with farmers to conserve the environmental resources necessary for an economically sustainable business, not just monarch habitat. 

Let NRCS develop a comprehensive, resource conservation plan for your operation and the monarch.

https://nrcs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=8c9b052d51214cc3b6742a4ddf0a98cc 

NJDEP’s Data Miner updated for MS4

Please be advised that the following 5GS construction stormwater reports under the “NJPDES Permitting Program” category on DataMiner have been updated.  See below for details:
  • NJPDES Stormwater Construction Permits (5G3) by County – Added information on the Block, Lot, and Area of Disturbance.
  • NJPDES Stormwater Construction Permits (5G3) by Issue Date – Added information on the Block, Lot, and Area of Disturbance.
  • NJPDES Stormwater Construction Permits (5G3) by Municipality – Added information on the Block, Lot, and Area of Disturbance.
  • NJPDES Stormwater Construction Permits (5G3) by SCD – Added information on the Block, Lot, and Area of Disturbance.