In response to the March 8 adoption of a controversial rule change by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), 27 environmental and labor groups have filed suit against the agency.

The change, which would allow the agency to waive its own environmental regulations on a case-by-case basis, has also drawn criticism from legislators and advocates who are arguing that the waiver rule violates the New Jersey Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.

Susan Kraham of the Columbia Environmental Law Clinic, who is leading the legal fight, explained the separation of powers issue in a Star-Ledger article: “the Legislature adopts laws and the governor and his executive branch faithfully executes those laws…[w]hat’s happened here is instead of faithfully executing those laws, the governor has decided he doesn’t want to follow them.” Indeed, the thrust behind the DEP waiver rule is Governor Christie’s Executive Order 2, in which he called for “immediate relief from regulatory burdens.”

Under the DEP’s rule change, the agency can issue waivers in certain vaguely defined circumstances: if a rule is considered “unduly burdensome,” if a project has a “net environmental benefit,” if conflicting regulations are “adversely impacting a project,” or if there is a public emergency.

Tri-State has previously registered its concerns about this measure, and they remain the same:

• It could lead to road construction in environmentally sensitive and protected areas with little to no consideration of DEP regulations.

• It undermines the purpose of the DEP as an agency whose sole mission is to protect the state’s environment for current and future generations.

• The proposal could also be illegal, as it provides a broad grant of authority to the DEP that neither the governor nor the agency arguably possess.

The rule, as adopted and in its final form, will be published on April 2, but it will not take effect until August 1, 2012.

The groups that filed suit are:

• American Littoral Society

• Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions

• Clean Ocean Action

• Communication Workers of America

• Delaware Riverkeeper Network

• Edison Wetlands Association

• Environment New Jersey

• Food & Water Watch

• Hackensack Riverkeeper

• Health Professionals and Allied Employees

• Hopewell Valley Citizens Group

• New Jersey Audubon Society

• New Jersey Environmental Federation

• New Jersey Environmental Lobby

• New Jersey Highlands Coalition

• New Jersey Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

• New Jersey Sierra Club

• New Jersey State Industrial Union Council

• New York/New Jersey Baykeeper

• Raritan Headwaters Association

• Save Barnegat Bay

• Sourland Planning Council

• Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association

• Teamsters 877

• Union of Rutgers Administrators/American Federation of Teachers Local 1766

• United Steelworkers District 4

• Work Environment Council of New Jersey