As regular readers of this blog are aware, the the 2015 amendments to the New York State Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) created three deadlines for applicants to obtain Certificates of Completions (COCs) depending when the site was accepted into the BCP.
- Generation 1 (Gen1): sites accepted on or before June 22, 2008 have to obtain COC by December 31, 2017;
- Generation 2 (Gen2): Sites accepted into the BCP between June 23, 2008 and June 30, 2015 have to obtain a COC by December 31, 2019; and,
- Generation 3 (Gen3): Sites accepted between July 1, 2015 through December 31, 2022 have to obtain COCs by Mach 31, 2026..
The acceptance dates has generally been thought to refer to the date of the acceptance letter issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). However, the statutory language provides that sites have a brownfield cleanup agreement executed after July 1, 2015 will have until the March 31, 2026 to obtain their COCs.
Because of the rush of BCP applications that were filed before the July 1, 2015 effective date of the 2015 amendments, 38 sites received acceptance letters before July 1, 2015 but have executed BCAs AFTER that date. NYSDEC recently clarified that this subset of Gen 2 sites are not subject to the 2019 COC deadline but instead will have until March 31, 2026 to obtain their COCs.
The NYSDEC recently issued a memo discussing this clarification and listing the 38 Gen 2 sites that will be subject to the Gen 3 COC deadline. The memo is available here