1. a. The Director of the Office of Administrative Law shall, within 12 months after the effective date of this act, establish within the Office of Administrative Law an environmental unit consisting of administrative law judges having special expertise in environmental law. The number of administrative law judges in the environmental unit shall be proportional to the number and complexity of environmental cases referred to the office.

b. Upon the establishment of the environmental unit, all contested cases, as defined in section 2 of P.L.1968, c.410 (C. 52:14B-2), concerning environmental law referred to the Office of Administrative Law shall be assigned to and adjudicated by the administrative law judges in the environmental unit.

L.1991,c.425,s.1.