New Jersey DEP Wins Multiple Awards for Mobile App That Lets Public Report Nonemergency Environmental Incidents

The Department of Environmental Protection’s WARN NJDEP mobile device app was recently awarded with a 2017 Gold Hermes Creative Award, Commissioner Bob Martin announced today. Earlier this year, the Association of Marketing and Communication Professional (AMCP) also honored the WARN NJDEP mobile app with an AVA Digital Gold Award.

The Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing, and design of traditional materials and programs, and emerging technologies. The competition has grown to one of the largest of its kind in the world with more than 6,000 entries from corporate marketing and communications departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies, and freelancers. AMCP judges selected winners whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry.

The WARN NJDEP mobile app, launched last November, complements the DEP’s telephone hotline, 877-WARNDEP (877-927-6337), which has been in operation for many years. The app can be downloaded through Google Play, the Apple app store, and the Microsoft app store. Enter WARN NJDEP in the search bar.

The app is not intended for reports of life-threatening and/or environmental emergencies. These should be reported by calling 9-1-1, local police or the DEP’s hotline. Also, the app is NOT to be utilized by regulated entities as an acceptable method for fulfilling notification requirements to the DEP.

Examples of nonemergency incidents that may be reported through the app include improper storage or disposal of waste and other materials, odor complaints, smaller sewage leaks, smoke and dust complaints, underground storage tank incidents, and wetlands or stream encroachment issues.

The app allows users to provide essential information on the type of environmental incident, the date, and time of the incident, whether it is ongoing, and a brief description of what happened. The app utilizes GPS technology to pinpoint location of environmental incidents and allows users to submit photos as part of their reports to the DEP.

Users may provide their contact information, although they may choose to report incidents anonymously, as has been the case for years through the DEP hotline number system. The app provides a one-touch link, allowing the user to call the DEP’s Communications Center and directly speak to a dispatcher, if that is the user’s preference.

The DEP’s Communications Center is staffed 24 hours a day, every day of the year and receives some 100,000 calls annually on a wide range of incidents, such as nuisance wildlife complaints, wildfires, hazardous material releases, and wetlands and other land-use violations. The center works to assign cases within the DEP or to appropriate county and local agencies.

For more on the awards program, visit: http://hermesawards.com.

The WARN NJDEP mobile app is a product of a partnership between the state of New Jersey and the New Jersey Information Division of NICUSA, Inc. New Jersey Information Division of NICUSA, Inc. is the official digital government partner of the state of New Jersey, helping New Jersey government entities Web-enable their information services.

About NIC

NIC (NASDAQ: EGOV), which is celebrating 25 years as a company in 2017, has seen the transition of digital services from green-screen computers to mobile apps and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1992, NIC is the nation's premier provider of innovative government solutions and secure payment processing, which help make government more accessible and convenient for everyone through technology. The family of NIC companies has a library of more than 12,000 digital government solutions for more than 4,500 federal, state and local agencies in the United States. Among those solutions is the ground-breaking personal digital government assistant, Gov2Go, aimed at providing constituents easy, personal interactions with government. Additional information is available at www.egov.com.

Contacts:

New Jersey Information Division of NICUSA, Inc.
Casey Faiman, 609-422-5959
General Manager
casey@egov.com

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