Can't get a CO after closing [NJ]

I ran into a bit of a predicament with my first house. We had issues obtaining a CO because of some minor issues with the deck at the house as well as a window not being tempered glass. The issues were taken care of by the seller, and we closed the morning before we got the (third) CO inspection that we anticipated would pass, with the contingency that whatever it takes to get the CO would be covered by the seller. The inspection failed, and the inspector gave a couple more small details about the deck that needed to be fixed but also dropped something about a state DEP (department of environmental protection) issue with the property that I was not aware of.

I did some research on my own and found that the property has an open investigation by the state DEP regarding an unpermitted solid waste facility on the premises. The former owner of the property's ex husband was the listed violating party, and they were divorced just prior to the sale to me and the land ownership was transferred over to the seller (his now ex wife). This issue was not disclosed to me and did not come up during the title search, but during closing the seller's agent mentioned that the seller had paid approximately $41,000 to have a large mound of dirt and debris removed from the property. For the size of the pile of dirt, this was a very high amount and at this point I am thinking that some of that money went towards DEP penalties, but I was not made aware of any sort of remediation that took place.

I forwarded this information to my realtor for consideration and to forward to the seller's agent. I also plan on calling the DEP tomorrow. My questions are: Why wasn't this found during the title search? As far as I know there is no lien on the property due to the investigation by the DEP, but the status is listed as pending. This has also obviously caused an issue with obtaining a CO, and now I am unable to live in the property I purchased. Additionally, and considering the little information I have available, what are my options? Was this an issue with a seller disclosure, a title search failure, or my own lack of research on the property? I am not looking to stick it to the seller or anything like that, I just want to move in to my property.

TL;DR there is a pending DEP investigation on the property I just purchased that was neither disclosed nor discovered during my purchasing process. Despite there being a contingency that the seller pays any costs towards obtaining a CO, is there any other recourse I have to move this along faster?

EDIT: Quick turn around here. Upon further research through public records, the property was inspected by the DEP visually as well as soil tests being done and everything passed in August of this year. It appears that the investigation is still listed as "pending" due to an outstanding balance of $2250 in fines that are to be paid by the seller. It appears as though the seller actually paid $43,xxx to have approximately 1000 (!!!) tons of waste debris removed and properly disposed of, per the DEP report. The remaining balance of $4500 in fines was settled in court between the DEP and seller to be half of the original. I will be leaving this post up for reference purposes for anyone else that has a similar problem in the future!

submitted by /u/LC_CE
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/dp0dpi/cant_get_a_co_after_closing_nj/