Remediation and Redevelopment "Guidance for hazardous waste remediation"

For my professional seminar I attended an online webinar put on by the DNR. This is an ongoing series of informational live webinars that are open to the public and have alotted time for question and answer segments. The one I attended was titled "Guidance for Hazardouse Waste Remediation". Althought the talk was open to the public you would have to know alittle about the terminology to completely understand. There were alot of letter codes for key terms such as RR (remediation and redevelopement), RP (responsible party), AOC (area of contamination) BAL ( building on abandoned landfill), HBN (health base number), SI (site investigation),and of course the one that I knew going into the seminar HW (hazardous waste). There were several more that I had trouble finding the definitions for also. The seminar was mainly for people or organizations that are either considering purchasing a brownfield, or possible brownfield site, along with those that have a contamination issue and wanted to know what the procedure is for reporting and cleaning up. Even with the difficult terminology, I learned alot. It was alot of information but it got me thinking more on the legal issues surrounding the clean up. Like all areas of law there needs to be defined regulations to avoid alot of finger pointing and no action or resposibility. The policy is known as the "contained in policy" and was designated by the EPA in 1980 and is basically a list of rules for hazardous waste cleanup. However, the rules are multidemensional. There are time frames to consider, such as, did the contamination occur before or after the rules went into effect. If it was before there is less liability. The liability of the RP is also defined in terms of a spill or if the material was purposfully discarded. There is also a "contained out determination", this is a determination as to whether the contamination is still considered hazardous or not. There are different characteristics of the contamination that need to be considered also, is the contamination ignitible or corrosive. There are also levels determined by the EPA, known as the health base number (HBN), that sets a defined level that is considered dangerous to the environment and people. Basically there can be some contamination in small enough amounts that the EPA has determined are not significant enough to be a health hazard. The list of things to be considered is long, but the webinar was also to inform people of the proper procedure. There are steps that need to be taken in a certain order if you are dealing with a possible hazardous waste. This process needs to be taken even if you suspect that there wasnt a contamination but the possibility or handling of products considered hazardous were associated with the property either currently or in the past.If you have knowledge it needs to be investigated. This is defined as a "Good faith effort" and also has levels of effort that need to followed. There are procedures for obtaining records on the properties past, obtaining any files from the DNR or previous reportings, interviewing past or present employees, investigating any court records, and submitting public notices. This is all before any testing is even done. once the effort to collect information and inform the public is completed to the proper standards then the testing takes place. The samples are evaluated for characteristics, levels, and containments. This is another very lengthy process of proper steps needed to determine what and if the contamination needs to be remedied. If there is a contamination there are several well defined steps that need to be strictly followed for the cleanup portion of the process, along with what to do with the waste once it is removed from the ground. There are permits that need to be obtained, licensed HW management companies are the only people qualified by law to remove or contain the waste. Overall the process is extremely lengthy, and I would guess expensive to the property owner even if the current or future owner isnt the RP (responsible party). All this regulation and at the end of the seminar it was noted that the DNR will do none of this, and does not regulate this unless they are requested and financially retained. These procedures are completely the responibility of the property owner. However, if the property owner does not comply and have documentation of this process they become liable for criminal prosecution if a contamination is found and the proper procedures were not followed. Very scary stuff!! All of this made me a little nervous for the property owner who missed any one of these dizzying steps. I understand the need for the regulations and the process, and the designation of who is responsible, I just never thought about the process before and there is so much involved, its not as easy as one would think. Find bad stuff, get rid of it! simple concept, complicated and lengthy process.