United States
Environmental
Protection Agency
Office of
Solid Waste
Office of Site
Remediation
Enforcement
EPA330-N-98-001
Winter 1999
xvEPA
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Region 5, Library (PL-12J)
77 West Jackson Boulevard, 12th Flow
Chicago, II $0604-3590
This inaugural issue features
six new initiatives and
activities in RCRA Corrective
Action. Read on to learn
more about:
Winners of the 1998
RCRA Corrective Action
Notable Achievement
Awards - highlights of the
award winning projects
and project leaders
I RCRA Cleanup Initiative
(RCI) - EPA's new
approach to RCRA
Corrective Action
Hazardous Waste
Identification Rule
(HWIR)- provides added
flexibility for managing
remediation waste
Post Closure Rule - EPA's
October 22, 1998 rule
provides flexibility in
closing land disposal
units
Remediation Waste - new
guidance memorandum
promotes efficient and
effective approaches to
managing remediation
waste
• RCRA Corrective Action
• Environmental Indicators
RCRAC
ORRECTIVE
ACTION N
EWS
A Record of Success
Introducing a Record of Success
Over the last several years, there have been numerous
success stories reflecting improvements in RCRA
Corrective Action. EPA, States, RCRA facility owners
and operators, and the public are all working more closely
together. Sites are being cleaned up more efficiently and
more rapidly. EPA and States are in the process of reforming
RCRA Corrective Action - to make it more flexible, better
tailored to individual site needs, less time consuming, and
less costly. But there is more work to be done, we need to
share information across the RCRA Corrective Action
community to introduce and promote innovative approaches
to cleanups; to facilitate relationships among EPA
Headquarters and Regional staff, State representatives,
companies, and the public; and to break down real or
perceived impediments to the remediation process.
RCRA Corrective Action Newsletter: A Record of Success will be
published regularly to share just this type of information.
The newsletter is intended for a broad, informed audience:
EPA Headquarters and Regional staff, States, and the inter-
ested public. Focusing on new approaches to RCRA Correc-
tive Action, RCRA CAN will feature success stories about the
program and the individuals who make the projects work.
Through the newsletter, we hope to spread the use of innova-
tive approaches that accelerate schedules, improve efficiency,
and focus the program on achieving results.
Elizabeth Cotsworth
Acting Director,
Office of Solid Waste
Susan Bromm
Deputy Director, Office of
Site Remediation Enforcement
1998 RCRA Corrective Action
Notable Achievements Awards
RCRA Corrective Action has made tremendous strides over the
past year ranging from the successful remediation at many
sites to the kickoff of projects under the RCRA Cleanup Initiative.
RCRA Corrective Action success can be attributed to the hard
continued on page 2, Awards
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RCRA Corrective Action News • Winter 1999
WINNERS
NATIONAL RCRA
CORRECTIVE ACTION
1998 Awards
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
AWARDS
Kenneth Scott Ritchey
Region 7
Outstanding Stabilization
and Environmental
Indicator Award
Wesley S. Hardegree
Region 4
Outstanding Stabilization
and Environmental
Indicator Award
Donna Wilkinson
Region 4
Outstanding Friend of the
State Award
Ernest Waterman
Region 1
Outstanding Administrative
Innovation Award
Andrew Fan
Region 3
Outstanding Stakeholder
Involvement Award
Agathe Nadai, Anthony
Kahaly, Richard Krauser,
Barry Tornick and
Henry Schuver
Region 2,
Outstanding RCRA
Corrective Action
Team of the Year Award
AWARDS continued
work and dedication of people
throughout the RCRA Corrective
Action Community.
To reward key individuals in
EPA for their outstanding efforts,
and to encourage continued
innovation in this area, EPA has
instituted an annual award
program - the RCRA Corrective
Action Notable Achievements
Awards. These awards will be
presented annually to
individuals and teams
contributing to the overall
improvement of RCRA Corrective
Action.
Read on to learn more about
the 1998 award-winning
projects.
Outstanding
Stabilization and
Environmental
Indicator Award
Environmental scientist
Kenneth Scott Ritchey's accom-
plishments at the Farmland
Industries refineries in Region 7
are good examples of what the
RCRA Cleanup Initiative aims to
do. Using a phased approach
based on multiple work plans at
two complex, high-priority sites,
Scott completed stabilization
work and achieved environmen-
tal indicators for control of
human exposures and ground-
water releases only a few years
after RCRA Corrective Action
orders were issued.
Farmland's refinery at
Coffeyville, Kansas, had been
operating for 100 years, and had
over 200 solid waste management
units. Wastes and petroleum
products were migrating from
the refinery into the Verdigris
River. Scott implemented
interim stabilization measures
while the facility was operating
and undergoing construction
work that would eventually
almost double its capacity.
Scott developed a §3008(h)
RCRA Corrective Action order
that included four work plans
implemented in phases. This
allowed stabilization work to be
coordinated with the refinery's
day-to-day operations and
ongoing construction work.
Stabilization was completed
within four years of the order.
Scott oversaw refurbishment of
a system of groundwater cutoff
trenches, installation of a facility-
wide groundwater monitoring
system, installation of recovery
wells in five high-concentration
product recovery areas, and
decontamination of over 61,000
tons of petroleum-saturated soil.
Farmland's former refinery in
Phillipsburg, Kansas is now
operating as a petroleum bulk
terminal. An underground
plume of diesel fuel and leaded
gasoline extended beyond the
facility and underneath a
residential area to the south.
Fearing that the area might be
affected by volatile benzene
fumes, Scott developed interim
measures that were
implemented in January 1996
and 1997 under a §3008(h)
RCRA Corrective Action order.
Testing at each potentially
affected residence showed that
no one had yet been exposed.
To prevent contamination from
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Record of Success • Winter 1999
Highlight on RCRA Corrective Action
Environmental Indicators
EPA created two "environmental indicators" (Els) to
fundamentally shift RCRA Corrective Action toward
a "results-driven" implementation strategy and
away from former "process-driven" approaches.
While there are many important objectives in
cleaning up a contaminated site, EPA has concluded
the two most important objectives in the near term
are protecting people from unacceptable exposure
to environmental contamination, and preventing
further degradation of our groundwater resources.
Therefore, the two indicators chosen to both guide
and measure the performance of the RCRA
Corrective Action Program are , "Current Human
Exposures are Under Control" and "Migration of
Groundwater Releases are Currently Under Control".
The human exposures El is achieved when
unacceptable exposure of people to releases of
contaminants at or from a facility subject to RCRA
Corrective Action are controlled. The groundwater
El is achieved when contaminated groundwater
present at or originating from a facility subject to
RCRA Corrective Action has been prevented from
migrating beyond a designated "control" area.
Achieving either of these indicators could be
accomplished using a variety of approaches that are
well documented and based on site-specific
considerations. EPA's near term focus on these two
indicators for RCRA Corrective Action reflects the
need to prioritize regulatory and regulated
community resources. EPA issued new national
interim final guidance on making environmental
indicator determinations on February 5, 1999.
reaching these residents in the
future, Scott oversaw the
installation of an off-site system
of pumps that are immobilizing
and shrinking the plume by
recovering petroleum product
and contaminated groundwater.
Scott developed and
implemented the work plans for
these projects so that the work
would be conducted
concurrently. This resulted in a
focused and accelerated
approach to remedial activities.
Outstanding
Stabilization and
Environmental
Indicator Award
Wesley S. Hardegree, a
Corrective Action Specialist
from Region 4 won this Award
for developing a Model Memo
and Environmental Indicator
Clarification Points. His
leadership and guidance of
stabilization activities at the
Dames & Moore/Brookhill
facility were also recognized.
Wesley's Model Memo
provided Region 4 with a
consistent and technically
defensible approach to
determine if facilities met the
two environmental indicators
(see box}.
The memo emphasizes the
importance of documenting and
explaining the degree and extent
of contamination at the site,
current human exposures at the
facility, and designated action
levels. The memo also asks the
evaluator to provide the rationale
for concluding that the facility
met the environmental
indicators.
To supplement the memo,
Wesley drafted eleven environ-
mental indicator Clarification
Points to further explain regional
policy on environmental indica-
tor evaluations. Through a
workgroup led by Wesley, the
Clarification Points were final-
ized and ultimately became part
of the Region 4 Indicator Evalua-
tion protocol.
At the Dames & Moore/
Brookhill facility, Wesley
worked with the company to
implement interim measures
continued on page 2, Indicator
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RCRA Corrective Action News • Winter 1999
INDICATOR continued
designed to prevent the radial
migration of contaminated
groundwater.
Outstanding Friend of
the State Award
This Award recognized
Donna Wilkinson, EPA Region 4,
for her efforts to provide the
States in Region 4 with training,
technical and policy support.
By working closely with State
personnel, Donna helped several
States develop technical and
policy expertise in RCRA
Corrective Action, expertise that
the States will need to obtain
authorization for their own
RCRA Corrective Action
programs.
She also has worked to help
the States combine alternate
authorities with RCRA
Corrective Action to expedite
site characterization and clean
up. Specifically Donna's work in
this area has included the
following:
• Encouraging States to allow
facilities to submit data
from previous
investigations conducted
under separate authorities
(such as Superfund) that can
be used to fully or partially
meet the data requirements
of current RCRA Facility
Investigations.
• Coordinating RCRA
Corrective Action efforts
with State Underground
Storage Tank (UST)
programs in instances
where UST groundwater
contamination has
commingled from other
solid waste management
units.
By encouraging innovative
approaches, Donna has
considerably aided State efforts
to clean up sites.
Outstanding
Administrative
Innovation Award
The RCI promotes innovative
yet practical approaches to
making investigations and
cleanups faster and more effi-
cient. In this spirit, Ernest
Waterman, EPA Region 1, has
been a pioneer in the use of
voluntary RCRA Corrective
Action agreements. Region 1's
voluntary agreements are letters
of intent that set forth broad
RCRA Corrective Action goals
and expectations. The agree-
ment covers major topics such as
performance standards,
guidance sources, decision-making
criteria, public involvement,
measures of success, schedules,
and reports. Under Region 1's
voluntary RCRA Corrective
Action approach, the facility
does not have to wait for a
permit or §3008(h) enforcement
order to begin work. Instead
they begin cleanup upon signa-
ture of the agreement.
Ernie pioneered this approach
to focus site investigations on
the specific issues and problems
at the facility and to compress
the schedule for the clean up.
These agreements streamline the
provisions of the typical permit
or §3008(h) enforcement order,
which often fix detailed
specifications and schedules for
the entire RCRA Corrective
Action process. This gives
facilities more control over how
to investigate problems and
implement RCRA Corrective
Action.
Region 1 doesn't waive its
enforcement authority when a
voluntary agreement is in force.
Region 1 still oversees field
work, evaluates work performed
by facilities, selects site remedies,
and can step in and issue a
legally binding order or permit if
performance standards aren't
being met. As long as those
standards are met, however, the
facility can focus on results
rather than procedure, and
Region 1 can spread its limited
oversight resources over a larger
number of facilities performing
RCRA Corrective Action. Note
that this form of RGRA Correc-
tive Action may be more appro-
priately called "owner-operator
initiated" since the Agency is still
conducting oversight.
The payoff for both Region 1
and the facility is the savings of
time and money. For example, a
final remedy was completed in
half the usual time at the Dow
Chemical site in Ledyard, Con-
necticut, and other facilities have
conducted investigations for half
what they would cost if per-
formed under permit or order.
Thus facilities have practical
incentives to enter into volun-
tary agreements, which may
account for the 18 agreements
currently in place in Region 1.
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Record of Success • Winter 1999
Outstanding
Stakeholder
Involvement Award
Project manager Andrew Fan
accomplished a major goal of
our program, promoting better
communication at the Pickett
Road facility in Region 3- even
though the community was
already up in arms and public
opinion was decidedly anti-EPA
when he started.
The Pickett Road facility is an
oil tank farm in suburban
Fairfax, Virginia that released
several hundred thousand
gallons of petroleum into the soil
and groundwater under the
communities of Mantua and
Stockbridge. EPA's Superfund
removal program responded to
the initial emergency, and the
RCRA Corrective Action
program got involved in 1993.
Nevertheless, area residents
were alarmed by the extent of
the problem, which had popped
up seemingly overnight and
literally in their backyards.
Many of them blamed EPA as
well as the tank farm for the
situation. Citizens for a Healthy
Fairfax wrote to Administrator
Carol Browner, denouncing the
Agency's "lack of enforcement...
lack of action... lack of
assertiveness."
This was the atmosphere that
greeted Andrew when he began
attending meetings of the Com-
munity Remediation Committee
(CRC). Andrew attended the
meetings along with representa-
tives of the tank farm's operator,
Star Enterprise, local and county
officials, and community lead-
ers. Although he encountered
outright hostility at first, Andrew
saw that the CRC provided an
opportunity to dispel confusion
and misconceptions, educate the
community about the facility
and the RCRA Corrective Action
program, and involve it in
decision making. Andrew
started with technical presenta-
tions about site conditions and
RCRA Corrective Action issues.
These led to the formation of a
task force of State, federal, and
local technical representatives
who meet regularly to resolve
technical issues. Next he began
developing outreach materials,
responding to individual re-
quests, and participating in ad
hoc meetings about specific
concerns. Soon Andrew had
become a community advocate
himself. When local residents
expressed a desire for a stronger
federal presence at the site, he
worked to secure an Interagency
Agreement with the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers to provide
full-time oversight and a hotline
at the tank farm. He put out the
draft risk assessment for public
comment, a first for Region 3's
RCRA Corrective Action pro-
gram, and worked with commu-
nity leaders to secure a Super-
fund Technical Assistance Grant
so the community could hire its
own technical consultant. This
proved infeasible, but their
efforts led Congress to appropri-
ate $100,000 for a direct technical
assistance grant.
The community has fully
accepted the risk assessment and
proposed remedy. By listening
and learning, Andrew turned
the community into allies of the
Agency. The lessons learned at
the Pickett Road Tank Farm will
help us develop effective tools
for enhancing public
involvement in cleanups and
improving national public
awareness of the program's
accomplishments.
Outstanding RCRA
Corrective Action Team
of the Year Award
The Team of the Year Award
was presented to Region 2's
Agathe Nadai, Anthony Kahaly,
Richard Krauser, Barry Tornick,
and Henry Schuver. The Team
was recognized for its outstand-
ing efforts in developing a series
of Quantitative Environmental
Indicators of Contamination
(QEICs). The QEICs developed
by the Team measure soil,
groundwater, and surface water
impacts, and ultimately provide
a snapshot of the extent of con-
taminated media at a site.
The QEICs are used with
Geographic Imaging System
(GIS) maps and tables to demon-
strate RCRA Corrective Action
progress. For instance, the
decrease in the size of ground-
water contamination plumes can
be shown over time. The extent
of groundwater and soil
contamination can also be
shown on maps in relation to
neighborhoods or sensitive
environments. QEICs track
the amount of contamination
in soil and groundwater. The
amount of contamination
removed can also be mea-
sured and tracked over time.
One benefit of QEICs is that
maps can be used to illustrate
areas of previously contami-
nated soil that are available
continued on pave 6, Team
I O
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RCRA Corrective Action News • Winter 1999
TEAM continued
for industrial, commercial;
and residential reuse. The
use of QEICs facilitate better
communication by empha-
sizing environmental results
and describing them in
terms that the public can
readily understand.
The Team was also instru-
mental in working with
OSW on a Presidential ini-
tiative called the Environ-
mental Monitoring and
Public Access and Commu-
nity Tracking Initiative
(EMPACT). EMPACTsgoal
is to develop the use of
communication mechanisms
such as the Internet to allow
for effective communication
of QEICs to the public and
affected communities.
RCRA Cleanup
Initiative
There are many
successes in RCRA
Corrective Action,
yet EPA continually strives to
improve the program. Enter
the RCRA Cleanup Initiative
(RCI), aimed at improving
the RCRA Corrective Action
Program. This initiative will
focus on meeting the
aggressive Environmental
Indicator targets set in
response to the Government
Performance and Results
Act. This Initiative, which
will be officially announced
soon, will implement reforms
that increase the number and
speed of RCRA cleanups,
thereby protecting human
health and the environment
more efficiently and promptly
at thousands of Corrective
Action sites across the country.
For more information
on the RCRA Cleanup
Initiative, please
contact Bob Hall at:
(703) 308-8432
or Kevin Donovan at:
(703) 308-8761 •
Post-Closure Rule
On October 22,1998, the
Agency published a
final rule that provides
flexibility for owners and
operators of land disposal
facilities and removes
impediments to cleanup.
The final Post-Closure Rule
modifies the former
requirements for post-closure
permits, and gives the Agency
discretion to address sites
requiring post-closure care
using non-permit authorities.
Under the final rule, regulators
have flexibility to choose to
issue a post-closure permit to a
facility, or to impose the same
regulatory requirements in an
enforceable document issued
under an alternate non-permit
authority in lieu of a post-
closure permit. Prior to the
rule, permits were required
during the post-closure period
at all facilities where a
regulated unit was closed
with waste in place.
The rule also provides
regulators flexibility in
addressing closing land
disposal units. The final rule
provides the Agency
discretion in some situations
to replace the closure
requirements at the regulated
unit with site-specific
remedies developed through a
RCRA Corrective Action
process. Prior to the rule, in
situations where a closing
regulated unit was situated in
the midst of solid waste
management units or areas of
concern, two regulatory
schemes arguably applied to
the regulated unit, and RCRA
Corrective Action
requirements applied to the
solid waste management
units.
Copies of the rule are
available from the Federal
Register at 53 FR 56710 and/
or electronically at:
www.epa.gov / fedrgstr •
Cleanups Receive
A Boost With
New Remediation
Regs
In November EPA
published the long
awaited Hazardous Re-
mediation Waste Manage-
contmued on page 7, HWIR
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Record of Success • Winter 1999
HWIR continued
ment Requirements rule
(otherwise known as HWIR
media) (63FR65874
(November 30,1998)). The
rule revises certain require-
ments under RCRA for
hazardous remediation wastes
that are treated, stored or
disposed of during cleanup
actions. Specifically, the rule:
• Simplifies obtaining per-
mits for treating, storing
and disposing of hazard-
ous remediation wastes;
• Provides that obtaining
these permits (at "reme-
diation-only" facilities)
will not subject the owner
and / or operator to facil-
ity-wide Corrective Ac-
tion;
• Creates a new kind of unit
called a "staging pile" that
allows facilities more
flexibility in temporarily
storing remediaton waste
during cleanup;
• Excludes dredged materi-
als from RCRA Subtitle C
if they are managed under
an appropriate permit
under the Marine Protec-
tion, Research and Sanctu-
aries Act or the Clean
Water Act; and
• Makes it faster and easier
for States to receive autho-
rization when they update
their RCRA programs to
incorporate minor or
routine revisions to the
Federal RCRA regulations.
The HWIR-media rule does
not impose any new manda-
tory requirements. The re-
quirements of this rule are
optional for authorized State
RCRA programs because the
new requirements are less
stringent than the existing
requirements. Even if new
regulations are adopted and
authorized for State programs,
facilities may choose not to
take advantage of them. A
facility may choose instead to
comply with the traditional
requirements for hazardous
waste management. Existing
areas of flexibility for the
management of hazardous
remediation waste such as the
contained-in and area of con-
tamination policies, and site-
specific land disposal restric-
tion (LDR) treatability vari-
ances continue to be available.
EPA anticipates that the
HWIR-media rule will elimi-
nate existing regulatory disin-
centives to remediation and
make it faster and easier to
cleanup sites. This, in turn,
will provide increased protec-
tion to human health and the
environment. Electronic
copies of the rule are available
at www.epa.gov/fedrgstr •
Management of
Remediation
Waste Under
RCRA
0
n October 14,1998, EPA
issued guidance on the
"Management of Remediation
Waste Under RCRA." The
memo consolidates in one
document a summary of the
regulations, policies, and
approaches that most often
affect remediation waste
management activities and
that can be used to achieve
cleanup goals as efficiently as
possible. The guidance will
serve to ensure that program
implementators have a more
consistent understanding of
how existing policies and
regulations apply to remedia-
tion waste. Included in the
guidance are summaries of 18
regulations and policies, 12 of
which apply to all remedia-
tion wastes, four that apply to
contaminated environmental
media, and two that apply to
debris.
The memo outlines a num-
ber of flexible approaches that
apply to all remediation waste.
These approaches include
EPA's Area of Contamination
(AOC) policy, CAMU, and the
Temporary Unit Rule. Other
remediation waste policies
and regulations discussed in
the memo include emergency
permits, temporary authoriza-
tion at permitted facilities, and
permit waivers.
Several of the policies and
regulations apply to contami-
nated environmental media only.
This memo outlines the con-
tained-in policy, which states
that contaminated environ-
mental media does not need
continued on page 8, RCRA
-------
RCRA Corrective Action News • Winter 1999
to be managed as hazardous waste when the media does not
exhibit a characteristic of hazardous waste and, if contami-
nated by listed waste, has concentrations of hazardous
constituents that are below health-based levels. In addition,
the memo also discusses RCRA Section 3020(b) exemption for
reinjection of contaminated groundwater; LDR treatment
standards for contaminated soils; and site-specific, risk-based
LDR treatment variance for contaminated soils. These policies
also only apply to contaminated environmental media.
Regulations and policies outlined in the memo that apply
only to debris are LDR treatment standards for contaminated
debris and EPA's interpretation that debris treated to the LDR
debris treatment standards using extraction or destruction
technologies no longer contain hazardous waste.
For a detailed discussion of EPA's policies and regulations
affecting remediation waste, consult the guidance and
references cited therein. This guidance can be found at:
www.epa.gov/correctiveaction •
For more information ahm.it the content of th'«; ^aw
contact the RCRA Hotline «t 1 (800* 424-9346 or TDD (800) 553-
7672 (hearing impaired). In the Washington, DC, metropolitan
area, call (703) 412-9810 or TDD (703) 412-3323.
Do you have any success stories? If so, please contact Heather
Harris at (703) 308-6101.
jJj&U^,-.,-,-
;'_'\--Avij Ms.* LJ-^L. ';' s '•
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
2273A
Washington, D.C. 20460
Official Business
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