United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
Directive No. 9378.0-11FS
EPA 540-F-97-019
PB97-963303
October 1997
&EPA
A Citizen's Guide
to Understanding
Presumptive Remedies
Office of Emergency and Remedial Response
5202G
Cleaning up abandoned hazardous waste sites has been the charge of EPA's Superfund program since 1980.
Over the past 17 years, Superfund has gained considerable experience on hazardous waste cleanup
approaches and technologies. As we gained experience, we found that certain sites have similar
characteristics that we could use to our advantage to improve the cleanup process. The "presumptive remedy"
initiative is one of the results. Essentially, we said: "Here's a site similar in all key ways to many other sites we've
cleaned up. Wouldn't it make sense to use that cleanup approach here, too?"
Presumptive remedies benefit both Superfund and you—the community members affected by a Superfund site.
Keep reading to find the answers to questions you may have about presumptive remedies, how they work, and
why we use them.
1. What are presumptive remedies?
As Superfund worked through hundreds of cleanups, we
discovered similarities. Certain types of sites, like wood
treater sites, have similar chemical contaminants. Other
sites, like municipal landfills, share similar charac-
teristics. At similar sites, standard remedies (called
"presumptive") can be applied. Presumptive remedies are
based on historical patterns of remedy selection and our
scientific and engineering evaluation of how well cleanup
technologies perform. EPA now expects presumptive
remedies to be considered at all applicable sites. And they
should—those applicable sites make up more than 60% of
sites on the National Priorities List!
2. Why use presumptive remedies?
Presumptive remedies have helped us streamline the
cleanup process. This approach has led to many
advantages, for you and for Superfund. When we first
investigate a site, we try to decide whether it is a
candidate for a presumptive remedy. If it is, then we can
narrow down the cleanup choices. This could save us a lot
of time in site investigation and data collection efforts.
More importantly, it means that we spend less time in
your community, so there are fewer disruptions. And,
since the presumptive remedies have been successfully
implemented at other sites, you can be confident that it
will fully protect your health and your community's
environment.
One of the most important advantages is that, the sooner
your community knows the remedy, the sooner you can
plan for how you may want to use the site once it's cleaned
up. We can work with your local land planning group to
help determine how the community would like to use the
cleaned up site. Finally, some sites that have used
presumptive remedies have shown significant time and cost
savings. The more time and money we save at a site, the
more resources we have available to clean up other sites.
3. What are the different types of presumptive remedies?
Presumptive remedies have been developed for four kinds
of sites: municipal landfills, volatile organic chemicals
(VOCs) in soils, wood treater sites, and contaminated
ground water. Presumptive remedies can be grouped by the
type of cleanup plan: containment, treatment, and response
strategy. "Containment" holds the waste and prevents the
spread of contaminants. "Treatment" uses a single
technology or group of technologies to get rid of the
contaminants. A "response strategy" is a long-term
approach with several steps and options to decide among
treatment and containment options for different sections of
a site.
-------
-?VV
-J
'What is the presumptive remedy for municipal
landfills?
.//.The presumptive remedy for municipal landfills is
-containment, which can include some or all of the
following components, as appropriate, on a site-specific
basis: landfill cap, to minimize infiltration of rain water
through the buried waste and to ground water below;
leachate collection and treatment; source area ground
water control to contain plume; landfill gas collection
and/or treatment; and institutional controls to ensure that
the integrity of the landfill cap is preserved.
fS. :'What is the presumptive remedy for a site with VOCs
"in the soils?
^••";We have three presumptive remedy technologies to treat
'iS~~\ a site with soils contaminated with VOCs. The preferred
remedy is soil vapor extraction. With this method, we
can leave the soil in place and remove contaminants with
a process that forces air through the soil. The other
choices are thermal desorption and incineration. Both of
these technologies require us to excavate the soil and
treat it with a process using heat. Once the soil is treated,
cleaned, and tested, we can return it to the site.
^''i
\6. ; What is the presumptive remedy for a wood treater
" 'site?
//\\The presumptive remedy for a wood treater site depends -
' ~ .'on the types of contaminants located at the site. If the
contaminants are organic, we use bioremediation,
thermal desorption, or incineration. If they are inorganic,
we use immobilization. Bioremediation is a natural
process that uses microorganisms, such as bacteria,
fungi, or yeast, that "eat" harmful contaminants and
transform them into nonhazardous products. Thermal
desorption and incineration are the same technologies
described above to treat VOCs in soils. Immobilization
does not treat the contaminants, but rather prevents them
from spreading. This process mixes the hazardous
substances with chemicals and cement-like materials to
bind them and makes them immobile and inactive.
-(7. J/What is the presumptive remedy for a site with
' "contaminated ground water?
''.T'tWe use a response strategy to address sites with
~S~~ .contaminated ground water. This means we take a phased
approach to characterize and clean the site. Information
from each sequence of steps, or phase, helps us to
improve future investigations or actions. Basically, this
presumptive remedy helps us with the process of selecting
a remedy rather than choosing a particular remedy.
-.'-^ -v.
'%. ./Couldn't this "cookie cutter" approach overlook
special problems at my site?
j. No. Presumptive remedies are meant to improve the
/ ", remedy selection process, not undermine it. Our site
investigation professionals use their expertise to
examine every site carefully. EPA is committed to the
best and the safest cleanup for every community. And .
Superfund understands your community's need to find a
unique solution to your unique problems. You can rest
assured that when a full-length investigation of the
remedy alternatives is considered necessary, we will
do it.
•(9. iCan the community ask EPA to consider other
cleanup alternatives?
v\ Your voice will be heard! Communities are full partners
/;^.'in the remedy selection process. If residents request it,
we will consider investigating other cleanup approaches
even if a presumptive remedy exists, or give you a full
explanation of why the presumptive remedy was
selected. We will assess each suggested alternative on its
own merits, and may proceed with further studies.
Presumptive remedies still add value even if we include
other approaches. Presumptive remedies provide a
baseline for protecting human health and the
environment; if we consider other specific cleanup
alternatives, they add additional layers of protection.
For more information about each presumptive
remedy, see the box titled "For Further Reading."
For Further Reading
The following documents are available at:
National Technical Information Service (NTIS)
(703) 487-4650 (800) 553-NTIS (rush service only)
• VOCs in Soil, EPA 540F-93-048/PB93-963346
• Municipal Landfills, EPA 540-F-93-035/PB93-963339
• Wood Treater Sites, EPA 540/R-95/128 PB-963410
• Ground Water Strategy, EPA 540/R-96/023 PB96-963508
------- |