U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 Superfund, RCRA, LUST, and Brownfields Clean and Green Policy The goal of Region 10's Office Clean and Green Policy is to enhance the environmental benefits of federal cleanup programs by promoting technologies and practices that are sustainable. The objectives of this Green Remediation policy are to: • Protect human health and the environment by achieving remedial action goals; • Support sustainable human and ecological use and reuse of remediated land; • Minimize impacts to water quality and water resources; • Reduce air toxics emissions and greenhouse gas production; • Minimize material use and waste production; and • Conserve natural resources and energy. This Clean and Green Policy applies to all Superfund cleanups including those performed by Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs), States or Tribes through Cooperative Agreements, EPA and/or the Army Corps of Engineer contractors, and Federal Facilities; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) corrective action cleanups performed under EPA oversight; EPA-led Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) cleanups; and cleanup work implemented through EPA's Brownfields grant program. Region 10 also intends to promote this policy for inclusion in state-authorized and other state-led cleanup programs. The Policy encourages cleanup practices that: • Employ 100% use of renewable energy, and energy conservation and efficiency approaches including Energy Star equipment; • Use cleaner fuels, diesel emissions controls and retrofits, and emission reduction strategies; • Utilize water conservation and efficiency approaches including WaterSense products; • Incorporate sustainable site design; • Utilize reused or recycled industrial materials within regulatory requirements; • Require recycling or reuse of materials generated at or removed from the site; • Use environmentally preferable purchasing; • Use "green concrete" (coal combustion products in place of Portland Cement); • Ensure methane recovery from landfills; • Support greenhouse gas emission reduction technologies; and • Use Environmental Management System (EMS) practices such as reducing the use of paper by moving to fully electronic transmittal of project documents and implementation of waste reduction and recycling programs at all work sites. Use of these and other green remediation technologies are the "point of departure" for Superfund, RCRA, LUST, and Brownfields cleanups, and will be standard unless a site-specific evaluation demonstrates impracticability or favors an alternative green approach. This Clean and Green Policy does not fundamentally change how and why cleanup decisions are made, but calls for more sustainable methods of implementing those cleanups. A comprehensive set of greener approaches to site cleanup may be found at www.clu-in.org/greenremediation and ------- www.epa,gov/region09/cleanup-clean-air. Additional tools and technologies for EPA staff may be found at the following intranet site: http://204.47.216.153:9876/rl0/infopage/cleanup.nsf/webpage/greener+cleanups. Region 10 intends to measure the cost differentials and environmental benefits associated with implementing this Clean and Green Policy. Examples include, but are not limited to, tracking quantities of materials reduced, reused, or recycled; carbon or greenhouse gas reductions; and water conserved or replenished. The Region may use existing progress reporting requirements in enforcement instruments, grants, and contracts to collect this data. Issued on: Zoof By: By: Opalski, Director Office of Environmental Cleanup USEPA Region 10 Albright, Director Office of Air, Waste, and Toxics USEPA Region 10 ------- |