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EPA OVERHAULS RCRA CORRECTIVE ACTION PROGRAM IN NEW ENGLAND

Release Date: 07/01/1998
Contact Information: Leo Kay, Press Office, (617) 918-4154

It's not often when a team can go from being a perennial cellar dweller to a pennant winner in just a couple of years. Yet at EPA-New England, we can boast such a turnaround with our Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Corrective Action Program. Deemed the slowest in the country as recently as 1993, EPA-New England's RCRA Corrective Action Program is now a national model for effective, expedited cleanups. Our RCRA Cleanup 2000 Initiative is faster and more efficient because it focuses on results, allows for flexibility and takes a more cooperative approach to cleanups. It has led to nearly seven times as many cleanups starting in the last four years as were begun in the previous five years -- with 20 percent fewer EPA staff necessary to make it happen.

RCRA Corrective Action Program serves as the guiding principle for roughly 5,000 cleanups across the country, a tenth of which are in New England. So when we set out to overhaul our program, we had a lot of case studies to sort through. Plus, we had heard a consistent set of gripes about RCRA over the years: That the cleanups took too long and cost too much. That the traditional, overly-prescriptive corrective action program was just another rigid EPA program. That it lacked direction, clear goals and was not user-friendly. That the necessity of a permit or an enforcement action on every case established a tone of mistrust that led to delay, resistance and a lack of flexibility on the part of the agency.

We took these complaints to heart, and have fashioned a corrective action program that gets everyone more bang for their buck. The most significant achievements of the program are the quantity and quality of approved interim actions and cleanups that have taken place; the improved use of staff time, talent and initiative; time and cost savings to industry; and, the quality of the interaction between the EPA, the states, facility owners and the public at large.

The new system focuses away from the command and control model that measured the number of permits and orders issued and the number of enforcement actions taken. Instead, the emphasis is now on how many cleanups are completed and how many human health and environmental threats have been removed. From 1987 to 1992, 17 small interim measures were accomplished in New England, only two of which were voluntary. Under the new paradigm, however, from l993 to l997 the EPA and our state partners managed 116 interim measures, 43 of which were voluntary. Despite a staff reduction of project scientists and engineers from 16 to 13 (to support other EPA-New England initiatives), the average number of sites assigned to each person has increased from two to 10. Under the old program there was 31 sites assigned, each of which was under a permit or order. Today, under the new program, there are 118 sites assigned, 58 of which have a specific goal schedule and stated expectations. Finally, the number of sites that are entangled in a permit appeal or formal litigation has dropped from five in 1993 to one now.

The sites undergoing corrective action are selected using a risk-based score from the National Corrective Action Prioritization System, as well as other important issues including environmental justice considerations, brownfields priorities and opportunities to use innovative environmental technology. The result was the establishment of 152 priority sites (out of a total of 550 ) for cleanup. The objective we established in 1994 for each of the 152 sites is to stabilize or reach a final remedy decision by the year 2000. Under the former program, since there was no regional plan, corrective actions were pursed for a variety of reasons, not all of which related to the risk posed by the site.

Changing the way we do business with business: At EPA New England whenever possible we are attempting to work with and not in opposition to site owners and operators, and encouraging staff to think of new ways to meet established goals and to approach old problems in non-prescriptive ways. The result has been a greater number of improved corrective actions, many of which have been voluntary or self-directed. The program now takes advantage of opportunities where facility owners want to move quickly. Instead of warning them to "act at their own risk" unless or until the EPA was ready to work with them, we now devote resources and technical support to facilities that have an immediate need (e.g. real estate transaction, loan) because it makes better environmental and economic sense. We meet, provide guidance, outline goals and set performance standards. Instead of using only tried and true enforceable remediation methods, the program aggressively seeks out areas of flexibility that will save time and money without sacrificing quality. Experimentation is encouraged. And, importantly, when necessary, we will use our traditional enforcement tools including deferring sites to the federal Superfund program when appropriate.

Consider the following success stories:

• In southern Rhode Island, Sequa -- a past property owner at the Carroll Products Site -- recently completed a voluntary cleanup that resulted in tens of thousands of pounds of contaminated materials being cleaned up from a site where for years we had lacked any type of real enforcement mechanism. In 1994 Sequa agreed to remediate two unlined lagoons on the property and continue performing site investigations that had been initiated a year earlier. The current owner of the site was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the arrangement we had with Sequa would have only allowed further studies of the contamination. Realizing that a cleanup had to be initiated soon, we sat down with Sequa, the Rhode Island DEM and others to devise a comprehensive plan to clean up the site and return the site to productive use. Thanks to this cooperative approach, a site whose unlined lagoons once oozed a reddish sludge devoid of life now is home to frogs, snakes, raccoons and a variety of other life.
• At Dow Chemical in Ledyard, Conn. - the region's pilot site for use of voluntary corrective action agreements - the new cooperative interactive mode of working with facilities produced a complete site investigation and remedy selection in three years. That's more than half the average of 6 ½ years it has taken to complete sites under permits and orders. During 1997 and 1998, over 3,000 drums and drum fragments were removed from an on-site landfill and all contaminated soils found at the facility were either removed or consolidated in the on-site landfill for treatment in a soil vapor extraction system now in the final stages of construction.
• At Pratt & Whitney we have taken advantage of the flexibility in voluntary agreements to set up a master agreement to govern Corrective Action at six Pratt & Whitney facilities in Connecticut. Negotiations of this one master agreement at the corporate level saved EPA and Pratt & Whitney the time and cost of six individual negotiations at the facility level. By the end of this year the EPA expects to begin the public involvement on the selection of a final remedy for a 600-acre parcel of the Main Street facility. The remainder of the property and four of the other remaining facilities are expected to be stabilized by the end of the year 2000. The fifth remaining facility has a prospective purchaser and the remainder of its cleanup may be overseen by the Connecticut Property Transfer Program.

The state of state relations: We also took a hard look at what had become a similar culture of mistrust that had been extended to the EPA-state relationship. Under the old system, grants were given to states to work on sites that were already being handled and overseen by the EPA. Today, the EPA engages in careful planning to ensure that the states are accountable for a different and equally important set of sites. In many cases, we have been using state cleanup standards in lieu of our own. States agree to be advocates for special federal needs and EPA staff agree to be advocates for special state needs. There is no more second-guessing and the EPA has been able to cultivate effective, productive relationships with state partners.

For example, the state of Connecticut is now taking the lead at addressing corrective action at municipal landfills that contain solid waste management units receiving hazardous waste because its EPA-authorized RCRA subtitle D program appears to provide the most sensible administrative tools for addressing these sites. With all six New England states we have at least the elements of a master plan of who will address what sites. We are also analyzing the risk assessment and risk management protocol at EPA-New England and for each state in the region to minimize the double jeopardy threat that is posed to sites where work performed for a state will not satisfy EPA, or vice-versa.

Everyone can win under RCRA 2000: Citizens benefit from the program through a cleaner environment overall. Faster, more efficient cleanups reduce the risks of long term exposure, particularly through groundwater contamination. Wildlife benefits from the removal of harmful chemicals and the restoration of their habitats. Society also benefits from the recovery of what might have otherwise been an economic loss. When properties are remediated they are more likely to be available for a variety of commercial transactions including redevelopment. Finally, facility owners benefit by having received the EPA's endorsement for their expedited cleanups. The immediate result has been cleaner facilities for workers and customers, as well as reduced health risks to all who come into contact with facilities. By moving quickly under the new program, facility owners have saved time and money and suffered less of an interruption to normal operations. For more information on EPA-New England's RCRA Cleanup 2000 Initiative, contact Matthew Hoagland at (617)573-5791 or Ernest Waterman at (617) 223-5511. They have designed and implemented this successful new approach and are eager to expand its reach.