Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program Vision/ Mission/ Goals for 2030

On this page:

• Fiscal Year 2024 Results
• Background
• Development of the Vision/ Mission/ Goals
• 2030 Vision/Mission/Goals

Fiscal Year 2024 Results

The Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program is driven by its 2030 Vision, Mission, and Goals. This includes meeting annual targets for five important cleanup milestones at facilities:

• Human Exposures Under Control.
• Migration of Contaminated Groundwater Under Control.
• Remedy Construction.
• Performance Standards Attained.
• Ready for Anticipated Use.

Progress is measured first and foremost by protecting public health through controlling human exposure to contamination. The next steps, including controlling the migration of contaminated groundwater and having cleanup technologies constructed and operational, are also important to achieve long-term protection.

The Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program continues to focus on continued implementation of the five 2030 Program Goals. The Program’s results are demonstrated by the annual achievements under five program measures used to track cleanup progress (below). These achievements also demonstrate significant progress toward the Agency’s Strategic Plan five-year long-term performance goal of 425 cleanups meeting the Ready for Anticipated Use milestone by 2026.

Nationally, the program achieved the following targets in Fiscal Year 2024:

• 22 cleanups met the Human Exposures Under Control target of 17.
• 25 cleanups met the Migration of Contaminated Groundwater Under Control target of 25.
• 40 cleanups met Remedy Construction, just under the target of 44.
• 42 cleanups met the Performance Standards Attained target of 41.
• 87 cleanups met the Ready for Anticipated Use target of 85.

The impact of these results is the protection of communities from harmful exposures to contamination from RCRA hazardous waste facilities. As noted in the previous section, the current number of facilities in EPA’s Hazardous Waste Program tracking list, called Progress Track, is 3,961. Below you can find information about all the facilities on the Progress Track:

• Number of Facilities with Human Exposures Under Control (CA725) Achieved: 3,740 as of end of FY24.
• Number of Facilities with Migration of Contaminated Groundwater Under Control (CA750) Achieved: 3,579 as of end of FY24.
• Number of Facilities with Remedy Construction (CA550) Achieved: 2,886 as of end of FY24.
• Number of Facilities with Ready for Anticipated Use (CA800) Achieved: 2,127 as of end of FY24.
• Number of Facilities with Performance Standards Attained (CA900/999) Achieved: 1,754 as of end of FY24.

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Background

The current Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program has been driven by aspirational goals, announced in May 2004, that were focused on meeting certain cleanup measures by the year 2020. These ambitious and farsighted goals in the early years of implementation of RCRA Corrective Action targeted achieving 95% completion of three important milestones, and the results are impressive.

• View the results of the 2020 Goals

Development of the 2030 Vision/ Mission/ Goals

In 2020, EPA initiated a series of discussions to gather input from a wide range of interested parties into the development of a high-level vision, mission, and goals for the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program (RCRA Corrective Action) over the next 10 years. EPA hosted discussions with groups, including members of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, community organizers, federal agencies, local governments through the Revitalizing Communities Workgroup of EPA’s Local Government Advisory Committee, facility owner and operators, Tribal partners, and state partners, including the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials.

On August 19, 2020, EPA hosted a roundtable at which all interested parties involved in the initial discussions were invited to share their reactions and suggestions to the revised vision, mission, and goals. EPA took into account feedback regarding the importance of focusing on protection of human health and the environment, long-term protectiveness of cleanups and revitalization of contaminated properties to support current and future uses in making final revisions. EPA announced the final 2030 vision, mission, and goals for the program at the ASTSWMO Virtual Corrective Action Conference on September 1, 2020.

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2030 Vision/ Mission/ Goals

• Vision
• Mission
• Goals
• Updates on the Goals 

Vision

RCRA Corrective Action cleanups support healthy and sustainable communities where people and the environment are protected from hazardous contamination today and into the future.

Mission

EPA, states, and Tribal partners work together to ensure that owners and operators of hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities conduct effective and efficient cleanups to protect human health and the environment, support continued use, and make land ready for reuse including, if necessary, placement of controls to protect communities into the future.

Goals

1. Through 2030, the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program will ensure that hazardous waste cleanups are initiated and completed efficiently and expeditiously. Commitments regarding what work is planned and what progress is made will be visible to the public. An ambitious universe of cleanups will be identified for completion by 2030.
   1. For commitments and tracking, the program will use the relevant Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program measures and will use flexible approaches appropriate for each region and state. 
2. By 2030, the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program will eliminate or control adverse impacts beyond facility boundaries at hazardous waste cleanups wherever practicable and the program will focus attention on cleanups that will not meet this target.
   1. The program will develop procedures to:
      • identify and address emerging risk issues (e.g., vapor intrusion, evolving science), and
      • address timelines for facilities brought into the program post-2020.
         
3. By 2030, the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program will ensure or confirm that land within facility boundaries at hazardous waste cleanup facilities will be safe for continued use or reasonably foreseeable new uses wherever practicable and the program will focus attention on cleanups that will not meet this target.
   1. The program will develop procedures to address timelines for facilities brought into the program post-2020.
       
4. By 2025, the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program will identify the key elements of effective Long-term Stewardship for hazardous waste cleanups, and regions and states will have approaches in place to ensure implementation of the key elements.
   1. The program will develop procedures to leverage interest and investment in new or existing commercial and community entities to sustain Long-term Stewardship controls.
       
5. By 2022, program procedures will be in place to regularly adjust the universe of facilities in the cleanup pipeline to reflect current program priorities.

Updates on the Goals

EPA Focuses on Cleanup Progress and Completion Under Goals 1, 2, 3

Ensuring that cleanups are conducted efficiently and completed quickly is essential to protecting surrounding communities. The major aim of these goals is to address cleanup progress, including on key environmental indicators, and completion of cleanups. EPA developed plans for the implementation of Goals 1, 2, and 3. The implementation plans address offsite and onsite cleanup activities and set ambitious targets for completing cleanup milestones and overall cleanups. They also add a focus on transparency, environmental justice, and climate resiliency.

Goal 1: Cleanups are initiated and completed efficiently and expeditiously.

Through 2030, the targets for remedy construction and cleanups completed at hazardous waste cleanups are:

• Remedy Construction complete at 400 facilities by 2030 (CA550).
• Performance Standards Attained/Corrective Action Process Terminated at 400 facilities by 2030 (CA900/999).

Goal 2: Adverse impacts beyond facility boundaries are eliminated or controlled.

By 2025, EPA will assess the Progress Track list and identify facilities for which cleanups need to be accelerated in order to address impacts beyond the facility boundaries. EPA will set a target number of facilities to achieve the following offsite indicators by 2030:

• Human Exposures under Control (CA725).
• Migration of Contaminated Groundwater Under Control (CA750). 

Goal 3: Land within facility boundaries is safe for use or reuse.

By 2030, additional Progress Track facilities will be safe for continued current use or anticipated new uses. The target is:

• Ready for Anticipated Use achieved at 750 facilities by 2030 (CA800).

 

Source: Fiscal Year 2024 Corrective Action Measures Results, Government Performance and Results Act Achievements Spreadsheet (xls).

Goal 4: Key elements of long-term stewardship are identified, and regions and states will have approaches in place to ensure implementation.

In issuing the 2030 Vision, Mission, and Goals for the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program, EPA recognized the importance of the long-term effectiveness of cleanups and in Goal 4 committed to steps to achieve that result. Goal 4 provided:

EPA formed a Long-Term Stewardship Workgroup to support the implementation of Goal 4. The Workgroup satisfied the first portion of Goal 4 by identifying nine key elements of effective long-term stewardship in a document which was signed and released on June 27, 2022. These nine elements provide a general framework for regulators establishing and implementing processes to assure effective long-term stewardship at RCRA facilities. 

Nine Key Elements

1. Legal Authorities.
2. Information Regarding Engineering and Institutional Controls.
3. Long-Term Facility Oversight, Monitoring, and Maintenance.
4. Recordkeeping and Tracking.
5. Meaningful Engagement and Consultation.
6. Funding.
7. Enforcement.
8. Enforceable Mechanisms.
9. Dedicated Resources.

Read the memorandum containing these key elements (pdf)(333 KB)(June 27, 2022). 

Having satisfied the first part of Goal 4 (identified the Key Elements of Long-Term Stewardship), EPA is working toward achieving the second part of Goal 4 (have approaches in place to ensure implementation of the key elements). EPA is evaluating the status of long-term stewardship implementation in the regions and states to identify where support may be needed for program implementers to fully achieve the goal.

Goal 5:  The RCRA Corrective Action cleanup universe is regularly adjusted to reflect program priorities.

EPA’s Corrective Action Goal 5 Workgroup completed a year-long pilot project that developed and implemented procedures for adding additional facilities to the Corrective Action Progress Track. The objective was to include additional facilities where corrective action work is occurring, or planned to occur, to ensure program oversight and attention. The Workgroup planned and piloted procedures, which are now in place.

EPA established an open season every February during which EPA will discuss additions and subtractions to the universe of facilities. EPA keeps the current list of Progress Track facilities in the RCRAInfo database and publishes the list on the Cleanups in My Community website. You can access updated facility universe information October of each year.

Goal 5 Snapshot:

Facilities Added to RCRA Corrective Action Progress Track in FY2022	59
Facilities Subtracted from RCRA Corrective Action Progress Track in FY2023	22
Total Facilities on FY2024 RCRA Corrective Action Progress Track	3,961