Formatted Title
Moving Petroleum Release Sites to Closure
Background/Objectives
Nationwide there are approximately 58,000 petroleum underground storage tank (UST) release cleanups that have not been completed. This “corrective action backlog” has been coming down slowly over the last 10 years; however, EPA and many cleanup experts believe that many of these sites may no longer pose a significant threat to human health and the environment even though they do not meet current state cleanup standards. ASTM Committee E50’s Subcommittee on Corrective Action formed a Task Group to develop a standard that provides a new approach to evaluating sites that includes alternative closure criteria.
Approach/Activities
The Task Group gathered the latest scientific literature on how petroleum behaves underground and best management practices for moving sites to closure. The Task Group, with the help of ASTSWMO, surveyed states’ current practices regarding alternative closure criteria and the current barriers to closure. The presentation will describe the main goals of the Moving Sites to Closure (MStC) standard guide and the process of developing the standard guide.
Results/Lessons Learned
MStC provides a framework for alternative criteria to determine when the threat to human health and the environment is low enough to close a petroleum UST corrective action project. The standard guide also provides best management practices for evaluating the effectiveness of the current remedy and overcoming non-technical obstacles such as access issues that are stalling the progress of corrective action. It ties together the latest scientific understanding of petroleum UST releases, best practices from various state UST remediation programs, other ASTM standards, and ITRC guidance. UST owners, corrective action professionals, and regulators can use this standard when making remedial decisions for individual sites, as well as when developing regulatory policy. The presentation will describe the makeup of the Task Group, the major points of the standard, and the current status of the standard in the ASTM balloting process.