Relieving the Burden of Redeveloping RCRA Sites

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 2003 Strategic Plan establishes aggressive targets for controlling risks to human health and the environment and making contaminated land more available for reuse. One of the targets of this plan is for the EPA to determine that all identified current human exposure to contamination will be under control or below health-based levels at 95% of the relevant Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) sites by 2008. Because over 6,500 facilities are subject to the RCRA corrective action statutory authorities, the EPA realizes that significant changes will have to be made to the RCRA program to expedite the cleanup process at these sites. To that end, the Agency has taken steps to alleviate some of the bureaucratic obstacles commonly encountered during redevelopment of RCRA Brownfield sites. The EPA has relaxed the regulatory and statutory requirements under the RCRA program and integrated federal and state programs to better accommodate redevelopment of these sites. One of the key improvements to the program involves the creation of the RCRA Brownfields Prevention Initiative, which provides more flexibility than the original requirements for completing corrective actions. Other significant reforms that encourage Brownfield site cleanups include the issuance of comfort/status letters and prospective purchaser agreements that reduce the uncertainties for prospective developers. This article discusses the key advancements that have been established under the RCRA program and presents tools for dealing with potential or perceived obstacles for reusing RCRA sites.