Voluntary RCRA corrective action: An opportunity for industry

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1 is piloting a new dimension to its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action Program by embarking on a new initiative that emphasizes a voluntary, cooperative approach. This approach is designed to achieve specific near-term cleanup goals in an effort to reduce the cost and time, both for the Boston regional office and industry, of site remediation under RCRA. For the corporation, consultant and EPA, this initiative represents a new way of doing business and will require a different perspective from the beginning of the corrective action process. In brief, the goal of the program is to accelerate the corrective action so all sites designated as high priority by Region 1 have attained stabilization or have selected a final remedy by the year 2000. To achieve this goal, EPA will allow industries to proceed through the RCRA Corrective Action process on their own, without EPA review and approval at each step, to the point where the human health and environmental impacts have been stabilized or the final remedy is about to be selected. While this program offers many benefits to industry, whether or not it`s the right program for a givenmore » industry or facility depends on many factors.« less