Guidance for Cleaning Up Groundwater, Soil and Air at Hazardous Waste Cleanup Facilities

Handbook of Ground Water Protection and Cleanup policies for RCRA Corrective Action (pdf) (407 KB).

• Fact sheet.
• Signed cover memo.
• Federal Register notice.
• Additional training on this handbook.

This handbook and the accompanying documents are designed to help regulators, members of the regulated community, or members of the public find and understand EPA policies on protecting and cleaning up groundwater at RCRA Corrective Action facilities. This handbook contains EPA’s interpretation of policies on such topics as cleanup goals, the role of groundwater use, point of compliance, source control, and monitored natural attenuation.

The intent of this document is to present a technical protocol for data collection and analysis to evaluate monitored natural attenuation through biological processes for remediating groundwater. Natural attenuation processes, such as bio-degradation, can often be dominant factors in the fate and transport of contaminants. Thus, consideration and quantification of natural attenuation is essential to a more thorough understanding of contaminant fate and transport.

The purpose of this Directive is to clarify EPA’s policy regarding the use of monitored natural attenuation (MNA) for the cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater in the Superfund, RCRA Corrective Action, and Underground Storage Tank programs.

The purpose of this document is to further define the classes, concepts, and key terms related to the classification system outlined in the 1984 Groundwater Protection Strategy, and to describe the procedures and information needs for classifying groundwater.

This document gives an overview of the waste management area and the supplemental well provisions of the RCRA Subtitle C groundwater monitoring regulations of 1988. These provisions were intended to increase flexibility in the RCRA groundwater monitoring program, so that monitoring systems may be better tailored to site-specific conditions and designed to foster the early detection of contaminated releases.

This document provides guidance to RCRA facility permit applicants and writers concerning the establishment of site-specific Alternate Concentration Limits (ACLs). To obtain an ACL, a permit applicant must demonstrate that the hazardous constituents detected in the groundwater will not pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment at the ACL levels.

This report states EPA policy, accompanied by implementation principles that reflect an aggressive approach to protecting the Nation's groundwater resources. The policy puts clear priority on preventing ground-water contamination, recognizes that groundwater is a uniquely local resource tor which States and local governments must assume primary responsibility, and strives to improve EPA's coordination of groundwater activities under all relevant statutes and programs.

RCRA Section 3020(b) Guidance:

• Applicability of RCRA Section 3020(b) to in-Situ Treatment of Groundwater
• Applicability of RCRA Section 3020(b) to In-Situ Bioremediation Technologies (pdf) (32.7 KB)
• Applicability of Land Disposal Restrictions to RCRA and CERCLA Groundwater Treatment Reinjection (pdf) (745 KB)

These documents provide guidance on RCRA Section 3020(b). RCRA section 3020(a) bans hazardous waste disposal by underground injection into a formation which contains an underground source of drinking water (within one-quarter mile of the well), or above such a formation. However, RCRA section 3020(b) exempts from the ban re-injection of treated contaminated ground water withdrawn from an aquifer, if certain criteria are met.

These documents are intended to describe the Comprehensive State Groundwater Protection Programs (CSGWPPs). CSGWPPs are the focal point for a new partnership between EPA, the States, Native American Tribes, and local governments to achieve a more efficient, coherent, and comprehensive approach to protecting the nation’s groundwater resources. Protecting groundwater sources usually requires the combined efforts of many partners such as public water systems, communities, resource managers, and the public.

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance required by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments of 1996 for state Source Water Assessment Programs (SWAP) and for Source Water Petition (SWP) Programs. This document describes the elements of an EPA-approvable SWAP submittal as well as EPA’s recommendations for what may be included in an SWP Program.

This document provides guidance on how to design and conduct soil remediation activities at Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and other hazardous waste sites so that transfers of contaminants from contaminated soil to other media (i.e., clean soil, air, and surface or groundwater) are minimized. This document also gives advice on the prevention and control of contamination through Best Management Practices that, based on research and past experience, may be best for the selected technology.

This memo clarifies the effective dates for the major provisions of the Phase IV rule. Among other things the Phase IV rule promulgates treatment standards for contaminated soil subject to Land Disposal Restrictions (LDRs).

The following guidance document addresses the evaluation and management of a single exposure pathway – the vapor intrusion pathway. The intent of these guidance documents is to provide a tool to help the user conduct a screening evaluation as to whether or not the vapor intrusion exposure pathway is complete and, if so, whether it poses an unacceptable risk to human health. A complete pathway means that humans are exposed to vapors originating from site contamination. The documents provide limited recommendations for delineating extent of risk or eliminating risk.

This technical guidance presents EPA’s technical recommendations based on our current understanding of vapor intrusion into indoor air from subsurface vapor sources. One of its main purposes is to promote national consistency in assessing the vapor intrusion pathway. 

This technical report presents a summary of indoor air studies that measured background concentrations of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the indoor air of thousands of North American residences and an evaluation and compilation of the statistical information reported in these studies. The objective of this compilation is to illustrate the ranges and variability of VOC concentrations in indoor air resulting from sources other than vapor intrusion.

This report provides simplified simulation examples to illustrate how subsurface conditions and building-specific characteristics determine the distribution of vapor-forming chemicals in the subsurface, and the indoor air concentration relative to a source concentration.  It was prepared to help environmental practitioners gain insights into the processes and variables involved in the vapor intrusion pathway and to provide a theoretical framework with which to draw inferences about and better understand the complex vapor fate and transport conditions typically encountered at actual, non-idealized contaminated sites.

This guidance focuses on releases of petroleum-based fuels (e.g., gasoline, diesel) from underground storage tanks (USTs), which are typically located at gas stations. This guide applies to new and existing releases of petroleum-based fuels from leaking USTs and to previously closed sites, where the implementing agency has reason to suspect that there may be a potential for petroleum vapor intrusion.

This report presents technical information about sites in the U.S. that have been investigated for vapor intrusion. The primary focus of the report is the evaluation of concentrations of chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds in and underneath residential buildings based upon EPA's vapor intrusion database as of 2010. The technical information provided in this report may be useful for regulators, responsible parties, and others assessing and managing vapor intrusion investigation programs.