After years of struggling to implement prompt and cost-effective cleanups of sediment sites under the Superfund program, EPA has adopted a new set of tools. This would be a good time for EPA to conduct an unbiased evaluation of whether recent Records of Decisions issued for sediment sites comply with the Office of the Land and Emergency Management Directive 9200.1-130 (Jan. 9, 2017), and direct the regions to revise RODs where necessary.

For example, Region 10 recently issued its ROD for the Portland Harbor, a complex, multi-party sediment site, which seems out of sync with the new guidance. In particular, Region 10’s use of unachievable cleanup levels for several contaminants of concern, unwarranted assumptions about current and future land uses in certain areas of the site, and failure to properly assess background levels in some instances conflict with the Directive’s recommendations.

Click here to read the full article.