Board of Directors
The ASTSWMO Board of Directors approved a position paper on the issue of Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements (ARARs). Over the last five years, the ASTSWMO CERCLA and Brownfields (CaBS) Subcommittee members have been evaluating State and Territorial (State) roles at CERCLA cleanups. One troubling area has been the process of identifying and accepting States cleanup standards and rules as ARARs in CERCLA cleanups.
Click here to view the ARARs Position Paper
The Board would like to welcome Laura Malone of Arizona as the new Region 9 board Representative. The Board also thanks Ameko Pato of American Samoa for his tenure on the board as the Region 9 Representative.
Subcommittees
CERCLA & Brownfields
The CERCLA and Brownfields Subcommittee has a number of openings for State members to be a part of one of the Focus Groups (Sediments, Remedial Action, CERCLA Post Construction, Removals). If you have any interest and would like to see if your Region has any openings, please contact Scott Lauher (scottl@astswmo.org). The Subcommittee plans to hold a symposium August 20-22, 2018 in Jacksonville, FL. Registration and additional information will be announced later in the spring.
Federal Facilities
As a reminder, EPA is planning a series of 3-day training courses geared toward Federal Facility Remedial Project Managers (RPMs) in 2018. The course includes discussions on best practices for managing federal facility NPL sites, a review of statutory and regulatory authorities, executive orders, policy and guidance important to federal facilities, implementing the Federal Facilities Agreements, and a discussion on current issues such as emerging contaminants. Additional information including a schedule of upcoming courses is available here.
In addition to RPM training, several online and in-person training sessions are available to States in 2018 on various federal facility topics. Visit the resources below for more information:
• ITRC Classroom and Online Training Schedules
• EPA CLU-IN Training and Events
• SERDP & ESTCP Webinar Series
Hazardous Waste
The Program Information Management Task Force continues to focus on developments regarding e-Manifest and RCRAInfo Version 6. With the launch of the e-Manifest system scheduled for June 2018, e-Manifest implementation will be a topic for discussion at the ASTSWMO Mid-Year Meeting. The Hazardous Waste Subcommittee is planning sessions at the meeting that will also highlight the work of the Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Task Force and Corrective Action and Permitting Task Force regarding the RCRA Compliance Monitoring Strategy, Subtitle C corrective action and hazardous waste permitting.
Materials Management
The Materials Management Subcommittee has identified Construction and Demolition Debris (C&D) as a Subcommittee-wide issue, and is coordinating project ideas that have been raised within each of its four Task Forces. The Radiation Task Force has recently produced the document, Waste Generation and Disposal: Awareness, Management, and Disposal Guidance for Solid Waste Containing Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (TENORM). The Sustainable Materials Management Task Force has assembled a list of reports addressing the economics of recycling. The list, which includes reports issued between 2007 and 2017, is intended to be a dynamic document, to be updated on a periodic basis. Click here to read more about these two resources.
Tanks
The Tanks Subcommittee released several new resources this quarter that are available on ASTSWMO’s website:
Summary of State Programs and Data on Abandoned USTs and Facilities summarizes and compiles information received from 31 States on how States fund the removal and cleanup of abandoned USTs and facilities; how many abandoned USTs and facilities, and at what costs, have these States addressed; and what incentives or unique programs do States have for addressing abandoned USTs and facilities.
Ability to Pay Policy Template and Forms provide a general policy for ability to pay settlements in which an entity’s financial ability to pay is a significant consideration. The document also includes two template forms for collecting information from individuals and businesses.
ASTSWMO has also added a Corrosion Observations Tool to the Emerging Fuels Resources page. The tool can be used by regulators, inspectors, contractors, and owners to report corrosion observed during UST system inspections or removals.
Members in Action
By the end of March 2018, ASTSWMO will be updating the Subcommittee rosters, which will include email addresses and the member term rotation dates for each of the Task Forces and Focus Groups. The rosters will be available on each Subcommittee page.
Strategic Plan
1st Quarter Year 4 Strategic Plan Workplans
ASTSWMO Achievements
Congratulations to Alex Moon who completed a marathon in Phoenix, AZ.
According to Alex: "If it weren’t for the friendships I made through ASTSWMO I wouldn’t be running marathons."
ASTSWMO Elections
Elections for the new Vice-President and Secretary Treasurer will take place during the 2018 ASTSWMO Annual Meeting.
If you're interested in running, please contact: Mark de Bie
ITRC Updates
Upcoming ITRC Training
Below are the upcoming online training courses for March. Online classes are co-hosted by ITRC and EPA and are 100% free.
March 8: Integrated DNAPL Site Characterization
March 22: Quality Considerations for Multiple Aspects of Munitions Response Sites
March 27: Groundwater Statistics for Environmental Project Managers
March 29: Geospatial Analysis for Optimization at Environmental Sites
Learn more about our training courses and see our full 2018 schedule HERE.
PFAS Fact Sheets
ITRC is releasing the next set of PFAS fact sheets on March 8! The fact sheets are:
• Environmental Fate and Transport
• Site Characterization Tools, Sampling Techniques, and Laboratory Analytical Methods
• Remediation Technologies and Methods
The series of fact sheets summarize the latest science and emerging technologies for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The fact sheets are tailored to the needs of state regulatory program personnel who are tasked with making decisions regarding PFAS-impacted sites. The content is also useful to consultants and parties responsible for the release of these contaminants, as well as the general public.
Find the fact sheets HERE.
DoD Updates
Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) Report to Congress: On October 16, 2017, Ms. Ellen M. Lord, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)), signed the AFFF Report to Congress. The report provides information regarding DoD’s efforts to address elevated levels of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) on military bases and in neighboring communities due to the use of AFFF. The signed report is available on the DoD Environment, Safety and Occupational Health Network and Information Exchange (DENIX) at: http://www.denix.osd.mil/derp/home/documents/aqueous-film-forming-foam-report-to-congress/.
Installation Restoration Program (IRP) Response Complete (RC) Report: In January 2018, Ms. Ellen Lord, USD(A&S), signed a report detailing DoD’s efforts to achieve RC at all its IRP sites. Specifically, the report provides:
1. A list of IRP sites that have not yet achieved RC;
2. A total estimated cost for achieving RC at these sites;
3. The number of years that it will take at current annual funding levels to achieve RC at these sites; and
4. Current efforts the Department is taking to ensure the IRP is resourced to maximize efficiency and minimize the total time required to reach RC at these sites, including the feasibility of public-private partnerships to expedite cleanup.
The report will be available on the DENIX website soon.
Defense and State Memorandum of Agreement (DSMOA) Steering Committee Land Use Controls (LUCs) Webinar: The DSMOA Steering Committee is planning to host a webinar on LUCs to share information with states. For the presentations, DoD will pair a DoD Component presenter with a DSMOA Steering Committee state representative to give a brief overview of the DoD Component’s LUCs management strategy, as well as provide examples of and discuss how the DoD Component implements LUCs at specific sites. More information on the time and date of the webinar is forthcoming.
Congressional Testimony
Stephen Cobb (AL), an ASTSWMO Past-President, testified on behalf of the Association at a hearing on “Modernizing the Superfund Cleanup Program”, held on January 18, 2018 by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Environment. Cobb’s testimony, as well as other ASTSWMO Congressional testimony on various issues over the last five years, is available in a new area of the ASTSWMO website. Click here for links to webpages for U.S. House and U.S. Senate hearings at which ASTSWMO has provided testimony.
Webinar: Subsurface Contaminants
States are invited by The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, to attend, by webcast, their series "Environmental Dynamics and Exposure Pathways of Subsurface Contaminants".
Through a series of 4 complementary topical sessions, explore scientific issues concerning transport, transformation, and exposure pathways of subsurface contaminants, such as metals, organics, and radionuclides. Examples from a wide range of potential applications include waste site management decision-making, characterizing the spread of contaminants from abandoned mines, and pollution prevention planning for energy development.
The sessions are intended to identify common needs, concerns, and challenges across disciplines and sectors, to highlight research and technology advances and gaps, and to determine how the Academies can best contribute to this topic. Each session will be webcast and posted onto the Academies’ website. In addition, a brief written document is planned that summarizes the four sessions.
BCST Session, March 2, 2018 (Part I of 4)
This session will focus on the complex chemistry of the subsurface environment and how it affects contaminant transport. A specific example will be considered to illustrate the use of advanced synchrotron and other techniques to elucidate mechanisms and inform decision makers. The topic of how molecular-level information and small-scale models can be incorporated into larger-scale transport models will be discussed.
For more information on this series, please visit our website.
Credits:
Created with images by Ales Kladnik - "Winter forest" • Maria Shanina - "Red Berries In Winter" • James Donovan - "Yosemite lake in winter"