State cleanup levels

State Cleanup Levels for Fuel Oxygenates in Groundwater... 

While U.S. EPA has not promulgated a federal cleanup level for MTBE, some states have established cleanup levels. However, these vary by state, ranging from 5 to 202,000 pg/L, a difference of more than three orders of magnitude.1 Because of the variation in MTBE cleanup levels, after-treatment MTBE concentrations are reported based on information provided in the source documents, and are not compared against a common cleanup level for all projects. 

Only limited information is available about the health risks of oxygenates other than MTBE. Fewer states have established standards and cleanup levels for these contaminants than for MTBE. Currently, there are no federal drinking water advisory or cleanup levels for these other fuel oxygenates. Several states have established, and some states have plans to establish, cleanup levels for other oxygenates.21 Table 24.1 summarizes the number of states that have cleanup levels for fuel oxygenates along with the range of cleanup levels established for each. 

Fuel Oxygenate States with Cleanup Level 2004 Lowest Cleanup Level (pg/L) Highest Cleanup Level (pg/L)... 

Delta Environmental Consultants, Groundwater Oxygenate Cleanup Levels for LUST Sites, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC. Available at www.epa.gov/oust/MTBE/ MTBEtable.pdf, 2004. 

The analysis for the total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) in a sample as a means of evaluating petroleum-contaminated sites is also an analytical method in common use. The data are used to establish target cleanup levels for soil or water by regulatory agencies in the United States and in many other countries. 

In the early 1990s, states and the Federal government began to realize that the ARARs approach was confusing, contributing to skyrocketing cleanup costs, and that sites were often not achieving required cleanup levels. These factors were... 

One option was to require cleanup to levels that met Federal and State standards or water quality criteria. The Agency has decided that such a rigid requirement would impose the use of potentially inappropriate levels of cleanup that would not allow consideration of individual circumstances at each release. Any appropriate standard or criteria will be considered in determining the cleanup level of a particular release, along with other technological and environmental factors." (9)... 

A pilot-scale treatability study was conducted using white rot fungus at a former ordnance open bum/open detonation area at Site D, Naval Submarine Base, Bangor, Washington. Initial TNT concentrations of 1,844 ppm were degraded to 1,267 ppm in 30 days and 1,087 in 120 days. The overall degradation was 41%, and final TNT soil levels were well above the proposed cleanup level of 30 ppm (Spectrum Sciences Software, Inc., and Utah State University, no date). 

Cleanup, Excavation, Transportation and Storage - Based on health advisories from the Centers for Disease Control, and the state health agency, contaminated materials are excavated until no dioxin Is left behind In the soil at a cleanup level of 1 ppb and, where excavation takes place, clean soil is put down so that people will not come In contact with dioxln-contamlnated soil. The basic approach Involves Innovative excavation of 4- to... 

The CWA also addresses oil and hazardous substances. It expressly prohibits the discharge of oil or hazardous substances in harmful quantities to the waters of the United States. The USEPA has classified 300 hazardous substances according to the levels of danger they present to health and the environment. These substances are listed by their Chemical Abstract Number (CAS ) and are provided by the USEPA. If a discharge of any of these hazardous substances or oil occurs that is above the reportable quantity (RQ) level, the National Response Center (NRC) must be notified. Severe penalties, including jail and fines of up to 10,000, can be issued for failing to notify the NRC. Also, the CWA places the responsibility of all costs of cleanup with the dischargers. 

A number of US States have guidelines or standards for soils and sediments. For example, New Jersey has a cleanup criterion of 20 mg kg-1 for arsenic in residential and nonresidential soils (http //www.nj. gov/dep/srp/guidance/scc/). Like many regulations, the New Jersey soil criteria may be modified for local conditions. The arsenic soil cleanup target levels in Florida are 2.1 mg kg-1 for residential and 12 mg kg-1 for commercial and industrial sites (Florida Administrative Code 62-777.170). 

A variety of methods have been developed for sampling pesticides in air. Suitable procedures must deal with difficulties posed by the uncertainty regarding the physical state (aerosols, solid particles, vapors) of airborne residues, their relatively low concentrations (less than 1 mg/m, ca 80 ppb), fluctuations in pesticide concentrations and the levels of potential interferences with time, potential reactivity during the sampling process, and limited availability of sampling devices. These are in addition to the problems of cleanup, recovery, quantitation, and confirmation which are common to trace analytical processes once the sample has been collected and brought to the laboratory for determination. 

A common problem at public utilities is soil that becomes contaminated with PCBs near and around transformers. There still are a number of such sites with this problem in the United States. Table 9 gives data from a soil cleanup project from a site in New York State. The soil contained approximately 1200 ppm of PCB (Aroclor 1260) prior to treatment with SET . After treatment, the PCB level was reduced to 1.4 ppm (Table 9). Aroclor 1260 is particularly hard to bioremediate, so this result is significant. Small quantities of PAHs (pyrene and phenanthrene) were also remediated. The total petroleum hydrocarbons increased, which is what should be expected because the initial... 

Plutonium Purification. The same purification approach is used for plutonium separated from sediments or seawater. In case reduction may have occurred, the plutonium is oxidized to the quadrivalent state with either hydrogen peroxide or sodium nitrite and adsorbed on an anion exchange resin from 8M nitric acid as the nitrate complex. Americium, curium, transcurium elements, and lanthanides pass through this column unadsorbed and are collected for subsequent radiochemical purification. Thorium is also adsorbed on this column and is eluted with 12M hydrochloric acid. Plutonium is then eluted from the column with 12M hydrochloric acid containing ammonium iodide to reduce plutonium to the non-adsorbed tervalent state. For seawater samples, adequate cleanup from natural-series isotopes is obtained with this single column step so the plutonium fraction is electroplated on a stainless steel plate and stored for a-spectrometry measurement. Further purification, especially from thorium, is usually needed for sediment samples. Two additional column cycles of this type using fresh resin are usually required to reduce the thorium content of the separated plutonium fraction to insignificant levels. 

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