November 21, 2023

Incorporating Climate Change Adaptations During RCRA Corrective Action

EPA’s 2021 climate adaptation plan established priority actions for cli-mate impacts in the agency’s programs, policies, rulemaking efforts, and enforcement activities. In October 2022, EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM) released its climate adaptation implementation plan, calling for climate change impacts to be considered as part of the corrective action process. The agency then issued a draft memorandum on corrective action and climate change adaptations on October 18, 2023.

The draft memo reviews the stages of corrective action where climate change impacts and risks can be considered. Starting with RCRA facility assessments, investigations, and corrective measures studies, climate change impacts can be evaluated by reviewing factors such as:

Temperature changes,
Precipitation patterns,
Sea level rise,
Long-term changes in weather patterns, and
Climate vulnerability assessments.

During the remedy selection and implementation stages of corrective action, adverse climate change impacts should be considered based on the results from the climate vulnerability assessment. Remedies should also be adaptive, allowing for evaluation and changes over time. EPA emphasizes the two-phased evaluation approach for final remedy selection. The first phase addresses four specific “remedy threshold criteria,” and the second phase covers five “balancing criteria.” Remedy implementation should then ensure the long-term integrity of the constructed remedies, consistent with the adaptive approach during the remedy selection.

Long-term stewardship reviews can assess the adaptive capacity of the implemented remedies. Any problems or vulnerabilities identified after the remedy implementation can be considered and addressed at this point.

EPA’s draft memo includes a list of climate adaptation strategies to be used in the corrective action process. A few examples include:

Construct physical barriers to contain contaminants.
Use engineering controls to manage and contain hazardous waste or hazardous constituents in locations not likely to be impacted by climate threats.
Establish or enhance monitoring systems for groundwater, air quality, and weather, by integrating parameters to detect climate-related changes and potential impacts on cleanups.
Develop early warning systems to anticipate and respond to climate-related events that may affect the facility’s integrity or increase the risk of hazardous waste and hazardous constituent releases.

Comments on this draft memo may be submitted through November 17, 2023, to RCRApost@epa.gov with the subject line “Comments on draft memo Integrating Climate Change Adaptation Considerations into the RCRA Corrective Action Process.”

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This document addresses issues of a general nature related to the federal environmental regulations. Persons evaluating specific circumstances dealing with the environmental regulations should review state and local laws and regulations, which may be more stringent than federal requirements. In addition, the assistance of a qualified professional should be enlisted to address any site-specific circumstances.