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Area of Concern
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Definition: An area at a facility or an off-site area, which is not known to be a Solid Waste Management Unit (SWMU), where hazardous waste and/or hazardous constituents are present as a result of a release from the facility.
Acronym: AOC
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Cleanup
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Definition: The term "cleanup" or the phrase "cleaning up" refers to the range of activities that could occur in the context of addressing environmental contamination at RCRA facilities. For example, cleanup activities could include removing waste or contaminated media (e.g., excavation, pumping groundwater, etc.), in-place treatment of the waste or contaminated media (e.g., bioremediation), containment of the waste or contaminated media (e.g., barrier walls, low-permeable covers, liners, etc.), or various combinations of these approaches. The term cleanup is often used interchangeably with the term remediate.
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Cleanup Time Frames
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Definition: The cleanup time frame, with respect to groundwater, is an estimate of when groundwater quality will achieve a certain level at a specified location and/or the schedule developed to take an action or construct a remedy designed to achieve a particular short-term protectiveness, intermediate performance, or final cleanup goal.
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Comprehensive State Groundwater Protection Program
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Definition: A groundwater management strategy developed by a state. EPA reviews CSGWPPs and "endorses" those that successfully meet six strategic activities. EPA established recommended adequacy criteria for each strategic activity in CSGWPP guidance.
Acronym: CSGWPP
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Contamination
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Definition: Describes media containing contaminants in any form (e.g., non-aqueous phase liquids, dissolved in water, vapors, solids, etc.) that are subject to cleanup under RCRA and present in concentrations in excess of appropriately protective levels of concern.
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Contingency Measure
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Contingency Plan
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Definition: A cleanup approach specified in a remedy decision document that functions as a "backup" remedy in the event that the "selected" remedy fails to performs as anticipated.
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Contingency Remedy
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Definition: A cleanup approach specified in a remedy decision document that functions as a "backup" remedy in the event that the "selected" remedy fails to performs as anticipated.
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Corrective Action Management Units
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Definition: Physical, geographical areas within a facility designated for treatment, storage, or disposal of remediation wastes during cleanup activity. CAMUs are exempt from LDR and MTR.
Acronym: CAMUs
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Corrective Measure Implementation
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Definition: Typically the last phase of the Corrective Action process at a facility when the owner and operator implement the chosen remedy with design, construction, maintenance, and monitoring.
Acronym: CMI
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Corrective Measure Study
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Definition: One of the final steps in the Corrective Action process. The owner and operator identify and evaluate cleanup alternatives for releases at the facility, and then their recommended measures are reviewed by EPA or the State, who chose the best remedy.
Acronym: CMS
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Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids
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Definition: Such as chlorinated solvents, creosote based wood-treating oils, coal tar wastes, and pesticides are immiscible (i.e., they are not dissolved in water) fluids (most commonly organic) with a density greater than water.
Acronym: DNAPLs
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Environmental Indicators
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Definition: Two RCRA corrective action environmental indicators, Current Human Exposures Under Control and Migration of Contaminated Groundwater Under Control, are measures of program progress and are being used by the Agency to track whether it meets the goals set under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). In general terms, these measures indicate current "environmental conditions" - whether people are currently being exposed to environmental contamination at unacceptable levels, and whether any existing plumes of contaminated groundwater are getting larger or adversely affecting surface water bodies. (more information available on Region 3's environmental indicator website (http://www.epa.gov/reg3wcmd/ca/ca_environmentalindicators.htm)).
Acronym: EIs
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Government Performance and Results Act
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Definition: National legislation that requires federal agencies to meet specific goals.
Acronym: GPRA
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Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984
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Definition: The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 established the statutory authority for Corrective Action.
Acronym: HSWA
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Institutional Controls
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Definition: Defined as non-engineered instruments such as administrative and/or legal controls that minimize the potential for human exposure to contamination by limiting land or resource use.
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Interim Status Facilities
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Definition: Treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) that were already in operation when RCRA standards became effective in 1980.
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Land Disposal Restrictions
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Acronym: LDR
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Minimum Technical Requirements
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Acronym: MTR
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Monitored Natural Attenuation
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Definition: Refers to the reliance on natural attenuation processes (within the context of a carefully controlled and monitored site cleanup approach) to achieve site-specific remediation objectives within a time frame that is reasonable compared to that offered by other more active methods. The natural attenuation processes that are at work in such a remediation approach include a variety of physical, chemical and biological processes that, under favorable conditions, act without human intervention to reduce the mass, toxicity, mobility, volume or concentration of contaminants in soil or groundwater.
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National Corrective Action Prioritization System
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Definition: The National Corrective Action Prioritization System is used to rank and compare sites in the Corrective Action Program.
Acronym: NCAPS
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National Priorities List
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Definition: EPA's priority Superfund hazardous substance sites for cleanup.
Acronym: NPL
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Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids
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Definition: Hydrocarbons that exist as a separate immiscible phase when in contact with water or air. Differences in the physical and chemical properties of water and NAPL result in the formation of a physical interface between the two fluids which prevent the two fluids from mixing. NAPLs are typically classified as either light non-aqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) which have densities less than that of water, or dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) which have densities greater than that of water.
Acronym: NAPLs
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Point of Compliance
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Definition: For groundwater, represents where a facility should monitor groundwater quality and/or achieve specified levels of groundwater quality to achieve facility-specific cleanup goals.
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Presumptive Remedies
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Definition: Preferred technologies for common categories of sites, based on historical patterns of remedy selection and EPA's scientific and engineering evaluation of how well technologies perform. You can access EPA's guidance on presumptive remedies at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/policy/remedy/presump/pol.htm.
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RCRA Cleanup Baseline
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Definition: EPA developed the RCRA Cleanup Baseline in conjunction with the states as a result of a mandate in the Government Performance & Results Act (GPRA) requiring EPA to measure and track program progress. The purpose of the baseline is to track our workload and progress in corrective action.
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RCRA Facility Assessment
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Definition: The first step in the Corrective Action permit process, where the regulatory agency identifies potential and actual releases from SWMUs and makes preliminary determinations about releases, the need for corrective action, and interim measures.
Acronym: RFA
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RCRA Facility Investigation
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Definition: The RCRA Facility Investigation is used to gather enough data to fully characterize the nature, extent, and rate of migration of contaminants to determine the appropriate response action.
Acronym: RFI
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RCRA Regulated Units
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Definition: Surface impoundments, waste piles, land treatment units, and landfills that received hazardous waste after July 26, 1982.
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Releases
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Definition: Any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment of a hazardous or toxic chemical, or extremely hazardous substance.
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Remedial Action Plan
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Definition: A Remedial Action Plan, tailored to the needs of the remediation waste management site, is used in place of a permit when the permit would not be the most efficient way to conduct the cleanup activity.
Acronym: RAP
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Remediation Waste
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Definition: The possibly large amounts of waste (such as contaminated soils, water, debris, and sludge) that contain a listed waste or exhibit a characteristic of hazardous waste involved in cleaning up a facility.
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Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
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Acronym: RCRA
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Solid Waste Management Unit
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Definition: Any discernible unit at which solid wastes have been placed at any time, irrespective of whether the unit was intended for the management of solid or hazardous waste.
Acronym: SWMU
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Source Control
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Definition: Refers to a range of actions (e.g., removal, treatment in place, containment, etc.) designed to protect human health and the environment by eliminating or minimizing exposure or migration of significant contamination.
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Source Materials
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Definition: Defined as material that includes or contains hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants that act as a reservoir (either stationary or mobile) for migration of contamination to groundwater, to surface water, to air, (or other environmental media), or acts as a source for direct exposure.
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Technical Impracticability
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Definition: Refers to a situation where cleanup levels associated with final cleanup goals is not practicable from an "engineering perspective." The phrase "engineering perspective" refers to how factors such as feasibility, reliability, scale, and safety influence the ability to achieve cleanup objectives.
Acronym: TI
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Temporary Units
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Definition: Tanks or storage areas that EPA designated to be used solely for the treatment or storage of remediation wastes during cleanups.
Acronym: TUs
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