The EPA presumptive remedy for landfill remediation is containment. Several components may be required to achieve containment, including a landfill cover, landfill gas collection and disposal, groundwater treatment and/or containment, leachate collection and disposal and institutional controls. The landfill cover is the component most often required. The presumptive remedy is important because it streamlines the decision process and may lead to quicker, but not necessarily less costly remedial decisions. The EPA has published a number of documents on implementing presumptive remedies including "Application of the CERCLA Municipal Landfill Presumptive Remedy to Military Landfills" (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1996. EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Policy Directive 9355.0-67 FS, December 1996). The "Decision Tool for Landfill Remediation" provides a series of annotated flow charts that help the user to interpret the guidance and guides the user through the process of selecting either a presumptive or alternative remedy.
When designing the actual cover, RCRA is the controlling federal law for both municipal solid waste and hazardous waste landfills. The remediation of old landfills is not addressed directly under RCRA, but is regulated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). Under CERCLA, RCRA is the source of potential "applicable or relevant and appropriate requirements" (ARARs) that govern cleanup. Therefore the remediation of old landfills is generally addressed under CERCLA rather than RCRA, but RCRA provides the ARAR requirements. Air Force bases with active RCRA permits are exceptions because landfill remediation is addressed as a "corrective action" as a part of the RCRA permit requirement. They are also subject to state regulation.
Alternative cover technologies without barrier layers require exceptions under RCRA Subtitle C and D because both subtitles have specific requirements for a low-permeability layer. However, the EPA has shown support for the use of innovative technologies. The EPA provided latitude for innovation in the following documents: (1) Aug 19, 1994 memo titled "EPA Policy for Innovative Environmental Technologies at Federal Facilities" and (2) the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) Policy Directive 9380.0-25. Both documents define EPA's support of innovative technologies. The "Landfill " and "Landfills Covers for use at Air Force Installations" provide additional information and guidance for obtaining regulatory acceptance of innovative technologies such as the ET Cover.
The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) is the implementing rule for CERCLA and addresses selection of an alternative remedy in section 300.430(f)(1)(ii)(C), which states "An alternative that does not meet an ARAR under federal environmental or state environmental or facility siting laws may be selected under the following circumstances: (4) The alternative will attain a standard of performance that is equivalent to that required under the otherwise applicable standard, requirement, or limitation through use of another method or approach."
The term "equivalent" and the concept of "equivalency" may create major stumbling blocks that prevent acceptable alternative technology from being applied. Because the word "equivalent" can create significant barriers to acceptance by regulators of alternative landfill remediation technologies, the "requirements" for protecting public health and the environment should be the focus of remediation activities. Therefore, "Requirements for Remediation" should be established for the landfill before any remediation technology is considered and in addition, agreement should be completed between all parties including the Air Force, the regulators and the public. After "Requirements" are agreed upon, then any technology that meets the requirements may be used.
 The Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment (AFCEE) commissioned the development of a "Decision Tool for Landfill Remediation" to assist in navigating rules and regulations, evaluating the properties of a site, and determining the appropriate kind of remedial activity for a landfill. The rules and regulations governing landfill remediation are numerous and complex. The "Decision Tool" greatly simplifies the process in support of developing remedial decisions for landfills based on the available data. Most users will need to use only one or two of the decision charts in the document. Each chart is linked to specific notes and help topics discussed in the document to provide more detailed information, as needed, to facilitate the process. For example, the figure shows the path to a no further action decision, demonstrating that only a small part of one chart of the "Decision Tool" is needed to arrive at that decision.
The Interstate Technology Regulatory Council (ITRC) is an organization of regulators from 40 states. They sponsored a landfill summit in September 2001 on the ET landfill cover. Following that meeting the ITRC began development of technical regulatory guidance for state regulators on the subject of alternative landfill covers, including the ET cover. In December 2003, the ITRC developed technical regulatory guidance on alternative landfill covers, "Technical and Regulatory Guidance for Design, Installation, and Monitoring of Alternative Final Landfill Covers". In March 2003, to cover specific ET landfill covers that have been built in the US, the ITRC published "Technology Overview Using Case Studies of Alternative Landfill Technologies and Associated Regulatory Topics." The document presents examples of flexibility used in regulatory frameworks for approving alternative landfill cover designs, current research information about the use of alternative covers, and examples of approved designs and constructed covers. These two documents are available for download on the ITRC web site.
References
Landfill Reference Documents available from the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence (AFCEE):
- Landfill Covers for Use at Air Force Installations (AFCEE, Feb. 1999);
- Survey of Air Force Landfills, Their Characteristics, and Remediation Strategies (AFCEE, July 1999);
- An Access database (zip file) containing the survey results above
- Decision Tool for Landfill Remediation (AFCEE, August 1999);
- Landfill Remediation Project Managers Handbook (AFCEE, Dec. 1999).
- Alternative Landfill Covers [prepared for the ITRC's Alternative Landfill Covers summit] (AFCEE, July 2001)
- Protocol for Controlling Contaminated Groundwater by Phytostabilization (980 KB) (AFCEE, Dec. 2001)
- Evaluating Evapotranspiration (ET) Landfill Cover Performance Using Hydrologic Models (1,159 KB) (AFCEE, Jan. 2004)
EPA Office of Solid Waste: Laws, Regulations, Policies
RCRA Online
EPA: Major Environmental Laws
Superfund: Presumptive Remedies Download documents related to presumptive remedies including "Application of the CERCLA Municipal Landfill Presumptive Remedy to Military Landfills" (EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Policy Directive 9355.0-67 FS, December 1996)
The EPA maintains two web sites which contain the latest information regarding innovative technology. The first is a general site for Technology Innovation. The second is focused on ET Landfill Covers.
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