Superfund Response and Settlement Approach for Sites

[NaepcA1]

To the EPA National Tribal Caucus,

On behalf of the Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI), within the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER), and the Office of Site Remediation Enforcement (OSRE), within the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), I am sending to you a draft of an update to the Superfund Response and Settlement Approach for Sites Using the Superfund Alternative Approach (SAA). We are providing this for your review and comment. This will also be shared with the Superfund Tribal Working Group members.

This document is an update of the June 2004 guidance Revised Response Selection and Settlement Approach for Superfund Alternative Sites. The 2004 guidance provided clarifications to the 2002 guidance and model language for settlement provisions. Changes to the 2004 document were made to: provide for additional transparency in the use of Superfund authorities at sites with SAA agreements; facilitate settlements and cleanups at sites with SAA agreements that are equivalent to settlements and cleanups at sites listed on the NPL; and continue the refinement of a nationally consistent framework for such responses and settlements. At the core of this guidance are SAA agreements that require responses that meet the same cleanup standards and provide for timely and enforceable actions, as if the site were listed on the NPL.

A summary of the more significant updates to the 2004 guidance is also attached. The 2004 guidance is available at http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources ... sas-04.pdf.

If issues involving the use of an SAA agreement at a specific site arise that may be of tribal interest, EPA will offer formal consultation, consistent with the May 4, 2011 "EPA Policy on Consultation and Coordination with Indian Tribes". To date, there has been one SAA agreement at a site involving a tribe, the Boeing Tulalip Test Site. There, the Tulalip Tribes supported EPA's decision to use the Superfund Alternative Approach to facilitate site cleanup.

We are requesting comments by May 11, 2012. Comments should be sent to David Yogi (OSRTI) at yogi.david@epa.gov and Nancy Browne (OSRE) at browne.nancy@epa.gov.

Thank you.

Jennifer


Jennifer Wilbur | Special Assistant | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation | Tel 703.603.8778 | wilbur.jennifer@epa.gov