Supervisor: Larry Hughes, 502-564-5981, ext. 259
The Corrective Action Section is the regulatory authority for overseeing the remediation activities performed at facilities with confirmed releases and/or contamination in the soil and/or groundwater related to regulated underground storage tank systems.
Releases may result due to a number of reasons. Most commonly, the UST system develops a small leak and the release is fairly constant over an extended period of time. Releases may also result from a catastrophic failure of the UST system.
Regardless of the cause, the effects of a release can be very damaging. Groundwater and soil can be contaminated. Groundwater contamination can be especially difficult to remediate. Often, the cleanup and remediation process can take more than three years and several hundred thousand dollars to complete.
If soil and/or groundwater contamination is suspected at a UST facility, the Additional Evaluation (AE) reviewer for that county will send a written request for the owner of that facility to perform a site check. This will determine if a release has occurred outside the UST system area. If contamination is confirmed at a UST facility, the owner will be requested by the AE Section reviewer for that county to conduct a site investigation. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the extent of contamination. In other words, the site check determines if contamination is outside of the UST system, and the site investigation shall be performed to determine how far the contamination has spread across the site (and possibly off-site).
Once the extent of contamination has been satisfactorily defined, the AE Section reviewer will approve the site investigation and will request a corrective action plan (CAP) from the owner. The CAP shall be submitted to the Division of Waste Management within 45 days of the date of receipt of the notice of the acceptance of the site investigation.
The Corrective Action Plan Outline (August 2006) is provided to assist owners/operators in choosing remediation options that are appropriate to the geological and hydrogeological conditions at the site, within the context of the type and extent of contamination present at the site, and in determining whether the remediation options proposed are appropriate for meeting the allowable levels for target chemical constituents established for the site. Submittal of the CAP by the owner will provide an outline of the proposal for remediation of contaminated soils, air, surface water, sediment, groundwater and/or bedrock impacted by the release of a regulated substance from a regulated UST system.
The Corrective Action (CA) Section is responsible for the following:
- Technical review of corrective action plans.
- Approval and cleanup oversight associated with soil and/or groundwater remediation.
- Review of quarterly groundwater monitoring reports at contaminated UST facilities in the commonwealth.
Once the CAP is received, it will be reviewed by the CA Section reviewer for that county. When the CA Section reviewer determines that the CAP is acceptable, the owner of the UST facility will be notified of the approved method of remediation, when implementation should begin, and when the reports are required to be submitted to the cabinet. Once the approved CAP has been implemented, the owner and contractor will then begin monitoring the effectiveness and progress of remediation. This progress is summarized in quarterly monitoring reports and submitted to the cabinet.
The UST Branch requires soil and groundwater contamination to be below regulatory levels before site closure. Specifically, regarding groundwater, four consecutive quarters of monitoring data shall be collected to demonstrate that levels of contamination are below allowable levels before the issuance of a letter that requires no further action. Once groundwater and soil remediation objectives have been achieved to applicable closure levels, a letter of no further action (NFA) can be issued to the owner of the UST facility.
For additional information on procedures and answers to common questions, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page.
