The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) recently announced the release of its draft EEA secretariat-wide Environmental Justice (EJ) Strategy.

The EJ Strategy was developed by a Secretariat-wide EJ Task Force comprised of representatives of each of EEA’s agencies, major offices, and affiliated organizations.  The draft strategy contains chapters that pertain to each of these agencies and offices, and is tailored to the unique mandate of each entity. It also provides a consistent approach to common issues, such as the development of EJ metrics to measure progress, staff training for awareness of EJ issues, commitment to diversity in hiring, inclusion of EJ criteria in grant disbursement and commitment to provision of languages services. 

The following LSPA practice tip was presented at the November 2022 Membership Meeting, which was held virtually through the Zoom webinar platform, on November 15, 2022.  

Practice Tip of the Month: 
The LSPA has developed a Climate Change MCP Toolkit to assist practitioners as they consider the potential effects of climate change on site assessment and response actions. This is anticipated to be required by the pending amendments to the MCP.  The toolkit includes a flowchart, checklist, two case studies, glossary, and list of resources.

Notes from BWSC Advisory Committee

MassDEP’s Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup Advisory Committee met on October 27, 2022 for several hours. Typically, MassDEP posts the slides and recordings of Advisory Committee meetings here. At this time, these have not yet been posted.

A brief summary of meeting highlights is provided below.

The following LSPA practice tip was presented at the October 2022 Membership Meeting, which was held virtually through the Zoom webinar platform, on October 27, 2022.  

Practice Tip of the Month: 
Did you know MassDEP's position is that discarded carbon canisters, as a generated waste, are a sludge and subject to 310 CMR 30.302: Determination of Whether a Waste is Hazardous? Accordingly, per policy HW94‐007, a spent carbon canister that contains hazardous waste constituents from a listed hazardous waste source must be managed as a hazardous waste, regardless of whether the carbon canisters were used to treat groundwater or vapors from groundwater or soils.

AND…..we’re back!  The LSPA was excited to hold several in-person events over the past month.

Along with MassDEP and AMWS – The Association of Massachusetts Wetland Scientists, we held two sessions of “Wetlands, Wetland Regulations, and the MCP.”  This full day course involved time exploring five wetlands field stations and got rave reviews from participants.

The LSPA has developed a Climate Change MCP Toolkit to assist waste site cleanup practitioners as they consider the potential effects of climate change on site assessment and response actions. This is anticipated to be required by the pending amendments to the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP).  

The climate change toolkit is available through links in this email as well as on the LSPA website. The tools are reflective of the framework defined in the (the SHMCAP, MA SHMCAP Portal). The SHMCAP accounts for projected changes in precipitation and temperature, sea level rise, and extreme weather events, and aims to reduce the risks associated with natural hazards and the effects of climate change.

The following LSPA practice tip was presented at the September 2022 Membership Meeting, which was held virtually through the Zoom webinar platform, on September 14, 2022.  

Practice Tip of the Month: 
Did you know that you can access MassDEP Level 1 audit results through the MassDEP Site File Viewer?

Members of the LSPA’s Technical Practices Committee are creating a Work Group to review the documents listed below. 

• Background Levels of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Metals in Soil Technical Update – May 23, 2002
• Historic Fill / Anthropogenic Background Public Comment DRAFT Technical Update – May 24, 2016

As part of this effort, the Work Group is reviewing the LSPA Comments on Historic Fill/Anthropogenic Background DRAFT Technical Update 2016, July 14, 2016, which were previously transmitted to MassDEP.

MassDEP has announced that the application for the FY2023-24 Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) is now available. This grant opportunity provides $200,000 in funding, with up to $20,000 per community or municipal applicant-group selected for an award, to enhance public involvement and promote better understanding of the cleanup of contaminated sites in their communities. 

The application deadline is Tuesday, October 18, 2022.

The following LSPA compliance tip was presented at the June 2022 Membership Meeting, which was held virtually through the Zoom webinar platform, on June 21, 2022.  

Compliance Tip of the Month: 
Pursuant to 310 CMR 40.1074(5), in addition to the requirement to incorporate a Notice of Activity and Use Limitation (AUL) into deeds or other instruments of property transfer, a copy of the deed or other instrument (with the incorporated AUL) must be submitted to MassDEP within 30 days of recording. This must be done using Section B, item 11, of the BWSC113 form (note that an LSP signature/stamp is not required for this submittal). Both the former and new property owners have this obligation; however, a submittal provided by either of those parties meets the requirements for both of them.

The following LSPA compliance tip was presented at the April 2022 Membership Meeting, which was held virtually through the Zoom webinar platform, on April 14, 2022.  

Compliance Tip of the Month: 
Any time environmental samples are taken at a listed disposal site on behalf of someone other than the owner of the property, the person(s) conducting the response action shall provide the owner of the property with a written notice using BWSC-123 prior to the sampling, or no more than seven days after the sampling if it was conducted as part of an IRA to address a 2-hour notification. 

• There are five seats on the Board for currently-licensed LSPs
• David Austin, AECOM
• Kathleen Campbell, CDW Consultants
• Craig Ellis, Beta Group
• Gregg McBride, GZA GeoEnvironmental
• Paul McKinlay, Weston & Sampson
• Three Board members must be members of statewide organizations that promote the protection of the environment 
• Kirk Franklin, Frank Corp.
• Patrick Herron, Mystic River Watershed Association
• Debra M. Listernick, O'Reilly Talbot & Okun Associates
• One Board position is designated for a hydrogeologist
• Gail Batchelder, HRP Associates, Inc
• One member of the Board is designated for a member of a labor organization
• James N. Smith, Department of Neighborhood Development, City of Boston, MA

The following LSPA compliance tip was presented at the February 2022 Membership Meeting, which was held virtually through the Zoom webinar platform, on February 16, 2022.  

Compliance Tip:

LSPA members who are stakeholders of the MassDOR UST Reimbursement Program are encouraged to participate in the public meetings of two subcommittees recently formed by the 21J Board.  One subcommittee is working on the goal of evaluating and updating the Appendix 3 Fee Schedule.  The second group is the Fee Schedule and Policy Review Subcommittee which will evaluate the fee schedule and policies including Board Approved Site Assessments (BASA), reimbursement for analysis of EPH samples, and reimbursement for soil transportation and disposal.

All meetings are listed on the UST Board website.  More details here.

LSPA's December 2021 Member Newsletter has been published! Table of Contents is listed below. Please log in to your account and visit Member Materials to view the full newsletter.

In this Issue....

• LSPA Blog
• MassDEP Audit Checklists Filed on LSPA Website
• 31 Out of 32 Risk Characterization-Related NOAFs Received NONs
• Review of FY 2020 NOAFs Related to NAPL
• Review of Vapor Intrusion Notice of Audit Findings, FY 2019 - FY 2020
• FY 2020 NOAFs Citing Response Action Performance Standard (RAPS)

The Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) is holding a listening session on disposal capacity issues for contaminated soil coming from Massachusetts disposal sites (“contaminated” soil meaning concentrations > RCS-2).  This session will help MassDEP better understand the scope and impact of contaminated soil disposal issues and identify possible avenues for addressing them. 

The listening session is planned for December 16 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, to be held via Zoom, and hosted by MassDEP’s Liz Callahan (Acting Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup), Greg Cooper (Division Director, Business Compliance & Recycling), and Paul Locke (Acting Deputy Commissioner, Policy & Planning).  

The following LSPA compliance tip was presented at the November 2021 Membership Meeting, which was held virtually through the Zoom webinar platform, on November 17, 2021.  

Compliance Tip:
Once a Notice of Activity and Use Limitation (AUL) has been filed, the Disposal Site should be reviewed periodically to confirm that the conditions and obligations contained in the AUL are being complied with and/or maintained (310 CMR 40.1070, et seq.). MassDEP routinely performs field audits of sites with AULs, often several years after filing. LSPs should remind their clients that compliance with AUL conditions and obligations is required, and should document these reminders.

The following LSPA practice tip was presented at the September 2021 Membership Meeting, which was held virtually through the Zoom webinar platform, on September 14, 2021.  

Practice Tip - MassDEP’s Private Well PFAS Testing
MassDEP is conducting free PFAS testing for a limited number of private wells, focusing on 84 Massachusetts towns where 60% or more of residents are served by private wells. Practitioners should know about MassDEP’s Story Map which is regularly updated to present the results of this private well sampling to date.