Pennsylvania’s
Land Recycling Program encourages the
recycling and redevelopment of old industrial sites. It sets
standards, by law for the first time, that are protective of human
health and the environment, but which consider future use.
Act 2 of 1995
is the
Land Recycling and Environmental
Remediation Standards Act. This act is the primary law
establishing the Land Recycling Program. It creates a realistic
framework for setting cleanup standards, provides special incentives
for developing abandoned sites, releases responsible parties from
liability when cleanup standards are met, set deadlines for
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) action and provides
funding for environmental studies and cleanups.
The
four cornerstones of the Land Recycling Program are uniform cleanup
standards based on health and environmental risks, standardized
review procedures, release from liability, and financial
assistance. The three types of cleanups are
background,
Statewide health, and
site-specific.
BlackRock’s
approach to the Land Recycling Program is to provide the scientific
services required by Act 2. Although the legislature passed Act 2
into law, scientists (including geologists, chemists, engineers, and
toxicologists) established detailed framework for the law and
corresponding regulations. At BlackRock, we provide our clients
with the scientific services to efficiently “close” the project to
obtain an Act 2 Release of Liability regardless of whether the
contamination consists of petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals,
chlorinated solvents, polychlorinated
bi-phenyls (PCB’s), or pesticides and herbicides.
