Innovative regulatory approach to MGP site clean-up and redevelopment: ‘The North Carolina MGP Program’

Tim Silar, Patrick Watters and Peter Doorn

Abstract

Environmental agencies within the USA commonly use a variety of regulatory authorities to prompt investigation and remediation of MGP sites. Within a single state, the use of different state and/or federal jurisdictions for MGP clean-ups often causes inefficient use of valuable resources and inconsistent clean-up objectives. In North Carolina, these issues have been resolved with a unique environmental program that specifically addresses MGP sites. In the early 1990s, a group of North Carolina MGP site owners and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources initiated discussions in an effort to develop a uniform program and framework for assessing and remediating MGP sites. These initial efforts culminated in an Administrative Order on Con-sent (AOC) that was executed in November 2001. The AOC provides the framework under which MGP site owners can now efficiently investigate, remediate and reuse these properties. Additionally, the AOC provides funding, by the MGP site owners, for two positions in NCDENR to work exclusively on MGP projects. This framework is guided by North Carolina laws and regulations and provides the flexibility to make risk management based decisions on a site-by-site basis dependent on site conditions and site reuse options. Several MGP sites have been remediated or are in the process of being remediated for beneficial reuse since the execution of the AOC. These sites demonstrate how site redevelopment can be realized when the regulated community and the regulators work together in a risk management framework to address MGP sites.

Key words: Administrative Order on Consent, beneficial reuse, brownfields, manufactured gas plants, redevelopment, risk management.

© 2007 EPP Publications Ltd

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Article code 722