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 LSP Association (LSPA) is a conference sponsor for this year’s Annual International Conference on Soils, Sediments, Water, and Energy (fondly known as the “Soils Conference”) being held at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in Amherst, Massachusetts from October 17-20, 2016. The LSPA will have a booth in the conference hall; we invite our members and other participants to stop by for a visit! Registration is now open! Click here to register. Please post a comment here if you are planning on attending.

The conference attracts 600-800 attendees annually which includes a wide variety of representation from state and federal agencies, military, industry (including railroad, petroleum, transportation, and utilities), environmental engineering and consulting, and academia. Click here to view the preliminary program.

MassDEP Publishes Draft Interim Policy on Reclamation Soils

MassDEP has prepared a DRAFT Interim Policy on the Re-Use of Soil for Large Reclamation Projects; the draft policy is now available on MassDEP’s Reclamation Soil blog (https://reclamationsoil.wordpress.com/).  Comments are due to MassDEP by June 17, 2015.  
Read More

By: Jeanine Grachuk, Esq.; Beveridge & Diamond, P.C.; and Loss Prevention Committee member 

When doing any project, consider whether local Board of Health, Planning Board, Wetlands or other municipal ordinances, bylaws, or regulations could limit or restrict your planned work.  Local rules may impact site cleanup by requiring an additional permit or approval or by imposing stricter requirements.  An unusual case-in-point is a set of regulations adopted by the Town of Dartmouth Board of Health in April 2014 which will have the effect of prohibiting certain types of remediation at properties in Dartmouth, if it withstands judicial scrutiny.  At least one LSP has received an Order to Cease and Desist prohibiting transport of such soils from a property located in Dartmouth being remediated under state cleanup law, bringing the remediation to a halt.  

LSPA Letter to the Editor on Revised Soil Standards

The LSPA’s Letter to the Editor was published in Boston Globe letters section. The letter was in response to a front-page February 23, 2014 Boston Globe article that drew the ire of many LSPA members.