Guidance for Adding Sites to Environmental Cleanup Site Information Database

Background

Oregon Revised Statutes 465.220, a product of the 1987 state legislative session, required the Department of Environmental Quality to "develop and implement a comprehensive statewide program to identify any release* or threat of release [of hazardous substances] from a facility that may require remedial action." As a result, in 1988, DEQ created the Environmental Cleanup Site Information database, to identify and track sites with known or suspected hazardous substance contamination.

In 1988 and 1989, based on the general language in ORS 465.220, DEQ's Cleanup Program developed broad and informal criteria for adding sites to the ECSI database. Some sites added to ECSI during that two-year period may not meet the criteria developed in August 2000 (listed below). For example, the Cleanup Program added some leaking underground tank sites to ECSI before the UST Program had developed its own site identification and tracking procedures. While such sites remain in ECSI, the Cleanup Program generally has referred them internally to other appropriate programs.

ECSI Threshold Criteria

DEQ's Cleanup Program adds sites meeting any of the criteria shown below to the ECSI database. As indicated above, the Cleanup Program did not formalize this ECSI-threshold guidance until August 2000; nonetheless, the great majority of sites added to ECSI since about 1990 meet one or more of the criteria below.

• Sites with documented contamination that are eligible for the Confirmed Release List (ORS 465.405).
• Sites that are the subject of a cleanup report submitted to DEQ.
• Sites at which the weight of evidence suggests the presence of contamination beyond de minimis proportions.
• Sites that DEQ Site Assessment staff intend to evaluate and are likely to refer to the Voluntary Cleanup, Site Response, or Orphan Programs for follow-up.
• Sites at which DEQ oversight or review is requested through the Voluntary Cleanup Program or Independent Cleanup Pathway.
• Landfill sites permitted under DEQ's Solid Waste Program, if contaminants that could threaten human health or the environment migrate beyond landfill boundaries, or site issues otherwise exceed the Solid Waste Program's regulatory authority.
• Sites that DEQ's Spill Program refers to Site Assessment for further action.
• Potentially contaminated sites requiring detailed or time-consuming preliminary file reviews to determine whether further Cleanup Program evaluation is needed.

* See Oregon Administrative Rule 340-122-115 for the definition of "release."

[print version]