3 Things to Know About Licensed Site Professionals

To demystify who Licensed Site Professionals (LSPs) are and what LSPs do, Omni Environmental Group has 3 things you should know about LSPs.

1. LSPs are scientists with education, training and experience in the assessment and cleanup of releases of oil and hazardous materials.  LSPs are licensed by an independent state agency – the Board of Hazardous Waste Site Cleanup Professionals – which is commonly called the LSP Board.  The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) requires that “Responsible Parties” who need to cleanup releases of oil and hazardous materials hire an LSP to manage and oversee the assessment and cleanup activities.
2. The LSP collects data about conditions at the site (usually through samples of soil, water or air) and interprets the data.  The LSP evaluates the risk that oil or hazardous materials pose to human health and the environment and will recommend and oversee any needed cleanup actions.
3. At key stages in the process, the LSP prepares formal, written opinions (yes they’re called LSP Opinions) which are submitted to the MassDEP.  The LSP is responsible for ensuring that the opinions, as well as the activities upon which the opinions are based, comply with the requirements of the MassDEP’s hazardous waste site cleanup regulation.  When the cleanup is complete, the LSP provides a final opinion that the activities have met the requirements of an outcome specified in the regulation and that site conditions no longer pose an unacceptable level of risk to human health and the environment.

We’ll provide some specific examples of what LSPs do in future posts.