An LSP’s Opinion – The New and Improved MCP

In case you haven’t already heard…the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has revised the Massachusetts Contingency Plan (MCP; 310 CMR 40.0000 if you want all the details).  The new MCP includes some fairly significant revisions.  The key areas of the regulation which have been revised include the following:

• Source control – New requirements to address sources and migration.
• Managing non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) – Sites can now be closed with more NAPL present if the NAPL is shown to be stable.
• Vapor intrusion – An area of numerous changes including notification, assessment and closure.
• Permanent Solutions and Temporary Solutions – Replacing the Response Action Outcome Statement, mostly in name rather than content.
• Tier Classification – The Numerical Ranking Scoresheet has been eliminated (yeah!) along with the initial Tier I permit application.
• Activity and Use Limitations – Simplified.
• Numerical Standards (including Reportable Concentrations and Method 1 risk characterization standards) – 21% went up (less stringent), 10% went down (more stringent) and 69% stayed the same.

Most provisions of the new and improved MCP take effect June 20, 2014.  However, there are certain portions that took effect as of April 25, 2014 including:

•  The new Reportable Concentrations for Oil and Hazardous Material in groundwater or soil listed in the Massachusetts Oil and Hazardous Material List at 310 CMR 40.1600;
• The elimination of the requirement to submit an initial Tier I Permit Application, formerly 310 CMR 40.0704; and
• Who may conduct an initial Tier Classification of a disposal site in accordance with the Tier Classification Process and Basis for Tier Classification in 310 CMR 40.0510 and 310 CMR 40.0520, respectively.

Omni Environmental Group will get into some of the details of revisions to the key areas outlined above in future blog postings.

In the meantime, if you need more information about how the MCP revisions might affect you, please contact Omni Environmental Group’s Licensed Site Professional (LSP) at 978-256-6766 or Info@OmniEG.com.

“An LSP’s Opinion” is an occasional feature here in the Omni Environmental Group blog where we talk about the Massachusetts Contingency Plan along with the roles and responsibilities of Licensed Site Professionals.