Underground Storage Tanks

The workgroup was formed in March 1996 to develop a policy document on the use of natural attenuation. The resulting Directive, the product of a three-year effort, is intended to clarify EPA's policy with regard to the use of monitored natural attenuation for the remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater at sites regulated under all programs administered by EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER), including Superfund, RCRA Corrective Action, and Underground Storage Tanks. The final Directive (PDF) (41 pp, 277K, About PDF) was released April 21, 1999.

The Directive is intended to promote consistency in how monitored natural attenuation remedies are proposed, evaluated, and approved. As a policy document, it does not provide technical guidance on evaluating Monitored Natural Attenuation remedies. This Directive is being issued as Final and should be used immediately. It provides guidance to EPA staff, to the public, and to the regulated community on how EPA intends to exercise its discretion in implementing national policy on the use of Monitored Natural Attenuation. The document does not, however, substitute for EPA's statutes or regulations, nor is it a regulation itself and, thus, it does not impose legally-binding requirements on EPA, States, or the regulated community, and may not apply to a particular situation based upon the circumstances. EPA may change this guidance in the future, as appropriate.

The workgroup intends to remain together and serve as an Agency resource for ongoing and future MNA projects. One of the activities that workgroup members may become involved with is in serving as reviewers for Agency documents (both technical and policy-related), documents produced by other government agencies (both Federal and State/local) and documents produced by private sector enterprizes. It is also envisioned that the workgroup will provide a forum for information exchange among the many parties involved in the research aspects of MNA as well as provide access to a database of sites where MNA is implemented as a remedial measure. It is hoped that this forum will also promote better coordination of research efforts thereby leveraging scarce resources. To the degree possible, the workgroup will (largely through this web site) also provide outreach materials to interested and concerned parties.

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