§ 23-19.14-4. Objectives of environmental clean-up.
(a) The department of environmental management will develop, maintain and publish numerical
objectives for the most commonly found hazardous substances. These objectives will
be applicable for the clean-up of contaminated properties to levels which are protective
of human health and the environment based on current and reasonably foreseeable future
use of a property and the surrounding natural resources. To further ensure the safety
of school children while attending school, the department of environmental management,
shall:
(1) Adopt numerical objectives for properties dedicated to school use equivalent to the
numerical objectives set by the department for residential use of such properties;
(2) Evaluate chemicals of concern for vapor intrusion and adopt numerical objectives for
those contaminants in soil and groundwater where such standards do not already exist
in regulation and apply the numerical objectives for residential use established for
said chemicals and petroleum to properties dedicated to school use; and
(3) Develop and adopt procedures for determining whether levels of chemicals of potential
concern for vapor intrusion and petroleum in soil or groundwater pose a reasonable
potential for migration of contaminated vapors or gases into structures to be utilized
as school facilities.
(b)(1) The construction of any new school building; or
(2) Construction of an addition to any existing school building; or
(3) Leasing of any portion of an existing building to serve as a school shall be prohibited
on any portion of a parcel of property for which, upon occupancy, there exists an
ongoing potential for hazardous materials and/or petroleum to migrate as vapors or
gases into the building from the subsurface of the parcel of property, unless:
(i) At a property where concentrations of chemicals of potential concern for vapor intrusion
or petroleum in the subsurface exceed the residential direct exposure criteria in
soil, source areas of said chemicals or petroleum within the vadose zone of the site
that includes said property shall be remediated:
(A) Through the physical removal of said chemicals or petroleum through excavation or
in situ treatment; and
(B) The school building shall be equipped with both a passive sub slab ventilation system
capable of conversion to an active system and a vapor barrier beneath the school building
or incorporated in the concrete slab, all in compliance with an approved department
of environmental management remedial action work plan and completed prior to the occupancy
of the school;
(ii) At a property where concentrations of chemicals of potential concern for vapor intrusion
or petroleum in the subsurface do not exceed the residential direct exposure criteria
in soil but contamination exists on the property due to the presence of any chemicals
of potential concern for vapor intrusion or petroleum in groundwater, the department
of environmental management shall:
(A) Require the property's owner or operator to prepare a site specific conceptual site
model and conduct soil gas sampling to determine the location of the source area of
said chemicals or petroleum in the site's vadose zone;
(B) Evaluate the results of said model and sampling to determine if levels of any chemicals
of potential concern for vapor intrusion or petroleum could migrate as vapors or gases
into the occupied portions of the building where the school is proposed based on procedures
developed pursuant to this chapter; and
(C) Where the reasonable potential for migration of contaminated vapors or gases is determined
to exist, the department shall require remediation to eliminate said potential as
follows:
(I) Where the source area is located on the site that includes said property, requiring
the physical removal of said chemicals or petroleum in the source area in the vadose
zone through excavation or in situ treatment; provided, the concentrations of said
chemicals or petroleum in said source area exceed the direct residential exposure
criteria in soil; and
(II) Requiring the installation of both a passive sub slab ventilation system capable of
conversion to an active system and a vapor barrier beneath the school building or
incorporated in the concrete slab, all in compliance with an approved department of
environmental management remedial action work plan and completed prior to the occupancy
of the school; and, provided further, should monitoring of a passive sub-slab ventilation
system indicate that active ventilation is necessary to protect the health and safety
of users of a school equipped with a passive system, the department of environmental
management shall require conversion of the passive system to an active system along
with financial assurances to provide for the funding of the operation and monitoring
of said active system for as long as active ventilation is deemed necessary by the
department.
(iii) At a property where concentrations of chemicals of potential concern for vapor intrusion
or petroleum in the subsurface do not exceed the residential direct exposure criteria
in soil on the site that includes said property, and where the department has determined
that levels of any chemicals of potential concern for vapor intrusion or petroleum
will not present a reasonable potential for migration of contaminated vapors or gases
into structures to be utilized as school facilities on the property, the property
may be used for school purposes subject to any conditions that the department of environmental
management may impose pursuant to this chapter.
(c) The construction of any school building, or construction of an addition to any existing
school building, or leasing of any portion of an existing building to serve as a school
on any portion of a parcel of property formerly used for industrial, manufacturing
or landfill purposes that is contaminated by hazardous materials, shall be prohibited
unless at least thirty (30) days prior to selecting the location for construction
or leasing the building the project sponsor undertakes all of the following measures
with ten (10) days prior written notice to the public of each measure undertaken:
(1) Prepares and posts on the sponsor's website a written report that: (i) Projects the
costs to acquire or lease the property, and to cleanup and maintain the property in
accordance with the department of environmental management's Rules and Regulations
for the Investigation and Remediation of Hazardous Material Releases (the Remediation
Regulations); (ii) Projects the time period required to complete a cleanup of the
property for school purposes prior to occupancy by obtaining either an Interim Letter
of Compliance, a Letter of Compliance or a Non-Jurisdictional Letter indicating that
the property is not jurisdictional under the Remediation Regulations of the department
of environmental management; (iii) Discusses the rationale for selecting the property
for use as school purposes and an explanation of any alternatives to selecting said
property considered by the project sponsor;
(2) Solicits written comments on the report prepared pursuant to subdivision (1) of this
subsection for a period of at least thirty (30) days after posting said report on
the sponsors website and conducts a public hearing during said thirty (30) day period
at which public comment is taken on said report; and
(3) Prepares a second written report that summarizes and responds to the public comments
received during the public comment period and at the public hearing and posts said
second report on the sponsor's website.
(d) The sponsor of any school project subject to the provisions of subsection (c) of this
section shall consider the results and findings contained in the reports required
by subsection (c) when selecting the location of said project.
(e) As used in this section.
(1) The term "school� means any residential or nonresidential school building, public,
private or charter, of any city or town or community educational system regulated,
directly or secondarily, by the council on elementary and secondary education or the
department of elementary and secondary education or any other state education board
or local city or town school board or school committee or other legal educational
subdivision acting under it. As used in this chapter, the term "school or schools�
includes, but is not limited to, school playgrounds, school administration buildings,
indoor school athletic facilities, school gymnasiums, school locker rooms, and similar
school buildings. A school shall not include any institutions for education of adults
(e.g. colleges, universities, graduate schools, trade schools) or childcare facilities
as regulated by the department of children, youth and families.
(2) The term "landfill� means for the purposes of this section, any portion of a parcel
of property that was used as a landfill as defined in § 23-19.1-4 or a sanitary landfill, dump or other disposal area where more than thirty (30) cubic
yards of solid waste was disposed.
(3) The term "hazardous materials� means any materials defined as hazardous materials
pursuant to § 23-19.14-3.
(4) The term "solid wasteâ€� means any materials defined as solid waste pursuant to § 23-18.9-7.
(5) The term "chemicals of potential concern for vapor intrusion� means those chemicals
that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends for routine evaluation during
vapor intrusion assessments in said Agency's most recent guidance on the assessment
of vapor intrusion into indoor air from subsurface sources, and any other chemicals
that the department of environmental management may recommend for said routine evaluation.
(6) The term "source area� means the horizontal and vertical extent of natural or man-made
media impacted by a release of hazardous materials or causing a release of hazardous
materials at concentrations in excess of the numerical objectives developed pursuant
to paragraph (a) of this section.
(7) The term "vadose zone� means the full extent of the soil column existing above the
elevation of groundwater.
(8) The term "conceptual site model� means a written and/or illustrative representation
of the physical, chemical and biological processes that control the transport, migration
and actual or potential impacts of hazardous materials in soil, air, groundwater,
surface water and/or sediments to human and/or ecological receptors at a site.
(f) The provisions of this section shall not apply to the renovation or reconstruction
of any building for school purposes that was used continuously as a school for a period
of at least twenty-five (25) years where: (1) The footprint of the building after
renovation or reconstruction does not exceed more than five percent (5%) of the current
footprint of the building; and (2) The site of the building is not subject to a remedial
action work plan approved by the department of environmental management.