On October 22, Governor McCrory signed into law NC House Bill 765, or the Regulatory Reform Act. The bill addresses some significant issues, most notably changes associated with risk-based remediation of contaminated sites in North Carolina. The summary of this new legislation provides the following description of standard vs. risk-based remediation:
“Generally, cleanup of environmental contamination must be performed to meet unrestricted use standards, meaning contaminant concentrations present at a location are acceptable for all uses; are protective of public health, safety, and welfare and the environment; and comply with an applicable program’s standards established by statute or rule adopted by the Environmental Management Commission, the Commission for Public Health, or DENR. Risk-based cleanup, however, allows cleanup based on site-specific risk factors, which are generally not as stringent as the applicable unrestricted use standards.”
Previous risk-based remediation legislation contained several limitations, including :
- Only “industrial” sites qualified for risk-based remediation;
- Contamination on the site must have been reported to the regulatory agency prior to March 1, 2011; and
- Contamination had to be maintained on site (i.e. no off-site migration).
These have now been eliminated/addressed with this new legislation. A few other key highlights of the legislation include the following.
- Releases from petroleum aboveground storage tanks (ASTs) can now be included in the risk-based remediation program.
-
The definition of “prospective developer” (PD) under the law governing brownfields redevelopment has been amended. The new legislation defines Prospective Developer as follows (deleted and added verbiage included): “Prospective developer” means any person with a bona fide, demonstrable desire to either buy or sell a brownfields property for the purpose of developing or redeveloping that develop or redevelop a brownfields property and who did not cause or contribute to the contamination at the brownfields property.
This is important in that a PD no longer has to show a demonstrative intent to buy or sell the property, only that they want to redevelop it. To see a full copy of the bill click here. A summary of the bill can be viewed by clicking here.