PA CHAPTER §245 & §250

The Department of Environmental Protection is structured to include the Bureau of Environmental Cleanup and Brownfields. The bureau administers both the Storage Tank Cleanup Program (Chapter 245) and the Land Recycling Program (Chapter 250, which includes the Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act (Act 2)).

Act 2 establishes four program goals: uniform cleanup standards (based upon health and environmental risks), standardized review procedures, releases from liability, and financial assistance. The uniform cleanup standards are utilized for most voluntary and mandatory cleanups in Pennsylvania. The standardized review procedures provide uniform procedures at all sites statewide. Owners and developers of an Act 2 site that has been remediated according to program standards and procedures obtain a release from future liability to the DEP or for private claims under environmental statutes. Financial assistance is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

The Storage Tank Cleanup program utilizes the Act 2 cleanup standards, but is structured more rigidly to drive cleanups. The Storage Tank Cleanup Program is responsible for developing and maintaining regulations, policies, technical guidance, and public outreach programs necessary to remediate releases from storage tanks in accordance with the Clean Streams Law, Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Act, and Act 2.

RMS personnel have achieved closure on hundreds of Chapter 245 and 250 properties and obtained a relief-of-liability for residential, commercial, industrial, and government clients. Our relationships with regulators in every region, our familiarization with the regulations, and our technical competence have allowed us to assist our clients in re-developing brownfields properties and to put abandoned properties back into active re-use.