Within one year after the effective date of this section, the director, in accordance with chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, shall propose, and subsequently may amend, suspend or rescind, rules that do the following:

Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22-22-3

  • Brownfield: means any industrial or commercial property which is abandoned or not being actively used by the owner as of the effective date of this article, but shall not include any site subject to a unilateral enforcement order under §. See West Virginia Code 22-22-2
  • Director: means the director of the Division of Environmental Protection or such other person to whom the director has delegated authority or duties pursuant to this article. See West Virginia Code 22-22-2
  • Practical quantitation level: means the lowest analytical level that can be reliably achieved within specified limits of precision and accuracy under routine laboratory conditions for a specified matrix. See West Virginia Code 22-22-2
  • Property: means any parcel of real property, and any improvements thereof. See West Virginia Code 22-22-2
  • Related: means the persons who are related to the third degree of consanguinity or marriage. See West Virginia Code 22-22-2
  • Remediation: means to cleanup, mitigate, correct, abate, minimize, eliminate, control and contain or prevent a release of a contaminant into the environment in order to protect the present or future public health, safety, welfare, or the environment, including preliminary actions to study or assess the release. See West Virginia Code 22-22-2
  • Risk: means the probability that a contaminant, when released into the environment, will cause an adverse effect in exposed humans or other living organisms. See West Virginia Code 22-22-2
  • Site: means any property or portion thereof which contains or may contain contaminants and is eligible for remediation as provided under this article. See West Virginia Code 22-22-2

(a) Establish an administrative program for both brownfield revitalization and voluntary remediation, including application procedures;

(b) Establish procedures for the licensure of remediation specialists, including, but not limited to establishing licensing fees, testing procedures, disciplinary procedures and methods for revocation of licenses;

(c) Establish procedures for community notification and involvement;

(d) Establish risk-based standards for remediation;

(e) Establish standards for the remediation of property;

(f) Establish a risk protocol for conducting risk assessments and establishing risk-based standards. The risk protocol shall:

(1) Require consideration of existing and reasonably anticipated future human exposures based on current and reasonably anticipated future land and water uses and significant adverse effects to ecological receptor health and viability;

(2) Include, at a minimum, both central tendency and reasonable upper bound estimates of exposure;

(3) Require risk assessments to consider, to the extent practicable, the range of probabilities of risks actually occurring, the range or size of populations likely to be exposed to risk, and quantitative and qualitative descriptions of uncertainties;

(4) Establish criteria for what constitutes appropriate sources of toxicity information;

(5) Address the use of probabilistic modeling;

(6) Establish criteria for what constitutes appropriate criteria for the selection and application of fate and transport models;

(7) Address the use of population risk estimates in addition to individual risk estimates;

(8) To the extent deemed appropriate and feasible by the director considering available scientific information, define appropriate approaches for addressing cumulative risks posed by multiple contaminants or multiple exposure pathways;

(9) Establish appropriate sampling approaches and data quality requirements; and

(10) This protocol shall include public notification and involvement provisions so that the public can understand how remediation standards are applied to a site and provide for clear communication of site risk issues, including key risk assessment assumptions, uncertainties, populations considered, the context of site risks to other risks and how the remedy will address site risks;

(g) Establish chemical and site specific information, where appropriate for purpose of risk assessment. Risk assessments should use chemical and site specific data and analysis, such as toxicity, exposure and fate and transport evaluations in preference to default assumptions. Where chemical and site specific data are not available, a range and distribution of realistic and plausible assumptions should be employed;

(h) Establish criteria to evaluate and approve methods for the measurement of contaminants using the practical quantitation level and related laboratory standards and practices to be used by certified laboratories;

(i) Establish standards and procedures for the utilization of certificates of completion, land use covenants and other legal documents necessary to effectuate the purposes of this article; and

(j) Establish any other rules necessary to carry out the requirements and the legislative intent of this act.