Requesting the Commissioner's Approval of
Additional Polluting Substances and/or Alternative Criteria
The Remediation Standard Regulations, sections 22a-133k-1 through 22a-133k-3 of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies (RSRs), contain numeric cleanup standards for 88 substances. When a contaminant at a site is not one of the 88 substances listed in the RSRs, numeric criteria must be requested and approved by the Commissioner in order to complete cleanup at the site under the RSRs, unless background concentrations are met. These are called Additional Polluting Substance (APS) criteria.
Separately, when the RSRs contain criteria for a substance but a party believes different numeric criteria are appropriate for a specific site, that party may request approval of Alternative Criteria . If the requested Alternative Criteria are approved by the Commissioner, the party may use such criteria at that specific site in lieu of the RSR criteria.
The following instructions describe the process for requesting both APS and Alternative Criteria.
Use of 2003 Draft Volatilization and Soil Vapor Criteria
General Requirements
- A party must submit a written request for approval to use APS and/or Alternative Criteria to the Department.
- APS and Alternative Criteria are valid only if and when the Department issues a written approval for use at a specific site.
- The approved criteria are valid only for the specific site requested.
Request Process
Proposed APS and Alternative Criteria must be submitted for the Commissioner’s approval in either of the two ways described below. The choice is entirely up to the party submitting the request.
- through site-specific development of criteria, as outlined in the RSRs, and submittal of technical supporting documentation to demonstrate how the proposed criteria are protective and how they were derived (calculated), including input values, sources of information and methodology,
OR - through the use of the Department’s pre-evaluated numeric criteria (the “fast-track option”), using the APS/Alternative Criteria request form below.
Optional, Fast-Track Approval
For many substances, the Department has pre-evaluated available scientific information and has published numeric criteria that a party may request to use. Because the numeric criteria have been pre-evaluated, a party needs to submit only the APS/Alternative Criteria Request Form. The Form contains the list of substances and numeric criteria that have been pre-evaluated. The Department can issue a written approval of any such request quickly, in comparison to a request for numeric criteria that are not included on this list. However, the fast-track numeric values in the form are purely optional, in that no party is required to use them. A party may choose to request approval of any other method and associated criteria for APS or Alternative Criteria.
One factor to consider when deciding whether to request approval for the numeric criteria on the Form or to request approval of different, self-generated methods and criteria is the amount of technical support that must accompany the request. A request for approval of the numeric criteria on the Form requires no additional documentation, because the Department, in consultation with DPH, has already reviewed and prepared the technical support for each substance.
These APS and Alternative Criteria are for informational purposes only, and cannot be relied upon or used for any site unless and until the Department issues a written approval for use at a specific site. The Department may change these numeric criteria at any time, including after a request is received and before an approval is issued, thus there is no guarantee that the numeric criteria applied requested will be approved.
Petroleum Hydrocarbons
The RSRs do not include the analytical methodology or associated criteria for Extractable Petroleum Hydrocarbons (EPH), Volatile Petroleum Hydrocarbons (VPH), or Air-Phase Petroleum Hydrocarbons (APH). However, compliance with the RSRs for releases of petroleum products can be demonstrated by using the EPH/VPH/APH analytical methods and associated site-specific cleanup criteria for these methods, as Additional Polluting Substances (APS).
A form similar to the APS/Alternative Criteria Request Form has been developed to facilitate the expedited review and approval of the EPH/VPH/APH methodology and associated criteria Request for Approval for Use of EPH/VPH/APH Analytical Methods and Associated Criteria as Additional Polluting Substances.
These requests are treated the same way as other APS and Alternative Criteria, as discussed above. A party may elect to request the numeric criteria identified on the Form or may elect to propose its own numeric criteria.
A request for approval of the numeric criteria on the EPH/VPH/APH Form requires no additional documentation, because the Department, in consultation with DPH, has already reviewed and prepared the technical support for each substance.
As of June 27, 2013, the RSRs include criteria for the analytical method and associated criteria for Extractable Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (ETPH), except for Volatilization Criteria and Surface Water Protection Criteria (SWPC). Pre-evaluated numeric criteria for ETPH SWPC can be found in the APS/Alternative Criteria form above.
RSR Citations:
The numeric criteria that are posted here for fast-track approval consist of:
- Residential and Industrial/Commercial Direct Exposure Criteria for Additional Polluting Substances (22a-133k-2(b)(5)),
- GA and GB Pollutant Mobility Criteria for Additional Polluting Substances (22a-133k-2(c)(6)),
- Groundwater Protection Criteria for Additional Polluting Substances (22a-133k-3(h)(1)),
- Surface Water Protection Criteria as Alternative Criteria (22a-133k-3(b)(3)(B)), and
- Residential and Industrial/Commercial Volatilization Criteria as Alternative Criteria (22a-133k- 3(c)(4)(B)).
Use of 2003 Draft Volatilization and Soil Vapor Criteria
In 2003, the Department shared with the regulated community a document titled, Proposed Revisions - Connecticut's Remediation Standard Regulations Volatilization Criteria (2003 Document). The 2003 Document set forth draft revisions to existing volatilization and soil vapor criteria in the RSRs and new numeric criteria for substances that had no previous numeric criteria. Part of the rationale for these changes was to make the regulations more consistent with US Environmental Protection Agency draft guidance issued in 2002. The Department shared the 2003 draft revisions with the public and the regulated community.
Due to the availability of the more scientifically current (2015) APS and Alternative Criteria, the Department is no longer providing a fast-track approval for requests to use the numeric values in the 2003 Document, with one exception. This exception is the 2003 numeric criteria for substances that already have promulgated criteria for volatilization and soil vapor in the RSRs (for example, trichloroethene and 1,1-dichloroethene). For such substances, a party may request to use all of the corresponding draft criteria in Appendix C, Table C2 and Table C3, of the 2003 Document as Alternative Criteria, and need only submit the APS/Alternative Criteria Request Form to use these numeric criteria.
- 2003 Appendix C Tables C2 and C3 containing the approvable fast-track Alternative Criteria with strikethrough of the “New Criteria” portions that are no longer recommended
This approach does not extend to any substances identified as “New Criteria” in the Tables in Appendix C of the 2003 Document. Therefore, for substances that do not have numeric values in the RSRs for volatilization and soil vapor, use the 2015 fast-track numeric values in the
Effect on Prior Approvals
All prior written approvals remain valid. If a party who has a prior written approval for APS or Alternative Criteria seeks to modify its approval to use the 2015 fast-track numeric criteria, the Department will review such request as follows:
- If the party applies to use all relevant 2015 numeric criteria, in lieu of the prior approved criteria, the party need only submit the fast-track request Form, and the Department will provide fast-track review.
- If a party seeks approval of some but not all of the substances for which APS/Alternative Criteria was previously approved, the party will need to submit technical documentation on how the overall site risks remain protective in light of the request to use some but not all of the relevant 2015 values. Such a request will not be part of the fast-track process.
Forms
The Remediation Division requests that the RSR Approval Transmittal Form (Instructions) accompany only APS and Alternative Criteria requests that do not include fast-track numeric criteria.
Additional Information:
Analytical Methods Used to Characterize Petroleum Releases
Connecticut Remediation Standard Regulations
Content Last Updated October 29, 2019