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Act 2 Changes Anticipated in 2024
PADEP is currently working on substantial updates to the Land Recycling Program (Act 2) Technical Guidance Manual, which was last updated in 2019. While many of the updates are intended to provide greater clarity and consistency across Pennsylvania, there are also some substantive policy issues at play, including: (i) the regulated substances for which a remediator may receive liability relief under Act 2; (ii) the types of properties that are considered to be residential vs. non-residential; and (iii) the ability to round sampling results when comparing against Act 2 cleanup standards. Additional proposed updates and changes to the Technical Guidance Manual are expected this year and will likely require several rounds of review and revision before an updated document can be finalized.
A number of changes to the numeric cleanup standards for certain regulated substances have also been proposed by PADEP and may become effective in 2024 if and when they are approved by the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board. These proposed changes include: (i) a significant reduction in the residential soil standard for lead from 500 to 200 mg/kg (based on updated biokinetic models for lead exposures to children); (ii) slight changes to the cleanup standards for several Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs); and (iii) significant reductions to the soil standards for cadmium due to updated toxicity information.
