Virginia Law

The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

"Adjacent property" means either properties meeting at a shared property boundary or parcels of land that are not widely separated, including at a point or corner, or separated only by one or more relatively narrow linear features. Such linear features may include roadways, railways, and narrow bodies of water.

"Applicant" means a person who has applied to the program but is not a participant.

"Authorized agent" means any person who is authorized in writing to fulfill the requirements of this program.

"Board" means the Virginia Waste Management Board.

"Carcinogen" means a chemical classification for the purpose of risk assessment as an agent that is known or suspected to cause cancer in humans, including a known or likely human carcinogen or a probable or possible human carcinogen under an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) weight-of-evidence classification system.

"Certificate" means a written certification of satisfactory completion of remediation issued by the department pursuant to § 10.1-1232 of the Code of Virginia.

"Completion" means fulfillment of the commitment agreed to by the participant as part of this program.

"Contaminant" means any man-made or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, or biological integrity of soils, sediments, air and surface water, or groundwater including such alterations caused by any hazardous substance (as defined in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, 42 USC § 9601(14)), hazardous waste (as defined in 9VAC20-60), solid waste (as defined in 9VAC20-81), petroleum (as defined in Articles 9 (§ 62.1-44.34:8 et seq.) and 11 (§ 62.1-44.34:14 et seq.) of the Virginia State Water Control Law), or natural gas.

"Cost of remediation" means all costs incurred by the participant pursuant to activities necessary for completion of voluntary remediation at the site, based on an estimate of the net present value (NPV) of the combined costs of the site investigation, report development, remedial system installation, operation and maintenance, and all other costs associated with participating in the program and addressing the contaminants of concern at the site.

"Department" means the Department of Environmental Quality of the Commonwealth of Virginia or its successor agency.

"Director" means the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality.

"Engineering controls" means physical modification to a site or facility to reduce or eliminate potential for exposure to contaminants. These include stormwater conveyance systems, pump and treat systems, slurry walls, vapor mitigation systems, liner systems, caps, monitoring systems, and leachate collection systems.

"Environmental covenant" means a servitude arising under an environmental response project that imposes activity and use limitations pursuant to the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (§ 10.1-1238 et seq. of the Code of Virginia).

"Hazard index" or "HI" means the sum of more than one hazard quotient for multiple contaminants or multiple exposure pathways or both. The HI is calculated separately for chronic, subchronic, and shorter duration exposures.

"Hazard quotient" means the ratio of a single contaminant exposure level over a specified time period to a reference dose for that contaminant derived from a similar period.

"Incremental upper-bound lifetime cancer risk" means a conservative estimate of the incremental probability of an individual developing cancer over a lifetime as a result of exposure to the potential carcinogen. Upper-bound lifetime cancer risk is likely to overestimate "true risk."

"Institutional controls" means legal or contractual restrictions on property use that remain effective after remediation is completed and are used to reduce or eliminate the potential for exposure to contaminants. The term may include deed, land use, and water use restrictions and environmental covenants.

"Land use controls" means legal or physical restrictions on the use of, or access to, a site to reduce or eliminate potential for exposure to contaminants or prevent activities that could interfere with the effectiveness of remediation. Land use controls include engineering and institutional controls.

"Monitored natural attenuation" means a remediation process that monitors the natural or enhanced attenuation process.

"Natural attenuation" means the processes by which contaminants break down naturally in the environment. Natural attenuation processes include a variety of physical, chemical, or biological processes that, under favorable conditions, act without human intervention to reduce the mass, toxicity, mobility, volume, or concentrations of contaminants in soil or groundwater.

"Noncarcinogen" means a chemical classification for the purposes of risk assessment as an agent for which there is either inadequate toxicological data or is not likely to be a carcinogen based on an EPA weight-of-evidence classification system.

"Owner" means any person currently owning or holding legal or equitable title or possessory interest in a property, including the Commonwealth of Virginia, or a political subdivision thereof, including title or control of a property conveyed due to bankruptcy, foreclosure, tax delinquency, abandonment, or similar means.

"Participant" means a person who has received confirmation of eligibility and has remitted payment of the phase 2 registration fee.

"Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, a governmental body, a municipal corporation, or any other legal entity.

"Post-certificate monitoring" means monitoring of environmental or site conditions stipulated as a condition of issuance of the certificate.

"Program" means the Virginia Voluntary Remediation Program.

"Property" means a parcel of land defined by the boundaries in the deed.

"Reference dose" means an estimate of a daily exposure level for the human population, including sensitive subpopulations, that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime.

"Registration fee" means the fees paid to apply for, obtain eligibility for, enroll in, and participate in the Voluntary Remediation Program.

"Release" means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of any contaminant into the environment.

"Remediation" means actions taken to clean up, mitigate, correct, abate, minimize, eliminate, control, contain, or prevent a release of a contaminant into the environment in order to protect human health and the environment. Remediation may include, when appropriate and approved by the department, land use controls, natural attenuation, and monitored natural attenuation.

"Remediation level" means the concentration of a contaminant with applicable land use controls that is protective of human health and the environment.

"Restricted use" means any use other than residential.

"Risk" means the probability that a contaminant will cause an adverse effect in exposed humans or to the environment.

"Risk assessment" means the process used to determine the risk posed by contaminants released into the environment. Elements include identification of the contaminants present in the environmental media, assessment of exposure and exposure pathways, assessment of the toxicity of the contaminants present at the site, characterization of human health risks, and characterization of the impacts or risks to the environment.

"Site" means any property or portion thereof, as agreed to and defined by the participant and the department, which contains or may contain contaminants being addressed under this program.

"Termination" means the formal discontinuation of participation in the Voluntary Remediation Program without obtaining a certificate.

"Unrestricted use" means the designation of acceptable future use for a site at which the remediation levels, based on either background or standard residential exposure factors, have been attained throughout the site in all media.