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New CCDD and Soil Certification Requirements
by Carolyn L. Morehouse
Illinois recently amended the Illinois Environmental Protection Act, imposing new requirements for the disposal of CCDD (clean construction and demolition debris) and uncontaminated soil fill in quarries, mines or other excavated sites. Under the new law, owners of non-residential construction projects must obtain an engineer’s certification that the soil is “uncontaminated” before it can be deposited in fill operations.
“CCDD” is defined as “uncontaminated broken concrete without protruding metal bars, bricks, rock, stone, or reclaimed asphalt pavement generated from construction or demolition activities.” CCDD may also contain some mixture of uncontaminated soil. If disposed of properly, CCDD is not considered “waste,” and may be used as fill in quarries, mines, and other excavations.
Since 2008, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (“IEPA”) has required operators of CCDD fill sites to obtain a permit. However, the new law, Illinois Public Act 96-1416, effective July 10, 2010 (the “Act”), extends this permit requirement to uncontaminated soil fill operators, requiring registration with, and a permit from, IEPA. The law also imposes additional requirements on the owners and operators of CCDD and uncontaminated soil fill operations, requiring them to:
- maintain certain records relating to each load of fill accepted, including the hauler, address of source site, owner/operator of source site, weight/volume, and date received;
- obtain a certification from the owners or operators of the site of origin that the site has never been used for commercial or industrial purposes and is presumed to be uncontaminated soil, or a certification from a licensed professional engineer that the soil is uncontaminated;
- confirm that all uncontaminated soil was not removed as part of a cleanup or removal of contaminants;
- visually inspect each load, screen each load with an ionization detector or other approved device that detects volatile organic compounds, and document these screening activities; and
- collect a fee for each load.
For most construction firms and owners of construction projects, the new requirements will increase the cost of CCDD and soil fill disposal, requiring them to use a licensed professional engineer to certify that any soil is uncontaminated. The Act defines “uncontaminated soil” as soil that is free from “contaminants in concentrations that pose a threat to human health and safety and the environment,” but fails to define specific maximum levels of contaminants. Instead, the Act gives IEPA and the Illinois Pollution Control Board until July 10, 2012 to adopt rules specifying the maximum concentrations of contaminants that may be in uncontaminated soil. Until then, IEPA directs licensed professional engineers to the numerical standards listed in 35 Ill. Adm. Code 742, Tiered Approach to Corrective Action Objectives, known as “TACO,” Tier 1 residential and industrial/commercial tables (Part 742, Appendix B, Tables A, B).
Finally, the Act requires fill site operators to reject loads that are determined to contain volatile contaminants. Upon rejection, the site is required to inform the driver that the material cannot be disposed of as CCDD, cannot be taken to another CCDD facility or returned to the original site for disposal, but must be properly disposed of in a permitted landfill. The site operator must also notify IEPA that the load has been rejected.
The Act was apparently intended to protect soil fill operations from environmental contamination. However, the Act has been the subject of much criticism, first, due to its swift passage, without advance notice or warning to, or input from, the construction industry. The Act has also been criticized for failing to provide licensed professional engineers–the certifying professionals–with adequate guidance as to how soil must be tested before being certified as “uncontaminated.”