The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) has reconsidered the use of Remediation Agreements for groundwater assessments and remediation plans.  Apparently prompted by reductions in State appropriations to the Department, in early 2012, ADEM's Groundwater Program began sending proposed agreements to responsible parties intended to prompt those parties to agree, inter alia, to reimburse the Department at least a portion of the costs associated with the review of assessment and remediation reports. While much of ADEM's funding comes from the federal government through U.S. EPA, most of the funds for the Groundwater Program come from State revenues. 

Historically, whenever a spill or release of a pollutant enters soils, and consequently may threaten groundwater, the Groundwater Branch has required the responsible party to assess the extent of the release and, where necessary, to conduct remediation activities.  This process generally commences with the Department requiring the submission of an assessment plan.  The resulting assessment report helps determine whether additional activities, including remediation and groundwater monitoring, might be required.  Each of these activities results in reports which must be reviewed by the Groundwater Branch as a part of its oversight of the release incident, and until last year, ADEM simply absorbed the costs of review of such reports.

The decision to use Remediation Agreements prompted questions about the Department's statutory authority with regard to reimbursement of review costs and about the format of the proposed agreements and accompanying cover letters, which gave some recipients the impression that execution of the agreements and payment of the fees were mandatory.  After, considering these concerns, ADEM discontinued the use of the agreements.  Notwithstanding the continuing budgetary constraints faced by ADEM, the Department has tabled the use of Remediation Agreements pending further statutory and regulatory review.

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