APPENDIX B

LLNL ARARs

This Appendix discusses those standards, requirements, criteria, or limitations under Federal environmental law, and any promulgated standards, requirements, criteria, or limitations under State environmental or facility siting law that are more stringent than those provided under Federal law, that the signatories to LLNL's Federal Facility Agreement consider legally applicable or relevant and appropriate to the LLNL site. In addition, nonpromulgated criteria advisories or guidance that do not meet the definition of Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements (ARARs), but that may assist in determining what is necessary to be protective, are listed as to be considered (TBC). Some of these apply to remediation activities, such as discharges from treatment facilities, whereas others form the basis for determining when cleanup is complete. Table B-1 is a summary of corresponding ARARs for ground water and the vadose zone. A complete discussion of LLNL ARARs is presented in Section 3 of the Feasibility Study (FS) (Isherwood et al., 1990).

There are three general kinds of ARARs: chemical-specific, location-specific, and action-specific. Chemical-specific ARARs usually result in health- or risk-based concentration limits. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) Compliance with Other Laws Manual (U.S. EPA, 1988b) contains a nonexhaustive list of potential chemical-specific ARARs from which LLNL has drawn to ensure that no ARAR is overlooked.

The chemical-specific concentrations proposed as remedial action objectives for ground water remediation are given for the compounds of concern at LLNL in Table 1 of this document. The standards in the columns of Federal and State drinking water Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) and Federal non-zero Maximum Containment Levels Goals become remedial action objectives for ambient ground water (i.e., ground water left in place after remediation), whereas the discharge limits given in the last column apply to discharges of treated water under LLNL's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit. The most stringent concentration limit is the governing ARAR for each chemical of concern.

San Francisco Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board's Basin Plan ("Basin Plan") taste and odor objectives are not considered an ARAR because acceptable numerical expressions of these objectives are not available at the present time. There is no methodology for enforcement of these objectives and consequently they have not been enforced by the State. We, therefore, cannot use the Basin Plan's taste and odor objectives to establish a cleanup level for compliance purposes. If in the future a method is established for measurement and achievement of the Basin Plan's taste and odor objectives and achievement of those objectives is determined to be applicable or relevant and appropriate and necessary to ensure that the remedy is protective of human health and the environment, then LLNL will consider the objectives applicable to the cleanup.

If any additional hazardous substances are found in the ground water environment at levels of concern in the future, standards for those will be requested and agreed upon with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) Section 3020 bans hazardous disposal by underground injection into or above a source of drinking water unless the reinjection involves treated ground water from a CERCLA response action. This section does not apply if certain conditions are met. At LLNL, proposed injection is a CERCLA response action intended to clean up contamination; the contaminated ground water will be treated to substantially reduce hazardous constituents prior to such injection; and the response action will be sufficient to protect human health and the environment upon completion. LLNL thus meets the conditions for exemption and is not subject to the ban.

Whereas specific ARARs do not appear to exist as cleanup standards for vadose zone sediments, LLNL considers health protection (at a 10-6 risk) to be a remedial action objective. Based on results of the Baseline Public Health Assessment (BPHA), ground water constitutes the only significant pathway of exposure from vadose zone contaminants. The BPHA demonstrates that, if ground water concentrations are at MCLs or below, the health risk is well below 10-6.

Unsaturated sediment cleanup concentrations will be based on the mobility of specific contaminants in the sediment at the LLNL site. We have examined the potential for hazardous substances in the sediments of the unsaturated zone to migrate to ground water (Appendix G of the FS). The preliminary results of our investigation indicate that the potential for affecting the ground water depends on the mass, concentration, and distribution of contaminants in the vadose zone.

For the areas of greatest potential concern at LLNL, we conclude that the dominant transport mechanism for migration to the ground water is vapor diffusion. The model illustrated in Appendix G of the FS provides a basis for deciding which, if any, areas at LLNL may warrant vadose zone remediation.

Based on the findings of the BPHA section of the Remedial Investigation (RI) (Thorpe et al., 1990) that no surficial soils at LLNL constitute a potential health threat, we have no cleanup standards for surficial soils.

Location-specific ARARs are restrictions placed on the concentration of chemicals or conduct of operations based on the location of a site. Potential location-specific ARARs include the protection of:

The LLNL site contains no floodplains, historic landmarks, coastal zones, or coastal barriers. As stated in the Livermore Site Environmental Impact Report (EIR) (DOE and University of California, 1992), three small wetlands exist at the culverts that channel runoff into Arroyo Las Positas at the northern perimeter of the site. A review of the LLNL site for rare and endangered species was performed as part of the site EIR, and none have been found. No contemplated action will have an impact beyond those discussed in Section 5 of the FS. LLNL does not believe that significant cultural resources will be impacted, because (1) there is no source of water on the site to sustain early cultures, and (2) virtually the entire site has been subject to intense development over the last 50 years. No excavation is contemplated that would disturb sites to depths greater than they may have already been disturbed.

California's Alquist-Priolo Special Studies Zones Act of 1972 (California Public Resource Code, Section 2621, et seq.) provides constraints on the building of residences within 50 feet of an active fault. RCRA 40 CFR Section 264.18(a) prohibits new treatment, storage, or disposal facilities within 200 feet of a Holocene fault. There are no active faults within 200 feet of LLNL, and construction of residences is not permitted onsite; therefore, these two requirements are not ARARs. All treatment facilities will comply with local construction codes as applied by LLNL's Plant Engineering Department.

Action-specific ARARs are usually technology- or activity-based limitations on actions taken with respect to hazardous wastes. These requirements are triggered by the particular remedial activities that are selected to accomplish a remedy. Since there are usually several alternative actions for any remedial site, different requirements can be triggered. Action-specific ARARs may indicate or influence how a selective alternative is implemented.

The ARARs for the LLNL Livermore site are summarized in Table B-1.

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