Maine

Remedial Action Guidelines (RAGs)

Agency Maine Department of Environmental Protection

The Maine Remedial Action Guidelines (RAGs) for Contaminated Sites are the risk-based guidelines the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) points to for judging how much risk a contaminated site poses and how far it has to be cleaned up. DEP's remediation guidance page gives the current edition an effective date of November 15, 2023. The RAGs are guidance, not a list of sites: DEP's PFAS page calls them non-enforceable.

DEP's guidance page sets out the steps it follows at hazardous substance sites in five programs (Brownfields, RCRA Corrective Action and Closure, Superfund and Federal Facilities, Uncontrolled Sites, and the Voluntary Response Action Program), and its risk evaluation step points to the RAGs. DEP's Petroleum Clean up page links the same 2023 document as its guidelines for petroleum sites.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name cleanup guidelines among its standard record sources. The RAGs matter when a Maine file says a site was investigated or cleaned up, because they are what the data are compared with. Five details from DEP's pages help.

Tables or a full risk assessment. DEP describes risk-based tables that take the place of a full risk assessment for common exposure scenarios, and calls them an efficient way to judge whether a site needs action, to set a cleanup goal for each contaminant and to decide when a site may be reused. A technical support document shows how the tables were built with EPA's Regional Screening Levels calculator, and supplemental guidance gives Maine factors for a full site-specific risk assessment. Ask which route a closure took.
The media covered. DEP says the RAGs cover soil, sediment, indoor air, groundwater and fish tissue, with ambient air guidelines as well. Its petroleum page points to a petroleum addendum in Attachment C, which DEP says explains how the RAGs apply to petroleum cleanups and where other approaches are recommended or required.
Earlier editions. DEP says the 2023 edition replaces the RAGs of October 19, 2018 and of February 5, 2016, and the petroleum cleanup guidelines effective May 23, 2014. A file from before November 15, 2023 may cite one of those; check which edition it used. The general reading is on Old closure and today's cleanup criteria.
A cleanup may leave a covenant. DEP says an environmental covenant, a deed restriction under Maine's Uniform Environmental Covenants Act, is often part of the remedy where cleanup for unrestricted use is not feasible. See Environmental Covenants.
PFAS in soil is judged case by case. DEP's PFAS page says no single soil standard tells whether PFAS levels in soil are safe, that each location is judged by how the property is used, and that DEP starts by comparing results with the RAGs. The same page links DEP's PFAS Screening Levels.

How a site closes

DEP's guidance page sends the reader to each program for how it approves investigation and cleanup, so the closing document depends on the program; for one example, see VRAP. For oil, DEP's petroleum page says Maine law (38 MRS §568) requires a discharge to be cleaned up to the Commissioner's satisfaction, and that cleanup plans need written approval. Ask for the approval or closing letter, the edition of the RAGs it relied on, and any recorded covenant.

Where to read the guidelines and the numbers

DEP's Remediation Program Guidance page links the Maine Remedial Action Guidelines (RAGs) for Contaminated Sites as a PDF and select tables of the RAGs and the technical support document as a workbook. Neither was opened for this handbook, so no value is stated here.
The same page links an April 2022 study of background PFAS and PAH levels in Maine's shallow soils.
DEP's PFOA and PFOS page links the PFAS Screening Levels.

Where to look a site up

DEP's guidance page says maps and lists of the potentially contaminated sites reported to it are in its Remediation Sites (Institutional Controls) Database, reached from the File Room, Reports and Lists page.

Getting the file

DEP's remediation site documents are in its online portals and its file room; the routes, hours and Freedom of Access request are on the File Room, Reports and Lists page.

Sources

Maine Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: