North Dakota
Risk Based Corrective Action (NDRBCA)
North Dakota Risk Based Corrective Action (NDRBCA), as DEQ's spill definitions page names it, is the program the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has developed for the management of contaminant release sites; DEQ's NDRBCA page prints the name as Risk Based Correction Action Program. DEQ says this approach ensures the protection of human health and the environment based on scientific assessment of the risks posed by contaminants, now and in the future, and that NDRBCA starts after the contamination has been identified and all emergency response measures have been completed.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name a state's cleanup rules among its standard record sources. NDRBCA is not a list of sites. DEQ calls it a tool for determining the amount and urgency of action necessary, and says it is used to categorize sites according to risk and to provide the appropriate level of oversight while moving sites forward along a path to closure. DEQ says it helps to identify exposure pathways and receptors at a site, to incorporate risk analysis into all phases of the corrective action process, and to select appropriate and cost-effective corrective action.
Three details matter when reading a cleanup file.
- There are tiers. DEQ publishes Tier 1 and Tier 2 report forms, and Tier 1 screening levels in two tables: one residential and one commercial/industrial. When a file shows a cleanup, check which tier the site was evaluated under and which table applied.
- The tables are dated. Both Tier 1 tables linked on the page are dated June 2024. For a site closed before then, ask which version of the screening levels was used.
- Vapor has its own guidance. DEQ lists a Petroleum Vapor Intrusion Guidance among its related guidance documents, beside guidance on saltwater releases, agricultural chemical spills, nitrogen at agricultural sites, and petroleum contaminated soil.
DEQ names three goals for NDRBCA: protection of human health and the environment; practical and cost-effective application of risk-based decision making; and consistent and technically defensible administrative procedures.
The NDRBCA documents
DEQ's page links:
- the NDRBCA Technical Guidance Document and the NDRBCA Risk Calculator Computational Software;
- the Tier 1 and Tier 2 report forms;
- the Tier 1 screening levels, residential and commercial/industrial (June 2024);
- quick reference documents on delineation, definitions and an off-property investigation flowchart;
- an NDRBCA online training video from August 2024, which DEQ says is approximately 3 hours.
The page also links the Water Quality Standards of the State and the NDGIS Hub Data Portal for Sensitive Groundwaters.
Where to look a site up
NDRBCA is a program for managing sites, not a list. The pages read link no list of sites managed under it. DEQ's lists of release and cleanup sites are described on the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) registry, Environmental Incident Reports and Voluntary Response Actions (VRA) pages; the pages read do not say which of those sites were managed under NDRBCA.
Getting the file
Ask for the file to see which tier and screening levels a site was evaluated against. DEQ takes open records requests at DEQOpenRecords@nd.gov, on its General Request Form for general records. What to put in a request is on the Open Records Requests page.
Sources
North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: