Pennsylvania

Old closures and today's cleanup numbers

Agency Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection

This page helps a consultant weigh a past Pennsylvania cleanup closure against the numbers the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has in force now.

In a Phase I ESA

Before a past release is called historical, the standard requires the professional to review the reasonably ascertainable documentation and data showing that the regulator's unrestricted use criteria were met, and it says a past release may stop qualifying if regulatory criteria have changed (E1527-21, 3.2.39, 3.2.39.1). The general reading is on Old closure and today's cleanup criteria.

Which numbers the closure met

Act 2 standards. DEP's Land Recycling Program (Act 2) sets cleanup standards in 25 Pa. Code Chapter 250. Its subchapters name the background standard, the Statewide health standards, the site-specific standard and special industrial areas. DEP says a property used for industrial development need not be as clean as a residential site. See Act 2 remediation standards.
Relief is specific. DEP says the liability relief Act 2 provides is specific to the contamination identified at each site.
Final reports and their dates. DEP says a final report or remedial action completion report that uses the Statewide health standard and is submitted on or after November 20, 2021 must demonstrate attainment of the revised tables to receive Act 2 liability relief, so the date a report was submitted matters. DEP lists completed Act 2 sites and sites in progress separately on its program results page.
Tank cases. In the Storage Tank Cleanup Program, DEP's status Cleanup Completed means it was demonstrated to DEP that contaminants were removed to applicable cleanup standards, or that the release was completely contained and recovered with no environmental impact. DEP gives the status Administrative Close Out to the other incidents at a facility where several releases are remediated together under a primary incident, and to incidents that are being remediated through its Land Recycling Program (Act 2), so look for the primary incident or the Act 2 site.
Conditions. DEP says an environmental covenant is required whenever an engineering or institutional control is used to demonstrate attainment of an Act 2 standard. Other activity and use limitation (AUL) documents it lists include an administrative order, a consent order and agreement, a deed restriction and a post-remediation care plan. Before the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (signed December 18, 2007), DEP says AULs were recorded as deed restrictions or deed notices, and those it approved before that act are in the PA AUL Registry.

Today's numbers

DEP calls the Statewide health numbers medium-specific concentrations (MSCs) and posts them as tables. Its headings name the medium and pathway: groundwater (Table 1 organic, Table 2 inorganic) and soil, split into direct contact values (Table 3a organic, Table 4a inorganic) and soil-to-groundwater values (Table 3b organic, Table 4b inorganic).

DEP says revised standards were published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and took effect November 20, 2021. Its page prints no date beside the table files. The addresses of the files carry the folder names November 2021 (Tables 1 and 3a), January 2022 (Table 3b) and November 2023 (Tables 2, 4a and 4b), written with underscores, and the page does not say what those names mean. DEP says EPA's maximum contaminant levels for listed PFAS compounds become the groundwater MSCs effective June 25, 2024. The page also carries corrections.

The pages read do not say how the tables treat residential and nonresidential use, but the tables' own headings do. The groundwater tables give columns headed R and NR, which their notes spell out as Residential and Non-Residential, for used aquifers at two levels of total dissolved solids and for nonuse aquifers. The soil direct contact tables give a residential column for 0 to 15 feet and nonresidential columns for surface soil, 0 to 2 feet, and subsurface soil, 2 to 15 feet. The soil to groundwater tables give residential and nonresidential columns for the same aquifer settings. The pages read do not link earlier editions of the tables or say where to get one. DEP tells remediators to consult their regional Land Recycling Program project manager on issues specific to their site.

See DEP's Statewide Health Standards page and the handbook's Pennsylvania cleanup levels.

Getting the closure file

DEP recommends its Environmental Site Assessment Search Tool or an Informal File Review before a request under the Right-to-Know Law. Both routes are on the Informal File Review and Right-to-Know requests page. For a tank incident, DEP says to contact the Environmental Cleanup Program in the regional office.

Sources

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection pages, read October 1, 2026, no modified date shown:

The table and column headings given under Today's numbers are from DEP's medium-specific concentration table files, as this handbook's Pennsylvania cleanup levels pages carry them.