Institutional controls for brownfields relate to a concept that has evolved during the last ten years, and continues to change. This evolution started soon after risk-based closure concepts found their way into state voluntary cleanup programs. Risk-based closures result in exit strategies for site cleanup that protect human health and the environment, but do not necessarily restore a site to a pre-contaminated condition. Therefore, since the closed site may have some level of residual chemical constituents after remedial actions, land use controls are frequently placed on a site to limit the future use to risk-use scenarios on which the closure was based.

These land use controls (LUCs), referred to in some states as “environmental land use controls” or ELUCs, are typically composed of institutional controls and/or engineered barriers. Institutional controls usually refer to regulatory methods to maintain closure site conditions, whereas engineered barriers usually refer to physical methods to control access to residual chemical constituents remaining on a site. ...

You need to register to view the rest of the article. Click here to subscribe.