Arkansas Administrative Code › Agency 118 - DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT › Division 01 - Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission › Rule 118.01.21-017 - Rule 29, "Arkansas Brownfield Redevelopment

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 6, June, 2024
RULE NO. 29
ARKANSAS BROWNFIELD
			 REDEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1
: TITLE
			 AND PURPOSE
Rule 29.101
The following rules of the Arkansas Pollution Control and
				Ecology Commission, adopted pursuant to the provisions of the Arkansas
				Hazardous Waste Management Act of 1979 (Act 406 of 1979, as amended, Arkansas
				Code Annotated (A.C.A.) §
											8-7-201
et
				seq.
), the Arkansas Remedial Action Trust Fund Act of 1985 (Act 479 of
				1985, as amended, A.C.A. §
											8-7-501
et
				seq
.), and the Arkansas Voluntary Clean-Up Act (Act 1042 of 1997, as
				amended, A.C.A. § 8-71101
et seq
.), shall be known as
				APC&EC Rule No. 29, Brownfield Redevelopment.
Rule 29.102
It is the purpose of this Rule and it is hereby declared to be
				the policy of this Commission:
(A) To
			 encourage and facilitate the redevelopment of abandoned industrial, commercial,
			 or agricultural sites, or abandoned residential property as a sound land use
			 management policy to prevent the needless development of prime farmland, open
			 spaces, and natural and recreation areas and to prevent urban sprawl;
(B) To encourage and facilitate the
			 redevelopment of abandoned sites so that these sites can be safely returned to
			 useful, tax producing properties to protect existing jobs and provide new job
			 opportunities;
(C) To provide
			 persons interested in redeveloping abandoned sites with a method of determining
			 what their legal liabilities and clean-up responsibilities will be as they plan
			 the reuse of abandoned sites;
(D)
			 To establish incentives to encourage prospective purchasers to voluntarily
			 develop and implement clean-up plans of abandoned sites without the need for
			 adversarial enforcement actions by the Division of Environmental
			 Quality;
(E) To determine, through
			 permitting policies, administrative orders, or memoranda of agreement as
			 appropriate, when contamination will and will not pose unacceptable risks to
			 public health or the environment, and that equivalent concepts are used in
			 establishing clean-up policies for abandoned sites;
(F) To ensure that parties and persons
			 responsible under law for pollution at abandoned sites perform remedial
			 responses which are fully consistent with existing requirements;
(G) As an incentive to promote the
			 redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites, persons not responsible for
			 preexisting pollution at or contamination on industrial sites should meet
			 alternative clean-up requirements if they acquire title after the nature of
			 conditions at the site have been disclosed and declare and commit to
			 investigate, remediate as necessary, and limit the property to a specified
			 future land use of the subject site; and
(H) Property transactions at times
			 necessitate title acquisition prior to completion of the actions contemplated
			 at §
											8-7-1104(b)
			 -(d) by persons not previously involved with the site or otherwise considered
			 responsible parties for environmental conditions at a site. These persons
			 should not be foreclosed from participation under the procedure enacted under
			 the Voluntary Clean-Up Act. Therefore, these persons, at the discretion of the
			 director, may submit a letter of intent that will set forth the persons' desire
			 to purchase the site and retain their eligibility for participation in the
			 voluntary cleanup program established by this
			 rule.