Independent Closure Process
The Indiana Department of Environmental (IDEM) has created a process to independently achieve closure on some cleanup sites. This process became available on April 15, 2010 and is referred to as the Independent Closure Process (ICP). The ICP offers a number of benefits to IDEM and responsible parties. Throughout the past several years, IDEMs State Cleanup Program (State Cleanup) has experienced flat or decreasing revenues while the number of State Cleanup sites increases. IDEM does not receive sufficient funding to assign IDEM staff to all State Cleanup sites. As a result, most low priority sites receive little or no attention while IDEM appropriately focuses on medium and high priority sites. The ICP provides a mechanism for closure with very little IDEM involvement or expense.

Qualifications
Responsible parties with an open State Cleanup Incident benefit by having a way to obtain closure in a timely manner not available previously. This will be very helpful in situations where a State Cleanup Incident is holding up a property transaction or development, but also will provide a way to expeditiously close the file on some lingering incidents.

The ICP is currently only available to low priority sites. Low priority sites are those that contain soil impacts only and are considered low-risk to human health and the environment. These will most often be situations where the release(s) were surficial in nature and/or an effective response contained the release(s) before water was impacted. The responsible party must demonstrate that groundwater has not been impacted; therefore, groundwater sampling will be required in most instances.

Commitments
The ICP is currently only available to situations where a cleanup is conducted that remediates the soil to levels below the current IDEM Risk Integrated System of Closure (RISC) Default Closure Levels (DCLs). The other commitment is that the site will be cleaned up within a one year time frame. New sites entering State Cleanup will have one-year from reporting the incident and issuance of a State Cleanup Incident Number. Although IDEM will not be providing oversight during the process, the same activities and reporting requirements apply as if it was. This includes all sampling, quality controls and reporting obligations required by State Cleanup. Any site closing to Industrial Default Closure levels (IDCLs) must also record an Environmental Restrictive Covenant (ERC) on the deed of the property, prohibiting activities such as residential development or installation of drinking water wells. Sites closing at Residential Default Closure Levels (RDCLs) will not be required to record an ERC.  

Number of Sites
IDEM estimates about 200 low priority State Cleanup sites are eligible for the ICP. Each of these responsible parties will soon be receiving a letter from IDEM explaining this new program and informing them their incident qualifies. The letter is referred to as an Independent Closure Process Information and Remediation Request Letter and will stipulate the one-year time frame which begins with issuance of the letter.   

Qualified Professional
IDEM will require the responsible party representative and the environmental professional to sign an ICP Closure Form certifying the accuracy of the provided information. IDEM requires the primary Environmental Professional be a Professional Engineer (PE), Professional Geologist (PG or LPG) or a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM).

Given the one-year time frame, it is important to act on the situation promptly with a consultant you trust. It is important the consultant understands the State Cleanup Closure requirements. This is not a time to learn as you go. IDEM will review the closure documents and will deny closure if the documents are not complete or if the work is deemed insufficient for any reason.

If you receive an Independent Closure Process Information and Remediation Request letter from IDEM, this is your opportunity to obtain closure in a short time frame with limited IDEM involvement. August Mack has extensive experience obtaining closure from State Cleanup and can help you obtain closure from IDEM using the ICP.