The Office of Land Quality (OLQ) uses many state and federal programs to assess and clean up contaminated or potentially contaminated properties that may pose a threat to human health or Indiana’s environment. If OLQ finishes active cleanup at a site and residual contamination remains, it may use additional closure strategies to reduce or eliminate exposure to contamination remaining on-site.
State Programs
- State Cleanup Program:
- This program is for sites that are contaminated by hazardous substances or petroleum and are excluded from the Superfund program’s National Priorities List.
- Voluntary Remediation Program:
- This program provides a process for property owners or prospective owners to voluntarily investigate and, if necessary, clean up property that is or may be contaminated, and limit their future liability.
Federal and State Programs
- Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program:
- This program is for sites that have releases from underground storage tanks.
- Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Corrective Action Program:
- This program is for regulated hazardous waste management facilities with a spill or release.
- Emergency Response Program:
- This program is for spills of oil and hazardous substances on land and into inland waters when the danger from pollutants poses an immediate threat to human health or the environment.
- Indiana Brownfields Program:
- This program is voluntary and provides incentives to address abandoned, inactive, or underutilized commercial or industrial properties with potential or actual contamination that complicates their expansion or reuse.
Federal Programs
- Site Investigation Program:
- This program is for assessing sites with potential or confirmed releases of hazardous substances and evaluating their potential to be managed by a state and/or federal cleanup program.
- Superfund Program:
- This program is for investigating the nature and extent of contamination of large, complex hazardous waste sites, determining if it poses a threat to human health or the environment, and cleaning up the sites, when necessary.
- Defense Environmental Restoration Program:
- This program is for investigating the nature and extent of contamination on sites owned by the U.S. Department of Defense. It is similar to the Superfund program, but the federal government conducts the cleanup with oversight from OLQ.