CalEPA SWRCB Site Closure Rates Continue to Decline - Likely Due to Vapor Intrusion Guidance

Winefield & Associates (W&A) has updated its data review of No Further Action letters (NFAs) issued by the State Water Resources Control Board and its Regional Boards. The average number of NFAs issued for the three-year period before the CalEPA Vapor Intrusion Guidance (VIG) was 701. The average number issued between 2020 and 2023 (post-VIG) was 465. This difference is a reduction of 34%. Even more dramatic is the comparison between the 2017 NFA amount of 778 and the 2023 NFA amount of 388, a 50% reduction. This NFA trend is an alarming disincentive for investors to tackle brownfield challenges in California, especially in environmental justice regions, where land values tend to be lowest.

Notes on Approach:

1. The Draft VIG was issued in February 2020, so CY 2020 was used as the first post-VIG year.
2. Cleanup Program Sites and Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Cleanup Sites were captured. We acknowledge that LUST sites are not supposed to be included in the VIG, but W&A’s experience indicates that the VIG has permeated all SWRCB departments.
3. Consideration of Total Site Count Reduction: The total number of active sites at the end of 2021 was 7,226, while the total number in 2023 was 6,989. This reduction is only 3.2% over two years, which indicates a relatively stable number of active sites.
4. Consideration of COVID: W&A believes COVID had a minimal impact on site activity, because all regulators and consultants were “essential workers” during the pandemic. No remediation mandate or guidance was set aside during COVID.
5. Consideration of Other Regulatory Programs: W&A acknowledges that other regulatory programs (such as the USEPA Region 9 TCE short term response levels and OSWER 2015 VI guidance) could have also impacted NFA issuance rates; however, the most dramatic changes in screening level reductions and most aggressive agency response occurred due to the CalEPA VIG.

Date Summary Table:

SWRCB NFA Breakdown
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