ARRA LUST Award Information
Background Information
The Indiana Brownfields Program (Brownfields Program), on behalf of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM)'s Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Program, is administering approximately $4 million of federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding from the federal LUST Trust Fund to be used for cleaning up leaks from underground storage tanks on eligible LUST sites. LUST funds can be used for cleanup activities necessary as a result of a release from a federally-regulated underground storage tank, with the expectation that the money will be used for shovel ready cleanups. The money may be used to either oversee assessment and clean up of underground tank leaks or directly pay for assessing and cleaning up leaks from federally-regulated tanks where the responsible party is unknown, unwilling, unable, or the cleanup is an emergency response.
Site Selection
The IDEM LUST Program and the Brownfields Program evaluated several hundred privately- and municipally-owned sites including LUST Program sites, IDEM State Cleanup sites and IFA Brownfields Program sites. There was no application or nomination process; sites that were already in an IDEM enforcement program that could potentially qualify under the LUST ARRA guidance, in addition to sites generated as a result of an inventory process conducted in February/March 2009, were considered. Unlike other funding administered by the Brownfields Program, communities did not have to apply on behalf of privately-owned sites to be considered for funding; however, communities were provided the opportunity to refer sites for consideration for funding during the inventory process conducted by the Brownfields Program.
- List of sites approved for LUST ARRA funding
- ARRA-Funded LUST Site Summaries
- Map of ARRA-Funded LUST Sites
General LUST Program Information
- U.S. EPA Guidance on Recovery Act Funding for LUST
- Indiana Department of Environmental Management LUST Program Information
Frequently Asked Questions
Eligible Activities/Work to be Performed
Q: What are eligible activities?
A: LUST ARRA funds can be used for cleanup activities necessary as a result of a release from a federally-regulated underground storage tank, with the expectation that the money will be used for shovel ready cleanups. The money may be used to either oversee assessment and cleanup of underground tank leaks or directly pay for assessing and cleaning up leaks from federally-regulated tanks where the responsible party is unknown or unwilling to pay for the cleanup, or is an emergency response.
Q: What happens if there's contamination on a site that isn't from a federally-regulated tank?
A: If petroleum contamination unrelated to a release from a federally-regulated tank is discovered (hydraulic lifts, above-ground storage tanks, waste oil tanks, etc.), costs associated with addressing that contamination will be covered with State petroleum remediation grant funding. If a unique source of hazardous substances contamination is discovered on a site, potential funding options will have to be discussed at that time.
Q: Who will be conducting the LUST ARRA work?
A: Requests for proposals for the LUST ARRA site work will be issued to seventeen environmental consultants selected by the Indiana Finance Authority (IFA) through a Request for Qualifications process that took place in May 2009. These seventeen consultants will review the projects and will be bidding against the rest of the qualified consultant pool to perform a scope of work determined by IDEM. Brownfields Program staff will review the bids and consider a variety of factors, including cost and technical feasibility. Brownfields Program staff will select one consultant per project to perform a scope of work that will be approved by a Brownfields Program project manager.
Information for Property Owners
Q: Will I have to sign any paperwork before work can begin on my site?
A: Yes. Property owners will have to execute a site access agreement with the consultant that will be performing the environmental assessment and/or remediation activities. A template agreement has been prepared by the Brownfields Program that will be reviewed with the property owner by the project manager and/or consultant selected for your site. If the property owner does not sign the access agreement, the site will have to be withdrawn from LUST ARRA funding consideration in order to ensure timely expenditure of the LUST ARRA funds on other eligible properties.
In addition, a site owner may be required to sign some paperwork during the assessment and/or remediation phase of the project related to waste disposal, underground storage tank registration, etc. These documents are a routine and necessary part of the procedure for conducting assessment and/or remediation work. If there are questions about these documents, please feel free to contact the Brownfields Program project manager assigned to your site.
Q: How was the scope of work for my site determined? Will my site be clean after this work is conducted? How will I know?
A: Brownfields Program staff, as well as environmental consultants working for the Brownfields Program, reviewed all available environmental information and data for the site and determined, based on that information, the steps necessary to be completed for the site to receive environmental closure from IDEM.
An IDEM No Further Action (NFA) Letter will be issued to the site owner at the end of the remediation. This NFA Letter will cover the underground storage tank release and related issues and any other petroleum remediation activities addressed using state funds. If there are other contaminants (hazardous substances contamination) that cannot be addressed with LUST ARRA funds or another funding source, those will not be covered by a NFA Letter.
Please note that a NFA Letter will specifically address the types of reuse suitable for the site based on the then-current site conditions. In most circumstances, contamination will be remediated to levels that will facilitate either the continuation of the current use of the property or planned reuse once the site has been remediated. However, in some circumstances it may be cost prohibitive to clean up to residential cleanup standards. In those instances, the site will be closed under commercial/industrial cleanup standards and an environmental restrictive covenant will be placed on the property prohibiting residential use.
Q: As a property owner, am I going to have to do any work or pay for anything? What will my site look like when you're done?
A: There may be some costs a site owner may incur related to restoring the site to its former appearance because LUST ARRA funding will not be used for site restoration activities like pouring new concrete or asphalt, seeding/reseeding grassy areas, etc. Any tank pit/soil removal area will be backfilled with soil and covered with gravel on the surface or backfilled with gravel to surface.
Q: What happens if there's contamination on a site that isn't from a federally-regulated tank?
A: If petroleum contamination unrelated to a release from a federally-regulated tank is discovered (hydraulic lifts, above-ground storage tanks, waste oil tanks, etc.), costs associated with addressing that contamination will be covered with State petroleum remediation grant funding. If a unique source of hazardous substances contamination is discovered on a site, potential funding options will have to be discussed at that time.