Acronyms

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Common Brownfield Acronyms

AAI All Appropriate Inquiry; purchaser’s investigation into past ownership and uses of the property
AOC Area of Concern
AST Aboveground Storage Tank
AUL Activity and Use Limitation (also called institutional control); legal or administrative restriction on the use of or access to a site in order to reduce potential exposure to hazardous substances
BAC Brownfield Advisory Committee
BEDI Brownfields Economic Development Initiative; a large HUD program designed to rehabilitate brownfields, which are former industrial or otherwise environmentally compromised sites
BF Brownfields
CA Corrective Action
CAG Community Advisory Group
CDBG Community Development Block Grant
CFR Code of Federal Regulations; rules and requirements published by administrative agencies and departments
CERCLA Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act; enacted by Congress in 1980, creating the tax that funds Superfund, and outlining liability for contaminated land.
CMMP Contaminated Media Management Plan
COC Contaminant of Concern; chemical or substance that has the potential to adversely affect humans due to its concentration, distribution, and mode of toxicity
COI Constituent of Interest / Contaminant of Interest
COPC Contaminant of Potential Concern
CWA Clean Water Act; 1972 act that regulates discharges of pollutants into US waters
DEQ Department of Environmental Quality; regulatory agency whose job is to protect the quality of Oregon's environment.
EC Engineering Control; physical modification of a site such as capping, slurry walls, or point of use water treatment, to reduce potential of exposure to hazardous substances
ECHO Enforcement and Compliance History Online; EPA site that provides compliance monitoring, enforcement, and demographic data for approximately 800,000 active regulated facilities
ECSI(S) Environmental Cleanup Site Information (System); database of brownfield sites maintained by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
EPA Environmental Protection Agency; federal agency whose mission is to protect human health and the environment
EPCRA Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, (SARA Title III); established requirements for hazardous chemical emergency planning and reporting, and increased public access to information on chemicals at individual facilities, their uses, and releases into the environment
ERNS Emergency Response Notification System; EPA list of reported CERCLA hazardous substance releases
FBO Faith-Based Organization; an organization that provides human services but is affiliated with a religion or movement
FS Feasibility Study; summary of site and contamination, cleanup standards, applicable laws, and remedial options
HOT Heating Oil Tank
HSDB Hazardous Substances Data Bank; files on the National Library of Medicine's Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET) focusing on the toxicology of potentially hazardous chemicals, with information on human exposure, industrial hygiene, emergency handling procedures, environmental fate, regulatory requirements, etc
IC Institutional Control; legal or administrative restriction on the use of or access to a site to reduce potential exposure to hazardous substances
IDEA Integrated Data for Enforcement Analysis; environmental performance data on EPA-regulated facilities, with copies of the Agency's air, water, hazardous waste and enforcement source data systems
LDR Land Disposal Restrictions; EPA program establishing hazardous water protocol and treatment requirements to make waste safe for land disposal
LLP Landowner Liability Protection; protections established under the Brownfields Amendments for certain brownfield owners
LUST Leaking Underground Storage Tank
MASC Maximum Allowable Soil Concentration
MCL(G) Maximum Contaminant Level (Goal)
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
MW Monitoring Well
NFA No Further Action letter; issued by a State environmental agency when the site has been remediated in accordance with applicable requirements
NFRAP No Further Remedial Action Planned; decision made by EPA, following a preliminary assessment, that a site does not pose a significant risk and requires no further activity under CERCLA
NOV Notice of Violation; letter written as part of an administrative action
NPDES National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System; permitting program under the Clean Water Act that regulates point source discharges to surface water
NPL National Priorities List; a list of the most serious uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites under Superfund
OPA Oil Pollution Act of 1990; addresses oil pollution liability and compensation for the Federal government to direct and manage oil spill cleanups
OSRTI Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation; EPA office that manages Superfund
OSWER Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, EPA
OUST Office of Underground Storage Tanks, EPA
PA Preliminary Assessment; process of collecting and reviewing available information about a known or suspected waste site or release
PAH Polynuclear / Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon; compounds found in fuels, oils, and creosote, including benzene, toluene, and the xylenes
PERC or PCE Tetrachloroethylene (also called perchloroethylene); manufactured chemical widely used for dry cleaning, metal-degreasing, and chemical production
PCB Polychlorinated Biphenyl; toxic, persistent chemical used in electrical transformers and capacitors for insulating purposes, and in gas pipeline systems as a lubricant; sale and new use of PCBs were banned by law in 1979
POL Petroleum Oils and Lubricants; contain contaminants such as benzene, toluene and xylene
PPA Prospective Purchaser Agreement
PRG Preliminary Remediation Goal
PRP Potentially Responsible Party
QAPP Quality Assurance Project Plan; written between Phase I and Phase II ESAs to state project objectives and monitoring design, procedures for generating data, and data quality measurements
RA Remedial Action; construction, operation, and implementation of the final cleanup remedy until confirmatory sampling and analysis indicate that cleanup levels have been reached
RACM/T Reasonably Available Control Measures / Technology
RAO Remedial Action Operation; operation, maintenance, and monitoring support requirements for a Remedial Action
RFP Request for Proposals; an acronym often used to also describe documents that offer guidelines for grant funding
RBCA Risk Based Corrective Action; the process that results from using risk based decision making
RBDM Risk Based Decision Making
RCRA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; federal statute that regulates the generation, transportation, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste
RCRA BF Brownfield Site that falls under RCRA Regulation
REC Recognized Environmental Conditions
RI/FS Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study; an in-depth study to (1) determine the nature and extent of contamination at a Superfund site, (2) establish site cleanup criteria, (3) identify preliminary alternatives for remedial action, and (4) support technical and cost analyses of alternatives
RIP Remedy In Place; indication that a final remedial action has been constructed and implemented, and is operating according to the Remedial Design
RLF Revolving Loan Fund grant of the EPA
RME Reasonable Maximum Exposure; maximum exposure expected to occur at a site
ROD Record of Decision; primary legal document at a site, which sets forth EPA's selected remedy as well as the factors that led to its selection
RP Responsible Party
RPM Remedial Project Manager; EPA or State official responsible for overseeing on-site remedial action
SARA Superfund Amendment and Reauthorization Act; 1986 act amending CERCLA to increase the size of the Superfund trust fund
SI Site Inspection
SRI Superfund Redevelopment Initiative; EPA grant to local government of up to $100,000 for reuse assessment and public outreach
TAG Technical Assistance Grant; EPA grant program that provides funds for citizens’ groups at a Superfund site to hire independent technical advisors to help them understand and comment on technical decisions
TBA Targeted Brownfield Assessment; EPA program to help states, tribes, and municipalities—especially those without EPA Brownfields Assessment Pilots/Grants - promote the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields
TCLP Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure; to determine the potential for toxic chemicals to move through soils and groundwater
TMDL Total Maximum Daily Loads; the amount of a particular pollutant that a particular waterbody can handle without violating state water quality standards
TOC Total Organic Carbon; the amount of carbon bound in an organic compound and often used as an indicator of water quality
TRI Toxic Release Inventory; a publicly available EPA database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities reported annually by certain covered industry groups and federal facilities
TSDF Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities; for hazardous waste
TSE RCRA Brownfield Prevention Initiative's Targeted Site Effort
UAO Unilateral Administrative Order; legal document issued by EPA directing a PRP to perform site cleanup. Sets forth the liability of the party for the cleanup, describes actions to be taken, and subjects the recipient to penalties and damages for noncompliance
UST Underground Storage Tank
VCP Voluntary Cleanup Program; provides oversight to property owners to investigate and clean up hazardous substance sites in a voluntary, cooperative manner