Operable Unit in the United States

Operable Unit in Environmental Law

A part of a hazardous waste site that is treated separately from the rest of the site to facilitate a remedy. The job of removing, neutralizing, and containing waste can be lengthy and overwhelming at a contaminated site. Operable units make the process more manageable for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the public, and the parties who have to clean up the property.

For example, assume that an abandoned hazardous waste facility, HazChem, is targeted for cleanup. During the operation of HazChem, drums of hazardous wastes were dumped into a hole and buried; others were dumped into lagoons. As a result, HazChem has contaminated the groundwater. HazChem also had a storage area, and when the facility closed, containers of hazardous wastes were left stacked inside it.

So that it could phase the work in a logical manner, the EPA could view the facility as consisting of several operable units: the groundwater, the buried waste, the lagoon, and the storage area. Another possibility is that the potentially responsible parties can divide the work among them, distributing the cleanup resources to the operable units involved. See Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.
Based on “Environment and the Law. A Dictionary”.