Record of Decision in the United States

Record of Decision (ROD) in Environmental Law

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) formal record of the selection of a remedy for a hazardous waste site on the National Priority List of sites targeted for federal cleanup. The ROD discusses why the site was listed, what types of pollutants are involved, the various methods that could be used to address the pollution, and the agency’s selection of a remedy It must also include the reasons the remedy was chosen and discuss why the EPA considers the remedy sufficient, cost-effective, and permanent. Responses to public comments are also included.

Preparation of a record of decision is required by the Superfund law, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and by the regulations, the National Contingency Plan.

During the course of a cleanup of one site, more than one ROD may be completed; each will deal with at least one aspect of the cleanup. For example, if at a particular site barrels of hazardous waste are stacked in a building, drums of hazardous waste are buried, and the groundwater is contaminated, the EPA may either deal with all three problems in one document or may address them separately in successive records of decision. At a complicated site, breaking the remedial action into smaller units (called operable units) may speed up the work and make it easier to allocate responsibility for portions of the cleanup.

The ROD is completed after the remedial investigation/feasibility study is finished. The selected remedy and draft document must be publicly available for examination and comment. When the final version is issued, the next step is engineering and design, followed by implementation of the remedy. After the design phase begins, the EPA may make changes to the remedy based on engineering or scientific reality. In that case, it must prepare an amendment to the ROD or prepare an explanation in a separate document detailing the proposed changes and the reasons for them. If the changes are significant, public notice and an opportunity to comment are required. See also applicable or relevant and appropriate regulations; notice and comment; remedial design/remedial action; Superfund; Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act.
Based on “Environment and the Law. A Dictionary”.