Statutory Authority: California Health and Safety Code, Chapter 6.8 & Chapter 6.5

Introduction

DTSC’s Site Mitigation and Restoration Program oversees the cleanup of State Superfund Sites. State Superfund sites include both Responsible Party-lead Enforcement sites (that is, where DTSC has issued enforcement orders) and Orphan Sites. DTSC works directly with the Responsible Party or Parties on the enforcement sites, while Orphan Sites are ones where DTSC is unable to identify a viable Responsible Party or Parties. These projects are located throughout California, in small and large urban areas, in small and large suburban communities, and in the rural heartland of California. Some of the projects are former dry cleaners, metal plating shops, abandoned mines, old wood treating sites, and several types of former manufacturing facilities.

Responsible Party-Led Enforcement Sites (Orders)

DTSC uses the process of issuing enforcement orders in order to compel and encourage Responsible Parties to investigate and clean up environmentally contaminated properties where there is, or the potential of, imminent and substantial threat to human health and/or the environment. In evaluating the imminence and substantiality of the endangerment posed by contamination, DTSC considers existing or potential exposure to the contamination, migration of the contamination in air and breathing spaces, soil, groundwater, soil vapor or surface water, and fire or explosion hazards, and other threats as applicable. Refer to DTSC’s Imminent and/or Substantial Endangerment Policy, Procedure and Guidelines (July 14, 1993) for more information.

Responsible Parties include:

• Current Owners / Operator.  Although this excludes property acquired through foreclosure or a security interest, this does include current owners even if they made no contribution to the hazardous release.
• Past Owner / Operator at time the pollution occurred. Prior owners / operators are liable as well for any release of toxic substance that occurred during their possession/control of the land. Even a party who does not/did not own a facility may be liable as an “operator” if they had substantial control over the activities that lead to the release of hazardous substances.
• Arrangers. This is a person/entity who arranged for disposal of a hazardous substance at a site.
• Transporters. This is a person/entity who transported a hazardous substance to the site). Additionally, even if the transporter moves the substance from one contaminated area of a parcel to another, uncontaminated area, the transporter may still be held liable.

The various order types that DTSC can issue to a Responsible Parties include:

• Corrective Action Consent Agreement (CACA)
• Enforcement Order for Corrective Action (CAO)
• Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Determination and Consent Order (I/SE Consent Order)
• Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Determination and Order and Remedial Action Order (I/SE Order)

Orphan Sites

When Responsible Parties cannot be found or are unable or unwilling to provide a timely cleanup, DTSC uses California State funding to conduct the appropriate response actions and later seeks to recover costs from Responsible Parties.  Hazardous substances release sites or properties without financially viable responsible parties are known as “Orphan Sites.” Orphan sites include an array of projects that come from California’s industrial past, and as such, these represent a diverse scale and scope of hazardous substances releases that DTSC is tasked to work on each day.

How are Orphan sites selected for Funding?

DTSC’s response actions at Orphan Sites are funded annually from the Site Remediation Account (SRA). The SRA receives funds transferred through the annual State Budget Act, upon appropriation by the Legislature (HSC § 25337(a)). DTSC has adopted criteria for the selection of potential Orphan Sites to select those which have the greatest human health or environmental threat as follows:

• Priority 1A: Immediate and acute conditions requiring a “time critical” response;
• Priority 1B: Ongoing operation and maintenance (O&M) of a State or federally funded site remediation treatment system necessary to prevent exposure to human or environmental receptors;
• Priority 2:  Actual human exposure or resource impacts under current conditions;
• Priority 3:  Potential exposure under current conditions; and,
• Priority 4:  Potential Exposure under future conditions.

What are the Goals of the Orphan Program?

The objective of the DTSC’s Orphan Site program is to help provide a California environment that is protective of the health of all Californians and its diverse natural resources. To that end, the goal is generally to investigate and clean sites to a condition that controls further releases and eliminates current and future exposure of humans and the environment to hazardous substances. Goals can be broken into the following broad categories:

• Protect public health from exposure to contaminated drinking water and air, including indoor air;
• Protect public health from direct exposure to contaminated soil;
• Protect wildlife for surface water runoff and watershed contaminant loading;
• Reduce or eliminate of site’s potential contribution to cancer clusters discovered through epidemiology studies;
• Eliminate or reduce in impacts to California’s diverse ecosystem including endangered species; and,
• Reduce future costs from uncontrolled migration of contaminants.

How are State Orphan Response Actions Conducted?

The SRA appropriation is for direct site remediation costs which are to be used solely by DTSC’s contractors to conduct response actions. Accordingly, once site specific allocations are approved, the funds are encumbered in site or project specific contracts using contractors from DTSC’s pre-approved contractors list for each region.

There are generally three types of Orphan site contracts:

• Architecture and Engineering Services for investigation and characterization
• Remediation contracts for cleanup construction and operation and maintenance
• State superfund contracts for cost match with Environmental Protection Agency for the State’s NPL sites

The contract is the mechanism which encumbers funds specifying a specific contractor, term, scope, and budget.

How Does DTSC Recover Costs for State Orphan Response Actions?

DTSC has several methods to seek reimbursement of costs used to address contamination at Orphan Sites, including, but not limited to placing a lien on the site.

Where can I find additional information on State Orphan Responses?

DTSC prepares annual reports for the Orphan Program.  Recent annual reports are listed below.

• 2022 Report on Estimated Direct Site Remediation Costs
• 2021 Report on Estimated Direct Site Remediation Costs

For additional information, please contact: Hortensia Muniz-Ghazi.