The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Principles for Greener Cleanups outline the Agency's policy for evaluating and minimizing the environmental 'footprint' of activities undertaken when cleaning up a contaminated site. Use of the best management practices (BMPs) identified in EPA's series of green remediation fact sheets can help project managers and other stakeholders apply the principles on a routine basis, while maintaining the cleanup objectives, ensuring protectiveness of a remedy, and improving its environmental outcome. Almost 495,000 releases of petroleum from federally regulated underground storage tanks (USTs) have been reported to EPA as of September 2010. Of these, over 93,000 UST site cleanups remain. The Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) estimates that cleaning up UST system releases costs the states approximately $700 million each year, in addition to federal expenditures under the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Trust fund and costs paid by responsible parties. Use of green remediation BMPs to remediate these sites can help minimize the environmental footprint of cleanup activities and improve corrective action outcomes. The practices for UST cleanups are intended to complement rather than replace federal requirements for corrective actions (40 CFR Part 280, subpart F). The practices also may enhance state-administered UST programs, which have state-specific corrective action requirements.

• Green Remediation Best Management Practices: Sites with Leaking Underground Storage Tank Systems (PDF)(6 pp, 460 K, 2011, 542-F-11-008)