The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (“IDEM”) has been reviewing its processes in the state cleanup and Voluntary Remediation Programs while working with stakeholders (including Amy Romig) to improve collaboration, communication, and efficiencies when it comes to investigating and remediating contaminated properties. The ultimate goal is to reduce the overall time to investigate and remediate properties (and thus costs) by nearly half. In conjunction with this new “Go Fast” initiative, Senate Bill 206 (the IDEM agency bill) introduced language to help obtain offsite access to neighboring properties when necessary. 

Amy Romig worked with members of the Indiana State Bar Environmental Law Section and IDEM personnel to review the language. Due to the speed of this short legislative session which would limit the ability for in depth conversations with stakeholders, the section dealing with offsite access was ultimately removed from SB 206 to allow the parties to have a more robust discussion in advance of next year’s longer legislative session.  Given the importance of landowner rights and access to properties to complete remediation goals – this important issue will likely be in future legislation.  If you have any questions or concerns about IDEM’s Go Fast initiative, the state cleanup or voluntary remediation programs, or access agreements for environmental investigation or remediation, feel free to contact Amy Romig.

Categorized: News

Tagged In: Environmental, IDEM, Indiana, SB206