EPA recognized General Motors Truck Product Center in Pontiac, Mich., yesterday as the 500th high priority facility to meet two environmental goals under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action program.
EPA also recognized the facility for its nearly $1 billion redevelopment plan that turned the once abandoned site into a 650-acre business park.
The two goals, called environmental indicators, were implemented by the RCRA Corrective Action program to ensure that human health exposure and groundwater releases are under control at high priority facilities.
There are 1,714 high priority facilities across the country that are required to clean-up contamination at their facilities under the RCRA Corrective Action program.
"The GM Truck Product Center is a model for achieving environmental protection through EPA''s Corrective Action Reforms Initiative," said EPA Assistant Administrator Timothy Fields Jr. "By meeting both environmental indicators, GM has taken significant steps to protect public health and the environment."
In addition to achieving the environmental indicators, GM is being recognized for redevelopingn the Pontiac facility.
The $1 billion plan for redevelopment turned an abandoned, obsolete "brownfield" site into the current GM Truck Product Center and a 650-acre world-class business park.
Through the redevelopmente initiative, the GM facility has brought nearly 4,000 jobs to Pontiac.
The RCRA initiative was implemented by EPA in 1999 to achieve faster and more effective cleanups at sites that treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste regulated under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
The reforms include annual cleanup goals and guidance to encourage creative and flexible approaches to ensuring cost-effective cleanups at RCRA facilities.
As part of the reforms program, EPA has set ambitious national cleanup goals for 1,714 high priority facilities across the country.
by Virginia Sutcliffe