Resiliency and Adaptive Capacity
Climate resilience and adaptative capacity can be generally defined as the capacity of a system to maintain function in the face of stresses imposed by climate change and the ability of a human or natural system to adjust to climate change by moderating potential damages, taking advantage of opportunities, or coping with the consequences.
To minimize climate change risks for hazardous and non-hazardous waste management systems, EPA, Tribal governments, state agencies, businesses, organizations, and individual communities can implement a variety of measures to make their sites and communities more resilient to a changing climate. Some of these measures are engineering-based solutions that reduce the climate change vulnerability of landfills and other waste management units. Other measures are simply changes in the way that waste management systems are managed. Several EPA programs that focus on waste management have begun to implement such measures, as summarized below.
Climate Resilience in Our Cleanup Programs
Remedies at contaminated sites may be vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. EPA's Superfund program developed an approach that raises awareness of these vulnerabilities and applies climate change and weather science as a standard operating practice in cleanup projects. The approach involves periodic screening of Superfund remedy vulnerabilities, prioritizing the Superfund program's steps to adapt to a changing climate, and identifying measures to assure climate resilience of Superfund sites.
EPA’s hazardous waste corrective action program developed recommendations for EPA regions and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act authorized states about how to work with RCRA facility owners and operators to integrate climate change adaptation considerations into the RCRA cleanup process. This integration will help protect human health and the environment by ensuring that RCRA corrective action cleanups remain effective and prevent the migration of hazardous waste or constituents.
Implementing Climate Resilience in Waste Permitting and Planning
Hazardous Waste Permitting
According to data compiled by EPA, approximately 5.8 million people live within one mile of a hazardous waste facility. These facilities can be vulnerable to flooding, extreme storm events, and other climate impacts that can compromise facility infrastructure, putting local populations at risk of contaminant exposure.
EPA’s hazardous waste permitting program developed guidance to EPA Regions, states, and territories on when and how to consider potential adverse climate change impacts in the hazardous waste permitting process under RCRA. Conducting climate change vulnerability screenings and assessments for treatment, storage, and disposal facilities is key to determine whether there are climate vulnerabilities that hazardous waste permits should address. These recommendations ensure that controls provide long-term effectiveness through resilience to adverse climate change impacts into the future.
Polychlorinated Biphenyls Approvals
EPA developed an approach encouraging project managers overseeing PCB approvals to assess whether proposed PCB cleanup, storage, and disposal controls will be resilient to the impacts of climate change. This approach identifies measures that strengthen the resilience of these controls, ensuring the protection of human health and the environment over time.
Disaster Debris Management Planning
Extreme natural disasters are on the rise due to climate change, leading to sharp increases in the types and quantities of disaster debris that must be managed. Communities can adapt to these challenges and increase their resiliency by taking the vital step of pre-incident planning.
EPA's guidance for managing disaster debris identifies several steps that communities can take to ready themselves for a major storm event. These include pre-selecting debris management sites, identifying likely equipment needs, and establishing pre-negotiated contracts with waste management facilities and for services that a community would be unable to provide for itself after a major storm. The guidance document also identifies opportunities for source reduction and hazardous waste mitigation to decrease the total amount of debris that may be generated after a severe storm event. Additionally, EPA developed a Disaster Debris Recovery Tool, which provides information and locations of over 20,000 facilities capable of managing different materials that may be found in disaster debris.
Chemical Accident Prevention, Oil Discharge Prevention and Preparedness, and Emergency Response
Frequent and severe weather events and wildfires brought on by climate change can lead to or exacerbate accidental chemical releases and/or oil discharges throughout certain regions of the United States. These chemical releases and oil discharges can contaminate the surrounding air, water, and soil, increasing health risks for the local population.
To address chemical risks associated with climate change, EPA requires facilities to incorporate sensitivity to changing climatic conditions into EPA’s Risk Management Program hazard evaluations. Additionally, EPA’s Oil Pollution Prevention Program Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure rule requires oil facilities above certain oil storage capacity thresholds to prepare and implement an SPCC plan to prevent oil discharges into navigable waters and adjoining shorelines.
The SPCC program is addressing climate change by teaming with the Office of Underground Storage Tanks to develop a Wildfire Guide: Preparation And Recovery For Underground And Aboveground Storage Tank Systems. This document provides guidance to UST AST facility owners in the event of a wildfire.
EPA’s Oil Facility Response Plan rule requires certain SPCC facilities that could cause substantial harm to plan for response to worst case discharges of oil into or on the navigable waters and adjoining shorelines. FRP holders are required to analyze the facility’s vulnerability to natural disasters, such as flooding and hurricanes to inform the development of discharge scenarios and related response tactics.
EPA responds to oil discharges, chemical, biological, radiological releases, and large-scale national emergencies (to include wildfires and flood events). EPA also provides additional response assistance when state and local first responder capabilities have been exhausted or when additional support is requested.
For more information on the Oil Program visit the EPA's Oil Spills Prevention and Preparedness Regulations website.