JCG Consulting staff have been working on ARARs since 1995. As an ARARs consultant for the Navy, JCG Consulting leads the updates to the Standard Text for ARARs. JCG Consulting works with project staff and attorneys to identify and evaluate project specific ARARs for hazardous waste remedial feasibility studies, engineering evaluation/cost analysis reports, proposed plans, action memoranda, and records of decision. The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan (NCP), which explains how CERCLA is to be implemented, provides further guidance by defining the concepts of “applicable” and “relevant and appropriate”. A requirement is applicable if the specific terms (or “jurisdictional prerequisites”) of the law or regulation directly address the circumstances at a site. If not applicable, a requirement may nevertheless be relevant and appropriate if circumstances at the site are, based on best professional judgment, sufficiently similar to the problems or situations regulated by the requirement.
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) requires the selection of a remedial action that is protective of human health and the environment and complies with “applicable or relevant and appropriate requirements” (ARARs). The approach to determining protectiveness involves a risk assessment and consideration of both ARARs and “to-be-considered” materials (TBCs).
An ARAR is:
