HRS Revised to Include a Subsurface Intrusion Component

• NPL Home
• Basic NPL Information
• NPL Site Status
• Federal Register Notices for NPL Updates
• NPL Guidance/Policy Documents
• HRS Toolbox
• HRS Subsurface Intrusion Component

Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy signed the rulemaking to add a subsurface intrusion component to the Hazard Ranking System (HRS) on December 7, 2016. This rule was published in the Federal Register (FR) on January 9, 2017. This action took effect on May 22, 2017. The final rule can be accessed through the link below.

• Federal Register Notice of the Final Rule - Addition of a Subsurface Intrusion Component to the HRS (PDF)(48 pp, 1.5 MB) 

The HRS is the principal mechanism the EPA uses to place sites on the National Priorities List (NPL). The HRS is Appendix A to the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), which the EPA promulgated on July 16, 1982 (47 FR 31180) pursuant to section 105(a)(8)(A) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).  

The addition of the subsurface intrusion (SsI) component to the HRS meets the congressional mandate in CERCLA to identify releases of hazardous substances at sites that warrant further investigation. The investigation will determine if Superfund remedial authority is needed to address unacceptable risks. This addition now enables the EPA to consider human exposure to hazardous substances or pollutants and contaminants that enter regularly occupied structures through subsurface intrusion when evaluating a site for placement on the NPL.

Subsurface Intrusion

Subsurface intrusion is the migration of hazardous substances or pollutants and contaminants from the unsaturated zone and/or the surficial ground water into overlying structures. While subsurface intrusion can occur through multiple mechanisms, the most common form of subsurface intrusion is vapor intrusion.

When hazardous substances, or pollutants and contaminants are spilled on the ground or otherwise migrate to the subsurface, they can move in the subsurface environment and eventually enter buildings as a gas or vapor, or, in some cases, even as a liquid. Dry cleaning solvents and industrial de-greasers are examples of products that contain hazardous substances that when released to the environment, can migrate into the subsurface environment, enter buildings by seeping through cracks in basements, foundations, sewer lines and other openings and ultimately result in human exposures.

Vapor intrusion is the most common concern because vapors migrate readily through the subsurface into structures even if the source of the vapors is located well below the base of the structure and the resulting contaminant concentrations in those structures can rise to a point where the health of residents or workers could be at risk.

HRS SsI Supporting Documents

In support of the Final Rule, the EPA published the following documents:

• Technical Support Document (TSD)
• Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) 
• Response to Comments Support Document (PDF)(119 pp. 1.7 MB)
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (PDF)​(4 pp, 54 K)
• Interim SsI SCDM Table (PDF)(1 p, 550 K)

OLEM Home | Superfund Home | Technologies for Cleaning up Contaminated Sites Home