Odgen Report Data
Summary of Ogden Study
In the 1993 Appropriations Act, the General Assembly directed DEQ to conduct a survey of abandoned solid and hazardous waste sites in Virginia. The survey was to include an estimate of the cost to remediate these sites based on priority, starting with sites posing the highest degree of threat to health and the environment. The Agency’s survey identified 2015 sites. At the time, however, there was no clear definition of abandoned sites. In addition, because of the limited information available concerning the level of contamination at any at these sites, it was almost impossible to establish the risk posed by these sites or to estimate their cleanup costs.
In 1994, the General Assembly budgeted $125,000 for DEQ to assess the risks related to the abandoned waste sites which may require corrective action. In 1995 the General Assembly codified a definition for abandoned waste sites which was different from that used in the 1993 study. DEQ reevaluated the study based upon this new definition. In the Ogden study, DEQ lowered the overall number of newly defined “abandoned waste sites” from 2015 to about 1100. It is important to note that the Ogden study does not provide a list of all abandoned waste sites nor necessarily identify them as contaminated sites requiring cleanup. The 250 sites in the study are merely a sample that was used to extrapolate the total number of abandoned sites in Virginia that may require cleanup under the criteria of the study and develop an estimated cost range for the clean up. Based on those findings, it was extrapolated that approximately 400 sites statewide may pose risks and the cleanup costs, very conservatively, may range from roughly $277 to $670 million for those 400 sites.
It should be noted that the intent of the study was to establish a ranking protocol for estimating the total number of at-risk sites, and that the sites listed in the study are not necessarily considered sites at highest risk as a result of their inclusion. Many of the sites in the sample or otherwise identified as a result of the study are being addressed by DEQ programs and in fact the worst sites in the Ogden sample group have already been addressed.