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Brownfields Program Guidance for sites contaminated by old oil and gas exploration and production activities, pipelines, and petroleum storage tanks.

See how a project moves through the Brownfields process.

• There are several financial incentives, grants, loans, and tax provisions potentially available at Corporation Commission Brownfield Sites.
• The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board has a state-funded abandoned Oil and Gas E&P site cleanup program that can provide a surface cleanup, at their discretion, to qualified owners of Brownfield Oil and Gas E&P sites at no cost to the owners.
• The State Petroleum Storage Tank (PST) Program’s Indemnity Fund can be accessed to pay most cleanup costs, by qualified owners of Brownfield PST sites.
• Corporation Commissiion has a state-funded abandoned well plugging program at no cost to site owners.

AAI COMPONENTS and ASTM E1527-13 for PHASE I ASSESSMENTS 1.0 AAI COMPONENTS (Source: 40 CFR Part 312, Nov. 1, 2005).

1.1 Duties of Environmental Professional (EP)

(a) Environmental inquiry
(b) Visual inspections of the facility and adjoining properties
(c) Interviews with past and present owners, operators and occupants
(d) Reviews of historical sources
(e) Reviews of federal, state, tribal and local government records

1.2 Duties of “User” or “Owner” (can be delegated to EP)

(a) Searches for recorded environmental cleanup liens
(b) Consideration of “specialized knowledge” of the subject property and adjoining properties
(c) Consideration of the relationship of the purchase price to the value of the property, if not contaminated

1.3 Duties Shared by EP and “User”

(a) Consideration of commonly known information about the property
(b) Consideration of the "degree of obviousness of pollution”

2.0 AAI EP STATEMENT REQUIRMENT
AAI requires that EP’s place this statement in the Phase I and sign it.

"I declare that to the best of my professional knowledge and belief, I meet the definition of Environmental Professional as defined in Section 312.10 of this part. I have specific qualifications based on education, training, and experience to assess a property of the nature, history and setting of the subject property. I have developed and performed the all appropriate inquiry in conformance with the standards and practices set forth in 40 CFR Part 312. 3.0"

OK CORP COMM O&G SPECIFIC AAI – PHASE I CONSIDERATIONS

3.1 Environmental Issues
If a possible environmental problem (evidence of a spill, staining, odor, dead vegetation training from and E&P site, etc.) is seen, perform some confirming work (i.e. a Limited Assessment [see the Commission’s Guardian Guidance], or soil samples analyzed for TPH in a stained area or salinity analysis in a bare spot, or vapor screening to below a tank or line leak, or a pass with EM equipment to see if a bare spot at an O&G site has the conductivity typical of a produced water/brine spill) - but not the rigor of a Phase II.

3.2 Assessments
The parties performing the initial assessment(s) can (a) choose to defer detailed reviews and record checks until a basic physical pollution assessment of the site is done, and (b) if no significant pollution is found may decide to not perform these detailed reviews and record checks and instead ask that the case be dismissed or a NFA determination be made for the site.

3.3 Agricultural Areas In
Agricultural areas outside of towns and cities, where the only non-Ag use of property was O&G exploration and/or production, the following will satisfy AAI elements in 1.1 (c)(d)(e), 1.2(a)(b) and 1.3 (a): (a) a check of Corp Comm records (b) interview E&P site operators & field hands at the time E&P activities have occurred for what they know about site-polluting activities, except for apparently abandoned sites where these cannot easily be located, and do (c) interview E&P land owners & property renters at the time E&P activities occurred for what they know about site-polluting activities, except for apparently abandoned sites where these cannot easily be located.

3.4 Property Values and Purchases
1.2 (c) will be waived for sites where: (a) no property transactions are occurring and (b) the only activity or “economic development” is returning a site to an existing use such as usable farm/ranch land or oil and gas production, or converting it to greenspace.

3.5 Abandoned Sites - RP Verification
Legal verification of whether or not the former operator(s) of an oil & gas or storage tank site can be identified and located for Responsible Party purposes will also have to be done for apparently abandoned sites.

• Water Quality Standards Implementation Plan (Effective 07-01-01)
• Guardian - Submittal Checklist 2008
  
• Guardian Cleanup Guidance, 2021
• Category Cleanup Table 2008
• Petroleum Risk Factor Index Table 2008
• Handbook 60: Saline and Alkali Soils; Diagnosis and Improvement
• Tier 1 Lookup Table 2008
• RBCA Tier 1 Spreadsheet (Effective 07-10-2002)
• Guardian Forms Appendix VII Optional Forms

Brownfield Rules are found in OAC 165:10-10