The Immediate Removals Program provides time-critical removal of pollutants that are considered an imminent and substantial threat to human health and/or the environment. For immediate removal purposes, time critical means the action must be initiated within six months. The goal is to separate the hazards from potential receptors (i.e., places where pollutants can be deposited) and to remove immediate dangers, not perform a full-scale remediation effort.
Under the authority of Indiana Code (IC) 13-20-14, IC 13-14-10, IC 13-25-4, and IC 13-24-1, the Immediate Removals Program commonly addresses sites with abandoned drums of hazardous materials, tire piles, and various abandoned industrial and commercial facilities.
IDEM typically will manage the installation of fencing, sampling, disposal of drums, and removal of pollutant sources such as contaminated soil, transformers, lab packs, lagoons, and other hazards. Program staff also may arrange for the delivery of safe drinking water to residents with drinking water wells that were contaminated by pollutants at abandoned properties.