Cost Recovery for Contaminated Sites

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One of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s regulatory responsibilities is to oversee contaminated site cleanup work. This means that DEC is to make sure that sites are cleaned up to meet state standards, and to protect human health, safety, welfare and the environment.

DEC incurs many costs while carrying out this oversight mission and is required by state law to seek recovery of these expenses from the liable persons. A liable person could be a private individual, a private company, or a public organization such as the local, state or federal government, including the military. DEC bills liable persons in order to recover its costs.

Defense-State Memorandum of Agreement (DSMOA)

The Department of Defense (DOD) and the State of Alaska have a Memorandum of Agreement which specifies how DEC’s cost recovery will be handled at sites where the military is the responsible person. DOD has similar agreements with most states. Through this cooperative agreement, DOD has agreed to reimburse DEC for oversight costs associated with the military's contaminated site work. The Memorandum of Agreement enables DEC and DOD to avoid the time and cost of billing, and provides a better method for coordination and cooperation during the cleanups. Project managers meet regularly to plan and negotiate work that is needed at each site. The agreement allows DEC to operate more efficiently and saves the state and federal government money.

Relationship between DEC and DOD

Some people interested in DOD contaminated site cleanups have expressed concern that DOD has “paid off” DEC. While DOD reimburses DEC for oversight costs, this does not diminish DEC’s regulatory authority over the military site cleanups. DOD is required by State law to reimburse DEC for these costs.