Industrial Facility Closure Guidance Document
Facility abandonment is a precursor to the creation of a Superfund site. These sites can cause environmental and human health hazards that can result in extremely high cleanup cost, health care cost and/or loss of habitat. In 1995 the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP), Environmental Enforcement Section (EE) initiated a program of inspection to evaluate environmental impacts or potential impacts for industrial and manufacturing facilities, which are moving, closing, ceasing operations, or have been closed. The focus of this program is to insure that a facility does not leave contamination or other environmental problems that the State or Federal Government will have to deal with under CERCLA, Superfund, or similar program. This document is to provide guidance to facilities that fall under this program.