Statewide Health Standards
Revised MCLs and HALs
Revisions to these EPA standards affect both the groundwater MSC for a substance as well as the soil-to-groundwater numeric value, which is based on the groundwater MSC and is used to calculate the statewide health MSC for soils. The following revision to the 2012 edition of the Drinking Water Standards and Health Advisories, (EPA Publication 822-S-12-001) impacts the MSCs:
Bromobenzene New HAL
These tables present the revised statewide health standards that were published August 27, 2016 in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. These standards became effective on that date. Any final report or remedial action completion report using the statewide health standard that is submitted on or after August 27, 2016 must demonstrate attainment of the standards in these tables in order to receive the liability relief afforded by Act 2.
Number Please! (Excel) is a tool to be used to quickly find all information available on the SHS MSCs that apply to a single regulated substance.
Medium Specific Concentrations
On Saturday, March 17, 2018, revisions to Chapter 250 via Final-Omitted Rulemaking became effective. The final-omitted rulemaking corrected transcription errors for Aldrin, beryllium, and cadmium in two MSC tables and the physical and toxicological properties table for inorganic regulated substances. The following corrections have been made to Chapter 250 Tables 1, 4A, and 5B:
- The incorrect Aldrin MSC of 0.43 micrograms per liter (µg/L) for groundwater under “Used Aquifers, TDS ≤ 2500, R” in Appendix A, Table 1 has been corrected to 0.043 µg/L.
- The incorrect toxicity values of 8.4 (mg/kg/day)-1 and 15 (mg/kg/day)-1 for beryllium and cadmium, respectively, have been removed from Appendix A Table 5B because they are actually inhalation toxicity values, not oral toxicity values. The removal of these incorrect toxicity values resulted in changes to the direct contact numeric values for inorganic regulated substances in soil (Table 4A). Changes to Table 4A include correcting the beryllium residential numeric value from 2 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) to 440 mg/kg and the non-residential surface soil numeric value from 11 mg/kg to 6,400 mg/kg. The cadmium residential numeric value changed from 1.2 mg/kg to 110 mg/kg, and the non-residential surface soil numeric value changed from 6 mg/kg to 1,600 mg/kg.
The final-omitted rulemaking is available online and in PDF (beginning on page 1503).
On August 27, 2016, revisions to the regulations found at 25 Pa. Code Chapter 250, Administration of the Land Recycling Program (Act 2 cleanup standards), became effective. The MSCs have been updated to incorporate new toxicological information on about 390 chemical substances.
Table 1 - Medium Specific Concentrations (MSCs) for Organic Regulated Substances in Groundwater
Table 2 - MSCs for Inorganic Substances in Groundwater
Table 3a - MSCs for Organic Regulated Substances in Soil: Direct Contact Values
Table 3b - MSCs for Organic Regulated Substances in Soil: Soil-to-Groundwater Values
Table 4a - MSCs for Inorganic Regulated Substances in Soil: Direct Contact Values
Table 4b - MSCs for Inorganic Regulated Substances in Soil: Soil-to-Groundwater Values
Table 5a - Physical and Toxicological Properties: Organic Regulated Substances
Table 5b - Physical and Toxicological Properties: Inorganic Regulated Substances
Table 6 - Threshold of Regulation Compounds
Table 7 - Default Values for Calculating Medium-Specific Concentrations for Lead (PDF)
Table 8 - Constituents of Potential Ecological Concern (PDF)
Act 2 designated PQLs now available as Excel Spreadsheets
Inorganic PQLs (Excel)
Organic PQLs (Excel)
Ecological Screening Process Rationale (Word)
