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Guidelines for assessing and managing petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated sites in New Zealand (revised 2011)

Information on the assessment and management of sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons.

Update to the 1999 version

Module 7 has been updated in the 2nd edition of these guidelines (October 2011). There is a new section 7.3.1 regarding underground storage tank and underground petroleum equipment removal and replacement. This section was added to bring these guidelines up to date with the Resource Management (National Environmental Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil to Protect Human Health - NES) Regulations 2011 [New Zealand Legislation website].

The ‘soil acceptance criteria’ used in these guidelines are not derived according to the methodology referenced in the NES and do not have the status of being NES soil contaminant standards. However, until the petroleum hydrocarbons standards are developed these risk-based ‘soil acceptance criteria’ are supported by the Ministry for Environment for adoption within New Zealand. Note that the Tier 1 soil acceptance criteria have not been developed for ongoing use as a petroleum handling facility. In this scenario exposure to petroleum hydrocarbons need to be managed according to occupational health and safety requirements.