Section NR 708.05 - Immediate actions(1) GENERAL. Unless otherwise directed by the department, responsible parties shall immediately take action to halt a hazardous substance discharge or environmental pollution and to minimize the harmful effects of the discharge or environmental pollution to the air, lands or waters of the state. Note: Section 292.11(2) (a), Stats., and ch. NR 706 require that the department be notified immediately of hazardous substance discharges.
(2)EMERGENCIES. For hazardous substance discharges that pose an imminent threat to public health, safety or welfare or the environment, responsible parties shall conduct all necessary emergency immediate actions. Once the emergency situation is responded to, responsible parties shall conduct any further response actions needed to restore the environment to the extent practicable, unless the department determines that no further response is necessary in accordance with s. NR 708.09. Note: Responsible parties are also required by s. 323.71(1), Stats., to immediately conduct emergency action to protect public health and safety and to prevent damage to property in cooperation with local police and fire departments, county sheriffs, and county offices of emergency government.
(3)NON-EMERGENCIES. (a) Responsible parties shall take all necessary, non-emergency immediate actions to halt the discharge of a hazardous substance and to contain, treat or remove discharged hazardous substances, environmental media or both, in order to minimize the harmful effects of the discharge to the air, lands and waters of the state and to restore the environment to the extent practicable.(b) A response to a hazardous substance discharge and any related contaminated media shall be considered by the department as a non-emergency immediate action when all of the following criteria are met:1. The discharge does not pose an imminent threat to public health, safety, or welfare or the environment.2. The response does not result in the excavation and disposal, treatment, or storage of more than 100 cubic yards of contaminated soil, debris, sediment, or a combination of these media from a single site or facility, unless an alternative volume is approved by the department.3. The discharge is responded to immediately after the hazardous substance discharge occurs or is responded to immediately after discovery. Note: Responsible parties are required to notify the department immediately of a hazardous substance discharge, in accordance with the requirements of ch. NR 706.
4. At the completion of the response action, no further action is required by the department under s. NR 708.09. Note: If further action is required after a non-emergency response action is taken, that action meets the definition of "interim action" in s. NR 700.03(29). The principal distinction between a non-emergency immediate action and an interim action is that a site investigation will generally be required in conjunction with an interim action but not with a non-emergency immediate action. In addition, interim actions will be closed out using the criteria in ch. NR 726, not the "no further action" criteria in s. NR 708.09.
(c) Responsible parties shall conduct sampling at the completion of an immediate action, in accordance with the requirements of ss. NR 712.05 and 716.13, when any of the following conditions are met:1. The hazardous substance discharge or environmental pollution is in contact with groundwater.2. The amount, identity or duration of the hazardous substance discharge or environmental pollution is unknown.3. Where other site or facility conditions indicate that sampling is necessary to confirm the adequacy of the immediate action.(4)SPECIFIC ACTIONS. Immediate actions may include any of the following:(a) Limiting public access to the site or facility.(b) Identifying, monitoring and mitigating fire, explosion and vapor hazards, which may include free product removal. Free product removal shall be conducted in accordance with the requirements of s. NR 708.13 and documented in accordance with s. NR 708.15.(c) Visually inspecting the site or facility and installing physical containment barriers such as berms, booms, dikes or trenches.(d) Preventing the flushing of hazardous substances to sewer systems, state waters or environmental media or habitats.(e) Plugging or overpacking leaking containers which contain or are suspected to contain hazardous substances.(f) Providing alternate water supplies to persons whose water supply has been or is likely to be affected by the migration of contamination.(g) Removing hazardous substances from leaking underground storage tank systems.(h) Removing the contaminated soil, debris or the hazardous substance that was discharged, in compliance with s. NR 708.11(3) (e).(i) Measuring for the presence of free product, visually or through field samples or other appropriate methods.(5)EXEMPTIONS. (a) The provisions of chs. NR 712, 716 and 724 do not apply to immediate actions conducted by responsible parties, unless compliance with a portion of these chapters is specifically required in this chapter.(b) Contaminated soils, as defined in s. NR 718.03(5), that are excavated as part of an immediate action are exempt from the storage requirements of s. NR 718.05 and the solid waste regulatory requirements of ch. 289, Stats., and chs. NR 500 to 538, for a period of 72 hours after the initial excavation of the contaminated soils.(6)DOCUMENTATION. (a) Unless par. (b) is applicable or unless otherwise directed by the department, responsible parties shall prepare and submit written documentation to the department describing the immediate actions taken at their site or facility and the outcome of those actions, within 45 days after the initial hazardous substance discharge notification is given to the department in accordance with the requirements of ch. NR 706.(b) Where a discharge from a UST has occurred, responsible parties shall prepare and submit written documentation to the department within 20 days after notifying the department of a hazardous substance discharge in accordance with the requirements of ch. NR 706.(c) The written documentation required of the responsible parties pursuant to par. (a) or (b) shall include all of the following:1. A statement expressing the purpose of the submittal and the desired department action or response.2. Name, address and telephone number of the responsible parties.3. Location of the site or facility, or discharge incident, including street address; quarter-quarter section, township, range, and county; and the location information specified in s. NR 716.15(5) (d); latitude and longitude, and legal description of lot, if located in platted area.4. Any information required under ch. NR 706 that has not been provided to the department previously.5. The type of engineering controls, treatment or both and the effluent quality of any permitted or licensed discharge.6. The type, total volume and final disposition of the discharged hazardous substance and contaminated materials generated as part of the immediate action, including legible copies of manifests, receipts and other relevant documents.(d) Responsible parties may include the information required in par. (c) with a final report and letter of compliance required in s. NR 708.09 which documents that the immediate response action is complete and no further action is necessary to respond to a hazardous substance discharge or environmental pollution, provided that the information required in par. (c) is submitted within 45 days after the initial hazardous substance discharge notification is given to the department.Wis. Admin. Code Department of Natural Resources NR 708.05
Cr. Register, April, 1994, No. 460, eff. 5-1-94; r. and recr. (6) (d), Register, March, 1995, No. 471, eff. 4-1-95; am (6) (a), (b) and (c) 4., Register, February, 1997, No. 494, eff. 3-1-97; correction in (5) (b) made under s. 13.92(4) (b) 7, Stats., Register February 2010 No. 650; CR 12-023: am. (3) (b) 2., (5) (b), (6) (c) 3. Register October 2013 No. 694, eff. 11-1-13. It is the intent of the department to encourage submittal of the notification information required in s. NR 708.05(6) with the no further action information required in s. NR 708.09, provided that the notification information is submitted within 45 days. If the 45 day limit cannot be met, then 2 separate submittals will be needed, if no further action is being documented for the immediate response action.