R 299.4 General requirements for application of cleanup criteria.

Rule 4. (1) All cleanup criteria used in response activity undertaken under part 201 of the act and these rules shall be based on best available information. (2) The generic cleanup criteria developed by the department using the algorithms presented in these rules are derived primarily from data that reflect chronic toxicity endpoints. If a hazardous substance has a more sensitive toxic effect than those associated with the chronic toxicity data used to calculate a generic criterion, then a criterion shall be developed to address the most sensitive effect. The generic cleanup criteria established by the department shall be accepted as protective of the most sensitive toxic effect in a given exposure pathway for the hazardous substance in question. (3) If the department has not calculated a criterion for a hazardous substance for a given exposure pathway, then the person proposing or implementing the response activity shall supply the necessary data for the department to calculate a criterion or establish a criterion under subrule (4) of this rule, unless the department determines that a numerical criterion is not required to assure that a given response activity will be protective. (4) A generic or site-specific cleanup criterion may be established by the department based on best professional judgment instead of a calculation based on minimum toxicity data for a specific hazardous substance when the minimum toxicity data are not available for that hazardous substance, but data of sufficient quality are available to show that the hazardous substance in question can be adequately assessed by comparison to the toxicity of another hazardous substance for which sufficient data are available. A criterion may be established by the department in this manner when the hazardous substances are expected by the department to have similar fate and toxicity.