15.2 Soil Removal and Replacement

Take it out, put clean soil back, and do not donate the spoil

Quick Answer: If soil abatement is conducted, it shall be in one of two ways (40 CFR 745.227(e)(7)). If the soil is removed: (A) it shall be replaced by soil with a lead concentration as close to local background as practicable, but no greater than 400 ppm; (B) the soil that is removed shall not be used as top soil at another residential property or child-occupied facility. If soil is not removed, it shall be permanently covered (Section 15.3). 745.227 does not specify an inch depth. HUD Guidelines Chapter 12, as a documented methodology under 745.227(a)(3), treats removal of 6 inches of topsoil as adequate for most residential projects, with depth assessed at each site from sampling and expected use.

Section 15.1 told you whether a play-area or rest-of-yard bare-soil hazard exists. This section is the removal path. Grass, mulch, and gravel are not this path. Rototilling 900 ppm play-area dirt into the subsoil is not this path. Dumping the excavated pile on the duplex next door as “free topsoil” is the exact (e)(7)(i)(B) violation the exam is built to catch.

Replacement soil at 400 ppm is the ceiling, not the target. The sentence is as close to local background as practicable, but no greater than 400 ppm. If background in that neighborhood is 80 ppm, 390 ppm fill is legal only in the thin sense that it is ≤ 400; it is not “as close as practicable.” HUD Chapter 12 advises that, where feasible, replacement soil be half or less of 400 — 200 µg/g or less — as a precautionary factor. That HUD preference does not rewrite EPA's 400 ppm cap.

EPA's two sentences; HUD's inches

745.227(e)(7)(i) is short on purpose. It does not say 2 inches, 6 inches, or 24 inches. Supervisors follow the documented methodology and the specifications in the work plan.

How deep — the exam answer. If the question asks what EPA 745.227 requires for inches, the honest answer is it does not specify. If the question asks what HUD Chapter 12 uses as the usual residential cut, the answer is 6 inches of topsoil, unless sampling and use (deep gardens, former building pads, industrial fill) show contamination deeper. Do not excavate 24 inches on every sandbox because it feels thorough, and do not skim 2 inches of a 6-inch contaminated profile and call the job done because “EPA never said 6.” The specification, the RA's depth data if collected, and HUD's documented methodology fill the silence.

Worked example — play-area 900 ppm, 4-inch dirty cap. Cores show lead dropping below 400 ppm below about 4 inches. HUD's usual 6-inch cut still makes sense so the remaining profile is not nicked by later play and so the geotextile sits in clean-enough material. Replacement soil tests 120 ppm, local background about 90 ppm — as close as practicable and ≤ 400. Finish 2 inches high, sod it, keep children off until the cover is established.

Worked example — urban 18-inch contamination. The lot sits on decades of painted-building debris. Cores stay high to 18 inches. HUD says urban contamination may extend 1 or 2 feet and that depth of usual disturbance (here, vegetable beds) drives the cut. The spec removes 18 inches, places geotextile, and replaces with ≤ 400 ppm soil. A 6-inch skim that leaves 2,000 ppm at 8 inches for the first tomato planting is not “HUD 6 inches always.”

How to run a removal day (HUD Chapter 12 field sequence)

Accredited courses teach HUD's how-to because 745.227(a)(3) points you there:

1. Confirm the hazard and the method from the RA and the contract (play area vs rest of yard; remove vs pave).
2. Test replacement soil before it arrives — ≤ 400 ppm, as close to background as practicable.
3. Call 811 / utility locate. Mark water, gas, electric, cable, sewer. HUD: protect utilities; the owner or contractor makes good any damage.
4. Site control. Temporary fence or barricades, caution tape, keep unauthorized people and animals out. Maintain a lead-safe path to the dwelling that does not cross the excavation. HUD: finish a given site in one workday when you can, because overnight bare contaminated soil is a child-access problem.
5. Do not leave spoil piles overnight. Cover if you must pause; high wind and rain move contaminated soil off-site. Suspend work when weather defeats control.
6. Load once. Wheelbarrows or small equipment into tarped, sealed-tailgate trucks or roll-offs. Brush soil off tires on plastic before the truck leaves. HUD: no double-handling that spreads dirt across the walk.
7. Separate tools (or decontaminate) so clean fill is not placed with dirty shovels.
8. Geotextile on the excavation bottom. Replace to the specified depth and 2 inches above existing grade, draining away from the house.
9. Clean adjacent hard surfaces — walks, drives, street — of loose contaminated soil before clean fill goes down, and again at day's end (scrape, wash, vacuum/wet-sweep).
10. Keep records of sampling and the cut depth with the property file so a later sewer trench does not smear dirty subsoil onto the new cap.

Occupant protection (Chapter 8) still applies: children do not play in the open excavation. Exterior containment logic from Chapter 11 still applies: you are moving contaminated material; do not track it onto the porch and into the living room.

Cultivation is a trap. HUD Chapter 12 discusses rototilling as a possible mixing strategy when the average is already below 1,200 µg/g. EPA soil abatement is not that option. If the job is abatement under (e)(7), you remove and replace or you permanently cover. Mixing 900 ppm play-area soil with cleaner dirt underneath does not meet (e)(7)(i) or (ii).

The excavated soil is waste — not landscape material

(e)(7)(i)(B) is a complete sentence: removed soil shall not be used as top soil at another residential property or child-occupied facility. That bans the friendly dump on the neighbor's garden, the daycare sandbox “refresh,” and the church playground fill. It also bans using the spoil as topsoil on this owner's other rental two streets over.

The spoil is still a waste stream. Chapter 17 owns TCLP, D008 (≥ 5 mg/L lead), manifests, and the household exclusion. HUD Chapter 12: use a load-ticket / manifest system so the dirt is not quietly used as residential fill; TCLP may make the load hazardous. States may be stricter. Never open-burn it. Never throw it in a storm drain. Never stockpile it on the play area as the “new” surface.

Worked example — the neighbor's garden. Crew finishes a 900 ppm sandbox excavation at 3 p.m. The helper offers the dark loam to the next-door gardener. That reuse is (e)(7)(i)(B) regardless of how nice the loam looks. It goes to a lawful disposal or treatment path, characterized as Chapter 17 requires — not across the property line as topsoil.

Worked example — 450 ppm “clean” fill. A landscape supplier's fill tests 450 ppm. It fails (e)(7)(i)(A) even if local background is 500 ppm, because replacement may be no greater than 400 ppm. Find another source. Do not average the 450 ppm fill with 50 ppm compost in the truck and call it 250 without a real, documented blend and a new lab result.

Official sources: 40 CFR 745.227(e)(7), (a)(3); HUD Guidelines Chapter 12, Soil and Exterior Dust Abatement (typical 6-inch topsoil removal, site-specific depth, geotextile, 2-inch over-grade, replacement < 400 µg/g / advise 200 µg/g).