| In February 2013, the U.S. EPA released the draft "U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate Change Adaptation Plan." The plan examines how EPA programs may be vulnerable to a changing climate and how the Agency can accordingly adapt in order to continue meeting its mission of protecting human health and the environment. EPA's Superfund Program has undertaken associated efforts to identify potential impacts of climate change on site remediation projects and to identify adaptation strategies. A key component of the Superfund climate change adaptation action plan involves developing tools that can help project managers and other cleanup stakeholders to identify, prioritize and implement site-specific measures for increasing remedy resilience to climate change impacts. This fact sheet addresses contaminated site remedies involving source containment systems. It is intended to serve as an adaptation planning tool by (1) providing an overview of potential climate change vulnerabilities and (2) presenting possible adaptation measures that may be considered to increase a remedy's resilience to climate change impacts. This tool was developed in context of the Superfund Program but its concepts may apply to site cleanups conducted under other regulatory programs or through voluntary efforts. |