Kennedy's Environmental Program

KSC Remediation Program Overview

Kennedy's Environmental Program - Remediation

The goal of the KSC Remediation Program is to protect the health of our workers, the community, and the environment

As the primary launch site for the U.S. Space Program, Kennedy Space Center, has long been engaged in a wide variety of operations that are an integral part of NASA missions. These operations involved the use of toxic and hazardous materials. Federal, state and local governments have developed strict regulations that require disposers of hazardous waste to identify the locations and contents of past disposal sites and to take actions to eliminate any hazards in an environmentally responsible manner. NASA’s Kennedy has a program to evaluate sites where contamination is present under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and its Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (HSWA).

Kennedy’s remediation program has its roots in two Consent Orders (no longer open) issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) in the late 1980s for Kennedy’s oldest remediation sites, Wilson Corners (now Solid Waste Management Unit (SWMU) #1) and Ransom Road Landfill (now SWMU #3). Kennedy also operates a permitted Hazardous Waste Storage Facility under Subtitle C of the RCRA. As a result, with the RCRA HSWA in 1984 came the requirement to identify potential release sites and implement corrective action at those sites as warranted. The HSWA portion of Kennedy’s RCRA permit was issued by the Enivronmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1986 and was renewed in 1997. The EPA since delegated corrective action authority to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and Kenndy’s HSWA permit with FDEP was executed in 2002 and renewed in 2008, 2012, 2017 and 2022.

In addition to corrective action sites, Kennedy’s remediation program office also manages petroleum contamination sites under Chapter 62-780 of the Florida Administrative Code.

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