CalEPA pauses new vapor-intrusion policy to focus on implementing 2023 supplemental guidance

CalEPA officials told hundreds of participants at a public workshop that the State Water Resources Control Board will pause further work on a proposed statewide vapor-intrusion policy to focus instead on implementing the supplemental guidance released in February 2023 and building related data resources. At a kickoff session hosted by the CalEPA Vapor Intrusion Work Group, State Water Board assistant deputy director Annalisa Kihara said the agencies want “these information-sharing discussions to be useful to you and for us to achieve our priority to protect human health and the environment when we remediate contaminated sites, especially for residential use.” The shift was described by Steve McMasters of the State Water Resources Control Board, who said the board is “holding off on further work on this proposed policy so we can align our priorities with implementation of a supplemental guidance, support development of this GeoTracker vapor intrusion dataset, and continue the coordination with our sister agencies and regional boards on the holistic approach toward vapor intrusion.” Why it matters: CalEPA’s decision means the agencies will concentrate resources on training, casework guidance and an expanded GeoTracker dataset rather than pursue rulemaking at this time. Agency staff said the move is intended to promote consistent, practical implementation across regions and to use real-world case data to inform future technical decisions. CalEPA staff outlined short- and long-term deliverables tied to the guidance: staff training, public-facing training materials, development of an open dataset of paired building and subsurface measurements in GeoTracker, and a planned series of six technical workshops (the kickoff plus five topic-focused sessions) through 2026. “We view this as evergreen and look forward to ongoing communication and collaboration,” DTSC technical services chief Craig Sanchez said. The agencies emphasized that the supplemental guidance is not regulation. McMasters said the guidance emphasizes multiple lines of evidence, holistic decision-making, and use of models like the Johnson and Ettinger approach as a supplemental line of evidence rather than as a primary screening tool. DTSC representatives said they have modified the Johnson and Ettinger model and updated associated user guidance in 2024 to address bugs and add features such as capillary-fringe modeling and 2018 California toxicity values. Planned next steps announced at the workshop include a GeoTracker building-data workshop tentatively in early 2026, continued staff and public training, case-study workshops, and incorporation of public feedforward from today’s event into fall technical workshops. Attendees were told that presentations and Spanish-language materials from the workshop will be posted and that staff will accept written comments by email after the meeting. Ending: Agency leaders said the approach is iterative — they will use data from implementation and the GeoTracker dataset to reassess technical approaches and, if necessary, revisit policy work in the future.