Ecological risk screening to determine principal contaminants of concern in the EPA risk assessment process
Conference
·
OSTI ID:367500
- Black and Veatch Waste Science, Inc., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
Ecological risk assessment (ERA) is generally a complicated process involving the evaluation of analytical data from several media for a wide range of hazardous chemicals. Until recently, there has been little guidance from the regulatory agencies on how to structure an ERA and how to organize and present the findings. New detailed guidance has been proposed by EPA for conducting ERAs at Superfund sites. A key component of this new guidance is the initial risk screening, designed to: (1) determine if a full ERA is necessary and (2) focus the ERA on the ecologically significant site contaminants. This paper describes the screening methods employed for each ecologically significant media of concern at a Superfund site. The importance of the site description, surrounding habitats, and migration pathways are discussed as a key component of estimating actual or potential exposure. The similarities and differences between screening criteria and values used by various EPA regional offices are discussed. Refinement of the list of site contaminants to a usable list of principal contaminants of concern is discussed. Two case study ecological risk screening assessments, performed by Black and Veatch Waste Science Inc., are used to demonstrate the applicability of ecological risk assessments to refining the overall ERA. The advantages and limitations of ecological risk screening as it relates to the overall risk assessment process is discussed as well.
- OSTI ID:
- 367500
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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