Establishing and evaluating the risk implications of uniform soil remediation goals
- Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
There is growing interest in the establishment of uniform, concentration-based soil remediation goals to accelerate the cleanup of contaminated sites and to provide consistency in the extent of cleanup required for similar sites. If uniform goals are used in a region, post-remediation risk will vary across sites due to regional variability in site properties. Thus far, of the national and state agencies that have established or proposed uniform concentration guidelines, none have quantified the regional variability in risk that is likely to result with their use as remediation goals. This paper describes a methodology for evaluating regional cancer risk variability resulting from use of uniform, concentration-based soil remediation goals, presents an example application of the methodology, and examines its utility for establishing uniform goals for organic contaminants in soil. The methodology is based on the integrated transport, fate, exposure, and risk model SoilRisk. Also addressed is the issue of contaminants for which regional risk variability is expected to be large with use of uniform soil remediation goals. An approach is described for reducing such variability by development of alternative uniform contaminant concentration levels for categories of sites differentiated by site geographic location or physical-chemical properties. 17 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 458648
- Journal Information:
- Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, Journal Name: Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 46; ISSN JAWAEB; ISSN 1047-3289
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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