Management of Contaminated Site Problems, Second Edition

Kofi Asante-Duah

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781498761567
• eBook ISBN: 9780429582561
• Topic: Scienze biologiche
• Subtopic: Scienze ambientali

This book outlines the strategies used in the investigation, characterization, management, and restoration and remediation for various contaminated sites. It draws on real-world examples from across the globe to illustrate remediation techniques and discusses their applicability. It provides guidance for the successful corrective action assessment and response programs for any type of contaminated land problem, and at any location. The systematic protocols presented will aid environmental professionals in managing contaminated land and associated problems more efficiently. This new edition adds twelve new chapters, and is fully updated and expanded throughout.

Part I

A General Overview of Contaminated Site Problems

This part of the book is comprised of three sections—consisting of the following specific chapters:

• Chapter 1, Introduction, presents archetypical background information on the sources/origins of environmental contamination and chemical exposure problems in general and contaminated site problems in particular. This chapter also provides a broad overview on the general types of issues that need to be addressed in order to establish an effective risk management or corrective action program for contaminated site problems.
• Chapter 2, The Nature of Contaminated Site Problems, presents a discussion on the general nature and types of contaminated site problems often encountered in practice; it also elaborates on the general implications of such types of environmental contamination problems, as well as offers guidance to developing proper classification nomenclatures for the comparative evaluation of diverse sites.
• Chapter 3, Legislative-Regulatory Considerations in Contaminated Site Decision-Making, presents a summary review of selected environmental legislation potentially relevant to the management of contaminated site problems. Some of the well-established environmental laws found in the different regions of the world are introduced here.

1 Introduction

Wide-ranging environmental media that have been contaminated to various degrees by numerous chemicals or pollutants exist in several locations globally—and these constitute huge numbers of derelict or contaminated site problems with distinct complexities. Indeed, environmental contamination and related contaminated site issues represent a rather complex problem with worldwide implications. The greatest concern from such impacted sites and facilities relates to the fact that the properties of interest tend to pose significant risks to numerous stakeholders—as, for example, to the general public because of the potential health and environmental effects of the contaminants, to property owners and financiers due to possible financial losses and reduced property values, and to other potentially responsible parties (PRPs) because of possible financial liabilities that could arise from their consequential effects. Risks to both human and ecological health that could potentially arise from environmental contamination and related contaminated site problems are indeed a matter of particularly grave concern and significant interest. The effective management of contaminated sites has therefore become a very important environmental policy and risk management issue that will remain a growing social challenge for years to come—and the key to achieving this lies in the use of an informed strategy to develop and implement case-specific corrective action programs; in efforts to tackle this, risk assessment promises a systematic way for developing appropriate strategies to aid the contaminated site risk management and risk policy decisions. In fact, risk assessment notably represents one of the fastest evolving tools available for developing appropriate and cost-effective strategies to aid contaminated site restoration and risk management decisions.

This book, as a whole, outlines risk-based and related or complementing strategies that are useful in the investigation, characterization, management, and restoration of contaminated site problems. It draws on many real-world problem scenarios from across the globe to illustrate several crucial points. It also contains a review of several useful remediation techniques and their applicability scenarios. Indeed, to ensure public health and environmental sustainability, decisions relating to contaminated site management should generally be based on systematic and scientifically valid processes—such as via the use of risk assessment. Thus, this book highlights the application of risk assessment concepts and principles in the development of effective contaminated site management programs—including site identification, characterization, and restoration efforts.

To start off, this introductory chapter presents archetypical background information on the sources/origins of environmental contamination and chemical exposure problems in general and contaminated site problems in particular. This chapter also provides a broad overview on the general types of issues that need to be addressed in order to establish an effective risk management or corrective action program for contaminated site problems.

1.1 Tracking the Causes and Potential Impacts of Environmental Contamination and Contaminated Site Problems

A look into unfortunate lessons from the past—such as the Love Canal incident in New York (in the United States)—clearly demonstrates the dangers that could arise from the presence of contaminated sites within or near residential communities. Love Canal was a disposal site for chemical wastes for about 25–30 years (see, e.g., Gibbs, 1982; Levine, 1982), and subsequent use of this site culminated in residents of a township in the area suffering from various health impairments; it is believed that several children in the neighborhood apparently were born with serious birth defects. Analogous incidents are recorded in other localities in the United States, in Europe, in Japan, and indeed in numerous other locations in Asia and elsewhere around the world. The presence of potentially contaminated sites can therefore create potentially hazardous situations and pose significant risks of concern to society.

Indeed, it is apparent that the mere existence or presence of contaminated sites within a community or a human population habitat zone can invariably lead to contaminant releases and potential receptor exposures—possibly resulting in both short- and long-term effects on a diversity of populations within the “zone of influence” of the contaminated site. By and large, any consequential chemical intake or uptake by exposed organisms can cause severe health impairments or even death, if taken in sufficiently large amounts. Also, there are those chemicals of primary concern that can cause adverse impacts even from limited exposures. Still, human and other ecological populations are continuously in contact with varying amounts of chemicals present in air, water, soil, food, and other consumer products—among several other possible sources. Such human and ecological exposures to chemical constituents can indeed produce several adverse health effects in the target receptors, as well as potentially impart significant socioeconomic woes to the affected communities. What is more, historical records (as exemplified in Table 1.1) clearly demonstrate the dangers that may result from the presence of environmental contamination and chemical exposure situations (including those attributable to contaminated site problems) within or near residential communities and human work environments or habitats (Alloway and Ayres, 1993; Ashford and Miller, 1998; BMA, 1991; Brooks et al., 1995; Canter et al., 1988; Gibbs, 1982; Grisham, 1986; Hathaway et al., 1991; Kletz, 1994; Levine, 1982; Long and Schweitzer, 1982; Meyer et al., 1995; Petts et al., 1997; Rousselle et al., 2014; Williams et al., 2008).

1.1.1 Coming to Terms with Environmental Contamination and Chemical Exposure Problems?

Broadly speaking, the key environmental chemicals of greatest concern in much of modern societies are believed to be anthropogenic organic compounds. These typically include pesticides—for example, lindane, chlordane, endrin, dieldrin, toxaphene, and dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane [DDT]; industrial compounds—for example, solvents such as trichloroethylene (or, trichloroethene) [TCE] and fuel products derived from petroleum hydrocarbons; and by-products of various industrial processes—for example, hexachlorobenzene [HCB], polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs], polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (or, polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxins) [PCDDs], and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (or, polychlorodibenzofurans) [PCDFs] (see, e.g., Dewailly et al., 1993, 1996; Walker, 2008). Many industries also produce huge quantities of highly toxic waste by-products that include cyanide ions, acids, bases, heavy metals, oils, dyes, and organic solvents. Further yet, other rather unsuspecting sources of environmental contaminants are beginning to add to the multitude of chemical exposure problems that contemporary societies face (Asante-Duah, 2017); for instance, a number of scientists and regulatory agencies around the world have come to recognize/acknowledge pharmaceuticals to be an emerging environmental problem of significant concern.

Anyhow, due in part to the types of observations and occurrences identified in Table 1.1, a cultural mind-set in which issues relating to public safety are completely ignored is apparently a thing of the past. Indeed, all people are becoming increasingly aware and sensitive to the dangers of inadequacies in environmental management programs and related contaminated site management practices. The notion of what you don’t know doesn’t hurt is no longer tolerated, since even the least educated of populations have some conscious awareness of the potential dangers associated with hazardous materials. Consequently, in addition to managing the actual risks associated with environmental pollution, professionals may also have to deal with the psychosocial effects that the mere presence of toxic materials and/or contaminated sites may have on communities (Peck, 1989). Indeed, this is a picture probably well digested by several individuals, even by lay persons. Armed with this kind of information and knowledge, there is increasing public concern about the several problems and potentially dangerous situations associated with contaminated sites. Such concerns, together with the legal provisions of various legislative instruments and regulatory programs, have compelled both the industrial and governmental authorities in several jurisdictions to carefully formulate effective management plans for potentially contaminated sites. These plans include techniques and strategies needed to provide good preliminary assessments, site characterizations, impact assessments, and the development of cost-effective corrective action programs.

TABLE 1.1
Selected/Typical Examples of Potential Environmental Contamination and Resultant Human Exposures to Hazardous Chemicals/Materials—as Observed around the World

1.2 Managing Contaminated Site Problems

It is apparent that not all contaminated lands necessarily require cleanup and neither do equally contaminated sites necessarily all require the same degree of cleanup or restoration efforts—and this is where risk-based decision-making becomes the tool of choice. Indeed, at least in the interest of the usually limited resources available for environmental restoration programs, it is always prudent to identify credible scientific methods that allow technically sound decisions to be formulated even in the absence of active cleanup actions being undertaken at contaminated sites.

In general, when it is suspected that a potential hazard exists at a particular locale, then it becomes necessary to further investigate the situation—and to fully characterize the prevailing or anticipated hazards. This activity may be accomplished by the use of a well-designed site investigation program. To this end, contaminated site investigations typically consist of the planned and managed sequence of activities carried out to determine the nature and distribution of hazards associated with potential contaminated site and/or chemical exposure problems. The activities involved usually are comprised of several specific tasks—broadly listed to include the following (BSI, 1988):

• Problem definition/formulation (including identifying project objectives and data needs)
• Identification of the principal hazards or site contaminants
• Design of sampling and analysis programs
• Collection and analysis of appropriate samples
• Recording or reporting of laboratory results for further evaluation
• Logical analysis of sampling data and laboratory analytical results
• Interpretation of study results (consisting of enumeration of the implications of and decisions on corrective action)

On the whole, a thorough investigation—usually culminating in a risk assessment—that establishes the nature and extent of receptor exposures usually becomes necessary, in order to arrive at appropriate and realistic corrective action and/or risk management decisions.

Meanwhile, it is worth the mention here that, in order to get the most out of the environmental contamination and/or chemical exposure characterization for a contaminated site problem, this activity must be conducted in a systematic manner. Indeed, systematic methods help focus the purpose, the required level of detail, and the several topics of interest—such as physical characteristics of the potential receptors, contacted chemicals, extent and severity of possible exposures, effects of chemicals on populations potentially at risk, probability of harm to human and/or ecological health, and possible residual hazards following implementation of risk management and corrective action activities (Cairney, 1993). Ultimately, the data derived from the site investigation may be used to perform a risk assessment that becomes a very important element in the contaminated site risk management decision.

1.2.1 Risk Assessment as a Tool in the Management of Contaminated Site Problems

A key underlying principle of contaminated site risk assessment is that some risks are tolerable—a reasonable and even sensible view, considering the fact that nothing is wholly safe per se. In fact, whereas human and ecological exposures to large amounts of a toxic substance may be of major concern, exposures of rather limited extent may be trivial and therefore should not necessarily be a cause for alarm. In order to be able to make a credible decision on the cutoff between what really constitutes a “dangerous dose” and a “safe dose,” systematic scientific tools—such as those afforded by risk assessment—may be utilized. In this regard, therefore, risk assessment seems to have become an important contemporary foundational tool in the development of effectual environmental and public health risk management strategies and policies in relation to contaminated site problems. The risk assessment generally serves as a tool that can be used to organize, structure, and compile scientific information—in order to help identify existing hazardous situations or problems, anticipate potential problems, establish priorities, and provide a basis for regulatory controls and/or corrective actions. It may also be used to help gage the effectiveness of corrective measures or remedial actions.

It is noteworthy that, as part of the efforts aimed at designing an effectual risk assessment paradigm or framework in the applicatio...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• Part I A General Overview of Contaminated Site Problems
• Part II Contaminated Site Problem Diagnosis
• Part III Contaminated Site risk assessment: Concepts, Principles, techniques, and Methods of approach
• Part IV Development, Design, and Implementation of risk-Based Solutions and restoration Plans for Contaminated Site Problems
• Part V Appendices
• Bibliography
• Index