Waste and Cleanup Risk Assessment
RCRA Risk Assessment: Human Health: Planning and Scoping
View resources related to this topic from other Waste and Cleanup Risk Assessment Programs:
(note - programs not linked do not have content for this topic)
Chemical Accident Prevention
Federal Facilities Restoration and Reuse
Underground Storage Tanks
Resource and Conservation Recovery Act
Additional RCRA Information:
Risk assessments can be more efficiently completed if planning and scoping of the information and data needed to complete the assessment is considered before the field investigations and site characterization work are completed. Although this is sometimes an iterative process (with some collected data revealing the need for more information), planning and scoping before data collection generally reduce both time and cost for the site. Documents and links related to planning and scoping are presented on this webpage.
Documents
- Approach
for Addressing Dioxin in Soil and CERCLA and RCRA Sites (PDF) (
6 pp, 43K, About PDF)
OSWER Directive 9200.4-26, April 13, 1998
The purpose of this document is to recommend preliminary remediation goals (PRGs), or starting points for cleaning up dioxin in soil. - Clarification
to the 1994 Revised Interim Soil Lead Guidance for CERCLA Sites
and RCRA Corrective Action Facilities (PDF) (
16 pp, 129K, About PDF)
1998, OSWER Directive 9200.4-27, EPA/540/F-98/030 PB98-963244,
OSWER Directive # 9200.4-27P.
This document provides an approach for determining protective levels of lead in soil, including recommended screening levels, how to develop preliminary remediation goals, and a description of a clean-up plan for CERCLA (Superfund) and RCRA sites with multiple sources of lead. - Current Drinking
Water Standards
List of regulated contaminants with links for more details. - Establishment
of Cleanup Levels for CERCLA Sites with Radioactive Contamination (PDF)
August 22, 1997 (20 pp, 1.13MB, About PDF)
This memorandum presents clarifying guidance for establishing protective cleanup levels for radioactive contamination at Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) sites. - Evaluation of Facilities Currently or Previously Licensed NRC Sites under CERCLA, (Interim Final) (PDF) February 17, 2000 (9 pp,1MB, About PDF) (listed under OSWER Radiation Guidance)
- Guidance for Data Useability in
Risk Assessment (Part A) April 1992
Guidance for Data Useability in Risk Assessment, Part A, is designed to provide data users with a nationally consistent basis for making decisions about the minimum quality and quantity of environmental analytical data that are sufficient to support Superfund risk assessment decisions, regardless of which parties conduct the investigation. Part B of this guidance addresses radioanalytical issues. - Guidance for Data Useability in
Risk Assessment (Part B), May 1992
This document is the second part of the two-part Guidance for Data Useability in Risk Assessment. Part B provides supplemental guidance to Part A on planning and assessing radioanalytical data needs for the baseline human health risk assessment conducted as part of the remedial investigation process at sites containing radioactive substances. Part B is not a stand alone document and at all times should be used in conjunction with Part A. - Guidance for Data Usability
in Risk Assessment: Quick Reference Fact Sheet, September 1990
Bibliography of entries from categories of EPA documents. - Guidelines for Characterizing Background
Chemicals in Soil at Superfund Sites (External Peer Review Draft) (PDF)
June 2001 (23 pp,2.1MB, About PDF)
This document provides guidance to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regions concerning how the Agency intends to exercise its discretion in implementing one aspect of the CERCLA remedy selection process. The guidance is designed to implement national policy on these issues. - National Recommended
Ambient Water Quality Criteria
The criteria in this document (for 158 pollutants) provide guidance for states and tribes authorized to establish water quality standards under the Clean Water Act to protect human health and aquatic life. - New Policy on Evaluating Health Risks to Children From Administrator Carole Browner to: Assistant Administrators, General Counsel, Inspector General, Associate Administrators and Regional Administrators. October 20, 1995.
- Policy on
Evaluating Health Risks to Children
EPA policy to consider the risks to infants and children consistently and explicitly as a part of risk assessments generated during decision making process, including the setting of standards to protect public health and the environment. - Radiation
Preliminary Remedial Goals for Superfund February 7, 2002
The purpose of this database is to provide a PRG calculation tool to assist risk assessors, remedial project managers, and others involved with risk assessment and decision-making at CERCLA sites in developing PRGs. - Radiation
Risk Assessment at CERCLA Sites, Q&A, (PDF)December 1999
(23 pp, 2.2MB, About PDF)
The guidance provides answers to several common questions about radiation risk assessments at CERCLA sites.
Part 1 (PDF) (23 pp, 2.2MB, About PDF)
Part 2 (PDF) (5 pp, 798K, About PDF)
Part 3 (PDF) (6 pp, 1MB, About PDF)
Part 4 (PDF) (6 pp, 708K, About PDF) - Radiation Risk Assessment Guidance (PDF) (37 pp, 680K, About PDF)
This chapter provides supplemental baseline risk assessment guidance for use at sites contaminated with radioactive substances that are included on the National Priorities List (NPL). - Recommendations
of the Technical Review Workgroup for Lead for an Approach
to Assessing Risks Associated with Adult Exposures to Lead in
Soils
This report describes a methodology for assessing risks associated with non-residential adult exposures to lead in soil. - Revised
Interim Soil Lead Guidance for CERCLA Sites and RCRA Corrective
Action Facilities (PDF) (18 pp, 1.56MB, About PDF)
1993, OSWER Directive #9355.4-12
This document provides an approach for determining protective levels of lead in soil, including recommended screening levels, how to develop preliminary remediation goals, and a description of a clean-up plan for CERCLA (Superfund) and RCRA sites with multiple sources of lead. - (Revised) Policy on Performance of
Risk Assessments During RI/FSs Conducted by PRPs (PDF) (
pp,K, About PDF)
As part of the recently announced administrative reforms to the Superfund program, the Administrator stated that EPA would reaffirm its commitment to "allow PRP's to conduct risk assessments under proper circumstances as part of the overall site study (RI/FS)." This memorandum announces EPA's revised policy on allowing PRP's to conduct the risk assessment portion of the RI/FS. - Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund:
Volume I, Part D (1998)
This document provides guidance on standardized planning, reporting and review of Superfund Risk Assessments. - Role of Background in the CERCLA
Cleanup Program (PDF) April 26, 2002 (
pp,K, About PDF)
This document clarifies the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) preferred approach for the consideration of background constituent concentrations of hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants in certain steps of the remedy selection process, such as risk assessment and risk management, at Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or "Superfund") sites. - Role of BTAGs in Ecological Assessment (PDF)
September 1991 Eco Update (pp,K, About PDF)
This EcoUpdate bulletin describes the responsibilities and activities of the Biological Technical Assistance Group: a group of scientists established to aid remedial project managers. - Role of Screening Level Risk
Assessment and Refining COCs (Chemicals or Contaminants of Concern)
in Baseline Ecological Risk Assessment (PDF) 2001 (
pp,K, About PDF)
This EcoUpdate bulletin describes the process and purpose of the screening level ecological risk assessment, which is the first steps in a ecological risk assessment at a site, and how the list of COCs can be refined to include only those contaminants that may pose a risk. - Role
of the Baseline Risk Assessment in Superfund Remedy Selection,
April 22, 1991
This memo describes the process and purpose of the baseline risk assessment (the latter steps) in terms of remedy selection. - Soil Cleanup Criteria in 40 CFR Part 192, Uranium Mine Tailings Radiation Control Act, OSWER Directive 9200.4-25, February 12, 1998
- Soil
Screening Guidance, July 1996
The Soil Screening Guidance (SSG) presents a framework for developing risk-based, soil screening levels (SSLs) for protection of human health. - Soil Screening Guidance for Radionuclides, November 20, 2000, (date of the transmittal of *Standards, Advisories and Guidance for the Management of Radioactive Waste, July 1989, Chapter 5 of CERCLA Compliance with other Laws Manual: Part II)
- Supplemental
Guidance for Developing Soil Screening Levels
for Superfund Sites (PDF) December 2002, OSWER 9355.4-24
(106
pp, 1.9MB, About PDF)
This document is intended as companion guidance to the 1996 SSG for residential use scenarios at NPL sites. - The Role of Natural Resource Trustees
in the Superfund Process March 1992 Eco Update (PDF)
(pp,K, About PDF)
This EcoUpdate bulletin is intended to help project managers to work with Natural Resource Trustees, explaining the responsibilities and authorities of those trustees and those of the Remedial Project Managers and On-Scene Coordinators with respect to those trustees. - Use
of Uranium Drinking Water Standards under 40 CFR 141 and 40 CFR
192 as Remediation Goals for Groundwater at CERCLA Sites (PDF) November
6, 2001 (11 pp, 420K, About
PDF Files)
Memo addressing the use of uranium standards when establishing remediation goals in groundwater in CERCLA (Superfund) sites that may be current or future sources of drinking water. - Vapor
Intrusion Guidance
OSWER Draft Guidance for Evaluating the Vapor Intrusion to Indoor Air Pathway from Groundwater and Soils (Subsurface Vapor Intrusion Guidance). Provides current technical and policy recommendations on determining if the vapor intrusion pathway poses an unacceptable risk to human health at cleanup sites.