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Risk-Based Approach to Contaminated Land and Groundwater Assessment: Two Case Studies

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Clean Soil and Safe Water

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Abstract

The human health risk-based approach to contaminated land and groundwater assessment is described. It was developed under the EC financed NORISC project, and later on included in the technical guidelines for guiding remedial activities in Cyprus and Poland. The approach is designed as a two-step process: (1) preliminary site assessment and (2) site-specific assessment. The proposed site-specific human health risk assessment (HRA) process consists of two key phases: (a) baseline human health risk assessment (BHRA), including development of a data set, exposure assessment, toxicity assessment and risk characterisation, and (b) development of site-specific risk-based remedial levels (RBRLs). The proposed site-specific HRA method is based on the methodology of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and is applied throughout the entire remediation process, including the phases before, during and after remediation. In order to present the practical application of the HRA procedure two case studies are described: (1) Moni industrial site (Cyprus) – concentrating on contaminated soil, and (2) Milan-Meton site (Italy) and Linz-Heilham site (Austria) – assessing groundwater contamination.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    NORISC (Network Oriented Risk assessment by In-situ Screening of Contaminated sites) – EC FP5 project (2001–2003), (http://www.norisc.com/).

  2. 2.

    INCORE (Integrated Concept for Groundwater Remediation) – EC FP5 (2000–2003), (http://www.umweltwirtschaft-uw.de/incore/)

  3. 3.

    With the exception of lead; risk associated with industrial and residential exposures to lead in soil was assessed only by comparing lead concentrations in soil with the soil-Pb screening values recommended by USEPA, i.e., 800 and 400 mg/kg for industrial and residential scenarios, respectively [12, 15, 20].

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Acknowledgements

The Moni data were generated during the project of the “National Inventory of Potential Sources of Soil Contamination in Cyprus” (Tender number 5/2004), and the results are published by permission of the Director of the Cyprus Geological Survey Department, and the General Director of the Hellenic Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Ecology of Industrial Areas, 6 Kossutha Street, Katowice, 40-844, Poland

    Eleonora Wcisło, Marek Korcz & Jacek Długosz

  2. Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, Hellas, Athens, Greece

    Alecos Demetriades

Authors
  1. Eleonora Wcisło
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  2. Marek Korcz
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  3. Jacek Długosz
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  4. Alecos Demetriades
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Correspondence to Eleonora Wcisło .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Institute Env. Protection and Research, ISPRA, Via V. Brancati 48, Rome, 00144, Italy

    Francesca F. Quercia

  2. , Ministry of Environment Protection, Serbian Environmental Protection Agency, Ruze Jovanovica 27a, Beograd, 11160, Serbia

    Dragana Vidojevic

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Wcisło, E., Korcz, M., Długosz, J., Demetriades, A. (2012). Risk-Based Approach to Contaminated Land and Groundwater Assessment: Two Case Studies. In: Quercia, F., Vidojevic, D. (eds) Clean Soil and Safe Water. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2240-8_5

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