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The Standard
March 2009 - Page 3

2009 Conferences
2009 has been and will continue to be a busy time for Environmental Standards professionals as they travel throughout the country to various seminars and conferences.

On February 2-5, 2009, the Fifth International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments was held in Jacksonville, Florida. Quality Assurance Specialist/Principal David R. Blye, CEAC, and Technical Director of Chemistry/Principal Rock J. Vitale, CPC, CEAC, presented “EPA Method 1668A Interlaboratory Study and Data Comparability Evaluation” and “Forensically Identifying Unique Sources of PCBs on a Large Sediment Characterization Project,” respectively, during the poster session. Environmental Standards exhibited at the conference.

Professionals from Environmental Standards attended the Society for Women Environmental Professionals - Capital Chapter Making Environmental Connections Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on March 5, 2009. Manager, Risk Assessment Services Kathy Zvarick, presented “Making Environmental Connections Through Data.”

The 19th Annual AEHS Meeting and West Coast Conference on Soils, Sediments, and Water was held March 9-12, 2009, in San Diego, California. Rock J. Vitale, CPC, CEAC, presented “A Novel Modeling Methodology to Assist in Assessing Historical Data Quality for Sediment Characterization” during the conference.

The 24th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management took place on March 15-18, 2009, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Principal Geoscientist Gerry Kirkpatrick, P.G., presented “Sustainable Remediation - Understanding the Carbon Footprint Impact of Remediation Efforts of Retail Service Stations in New Jersey” during the conference.

Environmental Standards representatives will attend the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry 2009 Environmental and Energy Conference and Trade Show. The event will be held April 7-8, 2009 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The Battelle In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation Symposium is scheduled on May 5-8, 2009, in Baltimore, Maryland. Gerry Kirkpatrick, P.G., will present “In Situ Bioremediation of Chlorinated Solvents in Fractured Triassic Bedrock of Southeast Pennsylvania.”

From May 12-14, 2009, the annual TCEQ Environmental Trade Fair and Conference will be held in Austin, Texas. Rock J. Vitale, CEAC, CPC, will present “Nonylphenols - A New Group of Compounds of Concern” and Quality Assurance Specialist/Principal Ruth L. Forman, CEAC, will present “The Art of Reading a Lab Report - Can You Pass the Test?” Be sure to visit Environmental Standards at Booth # 1120.

The Florida Society of Environmental Analysts (FSEA) Spring Meeting and Technical Session will be held in St. Petersburg Beach, Florida, on May 20-22, 2009. Rock J. Vitale, CEAC, CPC, will present “The Do’s and Don’ts Regarding MDL Verification Studies.”

If you would like a copy of any of these presentations, please contact Marketing Coordinator Abby Wilson at 610-935-5577.

Accutest Laboratories Acquires Colorado Laboratory And Opens New Service Center In Pennsylvania
Accutest Laboratories announced the acquisition of Evergreen Analytical Laboratory of Denver, Colorado, in January 2009. In addition, Accutest opened a new Service Center in Exton, Pennsylvania, on March 9, 2009. Accutest is the third largest operator of environmental testing laboratories in the United States.

Laboratory Testing In Europe - The United States Way
Environmental Standards senior auditors Ruth L. Forman and Patrick A. Conlon conducted on-site audits at three European laboratories in December 2008 on behalf of a multi-national client. The laboratories, which were located in France, Belgium, and Germany, were audited against the requirements in a project-specific Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP), various US EPA published methods, and ISO 17025 standards for volatile, semivolatile, radiological, and metals analyses and various wet chemistry parameters in aqueous, solid, and air matrices.

EU Lab Audit

While many of the laboratories that Environmental Standards has audited in Europe to date have referenced US EPA methods, few laboratories have been observed to follow many of the method requirements in the published analytical methods. As reported by auditor David R. Blye in the June 2008 issue of The Standard, European laboratories are accredited to ISO 17025 standards and tend to be high-production, assembly-line facilities with an emphasis on method-performance metrics and operate much differently than laboratories in the United States. Ms. Forman and Mr. Conlon, however, observed that the European laboratories audited in December not only conducted operations following a performance-based manner for their ISO-accredited analyses but also conducted operations in a manner similar to that observed in the United States.

Unlike many of the European laboratories that Environmental Standards has previously audited, the QC regimes followed the US EPA methods, the data were peer reviewed by a second analyst, and the laboratories produced full data package deliverables, inclusive of raw data, to completely substantiate the reported analytical results.

Controversial Remediation Legislation Pending In New Jersey
New Jersey’s approach to the remediation of more than 20,000 contaminated sites (former landfills and industrial plants) is about to change. After two years of debate, a controversial bill was released from environmental committees in the Assembly and Senate to the full legislature in late February 2009. Supporters of the bill contend that the current remediation system is “broken” and that action is required to expedite the cleanup process; opponents, however, criticize the lack of government oversight and the potential for conflicts of interest and lawsuits.

The proposed bill, which is modeled after a successful 1993 Licensed Site Professional (LSP) Program in Massachusetts, allows owners of contaminated sites to hire private consultants to oversee cleanups, creates an LSP Licensing Board, and establishes civil penalties.

Assistant New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) Commissioner Irene Kropp, who oversees the NJ DEP’s site remediation program, clarified the basic features of the proposed legislation by indicating that the legislation:

Does not lower any cleanup standards and, in fact, strengthens NJ DEP's enforcement capabilities.
Provides greater protections for schools, child care facilities, and residential housing.
Furthers NJ DEP's ability to require cleanups to unrestricted standards.
Does not privatize, does not deregulate, and does not eliminate NJ DEP enforcement.
Ensures NJ DEP review of all documents (not done under current program).
Provides for the toughest requirements at "recalcitrant" sites (i.e., those where responsible parties try to evade or postpone cleanup).
Reinforces and strengthens the “polluter pays” concept.
Holds licensed site professionals (LSPs) to a higher standard of performance, makes LSPs accountable for their work, requires LSP licensure, and provides significant penalties, including criminal prosecution, for any LSP who violates cleanup rules and law.

The impact of this legislation to clients involved directly or indirectly with contaminated/remediation projects and potential real estate transactions in the Garden State could be significant. Principal Geoscientist Gerry Kirkpatrick is closely monitoring the progress of the proposed bill. If you have questions or concerns, please call 610-935-5577.

US EPA Adds To Its List Of "RAGS"
In January 2009, the US EPA released a final version of its Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund (RAGS) Part F. This document is the sixth in the RAGS series that started with Part A, the original risk assessment “Bible,” in 1989. RAGS Part F, officially titled Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund Volume 1: Human Health Evaluation Manual (Part F, Supplemental Guidance for Inhalation Risk Assessment), addresses US EPA’s most current approach, as the title implies, to the assessment of inhalation risks. The guidance presents a departure from the “traditional” inhalation risk methodologies presented in RAGS Part A.

RAGS Part F formally introduces the use of inhalation reference concentrations (RfCs) and inhalation unit risk values (IURs) that will be used in lieu of reference doses (RfDs) and cancer slope factors (CSFs) for inhalation exposures. The new method is based on US EPA’s Inhalation Dosimetry Methodology. The introduction of RfCs and IURs eliminates the inhalation rate and body weight parameters from the inhalation intake calculation. This updated method does not differentiate between adult and child exposure - the new equation for estimating exposure concentrations does not include parameters that are age-dependent. Furthermore, the new method does not provide for differentiation between high activity (e.g., maintenance workers) and low activity (e.g., office workers) exposures.

Age-dependent parameters are no longer required in the inhalation exposure calculations because the RfCs and IURs are calculated based on the ratio of respiratory minute volume (the amount of air inhaled or exhaled in a minute) to the lung surface area. The minute volume and surface area values are different for adults and children, but the ratio of minute volume to surface area does not significantly change over a lifetime.

The US EPA maintains in RAGS Part F that the updated approach is sufficient to address populations and life stages with varying activities and physiologic characteristics. Given this statement, one must wonder if the approach is overly conservative for scenarios with relatively low exposures such as adult residents when the same method should be applied to estimate child exposures or exposures in high-activity occupations such as grounds-keeping or construction.

Environmental Standards conducted a comparison of hazards and risks estimated using the former RAGS Part A method and US EPA’s updated Inhalation Dosimetry Methodology presented in RAGS Part F. Using a residential vapor intrusion scenario, cancer risks and noncancer hazards were estimated for benzene inhalation exposures. The former RAGS Part A method resulted in a cancer risk level of 6×10-5 for benzene while the new RAGS Part F
method resulted in a cancer risk level of 1×10-6. Similarly, noncancer hazards for benzene were 0.4 using Part A and 0.01 using Part F. Based on this example, it appears that hazards and risks might be lower (better) when calculated using the new RAGS Part F approach.

For more information on the new RAGS Part F approach to inhalation risk assessment, please contact Manager, Risk Assessment Services Kathy Zvarick at 610-935-5577.

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