{"id":386,"date":"2009-10-03T10:57:27","date_gmt":"2009-10-03T14:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/?p=386"},"modified":"2022-04-15T10:58:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T14:58:56","slug":"risk-assessment-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/2009\/10\/risk-assessment-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Risk Assessment, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We’ll be referring to the table<\/a> we have available for download for the screening levels for\nassessment.
\n
\nFor this state, assessment of soil contamination proceeds in a systematic\nmanner (see the Decision Tree document<\/a>). The sample’s concentration is compared to background\nlevels — either uncontaminated soil from or near the site or state background\nlevels. If the sample’s concentration is lower than the background level, then\nthere is no problem. If the concentration is higher then the next stage of\nassessment is made. For our samples, arsenic and lead were higher than the\nmaximum concentrations in the state’s background levels. Barium and chromium\nwere lower so those metals aren’t considered a concern. (Canada is currently\ncreating national guidelines<\/a> for acceptable concentrations of chemicals in soil. These\nlimitations will be in force, even if the soil background concentration is\nhigher.)
\n
\nThe next step is to compare arsenic and lead concentrations to the soil to\ngroundwater screening levels. The EPA recently changed their screening levels\n(June 2009) and we’re using the EPA’s current screening levels for this region.\nThe sample’s concentrations for lead and arsenic were both higher than the soil\nto groundwater screening levels (arsenic is also higher for the state’s soil to\ngroundwater screening level — these for some reason are about 20 times higher\nthan the EPA’s). Typically this means that groundwater needs to be tested for\nthese elements.
\n
\nThe next step is to consider residential screening levels. In this case, the\narsenic concentration is still higher than the residential screening level, but\nlead is lower.
\n
\nIn West Virginia an option where soil screening levels are high for residential\nbut don’t exceed the industrial soil screening level, is a deed restriction, so\nthat the property can only be used for industrial activity and not as a place\nto live, garden or farm. We don’t believe that is an option here since the well\npad is on a half acre of a much larger piece of property. The natural gas\noperator doesn’t own the property, they lease the mineral rights from someone\nelse who owns the mineral rights. Surface rights were severed from the mineral\nrights some time ago.
\n
\nAnother concern for all the metals — arsenic, barium, chromium and lead — is\nhow much higher their concentrations are than ecological screening levels. In\nthe case of arsenic the eco-ssl is much higher than the residential soil\nscreening level (but the sample’s concentration is higher still), while for\nbarium, chromium and lead the eco-ssl are much lower than residential screening\nlevels.
\n
\nOur preliminary assessment comes from the laboratory analysis of one spot\nwithin an affected surface area of at least 1500 square feet. The matrix has a\nhigh chloride concentration which would enable the transport of chemicals\nthrough soil to water beyond the confines of the site. It’s entirely possible\nthat laboratory analysis at other points would alter the preliminary\nassessment’s chemicals of concern and add others. It’s also possible that the\npit liner is no longer intact at the bottom further north of the sample\nlocation and migration of pollutants has already occurred.
\n
\nFor these reasons, we believe the site deserves a full assessment by a\nprofessional though we believe that remediation options for the operator are\nlimited. We hesitate to make recommendations but believe the operator’s\npreference of doing nothing is not viable because we believe that the site’s\nunremediated presence is a danger to those living nearby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ll be referring to the table we have available for download for the screening levels for assessment. For this state, assessment of soil contamination proceeds in a systematic manner (see the Decision Tree document). The sample’s concentration is compared to background levels — either uncontaminated soil from or near the site or state background levels….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaswellstudy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":387,"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions\/387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sootypaws.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}