Proposal and application of a regional methodology of comparative risk assessment for potentially contaminated sites

ABSTRACT

A possible approach for determining soil and groundwater quality criteria for contaminated sites is the comparative risk assessment. Originating from but not limited to Italian interest in a decentralised (regional) implementation of comparative risk assessment, this paper first addresses the proposal of an original methodology called CORIAN_REG-M, which was created with initial attention to the context of potentially contaminated sites in the Marche Region (Central Italy). To deepen the technical-scientific knowledge and applicability of the comparative risk assessment, the following characteristics of the CORIAN_REG-M methodology appear to be relevant: the simplified but logical assumption of three categories of factors (source and transfer/transport of potential contamination, and impacted receptors) within each exposure pathway; the adaptation to quality and quantity of data that are available or derivable at the given scale of concern; the attention to a reliable but unsophisticated modelling; the achievement of a conceptual linkage to the absolute risk assessment approach; and the potential for easy updating and/or refining of the methodology. Further, the application of the CORIAN_REG-M methodology to some case-study sites located in the Marche Region indicated the following: a positive correlation can be expected between air and direct contact pathway scores, as well as between individual pathway scores and the overall site scores based on a root-mean-square algorithm; the exposure pathway, which presents the highest variability of scores, tends to be dominant at sites with the highest computed overall site scores; and the adoption of a root-mean-square algorithm can be expected to emphasise the overall site scoring.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Case-study sites
• comparative risk assessment
• methodology
• overall site score algorithm
• potentially contaminated sites

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Dr. M. Leoni and Dr. A.M. Siciliani, both at the Environmental Protection Agency of the Marche Region, for their collaboration in the derivation of the particulate mobility factor within the air particulate sub-pathway.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Fabio Tatàno http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0430-870X