Procedural Steps in Human Risk Assessment for Contaminated Sites: An Italian Case-Study Application with the ARA-CoS_SSLs Approach

ABSTRACT

Within the increased attention to the absolute risk assessment for potentially contaminated sites at the Italian level, the definable ARA-CoS_SSLs modeling approach for human health protection was recently derived with predominant reference to the USEPA SSLs procedure. The basic aim of the ARA-CoS_SSLs applications regards the possible technical-scientific improvement and better understanding of significant aspects in carrying out the human risk assessment at a given site. Particularly, the final reliability of the human risk assessment depends on the scientific plausibility of the procedural steps implemented during the elaboration of the available site investigation and information data. In this perspective, this article deals with the procedural elaboration steps conceived and implemented for the ARA-CoS_SSLs case-study application at a potentially contaminated subarea of a major Italian priority industrial site. Specific indications and aspects are addressed in the paper on the following procedural steps: (1) the usefulness of selection criteria for contaminants of concern; (2) the consideration of the possible soil gas loss (during drilling and/or sampling and/or analytical operations) for a reliable definition of subsurface representative concentrations for organic contaminants; (3) the geostatistical definition of the site areal extent, with a proposed conservative scenario in case of sparse spatial concentration data.

Key Words:

• case-study
• contaminants of concern
• human risk assessment
• potentially contaminated site
• representative concentrations
• site areal extent

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Referring to the case-study industrial subarea application of the ARA-CoS_SSLs approach in this article, Dr.-Ing. Laura D’Aprile at ISPRA (Italian High Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Rome) is mentioned for her availability and support concerning the site investigation and technical-scientific informative data. Dr. Rosanna Cozzolino is mentioned for the final improvement of the English style.