EPA announces the first-ever drinking water standards for "forever chemical" family PFAS, setting off a chain of regulatory moves that will affect every water purveyor in the country.
The Challenge – RWQCB Pivoting Away from Risk-Based Closures to the Statutory Standard of “Background Conditions”As western states pivot strategies in response to increasingly severe droughts, the scramble to identify reliable sources of drinking water for their citizens is becoming more intense. Over the coming decades, California expects to receive less water from the Colorado River and expects that Sierra snow melt runoff will decrease. These are two of the biggest sources of drinking water for the Golden State. The value of groundwater as a drinking water source continues to increase in the State as a result of these changing dynamics.
The Challenge – Thousands of Leaking Dry-Cleaning SitesEnvironmental remediation professionals judge human health risk from contamination using a simple concept: (Toxicity) x (Opportunity for Exposure) x (Sensitivity of Receptors) = Health Risk. By that measure, it would be difficult to rival the magnitude and ubiquity of the health risk potentially caused by leaking dry cleaning chemicals in residential neighborhoods. There is a dry cleaner in most towns, they usually aren’t far from residential areas, the chemicals easily evaporate into indoor spaces, and we spend more time in our homes than anywhere else.
The Challenge – Understanding Contamination and SourcesMy goal today is to discuss the importance of developing a conceptual site model in the early stages of a Site investigation, before major decisions are made in advancing remediation and how high-resolution site characterization methods, such as passive soil vapor surveys, can provide depth and confidence in your CSMs.
When the Right Strategy is to Not to Conduct RemediationThe Challenge – Understanding Contamination and SourcesHave you ever heard the expression, “when you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail,”? It speaks to the sometimes base-level thinking of a practitioner with only one tool in their toolbox. The same can happen with environmental remediation solutions.