New Publication Topics
Green Remediation
In accordance with its mission to protect human health and the environment, EPA is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative cleanup strategies that restore contaminated sites to productive use, reduce associated costs, and promote environmental stewardship. With the implementation of green remediation, these goals can be met by considering all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to maximize net environmental benefit of cleanup actions. Green remediation reduces the demand placed on the environment during cleanup activities, which is known as the “footprint” of remediation....[more]
Vapor Intrusion
Redevelopment of brownfield sites plays an important role in stimulating the economic revitalization of communities by bringing vacant or underutilized properties into productive use and offsetting the need to develop open land, or “green space.” Along with the normal financial and business risks associated with developing property, brownfields redevelopers must manage environmental risk, including that due to vapor intrusion-the migration of chemical vapors from contaminated soil and groundwater into buildings. EPA’s primer, Vapor Intrusion Considerations for Brownfields Redevelopment...[more]
About the Vapor Intrusion Primer
Redevelopment of brownfield sites plays an important role in stimulating the economic revitalization of communities by bringing vacant or underutilized properties into productive use and offsetting the need to develop open land, or “green space.” Along with the normal financial and business risks associated with developing property, brownfields redevelopers must manage environmental risk, including that due to vapor intrusion-the migration of chemical vapors from contaminated soil and groundwater into buildings. EPA’s primer, Vapor Intrusion Considerations for Brownfields Redevelopment, is designed for land revitalization stakeholders concerned about vapor intrusion, including property owners, municipalities, and real estate developers. It provides an overview of the vapor intrusion issue and how it can affect redevelopment. It also summarizes techniques for quickly and cost effectively assessing the potential for vapor intrusion, as well as techniques for mitigating it.
The core message of the primer is that early consideration of vapor intrusion beginning during the Phase I environmental site assessment will help ensure that redevelopment protects the health of current and future building occupants. In addition, incorporating relatively inexpensive mitigation (prevention) techniques into the construction of new buildings, rather than retrofitting them later, will result in significant cost savings and help avoid the occurrence of vapor intrusion in the future. Because there are many available, cost-effective approaches to mitigation, vapor intrusion need not stand in the way of brownfields redevelopment.
What Is Vapor Intrusion?
Vapor intrusion is an exposure pathway-a way that people may come in contact with environmental contaminants. Vapor intrusion exposes building occupants to potentially toxic levels of vapors when volatile chemicals (those that readily evaporate) present in contaminated soil or groundwater emit vapors that migrate into overlying buildings. It is similar to the more familiar problem of radon, a gas that is emitted naturally from soil and bedrock and enters buildings through cracks and openings in the foundation and through porous building materials. Both volatile chemicals and semivolatile chemicals (those that evaporate more slowly) can pose a vapor intrusion problem.
Why Is Vapor Intrusion a Concern?
Vapor intrusion poses a potential risk to the health of residents, workers, and other occupants who breathe the vapors inside buildings. In the past, cleanup of brownfields and other contaminated sites focused on protecting human health by preventing exposure to contaminants through direct contact (e.g., children playing in contaminated soil) or ingestion (e.g., residents drinking contaminated groundwater from wells). As we have learned more about vapor intrusion, however, it has become clear that the potential for risk of inhaling chemical vapors due to vapor intrusion may still need to be addressed.
Where Is Vapor Intrusion a Concern?
Vapor intrusion is a potential concern at any building-existing or planned-located near soil or groundwater contaminated with VOCs. Properties with potential VOC contamination are common in industrial and commercial areas. They include current and former manufacturing and chemical processing plants, warehouses, landfills, coal gasification plants, train yards, dry cleaners, and gas stations. Improper use, storage, or transport of chemicals at these facilities may have resulted in a release of contaminants to the environment creating the potential for future vapor intrusion issues. In addition to industrial and commercial activities, roadside dumping, pesticide spraying, or even improper disposal of household chemicals via a septic field may also release contaminants to the environment. Therefore, the potential for vapor intrusion should be considered at all types of properties considered for redevelopment.
How Does Vapor Intrusion Impact Brownfields Redevelopment?
Awareness of vapor intrusion as a potential for exposure to soil and groundwater contamination has raised concerns about public health risks and liability during property transactions. However, if vapor intrusion is considered along with other potential exposure pathways commonly evaluated (e.g., ingestion of or direct contact with soil and groundwater), land revitalization stakeholders can eliminate potential health risks and facilitate transactions. Early proactive evaluation of vapor intrusion can make available more options for the mitigation and redevelopment. In addition, preconstruction mitigation measures are less expensive than post-construction remediation and structure retrofits.
About the Green Remediation Primer
In accordance with its mission to protect human health and the environment, EPA is dedicated to developing and promoting innovative cleanup strategies that restore contaminated sites to productive use, reduce associated costs, and promote environmental stewardship. With the implementation of green remediation, these goals can be met by considering all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to maximize net environmental benefit of cleanup actions. Green remediation reduces the demand placed on the environment during cleanup activities, which is known as the “footprint” of remediation. EPA has realized that the incorporation of sustainability practices can help increase the environmental, economic, and social benefits of cleanup.
EPA’s primer on green remediation, Incorporating Sustainable Environmental Practices into Remediation of Contaminated Sites, outlines the principles of green remediation and describes opportunities to reduce the footprint of remediation activities throughout the entire life of a project. This primer includes best management practices (BMPs) that can help decision-makers, communities, and other stakeholders identify new strategies in terms of sustainability. These strategies complement rather than replace the process used to select primary remedies that best meet site-specific cleanup goals. BMPs can be incorporated into all phases of remediation. The primer also identifies the range of alternatives available to improve the sustainability of cleanup activities and strives to cross educate remediation and reuse decision-makers and other stakeholders about green remediation. In addition, it provides tools for daily operations and introductory information on the use of renewable energy resources. Profiles of site-specific implementation of green remediation strategies are provided throughout the document to help federal and state agencies, local communities, and other stakeholders learn from collective experiences and successes.
Additional information about green remediation can be found on EPA’s Web site at http://www.cluin.org/greenremediation.
Overview of Green Remediation
Green Remediation is the practice of considering all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to maximize net environmental benefit of cleanup actions. Strategies for green remediation rely on sustainable development which meets the need of the present without compromising the need of future generations, while minimizing overall burdens to society. Sustainable practices emphasize the need to more closely evaluate core elements of a cleanup project; compare the site-specific value of conservation benefits gained by different strategies of green remediation; and weigh the environmental trade-offs of potential strategies. Green remediation addresses the following six core elements:
- Energy requirements of the treatment system
- Air emissions
- Water requirements and impacts on water resources
- Land and ecosystem impacts
- Material consumption and waste generation
- Long-term stewardship actions
Site Management Practices
BMPs of green remediation help ensure that day-to-day operations during all cleanup phases maximize opportunities to preserve and conserve natural resources while achieving the cleanup’s mission of protecting human health and the environment. Opportunities to implement the practices are not restricted to cleanups involving media treatment; for example, the practices can apply to removal actions involving primarily institutional controls or short-term soil excavation with offsite disposal.
Each site management plan can incorporate practices addressing core elements of green remediation with periodic review and update as new opportunities arise. An adaptive approach to site management planning enables early plans, in many cases initiated during emergency removal actions, to be expanded throughout remediation and extended into
long-term stewardship controls. Each plan can outline site-specific procedures to:
- Reduce air emissions and energy use
- Demonstrate water quality preservation and resource conservation
- Establish near-term improvements to the ecosystem that carry forward into site revitalization
- Reduce material consumption and waste generation
