Junk Science and Risk-Based Cleanup

摘要

North American environmental engineers and supporting scientists can produce the world's best performing and most cost-effective hazardous waste site cleanups. Our reputation and effectiveness, however, are strongly jeopardized by the relatively new and potentially dangerous effects of the inappropriate use of what are called risk-based cleanup actions (RBCA, or "Rebecca"). RBCA had an innocent enough origin in 1994, as part of the struggle to rid the nation of more than 400,000 leaking underground fuel storage tanks. Of the myriad hazardous wastes, total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) generally represent the least threat to humans, and they are amenable to natural bioremediation.