States, ASTM developing standards for voluntary cleanups

摘要

States are beginning to grapple with issues of risk assessment, exposure methodology, and technical feasibility as they develop cleanup standards to put recent voluntary cleanup legislation into practice. At the same time there are signs that some broadly acceptable methods for setting standards are emerging from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Ohio and Pennsylvania, two of the states that recently enacted legislation, are devising standards that encourage the cleanup and redevelopment of contaminated property while protecting human health and the environment (ES&T, July 1995, 306A). Both states are required by their new cleanup laws to set generic or statewide standards for soil and groundwater and to devise a method for conducting site-specific risk assessments. Landowners who participate in the program can choose which set of standards to use. Both states are also devising standards that take future land use into account so that residential areas would have to meet stricter standards than industrial sites would.