University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Civil & Environmental Engineering
FALL 1997
Environmental Risk Assessment:
Applications to Hazardous Waste Sites
ENVR ENGR 595 3 hours gr cr
Wednesdays 6:30 - 9:15 pm
Perkins Hall, Room 102
This course will present a broad-based introduction to human health risk assessment for environmental contamination.
Upper division undergraduates and masters level graduate students in engineering, geology, life & health sciences, and other sciences exploring environmental careers. In addition, environmental contractors with an eye toward career development as project engineers, project managers, risk assessors, or risk managers.
Environmental risk assessments are a tool to determine if contaminant releases, either current or future, pose unacceptable risk to human health or the environment. They are performed under Superfund regulations to support decision-makers in the selection of cost-effective, risk-reducing cleanup decisions. In addition, risk assessments evaluate disposal criteria for landfills and the allowable emissions from process equipment. The guidance for risk assessment is provided by federal and state agencies. However, all risk assessments determine the dose a receptor may receive through exposure to contaminated media and calculate the risk. In this course, the focus will be on the methods established by the US EPA to calculate the risk posed to human health under Superfund and other federal regulations. In addition, the fundamentals of management of risks will be presented.
I. Procedures for Performing Risk Assessment II. Exposure Assessment A. Develop general conceptual site models B. Exposure pathways C. Contaminant migration, exposure times and concentration D. Introduction to modeling (risk) E. Calculation of the Chronic Daily Intake III. Toxicity Assessment A. Exposure routes B. Sources of toxicity C. Types of toxicity D. Toxicity values E. Radiation assessment F. Associated uncertainties IV. Data Requirements for Risk Assessments A. How rigorous does it have to be? 1. Historical and process information 2. Review of historical data 3. Data quality steps 4. Reproducibility and validation 5. Environmental sampling / planning 6. Meeting EPA sampling requirement B. Media-specific sampling C. Sample analyses D. Data evaluation V. Data Evaluation and Data Reduction A. Screening of data points B. Analyte screening C. Calculation of representative values D. Analytical techniques E. Statistical comparisons F. Associated uncertainties VI. Risk Characterization A. Pulling it together B. Uncertainties (effects on risk numbers) VII. Introduction to Uncertainty Analyses A. Guide to further investigations B. Use in Risk Management VIII. Risk Management of Exposure A. Using conceptual site model B. Risk assessment in corrective actions
Tentatively, the following grading scheme will be used.
Homework and Quizzes 30%
Take-home class project 50%
In-class final examination 20%
The take-home class project will be a dataset that the student
will use to perform a human health risk assessment following the
steps discussed in the course.
General Chemistry
Knowledge of algebra
Basic computer skills
General Biology strongly recommended
Introductory statistics recommended
Calculated Risks: Understanding the toxicity and human health risks of chemicals in our environment,
by Joseph V. Rodricks, published by Cambridge University Press (paperback)
Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund , Volume I, Parts A, B, and C.
US EPA (EPA/540/1-89/002)
[This document series is held by the UT Library and is available
on Microfiche]
Other documents will be made available for reading and/or copying.
Students are encouraged to access a CAFE account with the University of Tennessee Computing Center for access to spreadsheets and e-mail.
Richard Bonczek, Ph.D. has taught courses in risk and health assessment for state and federal employees. He has performed or managed human health and ecological risk assessments for over 100 sites, authoring over 40 technical papers on risk assessment and management. Advanced degrees in Animal Science allow him to appreciate the effects of environmental exposures, while a Statistics degree helped him develop quantitative exposure evaluation methods. He is the risk assessment coordinator for two federal sites and a research associate at ORNL. Research interests are in exposure assessment and data set development.
Bobette Nourse, Ph.D. has 5 years experience as the Human Health Risk Assessment Technical Lead for the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant Environmental Restoration Program; in this position, she has performed and managed numerous environmental risk assessments for the Oak Ridge Reservation U.S. Department of Energy. She has teaching experience at the professional level and frequent interactions with the regulators (EPA-IV and TDEC). Her advanced degree and postdoctoral experience in Analytical Chemistry (mass spectrometry), as well as her more recent experience in risk assessment, radiological and chemical data evaluation, and background data issues, have provided her with the understanding of multiple aspects of the risk evaluations for hazardous waste sites. Current research interests include environmental chemical & radiological data evaluation and assessment.
Martin Clauberg, Ph.D., CES performed human health risk assessments for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the Risk Assessment Team Leader for the Environmental Restoration Division's Risk Assessment Program. He has prepared or managed numerous environmental risk assessments. He has over 10 years teaching experience and his advanced degree and successful research in Biochemistry reflects an understanding of the toxicology and chemistry of contaminants. He also holds a Business Management degree from Germany. Current research interests focus on use of toxicity information for trace elements, including essential minerals. Currently, Dr. Clauberg is Senior Environmental Risk Analyst at EnSafe Inc. in Raleigh, North Carolina. Dr. Clauberg was co-developer of this course and will remain in an advisory role and will assist in the development and maintenance of the information technology tools for this course.
Mark Steinhauff, Ph.D.,C.P.G. is a Registered Professional Geologist in Tennessee, and is certified by the American Institute of Professional Geologists. He has performed numerous human health and ecological risk assessments. He has extensive teaching experience at the professional level. His advanced degrees in Geology, productive publication record, and hydrogeologic field experience have helped him to understand subsurface phenomena at hazardous waste sites. Current research interests are in carbonate stratigraphy and geochemistry and application of sound geologic principles to risk assessments. Dr. Steinhauff was co-developer of this course and is currently at the Kansas facility of the US Geological Survey, University of Kansas.
Last Revised: August 25, 1997