A Risk Assessment must be supervised by Qualified Person for Risk Assessment (QPRA). Cambium’s in-house QPRA is available to assist with your project and ensure that the requirements for remediation and/or risk management are appropriately defined. Cambium offers in house services for both regulatory risks assessments and screening level risk assessments. If you have any questions or would like to discuss a specific project, please give us a call and our QPRA staff will be happy to assist.
The Ontario Regulation 153/04 generic site condition standards for soil and groundwater were developed based on exposure scenarios considered protective of human health and the environment. The generic SCS approach was intended to protect “typical” receptors potentially exposed at contaminated sites rather than the most sensitive of all possible receptors. The generic standards represent levels at which no remedial action is required to reduce risk from exposure to contaminants in the environment.
Using the generic standards is of course not always the most reasonable or cost-effective approach to assess or manage risk at a property. Take for example, an abandoned lot formerly used as an auto repair shop where substantial amounts of fuel were spilled over time. The risk related to redevelopment of this lot into a daycare, school, or park is higher than if the lot is redeveloped into another auto shop or an industrial facility. This difference in risk is related to numerous factors including exposure pathway, exposure duration, and receptors (e.g., human receptors of all ages vs. only teen and adult receptors). Remediation (e.g., soil excavating and disposal) of the contaminants to meet the generic site condition standards and reduce risk under any of these redevelopment scenarios may not be cost effective or practical for various reasons.
Under Ontario Regulation 153/04, a property owner has the option to conduct a Risk Assessment to develop property-specific standards based on site-specific characteristics. These standards can be used as clean-up targets or to develop risk management measures to reduce risks to acceptable levels. Further, Risk Assessments can be conducted for due diligence purposes as a screening level evaluation of risk. Screening level Risk Assessments may be conducted to support property redevelopment and/or transactions when land use is not changing to a more sensitive use. (e.g., industrial to residential).
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