California Governor Signs Measure Addressing VOC Intrusion Into Structures
10/25/2007
by -- Bureau of National Affairs
http://ehscenter.bna.com
Los Angeles, CA - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed legislation Oct. 13 updating the state's hazardous waste and water cleanup laws to address growing concern about the potential for subsurface toxics at contaminated sites to foul indoor air.
A.B. 422 adds a provision to the California Superfund Act that requires health and environmental risk assessments the law mandates for reuse of contaminated property to also consider vapor intrusion into existing or proposed structures at the site.
Specifically, the new law requires “the development of reasonable maximum estimates of exposure to volatile organic compounds that may enter structures that are on the site or that are proposed” for the site.
The bill also requires that the cleanup standards required under the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act be consistent and no less stringent than those required under the California Superfund Act.
According to Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D), the A.B. 422 author, the bill increases the consistency between cleanup standards that state and regional water quality officials enforce and those the Department of Toxic Substances Control oversees at hazardous waste sites.
Lenny Siegel, executive director at the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, told BNA Oct. 18 that the bill ensures that the cleanup sites the State Water Resources Control Board and regional water boards oversee meet the same strict standards as those DTSC oversees.
“DTSC has been fairly aggressive” in addressing the vapor intrusion issue, Siegel said. Water regulators, naturally, are more focused on water quality, he explained.
Vapor intrusion occurs when volatile organic compounds migrate from soils into buildings through cracks in slabs, trenches, openings around pipes, and other gaps.
As a result, indoor concentrations of VOCs can exceed health standards.
Sites contaminated with chlorinated solvents, like trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, are of most concern, Siegel said.
Methods used to keep radon out of buildings can also prevent the intrusion of VOC vapors, according to Siegel.
(Source: The Bureau of National Affairs, October 19, 2007, http://ehscenter.bna.com)
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