[CPEO-BIF] ABA article on Vapor Intrusion and development

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

VAPOR INTRUSION: BREAKING THROUGH THE ROADBLOCKS TO PROGRESS

Frederick T. Stanin
American Bar Association Superfund and Natural Resource Damages 
Litigation Committee Newsletter
March, 2006

"Vapor Intrusion" is a term describing the migration of vapors into a 
building from the subsurface originating from contaminated groundwater 
or soil above the water table. It has emerged at the forefront of 
today's environmental regulatory community and is an increasingly common 
component of litigation, property transaction and property redevelopment 
issues at Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and 
Liability Act (CERCLA) and other sites. Even though vapor intrusion has 
been a concern for many years with respect to radon and methane, the 
awareness of potential health risks from volatile organic compound (VOC) 
vapors that are toxic to humans (e.g., dry cleaning and industrial 
solvents) migrating into buildings is a more recent development. VOCs 
commonly associated with vapor intrusion include hazardous substances 
frequently found at CERCLA National Priorities List (NPL) and non-NPL 
sites such as trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), vinyl 
chloride and carbon tetrachloride. These are VOCs listed in the top 50 
of the 2005 CERCLA Priority List of Hazardous Substances, a list that 
represents the most commonly found hazardous substances at NPL 
facilities, which are determined to pose the most significant potential 
threat to human health.

To download the newsletter (a 284 K PDF  file) containing the entire 
11-page article article, go to
http://www.abanet.org/environ/committees/superfundnatresdamages/newsletter/home.html



--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org

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