Soil Background & Risk Assessment Training

ITRC recognized that while some state and federal agencies and other entities have guidance documents regarding soil background, there is not one comprehensive and widely accepted guidance document that summarizes the state of the science on this topic. The ITRC Soil Background & Risk Assessment Guidance (SBR-1) released December 2021 is intended to fill the gap by providing a comprehensive defensible framework for establishing and using soil background in risk assessments. It focuses on the process of establishing defensible background concentrations of naturally occurring or anthropogenic ambient chemicals that can be used when performing risk assessment at contaminated sites.

This training will provide:

• an understanding of how to establish soil background and use it in risk assessment of contaminated cleanup sites
• tools necessary to identify when soil background is important to include in risk assessment
• an overview of how to establish soil background and how to use it in risk assessment

Trainers will elaborate on topics such as soil background definitions, how to choose a soil background site, soil sampling and soil analytical methods. It will cover how to establish default and site-specific soil background, and also how to use them in risk assessment. Other topics covered will include statistical methods and tests including how to handle dataset distributions, nondetects, outliers and different statistical tests that may be useful when comparing soil background to site concentrations. Trainers will provide insight into what a geochemical evaluation and environmental forensics are and when they can be used to provide an additional line of evidence.

The target audience for the ITRC Soil Background and Risk Assessment Guidance Document (SBR-1) includes risk assessors, risk managers, and site investigators, which may include federal, state, tribal, and various local agency employees; contractors to these agencies; as well as potentially liable parties and their consultants.

For training purposes, the ITRC Soil Background and Risk Assessment team produced four videos which can be viewed on ITRC's YouTube Channel:

• Overview of the guidance document, introduction, and definitions
• Sampling and analytical methods
• Establishing and using soil background in risk assessment
• Geochemical evaluations and environmental forensics

Bonnie Brooks, Washington Department of Ecology (bonnie.brooks@ecy.wa.gov)
Bonnie has over 11 and a half years of experience providing expertise in environmental toxicology and risk assessment for cleanup sites. Ten and a half years of that experience has been for state agencies in Washington and Minnesota. While working for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Bonnie established the agencies first set of soil background threshold values. Bonnie also co-led the ITRC’s Soil Background & Risk Assessment team which released a comprehensive guidance and training videos on establishing and using soil background in risk assessment in 2022. Bonnie has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Master of Science degree in Environmental Health/Toxicology.

Brady Johnson, Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (brady.johnson@deq.idaho.gov)
Brady Johnson is a hydrogeologist with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality in Boise, Idaho. He received a B.S. in Geology from the University of Kansas and M.S. in Hydrologic Sciences from Boise State University. Brady has worked in the Technical Services Division of Idaho DEQ since 2011 with a focus on modeling and monitoring the fate and transport of chemicals in groundwater and soil and statistical methods for environmental monitoring and characterization. Brady served as a writing group co-lead for the ITRC Soil Background and Risk Team.

Chrissy Peterson, EHS Support, LLC (chrissy.peterson@ehs-support.com)
Chrissy Peterson is a Project Risk Assessor and Data Analyst for EHS Support with over 20 years of experience in environmental consulting. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Environmental Science and Economics and received her Certificate in Environmental Health Assessment from University of Pittsburgh – Graduate School of Public Health. Currently, her primary role is performing human health risk assessments in the US and internationally and acts as a liaison between clients and regulators to evaluate potential risks to receptors to support risk mitigation, remediation, and closure decisions. Chrissy assisted with development of the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) Soil Background in Risk guidance and is actively participating in the development training modules for the guidance.

Claudio Sorrentino, Department of Toxic Substances Control (California) (claudio.sorrentino@dtsc.ca.gov)
Claudio Sorrentino is the Senior Toxicologist and Chief of the Northern California Unit of the Human and Ecological Risk Office, Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), California Environmental Protection Agency in Sacramento. He joined DTSC in December 2007. His work includes providing scientific and technical advice to various programs within DTSC and to other agencies on risk assessment, exposure assessment, and toxicological issues. He also reviews and refines evaluations of complex sampling and analysis plans, risk assessments, and detailed biological effects studies, applying and integrating scientific, toxicologic and ecologic principles to site specific hazardous substance releases. He provides guidance in preparing more complex exposure assessments, risk assessments, and studies to evaluate the human health impacts of hazardous substance releases into the environment to determine what appropriate remedial alternatives or permit conditions are necessary. Claudio has been a member of the Environmental Molecular Diagnostic team since its formation. He graduated from the School of Pharmacy of the University of Rome (Italy) "La Sapienza" in 1989 and earned a Master in Pharmacology in 1995 from School of Medicine of the same university. He earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences from the New York University in New York, NY in 2004 for his work on the molecular and organismic effect of co-exposure to metals and aromatic hydrocarbons in fish from the Hudson River, NY. From 2004 to 2007, he was a postdoctoral scholar performing research on the molecular mechanisms of dioxins and dioxin-like chemicals in M.S. Denison’s Lab at UC Davis. In 2006, he was the instructor in charge of teaching "Introduction to Environmental Toxicology" at UC Davis. Claudio is a full member of the Society of Toxicology and is a reviewer for the journal Chemico-Biological Interactions.

Moderator:

Nicole Henderson, ITRC Contractor (nicole.henderson@hmenviro.com)

• Slide Presentation for Soil Background & Risk Assessment, November 2, 2023 (4.91MB/PDF)

Webinar Slides and References:

• Slide Presentation for Soil Background & Risk Assessment, November 2, 2023 (4.91MB/PDF)

Additional Resources:

• ITRC Soil Background & Risk Assessment Web-Based Guidance Document
• ITRC Soil Background & Risk Assessment Training Videos:
  • Overview of the Guidance Document, Introduction, and Definitions
  • Sampling and Analytical Methods
  • Establishing and Using Soil Background in Risk Assessment
  • Geochemical Evaluations and Environmental Forensics

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