ABSTRACT
Many state regulatory agencies have published guidelines for cleanup levels of some soil contaminants, particularly petroleum contaminated soils. The stated rationale for many of the state guidelines is to prevent contamination of groundwater and/or to protect human health, although in many instances the scientific underpinnings for some state criteria are elusive. The guidelines were not intended to be site-specific nor were they intended to be rigorous evaluations of the possible health hazards. Instead, the objective was to identify concentrations for seven common exposure scenarios for each contaminant at which, when encountered, no further evaluation would need to be conducted. The heart of the approach is to set seven different soil cleanup guidelines for each chemical which address the most typically encountered exposure scenarios. Dermal contact with contaminated soil is usually the second most important source of uptake in residential scenarios, followed by the ingestion of garden vegetables grown in contaminated soil.
