ABSTRACT
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now believes that risk-based corrective-action processes are tools that can facilitate efforts to clean up sites expeditiously, as necessary, while still assuring protection of human health and the environment. Risk-based decision making and risk-based corrective action are decision-making processes for assessing and responding to a chemical release. A variety of EPA programs involved in the protection of groundwater and cleanup of environmental contamination utilize the risk-based decision-making approach. Where UST releases affect the groundwater being used as public or private drinking water sources, the EPA generally recommends that cleanup goals be based on health-based drinking water standards; even in such cases, however, risk-based decision making can be employed to focus corrective action. Upon evaluation of each tier, the results and the recommendations are reviewed, and it is determined whether a more site-specific analysis is required.
