ABSTRACT
The risks posed by contaminants are not equal. Although it sounds like a paradox, an extremely toxic contaminant may not present as much risk as a moderately toxic contaminant. After examining the potential risks of a release, the authors examine the media releases target (air, water, or soil), and develop contaminant risk factors for groundwater, soil, and air. When these factors are combined with surface risk and geologic vulnerability, environmental risk can be estimated. To scale the scores equivalently to the other risk factors, these rates are multiplied by 10 and converted to scores between 0 and 10. Contaminant fate and transport evaluations require interdisciplinary analyses involving chemical, geologic, hydrologic, and biological factors. The environmental risk posed by specific contaminants to contaminant groundwater, termed Contaminant Risk Factor for Groundwater can be developed as a function of these three factors.
