Ecological Risk Assessment of an Industrial Site Under Oregon DEQ’s New Guidance. Thomas H. Angus, Julie Wroble, Gordon Randall, and Kim Connors, Ecology and Environment, Inc., 999 3rd Avenue, Suite 1500, Seattle, WA 98104
Ecology and Environment, Inc. (E & E), under contract to Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), conducted a Level I scoping ecological risk assessment to evaluate potential risks to the environment at the Vadis Pole Yard Site in North Plains, Oregon. This site was the first ecological risk assessment conducted under Oregon DEQ’s new ecological risk assessment guidance . The site contained pits of wood-treatment waste including pentachlorophenol, creosote, oil, and chromium-copper-arsenate sludge. A removal action was performed to remove the bulk of this contamination and an ecological risk assessment was performed to evaluate the potential risks of residual contamination. The DEQ risk assessment process consists of four distinct levels: 1) Level I scoping; 2) Level II screening; 3) Level III Baseline; and 4) Level IV field baseline. The assessment performed for the Vadis Pole Yard Site was a Level I scoping assessment - a qualitative determination of whether ecological receptors and/or exposure pathways are potentially present at the site and surrounding locality. A Level I assessment is intended to identify sites that are obviously devoid ecologically important species or habitats and/or where exposure pathways are obviously incomplete. Sites that clearly do not present a problem are eliminated without the need for a more extensive and expensive investigation. Sites that may pose an ecological risk based on the Level I assessment proceed to a Level II assessment. The level I assessment consisted of: 1) Assessment of existing data; 2) Site visit by an waste including pentachlorophenol, creosote, oil, and chromium-copper-arsenate sludge. A removal action ons. . . . . . . [RiskWorld Note: Submitted abstract incomplete]