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These online seminars are being hosted by the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council Workgroup:
- A Decision Framework for Applying Attenuation Processes to Metals and Radionuclides
Sites contaminated with metals and radionuclides present unique challenges to the development of effective remedial alternatives that also provide long-term protection to human health and the environment. The high costs of ongoing conventional treatment, total removal, and/or management combined with the scale of potential health and environmental risks make it important to evaluate attenuation-based remedial alternatives. Sites that have been identified as having metal and/or radionuclide contamination include federal facilities, industrial (e.g., mines) sites, disposal sites, and transportation corridors. Common metals include arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, nickel, copper, and selenium. For radioactive hazardous substances, uranium, radium, strontium, technetium, tritium, and thorium are the most common contaminants of concern. The attenuation processes affect most metals and radionuclides by changing their valence state, which in turn affects their solubility and therefore mobility. When properly employed, Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA) is an effective knowledge-based remedy where a thorough engineering analysis informs the understanding, monitoring, predicting, and documenting of natural processes. In order to properly employ this remedy, there needs to be a strong scientific basis supported by appropriate research and site-specific monitoring implemented in accordance with quality systems. This training and the associated ITRC Technical and Regulatory Guidance document, A Decision Framework for Applying Monitored Natural Attenuation Processes to Metals and Radionuclides in Groundwater (APMR-1, 2010), is intended for anyone involved with evaluating, investigating, remediating or managing a site that involves metal and radionuclide contaminants in groundwater. This training and document provides:
- Introduction to key attenuation processes for metals and radionuclides
- Information on incorporating MNA into remedial alternatives for metals/rads
- Overview of the decision framework on MNA for metals and radionuclides in groundwater within the larger evaluation framework of a contaminated site
For reference during the training class, participants should have a copy of the decision framework, Figure 3-1 on page 48 of the ITRC Technical and Regulatory Guidance document, A Decision Framework for Applying Monitored Natural Attenuation Processes to Metals and Radionuclides in Groundwater (APMR-1, 2010) and available as a 1-page PDF at http://www.cluin.org/conf/itrc/apmr/ITRC-APMR-DecisionFramework.pdf.- February 23, 2012, 11:00 AM - 1:15 PM, EST (16:00-18:15 GMT)
- Biofuels: Release Prevention, Environmental Behavior, and Remediation
Biofuels and biofuel blends are a new category of transportation fuels and are defined as liquid fuels and blending components produced from renewable biomass feedstocks used as alternative or supplemental fuels for internal combustion engines. Their manufacture and consumption are increasing, in part, due to usage mandates and incentives both in the United States and abroad. This expanded use of biofuel and biofuel blends increases the potential frequency of releases due to increased manufacture, transportation, storage, and distribution. Because biofuels differ from conventional fuels with respect to their physical, chemical, and biological properties, their introduction poses challenges with respect to understanding the potential impacts of releases to the environment. Specifically, once released into the environment, these fuels will exhibit different environmental behaviors as compared to conventional fuels. This training, which is based on the ITRC's Biofuels: Release Prevention, Environmental Behavior, and Remediation (Biofuels-1, 2011), focuses on the differences between biofuels and conventional fuels specific to release scenarios, environmental impacts, characterization, and remediation. The trainers will define the scope of the potential environmental challenges by introducing biofuel fundamentals, regulatory status, and future usage projections. Participants will learn how and when to use the ITRC biofuels guidance document for their projects. They will understand the differences in biofuel and petroleum behavior; become familiar with the biofuel supply chain, potential release scenarios and release prevention; be able to develop an appropriate conceptual model for the investigation and remediation of biofuels; and select appropriate investigation and remediation strategies.
- March 13, 2012, 2:00 PM - 4:15 PM, EDT (18:00-20:15 GMT)
- Green & Sustainable Remediation
The ultimate goal of remediation systems is to protect human health and the environment from contaminants. Historically, remedies have been implemented without consideration of green or sustainable concepts in order to meet this goal. This includes the potential for transferring impacts to other media. For instance, many remedial decisions do not assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy usage, or community engagement factors prior to the investigation or remedy implementation. Considering these factors throughout the investigation and remedy implementation process may lessen negative effects of the overall cleanup impact while the remediation remains protective of human health and the environment. The consideration of these factors is Green and Sustainable Remediation (GSR) - the site-specific employment of products, processes, technologies, and procedures that mitigate contaminant risk to receptors while making decisions that are cognizant of balancing community goals, economic impacts, and net environmental effects. Many state and federal agencies are just beginning to assess and apply green and sustainable remediation into their regulatory programs. This training provides background on GSR concepts, a scalable and flexible framework and metrics, tools and resources to conduct GSR evaluations on remedial projects. The training is based on the ITRC's Technical & Regulatory Guidance Document: Green and Sustainable Remediation: A Practical Framework (GSR-2, 2011) as well as ITRC's Overview Document, Green and Sustainable Remediation: State of the Science and Practice (GSR-1, 2011). Beyond basic GSR principles and definitions, participants will learn the potential benefits of incorporating GSR into their projects; when and how to incorporate GSR within a project's life cycle; and how to perform a GSR evaluation using appropriate tools. In addition, a variety of case studies will demonstrate the application of GSR and the results. The training course provides an important primer for both organizations initiating GSR programs as well as those organizations seeking to incorporate GSR considerations into existing regulatory guidance.
- February 14, 2012, 2:00 PM - 4:15 PM, EST (19:00-21:15 GMT)
- Mine Waste Treatment Technology Selection
Mining produces millions of tons of waste each year. Contaminants from unreclaimed or unremediated areas have affected millions of acres of land and over 10,000 miles of stream. Historical mining practices and the absence of routine mined-land reclamation, remediation, and restoration have led to legacy sites with significant environmental and human health impacts. New mining operations continue to have severe waste issues that must be addressed during and after the actual mining operation. Conventional remedial solutions are often lengthy, expensive, and unacceptable to the regulated and regulatory communities, as well as to the public. ITRC's Mining Waste Team developed the ITRC Web-based Mine Waste Technology Selection site to assist project managers in selecting an applicable technology, or suite of technologies, which can be used to remediate mine waste contaminated sites. Decision trees, through a series of questions, guide users to a set of treatment technologies that may be applicable to that particular site situation. Each technology is described, along with a summary of the applicability, advantages, limitations, performance, stakeholder and regulatory considerations, and lessons learned. Each technology overview links to case studies where the technology has been implemented. In this associated Internet-based training, instructors provide background information then take participants through the decision tree using example sites. Project managers, regulators, site owners, and community stakeholders should attend this training class to learn how to use the ITRC Web-based Mine Waste Technology Selection site to identify appropriate technologies, address all impacted media, access case studies, and understand potential regulatory constraints.
- March 22, 2012, 11:00 AM - 1:15 PM, EDT (15:00-17:15 GMT)
- Phytotechnologies
Phytotechnologies is a set of technologies using plants to remediate or contain contaminants in soil, groundwater, surface water, or sediments. These technologies have become attractive alternatives to conventional cleanup technologies due to relatively low capital costs and the inherently aesthetic nature of planted sites. This training familiarizes participants with ITRC's Phytotechnology Technical and Regulatory Guidance and Decision Trees, Revised (Phyto-3, 2009). This document provides guidance for regulators who evaluate and make informed decisions on phytotechnology work plans and practitioners who have to evaluate any number of remedial alternatives at a given site. This document updates and replaces Phytoremediation Decision Tree (Phyto-1, 1999) and Phytotechnology Technical and Regulatory Guidance Document (Phyto-2, 2001). It has merged the concepts of both documents into a single document. This guidance includes new, and more importantly, practical information on the process and protocol for selecting and applying various phytotechnologies as remedial alternatives. This guidance contains decision trees:
- Remedy Selection Decision Tree
- Groundwater Decision Tree
- Soil/Sediment decision Tree
- Riparian Zone Decision Tree
This course will be most useful to you if you download the guidance and follow the discussion with the Decision Trees displayed in your guidance. Our instruction is how to use the Guidance - not how to use the decision trees process. That is explained within the Guidance.- February 28, 2012, 2:00 PM - 4:15 PM, EST (19:00-21:15 GMT)
- Use of Risk Assessment in Management of Contaminated Sites
The ITRC Risk Assessment Resources team developed a document titled Use of Risk Assessment in Management of Contaminated Sites (RISK-2, 2008). This Internet-based training is taken from the RISK-2 document and highlights variation of risk-based site management and how to improve the use of risk assessment for making better risk management decisions. This training course looks at how various risk-based approaches and criteria are applied in various states and programs throughout the processes of screening, characterization, and management of contaminated sites. The document and training course are intended for risk assessors and project managers involved with the characterization, remediation, and/or re-use of sites. Together they provide a valuable tool for federal and state regulatory agencies to demonstrate how site data collection, risk assessment, and risk management may be better integrated. This training course explains:
- Variation in risk assessment parameters/approaches in various states and their influence on risk management
- Insights into the use of risk assessment in risk management process through use of specific case study examples
- An improved process of using risk assessment in risk management
This course builds on the Risk Team's previous work identifying variation in the development of risk-based numerical criteria, specifically soil screening levels. A prerequisite to this training course is the Risk Team's previous Internet-based training (archive is available from http://cluin.org/live/archive.cfm?sort=title#itrc) based on ITRC's Risk Assessment and Risk Management: Determination of Risk-Based Values (RISK-1, 2005). The Electronic Risk Resource Sheet published by the ITRC Risk Team is recommended as an excellent resource for supplemental materials related to risk assessment and risk management.- March 6, 2012, 2:00 PM - 4:15 PM, EST (19:00-21:15 GMT)
- Project Risk Management for Site Remediation
Remediation Risk Management (RRM) is a course of action through which all risks related to the remediation processes (site investigations, remedy selection, execution, and completion) are holistically addressed in order to maximize the certainty in the cleanup process to protect human health and the environment. Remediation decisions to achieve such a goal should be made based on threshold criteria on human health and ecological risks, while considering all the other potential project risks. Through this training course and associated ITRC Technical and Regulatory Guidance Document: Project Risk Management for Site Remediation (RRM-1, 2011), the ITRC RRM team presents tools and processes that can help the site remediation practitioner anticipate, plan for, and mitigate many of the most common obstacles to a successful site remediation project. Examples of project risks include remediation technology feasibility risks; remedy selection risks; remedy construction, operation and monitoring risks; remedy performance and operations risks; environmental impacts of systems during their operation; worker safety risk, human health and ecological impacts due to remedy operation; as well as costs and schedules risks including funding and contracting issues. You should learn: the principles and elements of Remediation Risk Management (RRM); the importance and benefits of RRM; how to implement RRM based on a discussion of case studies: how RRM can help you achieve more successful remediation; and how to use the ITRC RRM information to your benefit.
- March 8, 2012, 11:00 AM - 1:15 PM, EST (16:00-18:15 GMT)
- Use and Measurement of Mass Flux and Mass Discharge
Most decisions at groundwater contamination sites are driven by measurements of contaminant concentration -- snapshots of contaminant concentrations that may appear to be relatively stable or show notable changes over time. Decisions can be improved by considering mass flux and mass discharge. Mass flux and mass discharge quantify the source or plume strength at a given time and location resulting in better-informed management decisions regarding site prioritization or remedial design as well as lead to significant improvements in remediation efficiency and faster cleanup times. The use of mass flux and mass discharge is increasing and will accelerate as field methods improve and practitioners and regulators become familiar with its application, advantages, and limitations. The decision to collect and evaluate mass flux data is site-specific. It should consider the reliability of other available data, the uncertainty associated with mass flux measurements, the specific applications of the mass flux data, and the cost-benefit of collecting mass measurements. The ITRC technology overview, Use and Measurement of Mass Flux and Mass Discharge (MASSFLUX-1, 2010), and associated Internet-based training provide a description of the underlying concepts, potential applications, description of methods for measuring and calculating, and case studies of the uses of mass flux and mass discharge. This Technology Overview, and associated internet based training are intended to foster the appropriate understanding and application of mass flux and mass discharge estimates, and provide examples of use and analysis. The document and training assumes the participant has a general understanding of hydrogeology, the movement of chemicals in porous media, remediation technologies, and the overall remedial process. Practitioners, regulators, and others working on groundwater sites should attend this training course to learn more about various methods and potential use of mass flux and mass discharge information.
- February 16, 2012, 11:00 AM - 1:15 PM, EST (16:00-18:15 GMT)
