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The policy principles and management framework that govern when and how Tier 2 soil and groundwater remediation objectives can be used at contaminated sites in Alberta.
Tier 2 allows practitioners to move beyond generic Tier 1 values by using site-specific information, either to screen out exposure pathways or to adjust modelled guidelines, while keeping the same level of human health and ecological protection. This course sets out the provincial policy behind that approach: why remediation guidelines are never pollute-up-to levels, how source control, background quality and land use carry over from Tier 1, how Domestic Use Aquifers (DUAs) are defined and protected, and how points of compliance are set for drinking water, livestock, irrigation, aquatic life and terrestrial receptors.
The course then walks through the three management options of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Exposure Control and explains why only the first two lead to regulatory closure. It covers the human and ecological receptors, exposure pathways and fixed protection endpoints that underpin every tier, the site conditions that trigger a Tier 2 evaluation, the difference between pathway exclusion, guideline adjustment and Site-Specific Risk Assessment (SSRA), the principles of problem formulation, toxicity, exposure and risk characterization, and the circumstances in which ongoing management pushes a site into Exposure Control.
What Will Be Covered:
How Tier 2 fits within the provincial framework for managing contaminated sites
Policy principles carried over from Tier 1: source control, background quality, land use and the pollute-up-to prohibition
Interactions between soil, soil vapour, groundwater and surface water, and options when Tier 1 values are exceeded
Definition and protection of Domestic Use Aquifers and the setting of points of compliance
Tier 1, Tier 2 and Exposure Control management options and eligibility for regulatory closure
Human and ecological receptors, exposure pathways, protection endpoints and considerations other than toxicity
Site conditions that trigger Tier 2 and the difference between pathway exclusion and guideline adjustment
Data collection, recalculation of objectives and the Tier 2 decision process
Principles of Site-Specific Risk Assessment, including toxicity reference values (TRVs), deterministic methods and salt-contaminated soil
Conditions that require Exposure Control and preclude regulatory closure
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