Integrated Framework for Risk

Abstract

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Risks and other potential impacts are assessed for contaminated
sites in order to determine appropriate actions for
cleanup and long-term management. These environmental management
decisions have traditionally focused on risks to human
and ecological health, without explicit incorporation of sociocultural
and economic impacts for local communities. Similarly,
current environmental regulations typically define requirements
based on individual contaminants in individual media, such as
air or water. However, the interrelationships among different
resources and potential effects of environmental contaminants
are beginning to be acknowledged in environmental protection
programs, and a holistic process is emerging for considering
impacts across disciplines and over space and time. This paper
discusses some of the conceptual issues associated with inte-grating
risk and impact assessments for large contaminated sites,
as illustrated by application to complex U.S. Department of
Energy sites being cleaned up under the Department"s environ-mental
management program.
Abbreviations. EM: Environmental Management; U.S. DOE: United States Department of Energy