Arsenic cleanup levels

PA Valberg, BD Beck, TS Bowers, JL Keating, PD Bergstrom, PD Boardman. Issues in setting health-based cleanup levels for arsenic in soil. Reg Toxicol Pharmacol 26 219-229, 1997. 

Because approximately 150 lots had elevated arsenic levels, the Corps developed an arsenic cleanup prioritization that was based upon the average of the arsenic grid sample results. Thus, if a property had one very high grid of arsenic but the rest of the property was low, that property would be cleaned up several years later. 

Australia has established investigation levels for soils. Investigation levels are not cleanup or response levels (National Environment Protection Council, 1999, 4). If the levels are exceeded at a site, additional investigations or evaluations are required to ensure that the local ecology and human population are protected (National Environment Protection Council, 1999). An interim ecological investigation level of 20 mg kg-1 of arsenic has been established for Australian urban areas to protect plant life (National Environment Protection Council, 1999, 9). 

A number of US States have guidelines or standards for soils and sediments. For example, New Jersey has a cleanup criterion of 20 mg kg-1 for arsenic in residential and nonresidential soils (http //www.nj. gov/dep/srp/guidance/scc/). Like many regulations, the New Jersey soil criteria may be modified for local conditions. The arsenic soil cleanup target levels in Florida are 2.1 mg kg-1 for residential and 12 mg kg-1 for commercial and industrial sites (Florida Administrative Code 62-777.170). 

Exposure to high levels of arsenic can cause cancers of the skin, bladder, kidney and lung, and diseases of the blood vessels of the legs and feet, as well as possibly diabetes, high blood pressure, and reproductive disorders. Monitoring the effectiveness of the cleanup technologies will require measurement of the various chemical forms of arsenic in the water. 

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