Vapor intrusion

Vapor intrusion (VI) is a process by which chemicals in soil or groundwater migrate to indoor air above a contaminated site.

Guidance

In the United States, vapor intrusion is handled in individual states in different ways. One of the most scrupulous guidance documents on vapor intrusion in the nation has been from the New York Department of Health.^[1] On June 1, 2010, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International) released a commercial "Standard Guide for Vapor Encroachment Screening on Property Involved in Real Estate Transactions" (ASTM E 2600-10).^[2]

The United States Environmental Protection Agency had issued a draft guidance on the subject in 2002.^[3] The George W. Bush Administration dropped the project in 2003 and only in 2013 Obama’s appointee as EPA Assistant Administrator in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, made completion of the document a priority. On June 11, 2015, the EPA released its final Vapor Intrusion Technical Guide, along with the simultaneously released "Technical Guide for Addressing Petroleum Vapor Intrusion At Leaking Underground Storage Tank Sites". It is not a statute or regulation.^[4]

See also

• Superfund for a list of Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) to learn more about the organic chemical compounds covered in the category.
• Trichloroethylene (TCE) for a discussion of the chemical compound

References

1. Guidance for Evaluating Soil Vapor Intrusion in the State of New York Final Soil Vapor Intrusion Guidance, 92pp, October 2006.
2. "ASTM E2600-10 Standard Guide for Vapor Encroachment Screening on Property Involved in Real Estate Transactions". ASTM International. June 1, 2010.
3. "OSWER Draft Guidance for Evaluating the Vapor Intrusion to Indoor Air Pathway from Groundwater and Soils (Subsurface Vapor Intrusion Guidance)". Environmental Protection Agency. 2002-11-29.
4. "OSWER Technical Guide for Assessing and Mitigating the Vapor Intrusion Pathway from Subsurface Vapor Sources to Indoor Air.". US EPA. 11 June 2015. p. 267. Retrieved 29 August 2015.