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Simple, Efficient, and Rapid Methods to Determine the Potential for Vapor Intrusion into the Home: Temporal Trends, Vapor Intrusion Forecasting, Sampling Strategies, and Contaminant Migration Routes
Citation:
Schumacher, B. AND JohnH Zimmerman. Simple, Efficient, and Rapid Methods to Determine the Potential for Vapor Intrusion into the Home: Temporal Trends, Vapor Intrusion Forecasting, Sampling Strategies, and Contaminant Migration Routes. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-15/070, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
In this, the third report of the series, we: focus on additional analyses of the independent variables (such as weather, building operations, water changes, and source concentrations) that can potentially influence vapor intrusion’s variation over time; report the results of the first experiment we are of aware of attempting to forecast vapor intrusion’s temporal variations; continued interpretation of a multiyear detailed record of indoor air, groundwater, and soil gas data for a single building in terms of year-to-year variations in weather patterns and vapor intrusion; and a statistical evaluation of how various sampling plans common among practitioners would function when applied to the observed temporal variability of exposure concentrations and cancer and non cancer risks in this duplex.
Description:
Current practice for evaluating the vapor intrusion pathway involves a multiple line of evidence approach based on direct measurements of volatile organic compound (VOC) concentrations in groundwater, external soil gas, subslab soil gas, and/or indoor air. No single line of evidence is considered definitive and direct measurements of vapor intrusion can be costly, especially where significant spatial and temporal variability require repeated measurements at multiple locations to accurately assess the chronic risks of long-term exposure to VOCs like chloroform, perchloroethylene (PCE), and trichloroethylene (TCE).