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Vapor Intrusion

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Resources

Design Solutions for Vapor Intrusion and Indoor Air Quality

This fact sheet provides an overview of technical and health issues regarding chemical vapor intrusion into indoor air, and how to address these issues to foster land redevelopment.

Detailed Field Investigation of Vapor Intrusion Processes

Vapor intrusion site investigations have been completed at three buildings located at two demonstrations sites and the results have been used to generate procedural guidelines for reliable evaluation of vapor intrusion presented in Section 4.6 of this report. Permanent and reusable monitoring systems remain in place at the two study sites to facilitate future resampling and reuse for continued development, demonstration, and validation of an improved conceptual model and predictive tools for the vapor intrusion pathway.

Engineering Issue: Indoor Air Vapor Intrusion Mitigation Approaches

The purpose of this document is to present the "state of the science" regarding management and treatment of vapor intrusion into building structures. Wherever feasible, this information relies on independently reviewed mitigation performance information. In an effort to keep this Engineering Issue paper concise, important information is summarized, while references and Web links are provided for readers interested in additional information; these Web links, verified as accurate at the time of publication, are subject to change. Although we have endeavored to make these links fully functional with a mouse click, if they do not function on your system, you may need to copy them into your browser or reenter them. As science and technology associated with this route of exposure continues to develop, other mitigation measures may become available.

Evaluating Vapor Intrusion Using the Johnson and Ettinger Model

This on-line calculator implements the Johnson and Ettinger (J&E) (Johnson and Ettinger, 1991) simplified model to evaluate the vapor intrusion pathway into buildings. This J&E model replicates the implementation that the US EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) used in developing its draft vapor intrusion guidance, but includes a number of enhancements that are facilitated by web implementation: temperature dependence of Henry's Law Constants, automatic sensitivity analysis of certain parameters, and others described on the background page.

ITRC Vapor Intrusion Team

The ITRC Vapor Intrusion Team will research and gather information on indoor air as related to subsurface soil and groundwater contamination to determine when it may need to be evaluated, its resultant sampling and characterization techniques, and its subsequent remediation technologies.

OSWER Draft Guidance for Evaluating the Vapor Intrusion to Indoor Air Pathway from Groundwater and Soils (Subsurface Vapor Intrusion Guidance)

This draft guidance is intended to aid in evaluating the potential for human exposure from the vapor intrusion pathway given the state-of-the-science.

User's Guide for Evaluating Subsurface Vapor Intrusion into Buildings

This manual provides documentation and instructions for using the Johnson and Ettinger (J&E) vapor intrusion model.

Vapor Intrusion Guidance, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, July 2006

This document provides guidance for the evaluation and mitigation of vapor intrusion resulting from volatile organic compounds (VOC) at contaminated sites in New Hampshire. Where appropriate this document may be used in conjunction with applicable DES rules for corrective action at contaminated sites and the DES Risk Characterization and Management Policy (RCMP).

U.S. EPA's Vapor Intrusion Database: Preliminary Evaluation of Attenuation Factors—DRAFT

This report provides updated information about a database designed to store and analyze data collected at vapor intrusion sites (i.e., design, structure, and content) and some example analyses using data from the database that could be useful for regulators, responsible parties, and others assessing and managing vapor intrusion investigation programs.

User's Guide to the Collection and Analysis of Tree Cores to Assess the Distribution of Subsurface Volatile Organic Compounds

Analysis of the volatile organic compound content of tree cores is an inexpensive, rapid, simple approach to examining the distribution of subsurface volatile organic compound contaminants. The method has been shown to detect several volatile petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated aliphatic compounds associated with vapor intrusion and ground-water contamination. Tree cores, which are approximately 3 inches long, are obtained by using an increment borer. The cores are placed in vials and sealed. After a period of equilibration, the cores can be analyzed by headspace analysis gas chromatography. Because the roots are exposed to volatile organic compound contamination in the unsaturated zone or shallow ground water, the volatile organic compound concentrations in the tree cores are an indication of the presence of subsurface volatile organic compound contamination. Thus, tree coring can be used to detect and map subsurface volatile organic compound contamination. For comparison of tree-core data at a particular site, it is important to maintain consistent methods for all aspects of tree-core collection, handling, and analysis. Factors affecting the volatile organic compound concentrations in tree cores include the type of volatile organic compound, the tree species, the rooting depth, ground-water chemistry, the depth to the contaminated horizon, concentration differences around the trunk related to variations in the distribution of subsurface volatile organic compounds, concentration differences with depth of coring related to volatilization loss through the bark and possibly other unknown factors, dilution by rain, seasonal influences, sorption, vapor-exchange rates, and within-tree volatile organic compound degradation.

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