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PCEW: Site Assessment, Remediation, and Contaminated Media Handling

PCEW · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Site Assessment, Remediation, and Contaminated Media Handling

What the exam tests

This domain tests the site-investigation sequence: recognize a release, evaluate liability and risk, characterize contaminated media, select a remedy, and manage excavated or treated material. Expect CERCLA, RCRA corrective action, state voluntary cleanup programs, Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessments, and conceptual site models.

Core rules

  • A Phase I ESA under ASTM E1527-21 and the AAI rule at 40 CFR Part 312 identifies recognized environmental conditions through records review, site reconnaissance, interviews, and historical research. It does not confirm contamination.
  • A Phase II investigation collects soil, groundwater, soil gas, or surface water samples to evaluate whether contamination is present and where it is moving.
  • The conceptual site model links sources, release mechanisms, pathways, and receptors. Risk assessment uses that model to evaluate exposure.
  • Remedies include excavation, pump-and-treat, soil vapor extraction, bioremediation, thermal treatment, and stabilization. Institutional controls may restrict land or groundwater use.
  • Contaminated media moved off site must be characterized and managed under applicable waste rules; investigation-derived waste also needs a disposal decision.

Worked example

A Phase I review of a former dry cleaner identifies chlorinated-solvent use and a floor drain as a recognized environmental condition. Because contamination is plausible, the Phase II should include soil gas and groundwater near the drain, not only shallow soil. If PCE is detected in groundwater and vapor intrusion is a potential pathway, indoor-air sampling may be needed. The reasoning follows the conceptual site model from source to pathway to receptor.

Traps

Treating a Phase I as a cleanup standard; assuming “no recognized environmental condition” guarantees no contamination; ignoring historical site uses; sampling without a conceptual site model; sending remediation waste off site without characterization; and treating a no-further-action decision as eliminating all future liability.