Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is an accepted remediation technology in BC and provides another approach to obtaining a Certificate of Compliance from the Ministry of Environment. However, consideration must first be given to the feasibility of permanent remediation by physical means. Rather than reducing contaminant levels, it focuses instead on determing whether there is an unacceptable risk to allowing contamination to remain in place. And if the risk is unacceptable, risk assessment evaluates whether this risk can be mitigated by such measures as entombment, barriers to migration or other means for blocking the pathway to human and ecological receptors. Essentially, risk assessment involves investigating the potential pathways by which contamination may be exposed to a biological receptor, such as humans (Human Health Risk Assessment) or animals or plants (Ecological Risk Assessment).