Dr. Gladys Stephenson presents the results of a feasibility study for deriving Tier II Site Specific Remediation Objectives (SSROs) for petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated (PHC) sites in Alberta. With evidence that weathered PHC residuals have lower risks than freshly contaminated sites, a series of studies were begun to derive reclamation objectives for soils and ecological receptors that have direct contact pathways with the PHCs. Contaminated sites that fail the criteria for the proposed land-use have high costs for testing and further remediation. But if models could predict the biological responses of the site based on the site's toxicological data, the reclamation decisions for the contaminated site could proceed based on the likelihood that the site over time will develop towards the final land use criteria. Dr. Stephenson describes the results of 4 approaches looking at developing predictive models.
Dr. Gladys Stephenson is an environmental toxicologist with Stantec Consulting, Guelph, Ontario. Her presentation was part of the Soil and Groundwater Forum by the Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada in Calgary, March 25, 2013.
