ADDING A HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT COMPONENT TO A CONTAMINANT HYDROGEOLOGY COURSE PROJECT

Protection of human health is a major consideration in regulatory decisions on required remedial actions at sites of contaminated groundwater. Hydrogeologists contribute to assessments of health risk primarily by providing information on existing concentration distributions in aquifers and estimates of transport rates that will modify these distributions over time. The contributions of a hydrogeologist to these risk assessments, as well as to design and assessment of possible remediation strategies, could be enhanced with increased knowledge of the other components of health risk assessment, particularly those related to exposure pathways and toxicity. This presentation will describe a preliminary design of a heath risk assessment component that I plan to add to an existing contaminant hydrogeology site characterization project for a senior/graduate course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The exercise is designed to provide students with knowledge of the potential health effects of common groundwater contaminants, an understanding of the process used by EPA to decide on the necessity of remedial actions, and an appreciation of the inherent uncertainties related to both hydrogeologic and human factors that are buried in apparently simple numerical outcomes of a risk assessment.