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Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment Support for the US Army (Directorate of Safety, Health and the Environment, DSHE)

APG Directorate of Safety, Health, and Environment (under contract to General Physics and Weston Solutions)
LOCATION: Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD

OVERVIEW

• Avatar has provided human health and ecological risk assessment support for DHSE and AEC for more than five years
• HHRA support included oversight, review and modification of previously performed assessments as well as screening level and baseline assessments.
• Chemicals of concern and potential pathways of exposure to the more exotic of these including perchlorate, explosives, chemical and nerve agents; vapor intrusion and food chain vector
• Project has required significant , ongoing agency regulatory support (EPA Reg / MDE)

DESCRIPTION

Avatar staff developed multiple human health and ecological risk assessments performed at Edgewood Arsenal- APG. Avatar performed oversight reviews and provided modifications to previously performed human health and ecological risk assessments to re-evaluate the risks and the proposed remedies to comply with current directives promulgated by the USEPA and Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).

Because APG and many these sites are located adjacent to environmentally sensitive and recreationally/commercially significant natural areas, i.e. Chesapeake Bay and wetlands, the risk assessments were evaluated with a particular focus on persistent and bioaccummulative chemicals e.g., mercury and halogenated organic compounds. Chemical transport and migration pathways included the discharges of contaminated groundwater to wetlands and surface waters, erosion and transport of contaminated soils to wetlands and surface waters, the biological uptake, trophic transport and consequent exposure of humans as well as fish and wildlife to chemicals of concern.

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Because of its unique ecological setting and multitude of potentially affected habitats, ecological risk assessments have required biological expertise in estuarine and freshwater ecology as well as upland and wetland vegetative communities.