Risk-Based Evaluation of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Vapor Intrusion Studies

Roger Brewer, Josh Nagashima, Michael Kelley, Marvin Heskett and Mark Rigby
Additional contact information
Roger Brewer: Hawaii Department of Health, 919 Ala Moana Blvd Room 206, Honolulu, HI 96814, USA
Josh Nagashima: Hawaii Department of Health, 919 Ala Moana Blvd Room 206, Honolulu, HI 96814, USA
Michael Kelley: EA Engineering, Science and Technology, 615 Piikoi St #515, Honolulu, HI 96814, USA
Marvin Heskett: Geotek Hawaii, Inc., P.O. Box 1555, Pearl City, HI 96782, USA
Mark Rigby: Parsons Corporation, 10235 South Jordan Gateway, Suite 300, South Jordan, UT 8409, USA

IJERPH, 2013, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-27

Abstract: This paper presents a quantitative method for the risk-based evaluation of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) in vapor intrusion investigations. Vapors from petroleum fuels are characterized by a complex mixture of aliphatic and, to a lesser extent, aromatic compounds. These compounds can be measured and described in terms of TPH carbon ranges. Toxicity factors published by USEPA and other parties allow development of risk-based, air and soil vapor screening levels for each carbon range in the same manner as done for individual compounds such as benzene. The relative, carbon range makeup of petroleum vapors can be used to develop weighted, site-specific or generic screening levels for TPH. At some critical ratio of TPH to a targeted, individual compound, the overwhelming proportion of TPH will drive vapor intrusion risk over the individual compound. This is particularly true for vapors associated with diesel and other middle distillate fuels, but can also be the case for low-benzene gasolines or even for high-benzene gasolines if an adequately conservative, target risk is not applied to individually targeted chemicals. This necessitates a re-evaluation of the reliance on benzene and other individual compounds as a stand-alone tool to evaluate vapor intrusion risk associated with petroleum.

Keywords: petroleum; TPH; carbon ranges; benzene; soil gas; soil vapor; vapor intrusion; risk assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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