ASTM E1739 and E2081 framework for managing contaminated sites by tiered, site-specific risk assessment rather than uniform numerical cleanup standards. Adopted in modified form by most U.S. states and adapted into the Tier 1/2/3 structures used in Alberta, BC, and other Canadian jurisdictions.
Risk-Based Corrective Action structures site management in three tiers. Tier 1 compares site data against conservative, generic, look-up screening levels. Tier 2 substitutes site-specific exposure parameters into the same equations to derive site-specific target levels. Tier 3 uses fully probabilistic, site-specific risk assessment and remedial-design modelling.
The framework decouples cleanup cost from arbitrary numerical targets and ties it to actual exposure and risk. It has been operationally significant for petroleum-hydrocarbon site management since the 1990s and is the conceptual ancestor of the Tier 1/Tier 2 structures used by Alberta Environment and Protected Areas and other provincial regulators.
Also known as: RBCA, risk-based corrective action, tiered risk assessment.
A regulatory designation for the most effective and advanced stage of development of activities and operating methods. Regulators use BAT to set minimum performance standards for pollution control and contaminated-site remediation, anchored in technical and economic feasibility rather than vendor preference.
The U.S. federal law passed in 1980 that establishes liability, cleanup standards, and the Superfund program for sites contaminated with hazardous substances. The foundational statute for U.S. environmental remediation and the basis for the 2024 designation of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances.
A 2001 international treaty in force since 2004 that requires signatory countries to eliminate or restrict the production, use, and release of designated Persistent Organic Pollutants, including PCBs, dioxins, furans, and a growing list of PFAS compounds.
An independent third-party verification process for environmental technology performance, originally administered by the U.S. EPA and now operated by national and international programs in Canada, the European Union, and Asia. ETV documents what a technology actually achieves under defined conditions, separate from vendor marketing claims.