--> Site Inspections (SI) and Hazard Ranking System (HRS) Studies Applied to Old Mining Areas, by W. L. Mansker and M. A. Rogers; #90986 (1994).

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Abstract: Site Inspections (SI) and Hazard Ranking System (HRS) Studies Applied to Old Mining Areas

William L. Mansker, Margaret Anne Rogers

Site inspections are the third step (after site discovery and the Preliminary Assessment, PA) in the pre-remedial process under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). Site inspections should collect sufficient data to allow the site to be scored using the HRS. The Hazard Ranking System for Uncontrolled Hazardous Substance Releases, appendix A of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution

Contingency Plan (NCP), 40 CFR part 300, is used as a screening device to evaluate the relative potential for uncontrolled hazardous substances to cause human health or safety problems or ecological or environmental damage. The HRS does not address the feasibility, desirability or degree of cleanup required; however, it is the primary way of determining whether a site will be included on the National Priorities List (NPL), commonly thought of as the Superfund site list.

A site inspection is to be performed within limited time and budgetary constraints and relies on readily available information and/or information which can be collected in a single site visit. It involves literature review, interviews, site visits and very limited sampling. The information gathered is then used to do the HRS scoring, a particularly complex exercise. The HRS requires much detailed information to evaluate 4 contamination pathways: ground water migration, surface water migration, soil exposure, and air migration. If the information is not readily available or unknown, a site may score higher than it deserves.

Several abandoned New Mexican mining areas will illustrate the SI/HRS procedures, limitations, and uncertainties.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994