The sustainable remediation panel

Abstract

field have volunteered to provide their opinions on difficult subjects related to the topic of how to integrate sustainability principles into the remediation practice. The panel's opinions are provided in a question-and-answer format, whereby selected experts provide an answer to a question. This issue's question is provided below, followed by opinions from four experts in the remediation field.In developing numerical cleanup standards for site cleanups, including risk-based corrective actions, is it possible to incorporate social and economic metrics into the standards or do these need to be considered separately on a qualitative basis? DANIEL J. WATTSThe fast answer is that social and economic metrics can be built into numerical cleanup standards. The more precise answer is that it likely would be difficult presently because few examples exist of quantitative expectations and outcomes in the social and economic arenas resulting from a cleanup operation. With decades of experience in setting environmental cleanup goals, numerical metrics are established and accepted, albeit with occasional debate in setting goals for individual sites. Measuring social and economic change or benefit is more complicated because there is a prior need to establish what benefits are desired and then to determine how best to calibrate the change. While agreement on the value of improved quality of life or economic progress can be easy to achieve, assigning goals and measuring progress can be more difficult. Often, this lack of a uniform approach is because the hopes and expectations are local rather than national.For example, the city of Santa Monica, California, has had a city sustainability program with a set of numerical targets as measures of progress of the city toward sustainability since 1994. Among the criteria are improving residents' perception of personal safety, which has been measured by survey at about 79 percent, and increasing the percentage of inhabitants who are employed within the city, which recently was reported to be 32 percent. Initiatives to facilitate measurable progress toward these goals could be made part of the cleanup standards by assessing how many Santa Monica residents could get jobs as a result of the cleanup or how well factors leading to improved perception of residents' personal safety, such as neighborhood involvement, improved neighborhood appearance, and expansion of nuisance abatement, are incorporated into the cleanup actions. Currently, many cities and some states have sustainability plans; fewer have trend data for all of the criteria they have selected to assess progress toward sustainability. Even fewer have a full set of targets they are trying to achieve for their