SRP News Dec 1998 - [Vol 10 No 2 Article 04]

Site Remediation News
December 1998 (Vol 10 No 2) - Article 04

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Soil Cleanup Criteria for Chromium and its Compounds Issued by NJDEP

By: Teruo Sugihara
Bureau of Environmental Evaluation and Risk Assessment

Effective as of September 18, 1998, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has approved soil cleanup criteria related to chromium and its compounds. The basis for these values is to a large extent derived from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) toxicological information, exposure pathway models, exposure assumptions, risk calculations, and air model utilization.

	Land Use Scenario
Pathway	Residential	Nonresidential
*For trivalent chromium and its compounds:*
Dermal ¹	None ²	None ²
Inhalation	None ³	None ³
Ingestion	120,000 ppm	Not regulated ⁴
Impact to ground water	None ²	None ²
*For hexavalent chromium and its compounds:*
Dermal ¹	Under development ⁵	Under development ⁵
Inhalation	270 ppm	20 ppm (preliminary) ⁶
Ingestion	240 ppm	6,100 ppm
Impact to ground water	Site-specific ⁷	Site-specific ⁷

NOTES:

^1.	The specific human health endpoint considered for the dermal pathway is allergic contact dermatitis. This has been determined by the Department to be an endpoint requiring regulation. The USEPA does not use allergic contact dermatitis as a basis for determining the need to remediate a site.
^2.	Under normal environmental conditions, trivalent chromium is insoluble in water. Therefore, exposure via this pathway is not relevant.
^3.	Toxicological data for trivalent chromium do not exist for this exposure pathway. Therefore, soil cleanup criteria cannot be established.
^4.	For the nonresidential land use scenario, ingestion of insoluble trivalent chromium does not pose an unacceptable risk. Therefore, a soil cleanup criterion is not proposed.
^5.	Exposure models and assumptions have been developed or are being finalized. Generic soil cleanup criteria are also being developed by the Department. The Department currently allows the determination of site-specific soil cleanup criteria. Residential and nonresidential land use scenario soil cleanup criteria are the same due to the acute nature of the endpoint.
^6.	Exposure models and assumptions have been developed or are being finalized. The Department currently allows the determination of site-specific soil cleanup criteria. Due to the effects of vehicular traffic, the nonresidential land use scenario soil cleanup criterion will be lower than the residential land use scenario soil cleanup criterion.
^7.	Due to the highly variable soil conditions throughout New Jersey, it is not possible at this time to develop a generic impact to ground water criterion. However, the site-specific criterion would be the same for both residential and nonresidential land use scenarios

.In addition to the above, ecological impacts must also be considered. As the Department is currently precluded by public law from developing ecologically based cleanup criteria for statewide use, each situation will be handled on a site-specific basis. Potential surface water impacts will also be evaluated on a site-specific basis.

Supporting documentation for these criteria are in "Summary of the Basis and Background of the Soil Cleanup Criteria for Trivalent and Hexavalent Chromium," which is dated September 18, 1998. This document is available for viewing on the internet at www.nj.gov/dep/srp/index.htm. It is also available in printed form upon request from Dr. Teruo Sugihara, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 401 East State Street, P.O. Box 413, Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0413. Questions concerning the above can also be directed to Dr. Sugihara via telephone at (609) 633-1356.

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Last revision: 31 December 1998