Risk Assessment for a Chemical Spill into a River

DOI

10.2991/jrarc.2013.3.3.1How to use a DOI?

Keywords

River dilution model, aggregate exposure, aquatic exposure, methanol

Abstract

A chemical spill into a river presents a significant threat to human health and the aquatic environment. A mathematical model is presented for predicting the chemical concentrations in a river resulting from a chemical spill. A screening risk assessment approach is presented to characterize the risk to humans and aquatic life resulting from a single spill. Human exposure is evaluated using two approaches; exposure from drinking contaminated water and aggregate exposure. The potential for adverse effect to aquatic organisms is evaluated by comparing the predicted environmental concentrations to the lethal effect concentration for the most sensitive species as well as to the no observed effect concentration. The model and the approach are used to evaluate a small hypothetical spill of methanol. The example provides guidance for evaluating other chemical spill scenarios.

Copyright

© 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - JOUR
AU  - David McReady
AU  - James B. Williams
PY  - 2013
DA  - 2013/11/01
TI  - Risk Assessment for a Chemical Spill into a River
JO  - Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response
SP  - 116
EP  - 126
VL  - 3
IS  - 3
SN  - 2210-8505
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/jrarc.2013.3.3.1
DO  - 10.2991/jrarc.2013.3.3.1
ID  - McReady2013
ER  -