Human health and ecological risk assessment is often required in the assessment and auditing of contaminated land, to:

ensure the condition of the site does not pose an unacceptable risk to human or ecological receptors at the site or surrounding areas, and
avoid unnecessary remediation (with associated costs) when the risk is determined to be low.

Risk assessments may include contaminant fate and transport modelling (especially groundwater plume migration and vapour intrusion assessment) and toxicological reviews.

AEA has in-house risk assessment and toxicology expertise, as well as access to a team of experts who can offer support in specific fields as required, such as ecological toxicity. We are able to independently review quantitative risk assessments undertaken by others, including as part of an environmental audit, as well as undertake our own risk assessments when the environmental consultant is lacking this area of expertise.

Alyson Macdonald, who is one of AEA’s accredited auditors in NSW and Victoria, is also an experienced human health risk assessor, and brings a risk-based focus to all aspects of contaminated land auditing from selection or derivation of Tier 1 screening criteria to Tier 3 quantitative risk assessment. She has obtained Registrant status as a risk assessor with the Australasian College of Toxicology and Risk Assessment (ACTRA) and is an avid member of the Risk Assessment Focus Group at the Australian Contaminated Land Industry Association (ACLCA).