Opinion ID: 3009922
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: ingestion of contaminated soil; (2)

Text: ingestion of contaminated water on or near the field; (3) inhalation of contaminated dust; and (4) dermal contact with the contaminated soil or water. The risk assessment was conducted based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency risk assessment guidance documents. The results of the calculations indicate that participation in games or practices at the soccer field for periods of time greater than 33 hours results in significant health risks for both children and adults. The primary chemicals contributing to these risks are the inorganic chemicals arsenic and lead, and the base neutral polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon benzo(a)pyrene. Other inorganic chemicals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and semi-volatile organic compounds contribute lesser percentages to the risks. App. at 2909a. The Report also states that increased risk may arise from absorption of chemicals through a cut, abrasion or perspiration, increased amounts of volatiles and dusts in the air during play and ingestion of contaminated soil or water during rough play when a player's face comes in contact with the ground. In arriving at his conclusion that adults and children using the field for soccer play or practice for more than thirty-three hours were exposed to a significant health risk, Dr. Greeley relied on EPA's risk assessment procedure which consists of four steps: (1) data collection, evaluation and identification of chemicals of concern; (2) exposure assessment; (3) toxicity assessment and (4) risk characterization. Risk characterization involves, among other things, the calculation of carcinogenic risks, which are stated in terms of risk per million, and is arrived at by multiplying the calculated increased risk of cancer by 1,000,000.7 For each pathway of exposure, Dr. Greeley added together the cancer risks for each of the carcinogenic chemicals found at the site to derive an increased risk of cancer for each pathway. He then totalled the risks for each pathway to arrive at a total increased risk of cancer, which he defined as an increased risk of cancer due to exposure at the site against everyone's everyday risk of getting cancer. Using the EPA guideline that treats an increased cancer risk which is greater than one in a million as significant and a similar guideline for non-carcinogenic health risks, Dr. Greeley concluded that children or adults playing or practicing soccer at the Park for thirty-three hours or more had an increased risk of cancer of one in a million and an increased 7 . No one points to any demographic, epidemiologic or any other type of scientific data, nor to any risk-utility analysis that supports EPA's million-fold regulatory factor as demonstrating the presence of a hazard, nor does this threshold appear in the regulatory or statutory history. Nevertheless, the million-fold factor seems ubiquitous in regulatory risk-utility determinations despite its indeterminate pedigree. We will assume that it has some rational basis and thus represents a regulatory determination to which we must defer in deciding plaintiffs' statutory claims. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 467 U.S. 897 (1984); Federal Labor Relations Authority v. Dep't of Navy, 966 F.2d 747 (1992). For purposes of simplicity, we will also use it to assess the tort claims. We note, however, that a common law court may still be free to apply standard tort risk-utility analysis to the problem of defining the threshold at which a toxic substance becomes a hazard. risk of non-carcinogenic health problems of three in a million (children) and one in a million (adults). Children who played or practiced soccer at the Park for the maximum calculated exposure time of 1,350 hours had an increased risk of cancer of sixty-five in a million and of non-carcinogenic health risks of thirty-eight in a million. Adults with the maximum calculated exposure time had an increased risk of cancer of forty-six in a million and a non-carcinogenic increased health risk of eleven in a million. In preparing his report, Dr. Greeley relied on the soil and groundwater sampling performed by Woodward-Clyde in March of 1988. Dr. Greeley also considered the soil and groundwater sampling results from the Corps' study performed in May of 1988 and the EPA study performed in June of 1988, but he decided to rely solely on the Woodward-Clyde results because of the nonhomogeneity of the landfill/soccer field soil, as well as the difficulty in attempting to correlate samples taken at different depths at different times by different sampling personnel. App. at 2921a. He reasoned that the Woodward-Clyde study was the most representative of the three, and its sampling was performed while the soccer field was still in use. He acknowledged, however, that Woodward-Clyde only dug three test pits within the immediate area of the former landfill, now the soccer field, and that the samples were not from the surface but were 'near-surface' samples and composite samples over the four-foot depth of the test pits. Therefore, he concluded [t]he actual concentrations of the chemicals of concern in the soil to which the soccer players and adults were exposed may vary more or less from the values selected for this risk assessment. App. at 2960a. He also considered and rejected additional exposure routes via ingestion or contact with the sediments in the marsh area adjacent to the soccer field and the surface water of the Creek because the concentrations of chemicals there were either below the detection limits of the testing method used or no larger than the concentrations in the test pit soils.