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Few-Ganache1416 OP t1_j8s0vzc wrote

Reply to comment by deathstartrenchrun in IAMA Environmental Engineer AMA about cleaning up after chemical spills! by Few-Ganache1416

Typically, if you were a company or collective in the vicinity of the spill, you would hire someone like me, an environmental consultant. There are tons of consulting firms. If you would like to independently test media surrounding your home, I would focus on air monitoring rather than drinking water or soil. This is because vinyl chloride is typically a gas at room temperature and it is unlikely that if you are enough distance away from the release that you would detect VC in soil or groundwater on your property. Each state and EPA region has rules and regulations prescribing how soil, groundwater, and air media must be sampled so I would refer to your states specific rules in that regard. VC is in a group of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the proper analysis code for a laboratory to analyze a soil or water sample would be EPA Method 8260D. This would provide you with the concentrations of the full suite of the VOC chemicals in the media you submit. You would then need to compare those results to OSHA permissible exposure levels PELs for the various chemicals, or VC specifically if that is all you are looking for. These tests typically cost between $80-120 per sample, depending on the lab. For air monitoring, if you visit the EPA page on the release site, you will notice that they are producing air concentrations for total VOCs. As I mentioned before, VC is a VOC, but there are tons of VOCs, so it isn't giving you an exact measurement of VC in the air. It's like if you saw a flock of birds in the air and you wanted to know how many ducks were in the air, but all the observer could tell you was the total number of birds in the air, which may include ducks, pigeons, hawks, etc. Measuring VOCs is, however, a legitimate strategy to determining if the air is harmful. For instance, if it takes 10 ducks to adversely affect someone, but the observer only counts 5 birds total in the air, then their cant possibly be 10 ducks. That is their current strategy. If there were 100 birds, they may employ a more chemical specific air monitoring method to speciate out what types of birds are in the air.

All that being said, consultants are expensive and after reviewing the EPA numbers, it appears that they didn't skip out on any procedures so far. I would not recommend hiring a consultant by yourself, but if you have an HOA, you might be able to do something as a group.

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heemat t1_j8uvg76 wrote

HS Engineering teacher here. Loved the bird analogy!

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Few-Ganache1416 OP t1_j8v4sf7 wrote

Thanks! A lot of my job is relaying very technical data to people who may not have technical backgrounds, so i have a bag full of analogies on hand XD.

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bennymac111 t1_j98vosh wrote

just going to chime in here since I am also at an environmental consulting firm, but specialize in air sampling / exposure to airborne contaminants. you can sample specifically for vinyl chloride (NIOSH 1007), rather than total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), using charcoal tube media. Cost is about $75USD/sample. You can also use a passive badge, which is about as easy as air sampling can get, to also sample specifically for vinyl chloride. An open characterization VOC sample can easily get up to $500/sample. It would likely be preferable to compare the air sample results to ACGIH TLV's as a starting point, since OSHA PEL's tend to be slow to be revised (in this, it looks like the values are actually the same either way, at 1 ppm). But - ACGIH TLV, OSHA PEL, NIOSH REL, others etc are intended for 8-hour exposure periods with 16hr recovery periods, for 40 hr work weeks. Measurements of a contaminant within a home is a different scenario since there could potentially be someone within the home 24 hours, so the exposure limit criteria would likely come down quite a bit, potentially to 0.1 ppm.

If i'm not mistaken EPA 6820D intends to quantify VOCs in solid waste media. That may not be the best route in this instance.

The other consideration to deal with is that concentrations of vinyl chloride (and others) are likely to subside quickly over time due to its volatility. So you'd have to think ahead - if you get 'high' results the first time you sample, and then 'low' results if you sampled again a week later, was that a significant risk to your health? There'd be other contaminants to worry about - carbon monoxide, hydrochloric acid, phosgene (to manage perceptions from the public & media), respirable particulate (PM2.5), potentially metals like iron oxide / manganese / maybe aluminum from the rail cars themselves etc.

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Few-Ganache1416 OP t1_j996nou wrote

I think you meant 8260D for the solid waste media. You can get equipment to look for one chemical in particular yes, but i think a PID/FID to start, maybe a mini or multiRAE would be best to monitor for long period and if it gets above the established thresholds then you could notify EPA and they could take care of the speciation of the chemicals.

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mbeckwithlaube t1_j8xqbk7 wrote

>isn't

It is also important to note that the smell that folks report, while unsettling, may not be VC or any VOC's. Comingling COC's make something special. I miss my days responding to these things... The sweet xylenes...

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Few-Ganache1416 OP t1_j8xqu7g wrote

I worked at a bulk liquid storage terminal once where they stored turpentine. I couldn't get the smell out of my nose or clothes for like a week but all air monitoring in the area was clean. Smell is a weird thing and its amazing how powerful our noses can be.

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MahatmaBuddah t1_j9f8kjb wrote

Only a few molecules of a pheromone will tell your nose that a pretty girl is nearby.

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