ASTM International

RCRA Waste Management: Planning, Implementation, and Assessment of Sampling Activities
 N MNL42

Annotation

Introduction

EACH YEAR the EPA and the regulated community expend a significant amount of resources collecting waste management data for research, regulatory decision making, and regulatory compliance. While these investigations are required for accurate decision making and effective environmental protection, it is the goal of EPA and the regulated community to optimize these studies by eliminating unneeded, duplicative, or overly precise data [1,2]. At the same time, however, the data collected must be of sufficient quantity and quality to meet the objectives of the study.

There are numerous difficulties that can complicate efforts to meet this goal including: lack of definition of the data users objectives, inadequate identification of the decisions and alternate actions that may be taken based on the findings, lack of information on the sources of contamination, appropriate action levels or sampling/analytical approaches, undefined boundaries (spatial and temporal) including the types of media to be sampled, undefined scale of decision making, practical constraints to sample collection including equipment limitations, access to all areas of the target population, and extreme variability or heterogeneity associated with the media being sampled, undefined decision errors that are acceptable to the data users, inadequate optimization of the study design including resource limitations, lack of consideration of the study objectives, and insufficient incorporation of quality assurance into the sampling and analysis plan [1-3].

Specific difficulties associated with sampling a population can be classified into five general categories:

• population access problems making it difficult to sample all or portions of the population,