This research presents a digitally-based methodology for approaching environmental risk assessments at large and complex industrial facilities, using the Marcus Hook Refinery in Pennsylvania as a case study site. The goal of this study is to demonstrate the development of a "digital facility description" and its use as an effective environmental risk assessment tool. The digital facility description is the collection of physical, chemical, geological, and hydrogeological information that has been spatially referenced in a geographic information system (GIS). It provides the mechanism to analyze sources and potential receptors in a spatial framework and to evaluate exposure pathways with models. The digital facility description has two components: (1) a spatial database of regional and facility features, and (2) a relational tabular database of environmental measurements. These two databases are dynamically linked providing a means of evaluating both spatial and temporal relationships. The digital facility description is used to support environmental risk assessment activities, such as map-based modeling and exposure analysis. Specifically, a surface water runoff model and a groundwater model were developed for Marcus Hook. Additionally, source area concentrations and the probabilities that these concentrations are above target levels were analyzed using "risk maps."

CRWR Online Report 99-2

By Andrew Paul Romanek, M.S.E, Lesley Hay Wilson, and David R. Maidment

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