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(52-35) Ecological risk assessment applied to contaminated sites: review of international regulatory approaches and proposal of a national procedure. Marcomini, Antonio*,1, Critto, Andrea1, Carlon, Claudio2, Quercia, Francesca3, 1 University of Venice, Department of Environmental Sciences, Calle Larga S. Marta 2137, Venice, Italy2 Consorzio Venezia Ricerche, Via della Libertà 5/12, Venice, Italy3 Agenzia Nazionale per la Protezione dell'Ambiente, Via Brancati 48, Rome, Italy ABSTRACT- A scrutin examination of methodologies proposed world-wide, especially in Europe, for the application of ecological risk assessment (ERA) to contaminated sites allowed to develop a procedure suitable for the regulatory and environmental management conditions in Italy. The procedure consists of three steps: (1) scoping, (2) screening, and (3) site specific investigation. The scoping is based on the compilation of a check-list allowing a preliminary description of the ecosystem under study with special attention to the exposure of target organisms to contaminants. The result of this step is the formulation of a preliminary conceptual model of the ecosystem in such a way to select ecological criteria and assessment endpoints. The screening leads to define the potential risk of the site resulting from the site end use and decides the need of undertaking a site specific ERA. The screening step allows also to define the functionalities of the soil to be protected in relation with its end use. Specific ecological criteria and assessment endpoints are associated to each functionality and belong to generic taxonomic categories. The final achievement of this step is the definition of a Soil Screening Value (SSV) for each contaminant corresponding to each end use of the site: if any SSV is exceeded, a site specific ERA is undertaken. In the step of site specific investigation, measurable attributes and toxicological tests (bioassay, field survey) are selected for each assessment endpoint identified in the previous steps in order to adequately characterize the effects and estimate the site specific risk. Key words: Ecoilogical Risk Assessment, Contaminated sites, Soil Screening Value, Soil functionalities |
