Overview of Module

At this point in ENVE 651 you are familiar with the basics of the risk assessment process and its major steps: hazard identification, dose-response, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. You have also started working with some models that may help with this process. Now we begin some "fine points" to increase your depth in some of those areas. This module will start you analyzing risk with the RISC computer model and an exercise using the RISC model. But first there is an overview of groundwater, that will help you feel comfortable with the terms in the RISC model. Between groundwater and RISC, we cover a little about some practical risk assessment and risk management tools that are referred to in RISC.

Homework.
There are 25 points for this module's homework. a.) 20 points for the RISC files and comments, and b.) 5 points for the discussion. All are explained more below.

a.) There is an assignment in Sub-module 9C worth 20 points. It asks you to send a RISC file and Word document. Attach both to an email with the subject: ENVE 651 HW 9.

b.) For your discussion, worth 5 points: I sent you a model, without a lot of explanation about where it came from, and also explained something about groundwater. In the hand-in homework you used the model to examine the effect of varying some of the parameters of the model. Now for your discussion, I want you to think about the ethics of using such a model to determine human exposure. Do you think it is "right." What if you don't have time and budget to do the extensive sampling to firm up the models estimates of those parameters? First one up write a paragraph. All the rest write a commentary on the entry above, then write your own. [There are some comments in the closure module about the assignment, you might want to involve those closure comments in your discussion.]

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