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1 <br />' wen Snmy mtl sn,my ,M.er LNO Er ynavs~ww.y <br />3 . given the lack of significant risk posed by these properties, the existing mine permit <br />' requirements aze adequate to protect the public health and environment. <br />' This section details a qualitative review of those factors which would contribute to human health <br />or ecological risk associated with these mine properties within the framework of the most widely <br />' accepted risk assessment methodology. <br />' 3.1 Overview of Approssch <br />As part of the effort to select environmental actions considered to be protective of human health <br />and the environment, the United States Envirotunental Protection Agency (EPA) developed a set <br />' of manuals, together entitled Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund (hereafter referred to as <br />RAGS) (EPA, 1989a and b). The Human Health Evaluation Manual (Volume I) (hereafter <br />' refereed to as RAGS I) provides guidance for developing human health risk information for EPA- <br />administered sites, while the Environmental Evaluation Manual (Volume II) (hereafter referred <br />' to as RAGS II) provides guidance for environmental risk assessment at the same sites. Although <br />the methods described to evssluate risk in RAGS I and RAGS II aze strictly applicable only to <br />' EPA-administered Superfundl sites, the guidance for evaluating risk has for years been widely <br />recognized as the most systernatic approach to evaluating risk with the goal of protecting human <br />' health and the environment. <br />' This preliminary qualitative liiscussion of potential risks to human health and the environment <br />associated with these two simall mining properties generally follows RAGS. As discussed <br />' previously, the Sunday mine properties aze exempt because there aze no toxic or acid forming <br />materials exposed or disturbs:d at these sites in quantities sufficient to adversely affect human <br />' health or the environment. The evaluation below uses EPA's approach to assess the basic <br />elements of source, exposure pathways, receptors, and uptake mechanisms. As will be seen, <br />' xwstxsva'~nwwmavsrrvsofrwsuxsUx.arr <br />Page 11 <br />1 <br /> <br />