Preliminary Endanger­ment Assessment (PEA) Guidance Manual Released in Draft by DTSC

The Department of Toxic Substances Control has released a revised ver­sion of its Preliminary Endanger­ment Assessment (PEA) Guidance Manual.  The manual is used to perform an initial evaluation of contaminat­ed property. This is the most recent version since 1999.  This version was intended to include information required by the All Appropriate Inquiry (“AAI”) standard included in the CERCLA statute, reflected in EPA generated regulations,  and mirrored in ASTM Standards that are by regulation, equivalent to AAI. Because the documents are clearly intended for different uses it appears that the PEA can be used to satisfy certain of the information requirements built into the AAI. The new PEA can be found here. A discussion of the ASTM standard follows.