Vapor Intrusion and Testing

Vapors migrating from contaminated soil and/or groundwater can potentially impact the indoor air and hence the air quality to potentially cause human health risks.

In the last few years, more attention has been paid to vapor intrusion. Its identification is now part of Phase I ESAs. Chemical vapors can leak into openings in cracked foundations, basements or sewer lines. They can also migrate through the floor slab, depending on the source compounds.

Commercial operations of fuel service stations and dry cleaners commonly present migrating VOC vapors once spills occur and contamination impacts the subsurface soil and groundwater. Even following site closure by regulatory agencies when these facilities go through remediation and no longer exceed the soil and groundwater standards, there is the potential for vapor intrusion.

Integra Environmental consultants can perform vapor intrusion assessments and due diligence activities to identify potential sources of vapor intrusion. Our team performs soil, groundwater, soil gas and/or indoor air assessments to determine if vapor intrusion standards are met, or if further evaluation, remediation, or mitigation is necessary.

We just performed soil vapor assessments at a dry cleaner and at a chrome plating facility where we designed Sub-Slab Depressurization (SSD) systems to create a negative pressure under the concrete slabs. The SSD system which extracts vapors to the outside eliminates the migration of vapors to the working areas of these facilities.