GERMAN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND REGULATIONS, A COMPARISON TO AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICE

摘要

Environmental investigation in a foreign country offers advantages and disadvantagesrnfor American companies. In principal, the structure and approach of performing therninvestigation and remediation is similar to American standards. The companiesrnperform the investigation and remediation guided by local regulatory agencies whichrnenforce the locality environmental rules. The locality抯 environmental regulatoryrnauthority most of the time implements the federal and state rules with specificrnendorsements for the locality and state. Communications with the regulatory agencyrnremained very informal and without much of bureaucracy. The laboratoryrnenvironmental methods are based in the German standard (DIN), and a few U.S. EPArnstandards. The differences are typically in analyte lists, sample handling, preserving,rnreporting, turnaround time, and quality assurance and quality control information. Soilrnboring, well installation material, soil sample collection, and decontamination processesrnwere less stringent than those adopted in the United States.