The Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council will be offering its two day course, Vapor Intrusion Pathway: A Practical Guideline, in Sacramento, CA on June 22-23, 2009 and in Long Beach, CA on June 25- 26, 2009. The training is based on ITRC's national VI pathway guidance and is led by internationally recognized experts. According to ITRC, this classroom training will enable you to learn the latest strategies to conduct site screening and investigations, determine what tools are appropriate to collect quality data and evaluate the results, apply multiple lines of evidence to ensure quality decision- making, build solutions for VI issues through understanding of mitigation options, network with environmental professionals, and learn about new VI developments from US EPA. Instructors include Dave Folkes and Bill Morris of EnviroGroup. More information on the course is found at:

This new guidance document is now available from DTSC for immediate use on California sites which may be impacted by soil vapor intrusion. The document includes an overview of VI mitigation technologies as well as mitigation system design and implementation considerations. The document can be found at:

In January the Department of Defense finalized its Vapor Intrusion Handbook. The handbook covers both screening levels and site specific assessment as well as risk assessment, communication, and management. The document is intended for use at active installations, at installations closing under Base Realignment and Closure, and at Formerly Used Defense sites. The document replaces the Tri Services Handbook and can be found at:

The California /EPA boards and departments, in cooperation with the Groundwater Resources Association, are hosting two free vapor intrusion workshops. The workshops will be held in Sacramento June 3 & 4 and in Los Angeles June 9 & 10. The workshops are designed to discuss three guidance documents: Advisory- Active Soil Gas Investigations, Guidance for the Evaluation and Mitigation of Subsurface Vapor Intrusion to Indoor Air, and Vapor Intrusion Mitigation Advisory. Information regarding the workshops is found at:

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has established an Indoor Air Workgroup to revise the Massachusetts VI guidance. DEP has a project blog site to serve as a public forum for discussion of the guidance. Draft documents are shared for comment on the blog which can be found at:

On April 9, 2009 EPA withdrew its January 15, 2009 OSWER guidance entitled "Interim Recommended Trichloroethylene (TCE) Toxicity Values to Assess Human Health Risk and Recommendations for the Vapor Intrusion Pathway Analysis". The agency withdrew the guidance in order to further evaluate the recommendations regarding the non-cancer TCE toxicity value for use in risk assessment of inhalation exposures. The April 9, 2009 memo can be found at:

Vapor intrusion has finally made it to prime time TV. Pontarolo Engineering informs us that their aerated floor system "Cupolex" was used in the construction of a home recently built for ABC's Extreme Home Makeover program in Las Vegas, Nevada. The episode was aired on May 10, 2009. This episode may be viewed from the ABC website:

According to William Cannizzaro of Pontarolo, the aerated floor system was selected to address potential radon concerns, and because the modular forms allow faster framing and setting of the concrete, critical to the construction schedule of Extreme Home Makeover houses which must be built in 106 hours. Cupolex can also be formed to create structural floors, which helped deal with swelling soil issues at the site. More information on aerated floor systems is available at:

Attached is a link to the EPA web site containing the proceedings from the National Forum on Vapor Intrusion which was held by EPA in Philadelphia, PA on January 12 & 13 , 2009.