English

Abstract

Adaptive management follows a general model of study, prescribe, monitor, and refine management approaches. The original Record of Decision concerning remediation activities at the smelter-affected Bunker Hill site in northern Idaho contained little guidance on how to evaluate the success of remediation. Therefore, the Bunker Hill project team convened a series of three workshops in 1998 and 1999 to develop remediation guidance statements including goals, objectives, and performance standards. Project purpose and goals defined broadly based visions for the project. Objectives identified specific approaches to achieving the purpose and goals, assuming all work would be conducted under the umbrella of adaptive management. Performance standards were developed for each objective to measure its success. Owing to significant uncertainty regarding performance of site soils at varying levels of plant cover, performance standards were considered interim until monitoring could measure parameters of site performance. Site remediation activities are now essentially complete and monitoring has been ongoing since 1998. An interagency project team workshop was convened in 2004 to evaluate site performance and to validate or invalidate the ability of the interim performance standards (IPSs) to clearly reflect the project’s objectives. Based on the workshop and site performance, proposed final performance standards (FPSs) were developed at the workshop. This paper presents the evolution of the performance standards and how monitoring results were used to validate or modify those standards. The role and importance of goal setting and their evolution in remediation projects are presented in the context of actual project performance. Additional