API Publ 4700

The purpose of this document is to help site or facility managers acting as site investigators decide how and to what degree they should address ecological risks that may result from a petroleum products release. This primer focuses on downstream operations related to the transportation, distribution, and marketing of petroleum products, but the general principles may be adapted to other parts of the industry as well. The ecological risk assessment process is briefly described, and guidance is given about the preliminary investigation to access the possible nature and extent of risk . This information is an inital part of a tiered decision-making process used to determine the depth and breadth of the site investigation.