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CDOIF
Chemical and Downstream Oil
Industries Forum
CDOIF is a collaborative venture formed to agree strategic areas for
joint industry / trade union / regulator action aimed at delivering
health, safety and environmental improvements with cross-sector
benefits.
Notes for Table 2:
Separate criteria are provided in Table 2 depending on the nature of the site, be it land, surface
water or groundwater - these shall be applied in conjunction with the corresponding harm
criteria in Table 1.
These criteria are based on estimating the likely time for the habitat (or species, etc.) has
substantially recovered (unaided) from the damage caused. Complete recovery is difficult to
judge for the environment, and hence it is suggested that this should be clarified as >80% of the
damage.
There are no obvious time criteria to apply to groundwater bodies or drinking water sources. In
this case, Table 2 effectively reduces the tolerability of affecting a drinking water source
compared with non-drinking water groundwater bodies.
The time specified for long and very long term harm durations are stated as guides to help
assess potential recovery time if the impact to the receptor was left to natural recovery alone.
Consider the mechanisms that could influence this, such as (weathering, natural bio-
remediation or breakdown and replenishment through flushing, dilution etc.) and if these alone
could achieve the natural recovery in this specified time.
Guideline – Environmental Risk Tolerability for COMAH Establishments v1.0
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