Free REPA Practice Questions

Question 1

A Phase I assessment of a former metal-finishing property finds an agency closure letter requiring a pavement cap to be maintained over residual contamination. A recorded restriction prohibits residential use. The controls remain effective, the proposed use is industrial, and no new release or change in applicable criteria is identified. Under ASTM E1527-21, how should this condition be reported?

Accepted Answer

A controlled recognized environmental condition, because closure depends on continuing controls.

Answer

A historical recognized environmental condition, because the regulator has closed the release case.

Answer

A de minimis condition, because current occupants are separated from the contaminated soil.

Answer

A business environmental risk outside the assessment's scope, because cleanup is complete.

Question 2

Records for a closed degreasing shop show that solvent-bearing wastewater entered a dry well behind the building. Its location is established, and groundwater flows east through shallow sand. The initial Phase II objective is to determine whether that disposal point contaminated soil or groundwater. Which investigation design addresses that objective most directly?

Accepted Answer

Collect discrete soil samples at the dry well and groundwater samples upgradient and immediately downgradient.

Answer

Collect shallow soil samples on a property-wide grid and combine them into one sample for solvent analysis.

Answer

Install groundwater wells along the western property boundary to determine whether solvents are entering the site.

Answer

Sample the building's floor dust and outdoor air to assess exposure associated with the former degreasing process.

Question 3

Two wells screened in the same homogeneous aquifer are 100 m apart along an established east-west flow line. Measurements use a common elevation datum: west well, measuring-point elevation 110 m and depth to water 8 m; east well, measuring-point elevation 105 m and depth to water 5 m. Hydraulic conductivity is 6 m/day and effective porosity is 0.30. Determine the average advective velocity of a nonsorbing dissolved tracer under steady flow.

Accepted Answer

0.40 m/day eastward

Answer

0.12 m/day eastward

Answer

0.036 m/day eastward

Answer

0.40 m/day westward

Question 4

At the scheduled acquisition date, a Phase I report will be 60 days old, but its visual inspections of the property and adjoining properties will be 210 days old. Every other required inquiry component was completed 60 days before acquisition, and no changed condition is known. What is the narrowest sufficient update to resolve this timing deficiency under the federal All Appropriate Inquiries rule?

Accepted Answer

Repeat the visual inspections and update the environmental professional's assessment and declaration.

Answer

Reissue the report with a new date, retaining the original inspections because the report is under one year old.

Answer

Repeat every inquiry component, because an inspection older than 180 days invalidates all previously collected information.

Answer

Obtain the seller's written confirmation of unchanged conditions and use it in place of updated visual inspections.

Question 5

During a property inspection, a maintenance worker enters an underground valve vault and collapses. A meter lowered from outside reads 18.2% oxygen. The assessor is not trained or equipped for entry rescue, and the worker has no retrieval line attached. What should the assessor do immediately?

Accepted Answer

Call emergency services for confined-space rescue and prevent untrained personnel from entering the vault.

Answer

Put on an organic-vapor cartridge respirator and enter with a coworker stationed at the opening.

Answer

Lower a portable fan into the vault and enter once the meter shows normal oxygen at the opening.

Answer

Tie a rope around the assessor's waist and enter while a coworker remains outside to pull the rope.

Question 6

A disposal profile for nonlisted cleanup waste reports these representative toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) extract results: benzene, 0.80 mg/L; lead, 4.2 mg/L. The waste is subject to federal toxicity-characteristic requirements. Other toxicity-characteristic constituents are below their limits, and ignitability, corrosivity, and reactivity have been ruled out. On this evidence, the waste should be classified as:

Accepted Answer

D018 hazardous waste for benzene, but not D008 hazardous waste for lead.

Answer

D008 hazardous waste for lead, but not D018 hazardous waste for benzene.

Answer

Both D008 and D018 hazardous waste, because both extract results exceed their respective limits.

Answer

Neither D008 nor D018 hazardous waste, because both extract results are below 5.0 mg/L.

Question 7

Following an electron-donor injection, repeated samples from the same wells show decreasing tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE), increasing cis-1,2-dichloroethylene and vinyl chloride, and little ethene. Groundwater in the treatment zone remains strongly reducing. These trends provide the strongest evidence of:

Accepted Answer

Reductive dechlorination with intermediate products accumulating before complete conversion to ethene.

Answer

Dilution by clean recharge, with a proportional reduction in parent solvents and their breakdown products.

Answer

Reversible sorption of the parent solvents, rather than transformation of those compounds into daughter products.

Answer

Complete aerobic mineralization of the parent solvents, with low ethene confirming the treatment endpoint.

Question 8

A groundwater sample contains benzene at 4.8 µg/L and trichloroethylene (TCE) at 22 µg/L. The unopened trip blank shipped in the same cooler contains benzene at 4.2 µg/L but no detected TCE at a reporting limit of 0.5 µg/L. Laboratory method blanks are clean. Before final data validation, which interpretation is justified?

Accepted Answer

Transport or storage contamination may explain the benzene; the blank does not similarly explain the TCE result.

Answer

Subtracting the trip-blank benzene result gives the site's true benzene concentration, while TCE needs no correction.

Answer

The contaminated trip blank invalidates both analytes, so neither result can contribute to the site evaluation.

Answer

Both detections establish groundwater contamination because an unopened blank cannot affect the interpretation of field samples.

Question 9

An apartment building has a buried 2,000-gallon tank used exclusively to store heating oil consumed in the building's boiler. Maintenance records document an unresolved leak into surrounding soil. The owner argues that the heating-oil exclusion removes the tank from environmental due diligence. Which distinction should the assessor explain?

Accepted Answer

Federal Part 280 excludes this heating-oil tank, but ASTM E1527-21 still covers the petroleum release.

Answer

The federal UST exclusion cannot apply because a residential tank must hold 1,100 gallons or less to qualify.

Answer

The federal UST exclusion applies, so the petroleum release may be omitted unless the soil also contains hazardous substances.

Answer

The federal UST exclusion ends when a leak occurs, automatically subjecting the tank to all Part 280 requirements.

Question 10

An occupied warehouse overlies shallow groundwater containing trichloroethylene (TCE). Municipal water supplies the building, and an enforceable prohibition prevents groundwater use. No soil-gas, subslab, or indoor-air investigation has been performed. In the conceptual site model, how should the groundwater-to-indoor-air pathway be treated?

Accepted Answer

As a potential pathway, because subsurface vapor migration and indoor exposure have not been established or excluded.

Answer

As a completed pathway, because detecting TCE in groundwater establishes that occupants are inhaling it.

Answer

As an eliminated pathway, because municipal water and the well-use prohibition prevent exposure to groundwater contaminants.

Answer

As an eliminated pathway, because a building slab separates occupants from direct contact with contaminated groundwater.

Free REPA Practice Questions

Domain 1: Environmental Regulations

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Domain 2: Environmental Program Management

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Question 8

Domain 3: Basic Chemistry/ Geology

Question 9

Question 10

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