10 exam-style questions with answers and explanations, straight from our 1,030-question bank. Tap an answer to check yourself. When you're ready, take the scored version in the free practice test.
These 10 free REM questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Registered Environmental Manager blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
Before purchasing equipment for a new major VOC-emitting facility, a company confirms that the project is subject to nonattainment New Source Review for ozone. Its finance director proposes selecting controls solely on the basis of the lowest annualized cost. The preconstruction permitting plan must instead provide for:
Correct answer: A - Lowest achievable emission rate controls and the required emission offsets.
An industrial NPDES permit imposes independent daily maximum TSS limits of 25 mg/L and 40 kg/day at the final outfall. For one complete day, the facility discharges 2,000 cubic meters. Valid flow-proportional composites show 120 mg/L TSS before treatment and 22 mg/L at the final outfall. How should the manager evaluate that day's discharge?
Correct answer: B - The load is 44 kg/day; the mass limit is exceeded despite the acceptable concentration.
A manufacturer sends F005-listed spent solvent for authorized treatment. The resulting residue no longer exhibits any hazardous-waste characteristic, but no delisting or other exclusion applies. Which designation belongs on the residue's disposal profile?
Correct answer: C - Listed hazardous waste, because treatment alone does not remove the F005 listing.
A developer is considering a former solvent-recovery property with known, preexisting contamination beneath an approved cap. There is no ongoing disposal, and the developer has no affiliation with a liable party. The intended use is consistent with the site's restrictions. What advice should the buyer receive about bona fide prospective purchaser protection under CERCLA?
Correct answer: D - Known contamination does not itself bar protection; preacquisition inquiry and continuing obligations still apply.
During an authorized entry into a wastewater vault, an entrant's calibrated monitor alarms at 18.2% oxygen. The combustible-gas reading is 0% of the lower explosive limit, and the monitored toxic gases are below their alarm settings. The entrant is alert and can climb out unaided. Which instruction should the attendant give now?
Correct answer: A - Exit the vault immediately; suspend entry until acceptable atmospheric conditions have been restored.
A community water system confirms nitrate at 13 mg/L as nitrogen in its finished water. Bacteriological results are satisfactory. The system is preparing an urgent notice for households that mix formula for infants younger than six months. Which sentence is essential to that notice?
Correct answer: C - Use verified nitrate-safe alternative water for infant formula; boiling will not remove nitrate.
A shipping specialist must assign a packing group to a Class 3 liquid using the flash-point and boiling-point criteria. Its closed-cup flash point is 18 °C and its initial boiling point is 90 °C. No special classification or packaging exception applies. Chemical compatibility, closure, and other package limits will be verified separately. Identify the packing group and the permissible UN performance level.
Correct answer: B - Packing Group II; an X- or Y-marked package can meet the performance requirement.
An environmental data review finds acetone at 36-44 micrograms/L in six groundwater samples. An unopened trip blank transported in the same cooler contains 40 micrograms/L acetone. The equipment blank and laboratory method blank are nondetect at a reporting limit of 5 micrograms/L. Before these results are used to map an acetone plume, what is the most defensible interpretation?
Correct answer: D - Evaluate possible handling or transport contamination before treating the acetone detections as plume evidence.
A facility's maximum on-site inventory of a pure extremely hazardous substance is 650 lb. Its published threshold planning quantity is 1,000 lb, and an OSHA safety data sheet is required. No exemption applies. The emergency planner correctly notes that this inventory does not reach the EPCRA Section 302 planning threshold, then concludes that Sections 311 and 312 cannot apply either. Where does that conclusion fail?
Correct answer: C - The 500-lb Sections 311/312 threshold applies here, separately from the 1,000-lb planning threshold.
A contaminated-site assessment reports two results for the same defined chronic exposure scenario: noncancer hazard quotient (HQ) = 2.4; excess lifetime cancer risk = 2 x 10^-5. Which conclusion do these results support?
Correct answer: A - The HQ flags potential noncancer concern; the cancer value is an incremental lifetime risk estimate.
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