Partly because of some comments Serge made earlier, I'm looking at designing my site's php script to generate static html files. I understand that in order to let php modify files, I would have to make apache the owner of the file. I've read that there are security risks in this, as anyone on the server could then modify your files if they knew what they were doing.

Assuming I'm correct so far, how much of a concern do you think this is? Are there any safeguards in place to prevent this sort of thing? I realize you can't guarantee everyone will behave, but I just want to be sure I'm not opening myself up to a lot of potential problems.

I'm certainly no expert, but any time you're dealing with something that someone with a little bit of know-how can modify, there's always trouble brewing. While I'm in no way that person, there's lowlifes out there with nothing better to do than show their self proclaimed "prowess" and destroy someone else's hard work.

All that said, there may well be safeguards which prohibit this. I'd still be careful though...

Yes, this can make a security problem for this files. But you can set permisions father directories preventing to view them(content). It won't make it totaly save but can help.