United States EPA-600/9-82-00.6
Environmental Protection |\/|av 1932
Agency
Research and Development
Research
Outlook
1982
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RESEARCH OUTLOOK 1982
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Energy , 1
Hazardous Air Pollutants , 15
Gases and Particles. , 23
Oxidants , 37
Mobile Sources , 47
Radiation 55
Pesticides 61
Toxic Chemical Testing and Assessment. 69
Hazardous Waste. 79
Superfund 91
Drinking Water 99
Water Quality , 107
Industrial Wastewater 117
Municipal Wastewater , 127
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INTRODUCTION
Research Outlook 1982 is the seventh in this series of reports to
Congress required by Section 5 of Public Law 94-475, 90 Stat. 2071.
It describes in broad strategic terms the direction of EPA's research
program over the next half decade.
The primary purpose of EPA's research program is to support
environmental program officials by anticipating their data
requirements and by initiating, in advance of regulatory decisions,
research projects capable of producing the information which the
decision-making process will require.
In 1983, EPA plans to invest more than $2QO-million in
environmental research. Approximately 80 percent of this total
supports relatively short-term research on problems of immediate
concern to the Agency's regulatory process. The remaining 20
percent supports research into more long-term, fundamental or
exploratory areas of science.
This edition of the Research Outlook concentrates upon what
the EPA research program plans to do to address major issues. As
with any long-term strategy document, this report deals in broad
areas and presents general research trends. The strategies presented
in this report will eventually be translated, via the research planning
process, into more than 2,000 different research projects. As such,
this report may leave the reader desirous of greater detail or project-
level information. Other research summary documents, which focus
on a shorter time horizon than the Research Outlook and contain a
far greater level of detail, will be available to fill these needs.
Report Organization
Each chapter of Research Outlook 1982 relates to the research
applicable to a particular segment of the Agency's regulatory
program. Within each chapter are several major sections. An
introduction defines the area of concern. A section on legislated
responsibilities indicates the laws which engender the research
program. The main body of the chapter addresses our research
strategy discussing the major gaps in necessary scientific and
technical knowledge which must be filled to assure a cost-effective
regulatory program, and our strategy with regard to filling those
gaps. The next section presents selected major milestones which
serve to indicate the timing of important segments of the research
program. Finally, a section on resource options is included, as
required by the law mandating this report, for conditions of high,
moderate and no growth. The percentages associated with these
growth options are three percent for moderate growth, and six
percent for high growth. However, no additional resources are
needed nor. expected with this submission. Rather, these growth
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scenarios are intended, as required by the law, to indicate potential
program increases in the Agency's research and development.
A general introduction to each of the chapters follows:
Chapter one; Energy focuses on four major research areas:
acid rain, combustion technology, synthetic fuels, and environmental
effects of domestic energy development and use.
Chapter two; Hazardous Air Pollutants supports research into
environmental processes and effects, health effects, monitoring
systems, and quality assurance associated with hazardous air
pollutants.
Chapter three: Gases and Particles investigates health and
environmental effects, monitoring systems and quality assurance, and
produces scientific assessments.
Chapter four; Oxidants determines exposure and effects,
develops air quality models, investigates control technologies and
provides quality assurance.
Chapter fivet Mobile Sources investigates actual human
exposure to mobile-source pollutants, fuel additives, diesel emissions,
and alternative testing schemes.
Chapter six: Pesticides ~ conducts human and environmental
risk assessments, and provides quality assurance and scientific
support to EPA's pesticide regulatory office.
Chapter seven: Radiation investigates the effects of a broad
range of non-ionizing radiation frequencies, and supports the nuclear
testing programs at the Nevada test site.
Chapter eight; Toxic Chemical Testing and Assessment ~
investigates health and environmental effects, provides scientific
assessments, monitoring, quality assurance, and engineering support.
Chapter nine; Hazardous Wastes provides hazardous waste
analysis techniques and risk assessments, develops and tests control
technologies, and provides improved spills-response capabilities.
Chapter ten; Superfund provides EPA and others with the
latest information on the discovery, control, monitoring and cleanup
of hazardous material spills and uncontrolled waste sites.
Chapter eleven; Drinking Water determines the human
exposure and effects of contaminants, develops analytical
procedures, tests alternative treatment techniques and ways to
protect underground drinking-water sources.
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Chapter twelve; Water Quality provides measurement and
quality assurance methods, health and ecological impact assessments,
and other analyses necessary to support water quality and ocean
disposal program needs.
Chapter thirteen; Industrial Wastewater conducts treatability
and early-warning studies, investigates least-cost control options and
methods to handle complex effluents, helps ensure data quality and
reliability and provides technical assistance.
Chapter fourteen; Municipal Wastewater develops improved
treatment process designs, encourages use of innovative and
alternative technologies, provides health effects assessments of
alternative technologies and provides technology transfer to states
and municipalities.
Research Priorities
It is impossible to project in detail what environmental research
will be necessary over the next half decade. The context for this
research is much too dynamic to allow any such projection to be of
more than a transient relevance. Legislative mandates may be
altered, policies will shift, and public concerns evolve. All these will
shape the details of our research program. In addition, and most
importantly, that program will shape itself as new research
information either highlights the need for added investigation or
resolves the problem which was being investigated.
Given this context, however, there are some major research
needs which can be said, with some certainty, to hold priority. Some
of those major high-priority research areas are listed below. For a
more detailed discussion of these priority efforts, please refer to the
chapters cited at the end of each item.
Acid deposition. We must have better information on the
relationships between the sources of acid deposition precursors and
their eventual effects on the receptors of that deposition. This is an
issue with enormous resource implications for the industrial and
commercial sectors. (Energy)
Groundwater pollution. To control the pollution of groundwater
from surface sources, it is necessary to be able to monitor
underground pollutant plumes and to predict their behavior. We are
testing equipment and developing models to do both. (Hazardous
Waste, Drinking Water)
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Toxics testing. Toxic chemical testing is an expensive and
time-consuming process. Research is being performed to develop
more accurate and less expensive test methods, to improve existing
screening methods and to support permit exemptions in the
Premanufacture Notification process. Such activities will reduce the
burden of testing on industry while providing adequate environmental
protection. (Toxic Chemical Testing and Assessment)
Measuring toxicity. Determining the toxicity of a complex
mixture of wastewaters as a whole would be a far less expensive
process than identifying each of the components of the wastewater
and attempting to determine their combined effect. We are
developing bioassay techniques which should improve our ability to
determine the human health implications of wastewater discharge.
(Industrial Wastewater)
Determine exposure. In order to more precisely determine the
effectiveness of various pollution control strategies, we need to know
exactly how much air pollution people inhale. We will be testing
personal monitors which measure CO to develop accurate exposure
data. (Mobile Sources)
Predictive modeling. In order to provide the necessary tools to
state and local decisionmakers responsible for controlling air
pollution, we will be refining air pollution models to better explain
the relationship between specific sources and ambient air quality, and
to better predict the behavior of air pollutants under certain
meteorologic and topographic conditions. (Gases and Particles,
Oxidants)
Biological pesticides. There is an increasing growth in the
development of biological pesticides. EPA is performing research for
use in evaluating the possible human health risks of such agents.
(Pesticides)
Behavioral effects. Changes in behavior can indicate serious
neurological effects at levels far below those required to produce a
physical response. We are testing for behavioral effects, in
mammals, caused by several potential pollutants. (Several chapters)
In addition to these specific high-priority research areas, other
types of activities have a high priority regardless of the chapter in
which they are discussed. These priority areas are:
Risk assessment. We are making a major effort to develop
more efficient ways of getting technical information into the
decision-making process. Various types of risk assessments will
serve this purpose.
Regulatory support. The expertise, facilities and information
which is developed by EPA*s research office is intended to serve
the scientific and technical information needs of the regulatory
program offices. This will continue to be our highest priority.
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Interagency Coordination
There .are more than a dozen federal agencies and departments
whose responsibilities include some aspects of environmental
research and development. ~r 'er to make the best use of available
resources and to help assure that there is no unnecessary duplication
of effort, an extensive network of interagency contacts, both formal
and informal, has been established. The following is a discussion of
but a few of the major interagency contacts and agreements.
Interagency Committee for Stratospheric Ozone Protection
(ICSOP) was established under the Clean Air Act and consists of 12
federal agencies. The committee is chaired by the EPA's Assistant
Administrator for Research and Development, and is divided into
subcommittees for atmospheric sciences, health effects and
biological and ecological effects. Through this mechanism, the
member agencies coordinate their research and monitoring pertaining
to stratospheric ozone and ultraviolet radiation.
The National Center for Toxicoiogical Research (NCTR) is
supported jointly by EPA and the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). The Jefferson, Arkansas Facility conducts long-term
toxicologic studies. Also with FDA, a joint neurotoxicology research
program is making significant contributions toward advancing this
key new research area.
The Interagency Task Force on Acid Precipitation was
established in response to Title VII of the Energy Security Act of
1980. This task force prepared a joint research plan for all
participating agencies. EPA co-chairs the task force and has the lead
agency research role in three areas: aquatic effects, control
technology, and assessment and policy.
The Task Force on Environmental Cancer and Heart and Lung
Disease is chaired by EPA and consists of scientists from the
.National Cancer Institute, the National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health,
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Center
for Health Statistics, Center for Disease Control and FDA. This task
force recommends and coordinates federal research programs aimed
at reducing or preventing disease caused by environmental factors.
The Committee on Ocean Pollution Research, Development and
Monitoring is responsible for developing a research plan and for
disseminating information. EPA acts as vice-chairman of this multi-
agency group.
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In addition, we are coordinating our recombinant DNA work
with five other agencies including the National Institutes of Health
and the Department of Agriculture. EPA chairs a committee with
the Department of the Army to coordinate hazardous waste research
of mutual interest. EPA is conducting research for the National
Cancer Institute to develop indicator, screening and modeling
capabilities for carcinogens, teratogens and mutagens in aquatic
systems.
Above are but a few of the formal interagency contacts
between EPA's researchers and those of other agencies. We have
discovered that the more substantive these contacts, and the more
compatible the data on research projects, the more effectively we
use our research resources.
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ENERGY
INTRODUCTION
The goal of EPA's energy research program is to ensure, in
conjunction with industry and other public sectors, that the nation's
energy production and use practices proceed in an environmentally
acceptable manner. To help achieve this objective, EPA will
continue to coordinate its research efforts with other agencies and
laboratories conducting energy-related research.
There are five major sub-programs within, the energy research
program: acid deposition, combustion technology, synthetic fuels,
environmental effects and long-term research. The research
objectives in each of these areas are described below.
The objective of the acid deposition sub-program is to assess
the magnitude, extent and severity of acid deposition effects, the
sources of these effects and measures to mitigate them. Acid
deposition is a major concern in the Energy Security Act of 1980 and
the U.S./Canadian Memorandum of Intent on Transboundary Air
Pollution. Research focuses on the emission of acid deposition
precursors; their atmospheric transport, transformation and
deposition; the evaluation of health, environmental and economic
effects and on the assessment of mitigative measures and policy
needs.
The combustion technology sub-program supports both
technology development and assessment. Several technologies are
being investigated to control nitrogen oxides (NO ), sulfur oxides
(SOy) and participate emissions. In addition to being suspected as a
major contributor to acid deposition, NO emissions are the only
class of major air pollutants to have apparently increased over the
past decade. Low-NOx combustion technologies are being tested for
burning both coal and heavy oil. These technologies show promise for
energy-efficient, cost-effective control of NO emissions.
Additional technologies to control SO and particulars are being
investigated. These include improved flue gas desulfurization,
electrostatic fabric filters, electrostatic precipitators and fabric
filters. Finally, an integrated assessment program provides analytic
support to the Agency to evaluate alternative energy and
environmental management options.
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EPA's synthetic fuels research includes health and
environmental risk assessments, control technology assessments and
cost studies. The goal of the risk assessment program is to give the
states and industry usable information on the production processes
and waste streams of environmental concern. The control technology
assessment and cost studies program evaluates existing control
technologies. The objective of these analyses is to provide accurate
information to support industrial and regulatory decision making and
to provide technical information to environmental officials.
Research into the environmental effects of energy systems has
two major components cold-climate studies and pollutant transport
modeling. The cold-climate research sub-program provides
information on specific aspects of energy-related development in
climates such as Alaska. Of specific concern are the effects of
carbon monoxide (CO) accumulation and of large-scale oil, gas and
coal development. The pollutant transport modeling sub-program
focuses on developing models for use in regulatory decision making.
One of these efforts will modify existing pollutant transport models
to take into account the impacts of complex terrain (ridges, hills,
etc.) such as is found in western U.S. energy development areas.
Another effort will seek to determine the extent to which pollutant
movement can be traced for great distances from the source.
Energy program long-term research seeks a better
understanding of processes involved in controlling pollutants from
synthetic fuels and combustion processes.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
EPA's energy research work directly supports the program
offices in their regulatory activities required under such legislation
as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Marine
Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act. In addition, under the
Energy Security Act of 1980 (Title VII) the National Acid
Precipitation Assessment Program was established. The Act provides
for the establishment of an Interagency Task Force on Acid
Precipitation. This task force is charged with providing an
understanding of the transport and fate of acid deposition,
precursors, determining the causes and sources of acid deposition,
evaluating the cost-effectiveness of mitigative techniques, and
assessing the environmental and health effects of acid deposition. In
addition to acting as co-chairman of the interagency task force, EPA
has the lead agency research role in the aquatic effects, control
technology, and assessment and policy areas.
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RESEARCH STRATEGY
The energy research and development program sponsors
research that provides a basis for conducting scientifically defensible
exposure and risk assessments. Research to improve the state-of-
the-art of control technologies is undertaken to reduce control costs
and improve efficiency. The program is structured as five major sub-
programs: acid desposition (sources, atmospheric processes,
deposition monitoring, health and environmental effects, and
assessments and policy analysis); conventional combustion
technologies (NO , SOX particle control, assessment); environmental
effects (cold climate, complex terrain models and atmospheric
tracers); synthetic fuels (control technologies and assessment) and
long-range studies.
Acid Deposition
In response to the impetus provided under Title VII of the
Energy Security Act of 1980, the acid deposition research program is
undergoing a significant evolution. For example, the recently formed
Interagency Task Force on Acid Precipitation identified high-priority
research needs in those areas for which EPA has lead research
responsibility. In response to these recommendations, research into
the aquatic effects of acid deposition has been augmented, with new
work initiated to investigate fish resource loss, aquatic assessment
models, and chemical export from terrestrial to aquatic systems. In
addition, emphasis is being shifted away from man-made source
studies and into assessments of mitigative measures, and additional
priority has- been given to developing criteria by which to judge the
sensitivity of soils to acid precipitation.
EPA's acid deposition research addresses five major areas:
emissions, atmospheric processes, monitoring, effects and
assessment, as described in the following.
Emissions. The major precursors of acid deposition are sulfur
and nitrogen oxides. These originate from both natural and man-
made sources, but within the continental U.S., man-made sources are
dominant. The National Plan requires the development of a
comprehensive data base for existing sources as well as improved
capabilities for projecting future emissions from major sectors.
Many sources of data are available on current emissions of sulfur and
nitrogen oxides. Research is focused on consolidating and reconciling
these data to produce a comprehensive data base with the best
available information on the magnitude and geographic distribution of
man-made emissions. In addition to sulfur and nitrogen oxides, data
will be included from all economic sectors on sulfates, hydrochloric
acid, and potential neutralizing species.
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Research to improve projection capabilities emphasizes the
electric utility industry. An advanced electric utility simulation
model is currently under development. When completed, this
improved model will allow the analysis of the relationships among
acid deposition air quality measures, and financial and tax regulations
affecting the industry.
Atmospheric processes. Several regional-scale models exist or
are under development to project long-range transport and pollutant
scavenging processes, cloud physics, transformation reactions and
wet deposition. The models focus largely on sulfur oxides, however,
and efforts are under way to address nitrogen oxides and related
components (ammonia, acetyl nitrates). A major weakness of current
models is that dry deposition processes have not been considered.
Such processes may be as important as wet deposition in delivering
air pollutants to the earth's surface, but adequate measurement
methods remain to be developed. Model components will be
developed to reflect the amount and types of dry deposition.
The EPA's Environmental Sciences Research Laboratory (ESRL)
has the lead role in the management of EPA's regional-scale acid
deposition model research, of which the Department of Energy's
(DOE) National Laboratories have a major portion of the activity.
EPA is working on a coordinated strategy with other federal agencies
for the development and evaluation of these refined acid deposition
models.. This strategy will incorporate the roles of DOE, the DOE
National Laboratories, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration^ and other federal agencies to help assure that the
objectives of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Plan are
met.
EPA-deveioped and funded regional acid deposition models have
been used to study transboundary (U.S./Canada) air pollution
transport and deposition as well as the impacts of the conversion of
power plants from oil to coal.
Deposition monitoring. Once in the atmosphere, sulfur and
nitrogen oxides undergo complex chemical and physical
transformations. The products, which are often acidic, may be
deposited far from the sources of the precursors. Monitoring sites to
collect samples of deposited materials have operated only
sporadically until the last three years. Thus, there is considerable
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uncertainty about the composition and trends of atmospheric
deposition in the United States. To help resolve some of these
uncertainties, a national data base for the chemistry of precipitation
samples has been established by EPA at Research Triangle Park, NC,
to make data readily available for all. In addition, a multi-agency-
supported National Trends Monitoring Network is in operation.
One high-priority problem is the lack of monitoring techniques
for evaluating dry deposition. Efforts are under way to develop and
validate such techniques, and a user's guide is scheduled for
production by 198*. Throughout this period, efforts will continue to
build the National Trends Network data base, assure data quality and
improve field site measurement activities.
Effects. The acid deposition effects research program
addresses effects on aquatic systems including drinking water, crops,
soils, forests and materials. Several of the key unanswered questions,
and EPA's research response, are presented below.
First, how does acid deposition affect the quality of drinking
water supplies? Research will determine the extent to which aci'd
deposition mobilizes potentiaiiy toxic metals from soils and metallic
water-delivery systems. These data, including past records of
drinking water systems in New York and New England, will permit an
accurate health assessment to be made. This assessment, to be
completed in 198*, will involve analysis of metals in acidified
drinking water supplies and ground water resources, including
individual wells and community systems.
Second, what is the extent of acid deposition damage to
fisheries? Field surveys are being conducted to determine the
sensitivity of lakes and streams to acid precipitation and the extent
to which these waters are being acidified. Research will determine
the location of aquatic resources impacted by acid deposition and will
evaluate the extent of the problem. A clearer picture of the overall
impacts of acid deposition will be available when these data are
integrated with the results of research on the possible extent and
rates of future acidification and the impacts of acidified waters on
fish and other parts of aquatic ecosystems. Such data on
acidification and fish loss will be used to provide an initial
assessment of the regional extent of the impact of acid.precipitation
on aquatic ecosystems. This information will be made available in
198*.
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Third, are there any cost-effective techniques available to
mitigate the impacts of acid deposition? Research will seek short-
term ways to protect and/or restore aquatic ecosystems. Such
mitigative techniques as the introduction of lime and binding agents
for toxic metals will be developed and tested. The cost-effectiveness
of such techniques will be assessed. Field studies will determine the
utility of management procedures in restoring impacted ecosystems
to productive status.
Fourth, what are the effects of acid deposition on economic
goods such as crops, forests and construction materials? Research
will focus on soil chemistry, the mobilization of chemicals, microbial
processes and ways to predict nutrient cycling for a few soil/forest
types* Some effort will continue in studying the effects of acid
precipitation, alone and with other pollutants, on crop yield. In
addition, construction materials such as metals, stone and masonry
are being exposed to acid deposition and their responses catalogued.
These data will significantly improve economic analyses beginning in
198*.
Assessment and policy analysis. This program is reponsible for
tying together, through the integrated assessment process, results of
a wide range of scientific research into a framework to support
policy decisions* By 198*, a preliminary integrated assessment will
be completed. This effort seeks to capture causal relationships in the
chain of events which produce acid deposition, and to identify
uncertainties in current knowledge at each link* The methodology
can then be applied in evaluating the overall costs and effectiveness
of alternative control and mitigation strategies* The methodology
will be tested by application to a comparison of the costs and
effectiveness of SO^ versus NOX emissions control strategies. This
effort will examine the extent to which current scientific knowledge
will support conclusions as to the relative cost-effectiveness of these
strategies, describe the range of uncertainty around these
conclusions, and identify the information needed to reduce these
uncertainties. An acid deposition critical assessment document will
be produced, providing a review and analysis of the current scientific
understanding of all aspects of the acid deposition phenomenon.
The program will also conduct analyses of the sensitivity of
policy-related conclusions to various key gaps in existing knowledge
as a guide for future research priorities. Economic and performance
information for a range of control or mitigation options will be
assembled and evaluated for use in integrated assessments. By 198*,
analysis of control strategies for the electric utility industry will be
possible through an advanced utility simulation model. Less detailed
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information will be available on control options for other source
sectors and aquatic mitigation measures. Several short-term
analyses of important acid deposition issues, such as the relative
importance of local versus long-range sources, and expected
retirement age for major emitting facilities, will be completed.
Combustion Technology
While data on the availability of combustion technologies are
well established, optimized design for minimum pollution and
maximum energy efficiency is a relatively new field. Significant
opportunities appear to be available to allow low-NO combustion of
heavy liquid fuels and coal, and simultaneous control of SO and NO .
Several of the most promising technologies or techniques* are beirig
investigated under the combustion technology sub-program.
In several oil field regions in California and Texas, oil recovery
may be limited by emissions limitations. Steam is used to free and
recover intransigent oil deposits. To be economical, this steam must
be generated by burning low-grade, high-nitrogen-content heavy
liquid fuels. A new burner will be field evaluated in 1983. If this
burner design proves to be cost-effective in reducing NO emissions,
it will be applicable to conventional oil-fired industrial boilers as
well. As such, the technology would be valuable when the new source
performance standards for industrial boilers are revised.
Combustion modification (low excess air, flue gas recirculation,
staged combustion) offers the possibility of reduced NO emissions
and increased energy efficiency for coal-fired boilers, data from a
full-scale test of a spreader-stoker boiler will be used to provide
input to guideline documents for boiler modification. Studies of
combustion modification costs and emissions for one mass-fed stoker
will be available in 1985. This data will be compiled into a
technology assessment report.
To improve control of NO^ emissions, it is essential to
understand how NOX is created during combustion. Various types of
coal have different properties that influence their emissions. Studies
will be conducted under staged and unstaged combustion conditions
with various coals, and the resulting NO emissions will be
characterized. x
Emissions of NOX and SOX are suspected to account for the vast
majority of the precursors of acid precipitation. Two of the most
promising control techniques for NO and SO are being further
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developed. These are low-NO combustion (to reduce NO emissions)
and the limestone injected multistage burner (LIMB) (to control both
NO and SO simultaneously). Both of these technologies are being
improved and their cost-effectiveness assessed as part of this
sub-program. Data on emissions, reliability, boiler efficiency, and
fouling will be developed for several applications at pilot
demonstration scale.
The LIMB technology combusts a mixture of pulverized coal and
limestone. Initial results indicate that this technique may reduce
both NO and SO emissions at substantially less cost than wet
scrubbing for SO alone. The results of tests, assessing a number of
variations in coat and burner type and operating conditions will yield
key information for determining both the practicality and economics
of such technology.
Another major effort within the combustion technology sub-
program is the assessment and development of SO and particulate
control technology. This research program provides technical
assistance to states, EPA and the private sector on control
technology innovations, performance, costs and reliability. Such
information is central to revising State Implementation Plans and
setting new source performance standards.
Continuing efforts will focus on the potential application of
spray dryer SO control technologies as an adjunct to the LIMB
processes. Data will be acquired to determine the reliability of
spray-dryer processes, and tests are planned to evaluate the ability of
a full-scale sprayer-dryer to comply with the SO emissions
regulations for utility boilers.
Particulate control research will focus on alternative baghouse
fabrics, precharging of electrostatic precipitators, and electrical
enhancement of fabric filters, in general, in both the pulsed jet and
reverse air modes. Research on innovative filters for combined
SO /particle removal will be initiated. Large-scale conventionally-
designed baghouses will be monitored to evaluate the capability of
this technology for meeting utility and industrial boiler new source
performance standards. A potential simplification of the dry SOx
control technology at pilot scale will be assessed, and research on
flue gas conditioning as a means of improving particulate control
during delayed compliance periods will be completed.
Performance of particulate control equipment declines with use
due to aging of critical components, poor maintenance practices
and/or improper operations. Evaluations have verified that these
factors account for the major causes of less-than-design
performance. Operational and maintenance (O<5cM) problems can
generally be corrected at low cost when the problems are understood.
A forthcoming research report will provide information on O&M
practices to help owners and operators of particulate control
equipment to obtain design performance.
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Integrated assessment activities focus on two areas the
development and/or improvement of models to support regulatory
analysis and the assessment of alternative approaches to
environmental regulation. Major model development activities will
concentrate on an interactive coal and electric utilities data system
to give EPA users information on coal mining and transportation and
electric utility operations. The easy accessibility of such data can
significantly speed regulatory and permitting processes. In
developing alternative approaches to environmental regulation,
emphasis will be on shifting responsibilities to states and on
streamlining regulatory procedures. This research supports EPA's
program offices (OANR, OPA). In conducting this research, we rely
upon data gathered by the DOE and other sources wherever possible.
Synthetic Fuels
Synthetic fuels are liquids and gases produced from coal and oil
shaie. A significant amount of environmental research has already
been done in the synfuels area, and it is expected that future
environmental research will keep pace with the slowed synfuels
commercialization process. As synthetic fuel plants are developed,
accurate information on associated pollutants and control techniques
will assist both the industry and environmental regulators. Such
information will be of use to industry in choosing the necessary and
optimum environmental controls and to environmental regulators in
developing environmental impact statements and new source
performance standards for air and water. It will also be useful in
identifying the controls necessary for the prevention of significant
air quality deterioration and in controlling water pollution and solid
waste.
The emphasis in this sub-program will be twofold. First, it will
provide the information necessary to determine the health and
environmental implications of large-scale synfueis plants. Second, it
will provide technical information and support regarding cost-
effective synfuels pollutant control technology to environmental
management officials. The research goals will be to conduct source
testing and monitoring, to evaluate synfuels control technology
options, to field test water pollution control technology at an oil-
shale site and to conduct source testing at an H-coal pilot plant.
Research to date has been conducted at laboratory, bench and pilot
domestic facilities and some large-scale commercial sites. Major
work has been conducted at the coal gasification facility at Kosovo
(Yugoslavia) and Tennessee Valley Authority facilities (Muscle
Shoals).
The integrated Health and Environmental Risk Analysis
Program (HERAP) attempts to predict health and environmental risks
associated with the emission of specific compounds from synfuel
plants.
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Efforts to provide monitoring guidance for synfuels documents
will be concluded by 1983, and risk-benefit assessments will be
limited to utilizing existing data and addressing major research
endpoints. These risk-assessment efforts will build upon expertise
within the federal agencies, the national energy laboratories and
industry to develop multimedia analyses for selected energy
development projects. Data bases for pollutant lifetimes,
transformation reactions, deposition, and bioaccumuiatipn will be
integrated to assess atmospheric and groundwater pathways.
Ultimately, these efforts will be used to determine those source-
receptor relationships which are key to clarifying the health,
economic and social constraints on synthetic fuels development.
Environmental Effects
There are three major research activities within the
environmental effects sub-program: air quality modeling (tracers),
complex terrain modeling and cold-climate studies.
Air quality models are essential tools for regional, state and
local officials who must develop plans for meeting air quality
standards. One such model is the complex terrain model currently
under development as part of this program. Complex terrain models
are especially important in the western states where new energy
developments will emit air pollutants whose trajectories are
complicated by mountains, ridges, valleys, etc. Data from field
studies will be used to improve available models and assessments will
be made to determine the transferability of such models to different
types of complex terrains.
Results of these efforts will be available in 1984, and a complex
terrain model user's guide is planned for 1985. Information on
dispersion coefficients in certain complex terrains will be developed
by field study, and results will be available in 1984.
Current air quality modeling research is making major
contributions to understanding the formation and movement of large-
scale air masses. A multi-state field study was conducted in 1980 to
establish the first available data base on this problem. A second
major field study is planned for 1984. Current research is
investigating less expensive and more effective means to track air
parcels.
Atmospheric tracers can be released in small amounts at
selected sites, and later accurately measured as far as 1,000 km
away. Such trace data could be used to verify air quality model
calculations. Field tests will be conducted in- 1982 and a full-scale
test of these tracers is planned for 1984. The resultant data will be
useful in testing long-range transport models for acid deposition. In
addition, assessments will be made of climatic impacts (radiative
balance, atmospheric stability) of polluted air masses.
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Energy development in cold climates such as Alaska pose a
unique and challenging set of environmental constraints. One major
issue is the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) in metropolitan
areas. Ongoing automobile emission studies will be completed in
1983. Meteorological and emission data will be used to develop an
early warning system for high CO levels, and mitigative techniques
such as an inspection/maintenance program, retrofit devices and
alternative fuels will be evaluated. Research into the environmental
impacts of oil and gas development will include a retrospective
evaluation of erosion and sedimentation and an evaluation of the
effectiveness of various mitigative measures.
Long-term Research
Long-term exploratory energy research will concentrate on a
number of basic energy-related processes including the identification
and control of pollutants from synthetic fuels processes the study of
the basic parameters of fossil fuel combustion and the formation of
polycyciic or carcinogenic material. Other activities may investigate
control options for synthetic fuels facilities, such as novel H^S
control systems. In support of the cold-climate research suo-
program, research will be conducted to develop improved soil
reclamation techniques for permafrost and tundra ecosystems.
Additional work will be conducted on the development of models to
handle wind fields in complex terrains.
MAJOR MILESTONES
Acid Deposition
Complete the acid deposition critical assessment
document - 3/1983
Compile and evaluate mitigative measures - 9/1983
Determine location of impacted lakes and streams -
10/1983
Determine corrosion effects, drinking water impacts -
10/1983
Develop and test dry deposition monitoring method -
1/198*
Complete SO /NO emissions inventory and advanced
utility assessment model - 1/1985
Evaluate effects on crops, fish, forest - 10/1985
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Combustion Technology
Provide interim assessment of iow-NO burners and
combined SO /NO control based upon limned scale tests
- 9/1983 x x
Complete pilot evaluation of tri-eiectrode electrostatic
precipitator - 10/1983
OĢ5cM procedures for ESP - 10/1983
Report on heavy oil low-NO burner - 11/1983
FGD state of the art - 12/1983
Complete field test for spray dry SO FGD - 9/198*
Report on combustion modification as applied to iow-NO
coal-fired stoker boilers - 10/1985
Synthetic Fuels
Complete pollution control technical manuals for three oil
shale and four coal synfuels processes - 9/1982
Complete ambient and source monitoring reference
manual - 12/1982
Assess performance of control technology at one surface
oil shale retort and'source test H-coal pilot plant - 3/1983
Define pollutants for which data is needed and gaps in
models, methods and relationships - 3/1983
Complete first health and environmental risk analyses for
one liquefaction and one oil shale technology - 9/1983
Environmental Effects
Other
Develop preliminary 'early warning' system for high CO
concentrations - 9/1983
Report on regulatory and siting use of complex terrain
dispersion model - 8/1984-
Test and prove long-range air pollutant transport tracer
techniques - 12/1984
Provide EPA with interactive coal utility data system
and residual accounting model - 9/1983
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 52.5
1983 1984 1985 1986
Projected Projected Projected Projected
GROWTH
NO 34.5 34.5 34.5 34.5
MODERATE 34.5 35.5 36.6 37.7
HIGH 34.5 36.6 38.8 41.1
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. The primary emphasis will be on assessing the
impacts of acid deposition and synthetic fuels, evaluating
conventional combustion control technologies, and developing and
refining complex terrain models.
Moderate growth. The acid deposition and synthetic fuels
research programs will receive the primary emphasis. In the acid
deposition area, research will continue to focus on the emission of
acid deposition precursors; their atmospheric transport and
deposition; the potential health and environmental effects; the
damage to materials; and potential mitigative measures. In the
synthetic fuels area, research will continue to focus on developing
integrated health and environmental risk assessments; evaluating
alternative control technologies; and providing technical support to
the regions and states. The research program will be adjusted to
keep pace with commercialization schedule as it changes. To respond
to the needs of the regulatory program offices, emphasis will also be
placed on evaluating the reliability, performance and cost-
effectiveness of conventional combustion control technologies, and
on refining complex terrain models.
High growth. Research on the causes, effects and methods of
mitigating acid deposition will be accelerated with greater emphasis
placed on the relationship of sources of acid deposition precursors to
receptors. In the synthetic fuels area, depending upon the
commercialization efforts by industry, emphasis may be increased on
assessing the health effects of synfuel products and by-products, and
on developing integrated health and environmental risk assessments.
In addition, research to develop the necessary performance,
reliability and cost data for conventional combustion control
technologies will be augmented, as will research to develop additional
models for different types of complex terrain.
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HAZARDOUS AIR POLLUTANTS
INTRODUCTION
The Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAP) Research Program provides
scientific support for identifying and evaluating airborne substances
which adversely affect human health. The goals of this program are
to characterize and assess conditions as they now exist and to gather
information about new and potential pollutants, their interaction with
the environment and their impact on human health. This type of
information is key to determining the degree to which the initiation
or continuation of control measures is necessary.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
Section 112 of the Clean Air Act provides the basis for the
Environmental Protection Agency's regulatory efforts to control the
adverse effects of hazardous air pollutants. Under this health-based
section, seven air pollutants mercury, beryllium, asbestos, vinyl
chloride, benzene, radionuciides and inorganic arsenic have been
listed as hazardous. Regulations have been promulgated for the first
four of these. They are proposed for benzene.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
The hazardous air pollutant research program interfaces with
the various stages of the regulatory process, and the research focuses
on a list of potentially hazardous air pollutants which was developed
by the EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards. In the
first stage, new, potentially hazardous air pollutants are identified
through literature searches of scientific reports. Candidate
substances are then screened to determine the potential for public
exposure through ambient air emissions. This is accomplished by
collecting and assessing information on intentional and inadvertent
production, uses, volatility and other physical and chemical
properties. Based upon the data collected in this process, a list of
substances which require further assessment is developed. The
Office of Health and Environmental Assessment then evaluates
available health effects data and estimates the potential for human
risk. These risk assessments are then combined with preliminary
exposure analyses to provide quantitative estimates of degree of risk
and of disease incidence in the population.
Research is conducted as necessary to document health risks,
determine environmental impacts, and develop and evaluate control
options and monitoring capabilities for specific pollutants. This
information is central to determining whether a specific pollutant or
source category requires control . or whether existing control
requirements should be revised.
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The research to support this process is divided into five major
components: (1) scientific assessments (2) environmental processes
and effects (3) monitoring systems and quality assurance (4) health
effects and (5) exploratory research.
Scientific Assessments
Agency efforts to prevent harmful exposure to environmental
agents require accurate assessments of the types of adverse health
effects to be expected, the amount of human exposure likely to occur
under actual environmental conditions, and the reduction in hazard
likely to occur if a particular regulation is implemented. These
assessments must withstand rigorous scientific peer review and be
structured such that a defensible regulatory decision can be
formulated.
Scientific assessments are analyses of human health and animal
research, monitoring surveys, and data on the environmental fate and
'transport of pollutants. The key elements of the analysis are:
A determination of the likelihood that the chemical in
question causes cancer, mutations, birth defects, or
neurological, pulmonary or other toxic effects,
A determination of the dose-response relationship for
each suspected or demonstrable effect, and
A set of recommendations regarding the most likely
exposure levels which would result in a toxic effect.
Environmental Processes and Effects
The primary purpose of this program is to develop models to
predict the movement, transformation and fate of potentially
hazardous air pollutants emitted into the air. Chamber and field
studies are necessary to design and update models. Analytical
chemistry support is an integral part of laboratory and field studies
using state-of-the-art methods.
Monitoring Systems and Quality Assurance
This area of activity combines short-term, state-of-the-art
application of technology in support of regulatory requirements and
applied research to advance the state-of-the-art for environmental
monitoring. Specific areas of research include the development of
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low-cost, rapid analytical methods such as continuous monitors for
regulatory needs in ambient and source categories. The trend will be
toward methods development and toxicity testing aimed at specific
chemicals, or elements, rather than at source-related complex
mixtures. Compounds selected for study include asbestos,
halocarbons, metals and volatile organic compounds in the air or
attached to participate matter in the air.
This program will continue to provide quality assurance
procedures for current and new methods and will provide analytical
support for health-related tests. This will include the development of
testing procedures, the preparation of standard reference materials,
the measurement of the stability of reference materials, inter-
laboratory testing, and laboratory audits. New and improved
procedures will be developed for trend monitoring and surveillance
and analysis. Systems development will be conducted as required,
utilizing new analytical devices and techniques such as portable mass
spectrometer systems, laser desorption techniques, micro-liquid
chromatography and new sorbents for collecting hazardous air
pollutants. Research will be conducted in the area of exposure
measurement to be applied to needs of health assessment documents
and regulation revision.
Health Effects Research
The two major objectives of the health effects research on
hazardous air pollutants are: (1) the screening and identification of
biologically active compounds so that appropriate candidate
substances are prioritized for further analyses, and (2) the conduct of
detailed assessments of selected substances in support of regulatory
decisions. These operations are conducted in each of four areas of
health effects neurological, developmental, mutagenic and
metabolic.
The effects of hazardous air pollutants on the nervous system
and associated behavioral effects will be studied. In this relatively
new area, test methods will be developed, validated and streamlined.
Studies will be conducted and effects measured on a broad array of
tests. These include tests of sensory and cognitive function,
electrophysiological assessment of brain activity and, in animals,
neurochemical, metabolic and anatomical measures. The battery of
new and established bioassays is currently being used to study high-
priority chemicals.
The developing organism is often highly susceptible to toxic
effects at certain stages of life. Potentially hazardous air pollutant
substances will be administered to susceptible age groups of animals
and their effects studied. In addition, studies in adult male rats will
determine reproductive toxicity through exposure to suspect
substances and subsequent measurement of sperm count, serum
hormone levels and other indices.
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With regard to potential cancer-causing agents in air, several
bioassays will be used to screen components of ambient air and to
study compounds in the laboratory. Microbiological techniques will
be used to fractionate air samples and identify mutagens. Animal
and human tissues will be cultured in order to examine gene
mutation, chromosomal effects, and also metabolic activity in human
lung cells.
Metabolism of materials foreign to the body is affected by
some metals and organic compounds in such a way as to either
activate another chemical to greater toxicity (e.g., paraquat), or
detoxify a chemical (e.g., ethyiene dibromide). Metals, complex
mixtures and suspected hazardous air pollutants will be tested for
effects on the susceptibility of mammals to infectious respiratory
disease. Mice will be exposed to inhaled hydrocarbons, cadmium,
vanadium, nickel, toluene and other substances and tested using a
pulmonary infectivity model and metabolic tests-
Exploratory Research
To achieve a reasonable balance between the immediate
regulatory needs and the general advancement of science through
longer-term activities, some resources are allocated to long-term
exploratory research. In this context, research on the development
and testing of exposure methodology for hazardous air pollutants will
be conducted.
MAJOR MILESTONES
The following are a few major accomplishments planned for the
hazardous air pollutant research program:
Scientific Assessment
Three comprehensive health hazard assessments will be
completed, and four to five new assessments will be
initiated for the Office of Air Quality Planning and
Standards (OAQPS) to define the nature of health hazards
associated with pollutant-specific emission situations.
Identify and prioritize candidate hazardous substances.
Provide ten screening health assessments which will
define the range of chronic health potentials - 10/1983
Assessments will be produced for use by OAQPS to define
the nature of health hazards for candidate pollutants for
listing under Section 112 - annually through 1986
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Environmental Processes and Effects
Determine the rates of photoiytic decomposition in the
troposphere and the decomposition products for type 1
HAPs that are vuinerabie to photolysis - 6/1984
Final report on rates of dry deposition of selected HAPs
from air to surfaces near to sources - 7/1984
The atmospheric chemistry of approximately 20 Type I
HAPs will be fully characterized to model the buildup of
hazardous air pollutants in ambient air - 8/1984
Screening of high-volume emissions for potentially
hazardous transformation products as predicted by
structure-activity relationships - 8/1985
Monitoring Systems and Quality Assurance
Develop and validate methodology for use in gathering
background data to determine the need for, or compliance
with, emission standards. Methods for trichloroethyiene
and specific chemicals from coke-oven emissions (i.e.
PNAs, BaP) will be developed - 9/1983
Two state-of-the-art source emission continuous monitors
(SECM) will be evaluated under field conditions. These
studies will become the basis for establishing
recommended performance specifications - 9/1983
Develop improved source sampling methods for volatile
compounds -12/1983
Establish ambient air monitoring centers for hazardous
non-criteria air pollutants -6/1984
Health Effects Research
Neurological and behavioral dose-response relationships
will be evaluated for toluene, as a surrogate for other
chemicals, in humans and animals and for alkyitins in
laboratory animals - 4/1983
Evaluate respiratory and immune dysfunction in
laboratory animals stimulated by exposures to four
hazardous air pollutants - 4/1984
Report on the evaluation of short-term and long-term
dose-response relationships of reproductive effects of
selected industrial effluents - 10/1985
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Develop and validate a test system to measure
reproductive and teratogenic effects of hazardous air
pollutants using classic and innovative methods - 10/1985
Identify mutagens in complex air emissions and compare
their relative toxicity using gene mutation and related
bioassays - 4/1986
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 9.*
1983 1984 1985 1986
GROWTH Projected Projected Projected Projected
NO - 8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0
MODERATE 8.0 8.2 8.5 8.7
HIGH 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth; To respond to priority assessment needs, emphasis
will be placed on the development of new short-term bioassay tests
for screening potential hazardous air pollutants. Also, emphasis will
be placed on research to develop methods to permit improved
characterization of ambient air for chemical composition, frequency
of occurrence, and the composition of hazardous air pollutants.
Moderate growth; The program will continue to emphasize the
analysis and screening of hazardous air pollutants and the
determination of the adverse health effects of those contaminants.
Emphasis will be placed on the development of biological and
chemicai methodology to fulfill the needs of an expanded ambient
urban-air characterization program. Emphasis will also be placed on
the development of stationary-source measurement methodology and
apportionment modeling to permit identification of pollutant sources
as candidates for regulatory action.
High growth; Additional risk assessments will be produced,-and
improved health effects techniques and monitoring systems will be
developed. Research will focus on volatile and semi-volatile organic
compounds. Research to develop stationary source measurement
methodologies will be expanded as will modeling efforts in this area.
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GASES AND PARTICLES
INTRODUCTION
EPA's research program investigating airborne gases and
particles addresses three major classes of air pollutants sulfur
oxides, particles and lead and combinations of these substances
with other criteria pollutants such as ozone and nitrogen oxides.
The principal sulfur oxides of concern are sulfur dioxide (SO-)
(gas), sulfuric acid and sulfates. For EPA's purposes, particular
matter is broken into three size groupings fine (less than 2.5
microns), coarse (greater than 10 microns) and inhaiable (less than 10
microns or PM,Q). The lead particles included in this research
program are those commonly found in urban air.
Specifically excluded from this chapter is discussion of diesel-
reiated particles (discussed in the mobile sources chapter), studies
associated with acid precipitation (discussed in the chapter on
energy) and investigation into those particles which are carcinogenic,
mutagenic or otherwise hazardous. The latter particles are discussed
in the chapter on hazardous air pollutants.
The three overall goals of this research program are to:
Support standard setting and revision. The law requires that air
quality standards be reviewed every five years to determine if, in
light of new scientific evidence, the standards should be changed.
Improved scientific information is incorporated into ambient air
quality criteria documents, the foundation upon which new or revised
standards are built. The more precise these documents, the better
will be the standards. Criteria documents are among the main
products of the gases and particles research program.
Develop enforcement tools. Decision making in environmental
regulation requires supportive tools, such as models and monitoring
methods, that are convenient, accurate and usable from the
regulator's perspective. The better these tools are, the more
efficient and cost-effective the regulatory process will be. EPA's
gases and particles research program is a main source of
improvements in monitoring techniques and models.
Provide quality assurance. Literally millions of environmental
measurements are made in this country each year, many using highly
sensitive equipment and/or complex methods. This testing and
measurement is at the core of the regulatory process. Unless done.
correctly, the measurements can be worthless or counterproductive.
Much of the responsibility for this process lies with state and local
agencies and EPA regional offices. Part of the purpose of the gases
and particles research program is to provide those organizations with
the guidance necessary to assure quality measurements.
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There are five major activities supported by the gases and
particles research program. First, develop and test air quality
models, monitoring techniques and supportive atmospheric chemistry
as tools for regional, state and local air quality offices. These
authorities are required to develop plans that will allow their
communities to achieve air quality standards. To assure that they
will work, these plans must be tested using sophisticated
computerized air quality dispersion models using emissions data,
meteorology and air chemistry. While some air quality dispersion
models exist and are in use today, the modeis necessary to estimate
concentrations of particles less than 10 microns (PM,0), and to
determine the effects of rough terrain need to be improved. An
additional key project is developing and validating methods for
apportionment of particulate mass to specific emission sources.
Second, determine exposure and effects of gases and particles
on human health and sensitive ecosystems. Such information is
incorporated into criteria documents and used by EPA to determine
the adequacy of ambient air quality standards. This program provides
technical assistance and benefits assessment to EPA and state
regulatory offices and produces the key information to support
decisions by EPA regarding future updates and revisions of air quality
standards. This program provides much of the health and welfare
effects, monitoring, modeling and materials damage information
required for the above-mentioned regulatory activities, and includes
clinical and animal inhalation toxicological studies on exposure to
energy pollutants such as SO- and ammonia sulfate.
Third, provide quality assurance support to state and local
agencies and regional offices as required to ensure the reliability and
accuracy of all data generated and used within this research program
area.
Fourth, provide technical information and liaison functions that
allow states and regions, to obtain, in usable form, the scientific
information they need to do their regulatory jobs well.
Fifth, support long-term research into the fundamental
processes that determine the generation, effects and control of gases
and particles.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
Research in the gases and particles area supports the Clean Air
Act as amended in 1977. The major relevant provisions of that. Act
are those providing for the national ambient air quality standards
(NAAQS), development of State Implementation Plans (SIPs), new
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source performance standards (NSPS), prevention of significant
deterioration (PSD), and protection of visibility. Each of these
provisions is discussed below.
Air quality standards. The Clean Air Act (Sections 108 and 109)
requires the establishment of two types of air quality standards.
Primary standards protect human health. Secondary standards
protect the public welfare. EPA develops and must review, at least
every five years, the technical foundations for the standards which it
sets. The documents that set forth the new scientific information
used in this review process are called criteria documents they
establish the scientific criteria upon which standards decisions are
based.
To date, NAAQS have been promulgated for seven pollutants
including the three which are the focus of this chapter sulfur oxides
(SO ), particles (as total suspended particulates) and airborne lead.
EPA" has recently revised the criteria document for SO /particulate
matter, and is now reviewing the scientific base for revising the
standard. The criteria document for airborne lead will be revised
early in
State implementation plans (SIPs). Within nine months after
the EPA sets a standard, the states are required to submit plans
(SIPs) indicating how they intend to attain primary standards within
three to five years and secondary standards within a "reasonable
time." A number of air quality areas may require increased controls
if they are to meet air quality standards. The types of controls will
depend, to a great extent, upon the data available about those
controls and upon the accuracy of the air pollutant dispersion models
used by the states to analyze their plans.
New source performance standards. The Clean Air Act (Section
111) requires standards to be set for new or modified sources of
pollution. These standards may cover both criteria and non-criteria
(for which NAAQS standards have not been set) pollutants. Standards
for a specific type of pollution source (for example, an industry
category such as electric utilities) must reflect the best control
technology that has, considering cost, been adequately demonstrated.
Developing these standards requires accurate data, including
technical and economic data on control technologies. New source
standards exist for several industry sources of particulate matter and
sulfur oxides (i.e., utility boilers, sulfuric acid plants). In addition, a
number of additional new source standards are being prepared.
Prevention of significant deterioration. The Clean Air Act
(Section 160-169T also establishes national requirements for
prevention of the significant deterioration of air quality. Congress
has established maximum allowable increases in concentrations of
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sulfur oxides and particuiate matter for various classes of land areas.
This action and other proposed regulatory approaches to maintaining
air quality require accurate methods for determining the probable
impacts of major new pollution sources. Sophisticated computerized
models of atmospheric processes exist and others are being developed
and validated. These models will provide decision makers with the
information they need to predict the probable impacts on air quality
from new emission sources.
Visibility protection. In areas such as national parks where
visibility is an important value, the Clean Air Act (Sections 165 and
169A) establishes a national goal of enhancing and preserving good
visibility. Initial regulations for visibility protection were
promulgated in 1980 for both new and existing pollution sources.
These regulations deal with single-source impacts.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
Research in the gases and particles program is designed to meet
the information requirements identified in the preceding section on
legislated responsibilities. The basic objectives described in the
introduction to this chapter guide the development of this research
program.
As research goals are translated into research projects, a shift
is made from the problem orientation described in the Legislative
Responsibilities section, to the discipline orientation that structures
the scientific community. The following discussion reflects a
transitional stage in that shift. It presents our program as divided
into five distinct research areas corresponding, to a greater or lesser
degree, with the discipline orientations of the research community.
These five areas are as follows:
Environmental processes and effects
Monitoring systems and quality assurance
Health effects
Scientific assessment
Long-term research
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Environmental Processes and Effects
Research into the environmental processes and effects related
to gases and particles produces information on three major questions
facing environmental regulators: What are the ecological effects of
these pollutants and what do these effects cost? What types of
damage do these pollutants do to construction and other materials
and what is that cost? What is the relationship between specific
pollution sources and the ambient concentrations of the pollutants
they emit? Research strategies to address these three questions are
as follows:
The ecological effects of gases and particles will be evaluated
to support criteria document revisions and to provide technical
assistance to the Agency, and to state and local governments
concerning the ecological effects of sulfur dioxide and particulates.
This activity will primarily focus on the evaluation of past data sets
for integration of exposure data with impacts. Research will focus,
through 1986, on the impacts of ozone interactions with sulfur
dioxide to field validate the effects of ozone/sulfur dioxide mixtures
on major crop species.
Five experimental sites have been established in the Northeast,
Southeast, tMidwest and West to study the impacts of SO2, NO2 and
ozone, alone and in combination. These studies will be continued to
yield a valid dose-response function for these pollutants for various
crops. Results of this work will be used in economic assessment
studies of air pollutant effects upon the agricultural economy.
Results available in the 1983.to 1985 time frame will document the
SO2 dose-response relationships for various crops.
Efforts to determine actual air quality in rural (agricultural)
areas have been limited in the past. Available ambient air quality
data and existing air quality models will be adapted to generate an
exposure/dose data base for both SO2 and ozone. Validated air
quality models will be completed in 1985-1986 and integration of air
quality models with crop-yield data will be initiated in 1983 and be
completed in 1986-1987.
The costs of damage done to materials by gases and particuiate
pollutants may be significant. Acidic deposition, sulfur dioxide,
particles, oxidants, and other pollutants accelerate the degradation
of both construction and ornamental materials. Masonry, paints,
plastics and metals are damaged by these pollutants. The exact dose-
response relationship, however, is poorly documented.
The mechanisms for material damage from gaseous sulfur
dioxide and acid deposition are closely integrated and must be studied
together. Therefore, research into materials damage funded by the
energy program's acid deposition sub-program is planned in close
coordination with such research conducted under the gases and
particles program.
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Work will continue to measure accurately the effects of these
pollutants upon exposed construction materials, to determine
concomitant maintenance costs, and to provide adequate data for the
development and validation of an integrated damage model. By 1984,
such an integrated damage model will be tested, and the collection of
data will begin on the type and quantity of exposed materials
nationwide. Model output will be in terms of dollars lost by materials
damage from air pollutants on a standard metropolitan statistical
area (SMSA) basis. Fewer than 10 damage functions (for zinc, steels,
paint and building materials) cover the majority of exposed
vulnerable materials. The rates of weathering (corrosion and erosion)
and soiling are known to be a function of not only air pollution levels
but also of temperature, relative humidity, precipitation and type of
material. Data for these parameters will be gradually developed to
improve the quality of the eventual model output.
Air quality models are being developed and validated to help
trace the relationship beween pollutant source and ambient
concentration. Standards require that certain ambient levels of
pollutants not be exceeded. To effectively enforce those standards
requires knowledge of pollutant dispersion/deposition patterns. There
are two types of models which can be used to aid this process. One
type projects how pollutants emitted by a specific source or group of
sources will disperse to the downwind points which will eventually
receive the pollutants. These are called dispersion models. The
other type of model takes a mix of pollutants as measured at a
particular receptor point and traces the pollutants back to their
sources. This is called a receptor model.
Receptor models are expected to be more cost-effective in
developing SIPs than dispersion models because the latter require
expensive inventories of emissions and their sources. Receptor
models are simpler to use, but they do require extensive chemical
composition and size distribution data. Using this data, which is
obtained through the analysis of collected aerosol particles, receptor
models can be used to quantitatively relate or apportion the
pollutants to their respective emission sources. The combined use of
both of these methods may effectively bridge gaps in the input data
for either method. It is expected that the receptor and dispersion
methods together will provide the basis for aerosol source
apportionment and control strategy development. These same
methods can be used for apportioning visibility reduction to specific
source types. Source apportionment methods (SAM) will be developed
and validated for apportioning particulate mass to specific emission
sources. Such methods will be applicable to given particle size
ranges.
There exist several analytical methods to characterize the
chemical composition of aerosols. When this is done, source and
ambient air samples can be compared to establish source/receptor
relationships, from which the two major source apportionment
methods, chemical element balance (CEB) and target transformation
factor analysis (TTFA), can be tested for their ability to resolve
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sources. A major field study in an urban area is planned to validate
receptor models and to compare- them with dispersion models.
Additional work is planned to develop ways to identify the unique
characteristics of pollutants from a particular source. These
characteristics are referred to as the source signature.
During 1983, field study data will be used to evaluate the
source apportionment methods (CEB and TTFA) under development.
Computer codes, documentation and user's guides for the CEB and
TTFA methods for interim usage in the 1984 to 1985 time frame will
be produced. Further reports will be produced in this period
describing the application of CEB and TTFA to aerosols collected in
various locations as well as a report describing the accuracy of the
TTFA in comparison to mathematical simulation tests and the results
of CEB analysis.
How particles travel after they are emitted into the air is
important. Equally as important, from the perspective of human
health, is the size of the particles.
EPA may revise the particulate National Ambient Air Quality
Standard by introducing size- and chemically-speciated standards.
Under consideration are standards for inhalable particles (less than 10
microns, or PM|0)> and fine particles (less than 2.5 microns).
Currently available models supporting SIPs were developed for total
suspended particulate (TSP). If the standards are changed, future
SIPs will require methods to define source/receptor relationships that
can distinguish between different particle size classes (e.g., fine and
PM.Q particles) and between chemical composition classes (e.g.,
sulfates, nitrates and organic/carbonaceous particles).
In the current program, a two-year plan has begun to produce
an interim, short-term (1-hour and 24-hour averaging times), urban-
scale PMip (and/or FP) model and to produce an interim PM,Q
(and/or FPjmesoscale model. These models will soon be available to
treat short-term concentrations related to transport/transformation
from one or more large point sources (and possibly urban plumes).
The purpose of the mesoscale model is to estimate regional or
background contributions to the urban area. The models are
presently formulated to handle secondary sulfate only. Evaluation of
these models against existing data bases is planned along with a
major field study to validate the urban particulate model. Additional
modest field efforts will characterize primary sulfate emissions from
residential/commercial sources, regional background contributions
and fugitive emissions from vehicular traffic.
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In 1983, a three-year effort to-improve the interim urban scale
and mesoscale aerosol models will begin. It will include additional
chemical conversion modules, a visibility module and the best
available values for transformation rates, dry deposition rates and
dispersion parameters. Data from a Philadelphia field study
(including a source inventory) will be processed and used for
evaluation/validation of the improved models. Additional field
efforts will continue to characterize primary suifate emissions,
regional background aerosol contributions and fugitive emissions from
vehicular traffic. Various chemistry modules will be developed for
distribution in 1984/1985. The improved urban and mesoscale fine
and PM,Q models will be completed in 1986.
Large point and area sources produce impacts on air quality
over long distances, often affecting other states and countries. The
ability to determine the effectiveness of alternative control
scenarios in meeting acceptable ambient levels requires an adequate
regional/long-range participate model to predict ground-level
concentrations of fine and PM.Q particles over distances up to 1000
km.
One multi-state field study has been conducted during a period
of prolonged polluted conditions in 1980 to establish the first
available data base for evaluating regional-scale particuiate models.
A second field study is scheduled for 1984. The program to produce a
regional-scale model for fine and PM.Q particles will result during
1983 in an interim model which treats primary and secondary suifate.
Model development will continue with the incorporation of
appropriate physical and chemical modules associated with particle
production SO- to suifate transformation and loss, into the EPA
regional photochemical model. A major field study will be designed
to provide a data base for the evaluation and verification of the
regional particuiate models. The field study is planned for 1984 and
the evaluation and validation for 1985-1986.
A number of users, including state and local environmental
agencies, EPA regional and regulatory offices and other agencies
require air quality models for the assessment of new sources,
modification of existing sources and other control strategies. The
user's network for applied modeling of air pollution (UNAMAP) was
established to provide these users with new applied modeling
techniques in the form of computer codes and user's guides. The
UNAMAP system has expanded from an initial six models to 21
models in 1981. The system will continue to be updated for use by
the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards (OAQPS) and others.
Several new models will be added in 1983, including the interim
models developed for urban and regional scales. In addition, a
systematic assessment of EPA-recommended models will be
performed to ensure that all of these tools are adequate for use in
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environmental decision-making processes (e.g., permitting, siting,
SIP, PSD, visibility). Research producing air quality models for
complex terrain, long-range transport and transformation, long-range
tracer techniques, photo optics, visibility and residential heating are
described in the energy chapter.
Monitoring Systems and Quality Assurance
The monitoring portion of the gases and particles research
program has three major objectives: (1) to develop less expensive,
more reliable tools for measuring both criteria and noncriteria
pollutants in both exhaust gases and ambient atmosphere; (2) to
assure the quality of measurements taken by the EPA and by state,
local and international environmental regulators; and.(3) to maintain
the particle monitoring network, which provides data on particle
loadings nationwide.
Improved monitoring tools can lead to dramatic improvements
in the cost-effectiveness of environmental enforcement activities.
For example, several states and regional programs are investigating
the use of source self-monitoring to demonstrate compliance with
emission limits. Improved monitoring systems for ambient air,
stationary source emissions and personal exposure will be developed
and/or tested. Major new systems will be available in 1982 for
monitoring particles less than 10 microns in size in ambient air.
Reference and equivalent methods for monitoring specified pollutants
will continue to be prepared for the Federal Register.
Sensitive yet reliable and inexpensive methods of measuring
pollutants are being developed for both in-stack and remote sensing.
These include sampling strategies in cyclonic-flow situations, uses of
UV-TV and IR-TV for remote sensing, Lidar for opacity
measurements and tools to classify particle sizes and collect
inhalable particulates.
In addition, airborne laser systems will be used to characterize
aerosol distribution in the troposphere, to monitor long-range
transport of polluted air masses, and to determine particle
production, depletion, and transport within plumes.
Quality assurance (QA) support is essential to assure that
advances in monitoring tools and methods are usable by, and useful
to, environmental programs. Research in this area will give users the
necessary performance specifications, audit devices and procedures
for correlating the monitor value with pollutant emissions levels.
The program will provide quality assurance for NSPS regulations and
will aid regional offices in SIP and consent decree formulation.
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The quality assurance program provides support to state and
local agencies and regional offices as required to implement 40 CFR
58, state and local Air Monitoring Stations/National Air Monitoring
Stations. This involves maintaining a repository of quality control
reference samples, developing standard reference materials,
verifying certified reference materials, carrying out semi-annual
performance audits, auditing continuous source emission monitors,
providing QA support for the Office of Air Quality Planning and
Standards, and implementing the Agency-wide mandatory quality
assurance program.
In addition, the Quality Assurance Handbook will be updated
and a system for receiving, analyzing and reporting precision data
will be developed and proposed in 1982. Workshops will be provided
for state and local personnel on implementing regulatory quality
assurance requirements. Audit verification centers will be
maintained where agencies can have their calibration and audit
standards verified, and reference samples will be provided.
This research program also supports the nationwide inhalable
particulate network. The results from this network will be used to
determine the relationships between various sizes of particles to
evaluate the impact of a new inhalable particle air quality standard.
Health Effects
The overall objective of the health research sub-program in
gases and particles is to provide techniques and information that can
be used to improve the estimate of risk to humans resulting from the
simultaneous inhalation of gases (criteria and/or non-criteria) and
particles (organic and/or inorganic). Primary air quality standards
are established to protect human health. The health effects research
sub-program provides data for the criteria documents upon which
standards are based. Health effects research includes controlled
human exposure tests and animal toxicology tests. Work will be done
on the acute and chronic effects of different particle sizes and of
particles in combination.
Fairly complete data bases exist for SC^ and lead health
effects. More work is needed to study the human health effects of
particles, alone and in combination with gaseous pollutants. An
increase in emphasis on the health effects of particle size (and
associated chemical characteristics) is required in order to improve
the risk estimates required for regulatory decision making.
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EPA research in this area stresses animal toxicology and
clinical studies. Epidemiological studies germane to air quality are
left to health agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
and academic institutions. EPA's animal toxicology work includes
acute and chronic effects of particles of less than 2.5 microns and
from 2.5 to 10 microns in size. Particles such as ammonium sulfate,
iron oxide and kaolin clay will be studied alone and in combination
with gases. Normal and respiratorily (elastase) impaired animals will
be exposed and examined for pulmonary, biochemical, immunologicai,
pathological and hematological effects. There is strong evidence
indicating that exposure to some particulates can impair an
organism's ability to withstand viral infection. Therefore, models are
being developed and refined to allow quick and efficient
extrapolation data from animals to man. Other models will help to
determine the extent to which exposure to these pollutants increases
susceptibility to viral infection*
In human studies, healthy subpopulations and at-risk populations
will be compared for exposures to suifate and nitrate aerosols alone
and in combination with ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide to
search for threshold levels at which clinically significant health
effects appear. Health effects will be determined by changes in
pulmonary and cardiovascular function and in biochemical and
immunologicai measurements made on blood and tissue.
Animal studies will investigate normal and impaired animals
using pulmonary, pathological, hematologicai, immunologicai and
biochemical indicators of response. Regional deposition "of particles
in the lung will also be studied to assist in the development of
dosimetric extrapolation models.
Scientific Assessment
The scientific assessment program is responsible for integrating
all of the relevant scientific information necessary to produce
criteria documents. Since these documents are the major technical
input into the standard-setting process, the information in them must
be accurate. Part of this effort includes a careful screening of the
technical data to ensure that only reliable information is used in the
criteria document.
For example, the lead document is currently undergoing update
and will be available for external and Science Advisory Board (SAB)
review in 1983. The final document will be produced by 1984. This
document will be a complete, comprehensive and accurate summary
of current knowledge about the relationships of airborne lead to
humans and their environment.
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Long-term Research
Long term exploratory research in support of the gases and particles
research program has addressed a number of major issues including:
sulfate, nitrate, and organic aerosol formation kinetics; atmospheric
aerosol processes; chemical composition of urban size-resolved
aerosols; volatile aerosols; deposition monitor development for acid
gases and aerosols; source-visibility relationships; nitrogen oxide
reactions to produce nitric acid and ammonia influence on aerosol
formation; and organic acid additives to wet scrubbers. Future
research will continue to expand the scientific base for the rest of
the gases and particles research program.
MAJOR MILESTONES
Update users guide for validated air quality simulation
models - 5/1983
Effects of sulfate and nitrate aerosols on at-risk subjects
- 10/1983
Develop and test long-range fine and inhalabie particuiate
air quality simulation models - 10/1983
Effects of combinations of gases and aerosols on human
viral infectivity - 10/1983
Methods to apportion particuiate mass to specific
emission sources - 8/1984
Complete lead criteria document - 10/1984
Quantify economic cost of materials damage from gases
and particles - 10/1984
Effects of SO- on growth/yield of agricultural crops -
4/1985 ^
Develop and test urban particuiate models - 8/1985
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 25.6
1983 1984 1985 1986
Growth Projected Projected Projected Projected
No 23.3 23.3 23.3 23.3
Moderate 23.3 23.9 24.6 25.4
High 23.3 24.6 26.0 27.6
Figures are in millions of dollars
No growth. Health research will focus on controlled human
exposure to combinations of gases and particles. Modeling resources
will address source receptor air quality dispersion parameter
development. Monitoring support will continue at present levels.
tModerate growth. In the health area, focus will remain on
clinical exposure studies, and where possible, extrapolation of animal
toxicology to human effects. In modeling, focus will continue to be
on source receptor air quality models as a means to evaluate
SOx/particle control strategies. Monitoring will be maintained at
current levels.
High growth. Health research will be expanded in the clinical
area as well as in animal toxicology. Extrapolation from high dose to
low dose and across species will receive additional attention. Work
on source/receptor air quality modeling will be increased. Monitoring
efforts in support of regulatory action would receive greater
emphasis.
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OXIDANTS
INTRODUCTION
Atmospheric oxidants include a complex of substances which
are either emitted from pollutant sources or are the result of in-air
chemical reactions involving nitrogen oxides and volatile organic
compounds (VOC). These oxidants include ozone (O,), nitric acid,
aldehydes (including formaldehyde), hydrogen peroxide, ketones,
organic acids and many other substances. Ozone is the most
significant of these oxidants.
The reactions which form oxidants are also of concern to other
EPA research areas. For example, the gases and particles program
includes studies of the atmosphere formation of fine aerosols and
particles. Some of the volatile organic compounds are, because of
their toxicity, under investigation under the hazardous air pollutant
research program. Likewise, mobile sources are a significant source
of oxidant and nitrogen oxide pollutants. These are addressed in the
mobile sources chapter.
Objectives
The oxidants research program has six objectives. These are to:
Support the national air quality standard-setting process
by producing criteria documents for ozone and nitrogen
oxides.
Conduct research to provide health and welfare effects
data, on ozone, nitrogen dioxide and other products of
atmospheric photochemical reactions.
Provide validated models for use in the development of
state implementation plans for ozone and nitrogen
dioxide.
Provide scientific data on control technologies for
volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides to support
both state implementation plan development and the new
source standards program.
Provide sampling and analytical methodologies, new
monitoring methods, and quality assurance procedures, as
needed.
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LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
Under Sections 108 and 109 of the Clean Air Act as amended in
1977, EPA sets national ambient air quality standards. Primary
standards protect public health, and secondary standards protect
public welfare. Once standards are set, the states are responsible for
developing an implementation plan (SIP) indicating how they intend to
achieve the required standards. EPA provides guidance to the states
in developing their implementation plans and is required to
periodically review the standards it sets. Air quality standards have
been established for two pollutants (ozone and nitrogen dioxide)
addressed by the oxidants research program.
New standards are considered, or existing standards are
reviewed (every five years), based upon documentation produced by
EPA's research program. These documents called criteria
documents set forth the latest scientific knowledge useful in
indicating the kind and extent of all identifiable effects of the
pollutant in question upon public health and welfare. For example,
the ozone standard will be reviewed in 1984. Since the criteria
document requires nearly two years to produce, work has already
begun on its production.
With respect to the state implementation plans, EPA is focusing
efforts on providing guidance to states for controlling emissions of
volatile organic compounds (VOC) a major oxidant precursor.
Because of the magnitude of the ozone problem in many areas and
the fact that many states have attainment date extensions to 1987,
continued research support for developing guidelines for volatile
organic compound control technology may be needed over the next
five years.
Under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act new source
performance standards can be set for new or modified source
categories that emit criteria or, in some cases, non-criteria
pollutants. Standards for a given type of source must reflect the best
control technology (considering costs and other factors) that has been
adequately demonstrated. The performance standards must,
therefore, be based on up-to-date information regarding available
control technology. To be useful in a decision-making context, this
information must include removal efficiency, economic
considerations, energy penalties and non-air environmental impact.
New source performance standards exist for a number of sources of
volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides (NO ) while a number
of additional standards are in preparation. In addrtion, the current
standards must be periodically reviewed.
Also, for those areas granted ozone attainment date extensions
past 1982, a "second-phase" SIP demonstration must be submitted by
July 1982. Research on urban and regional photochemical modeling
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will be needed over the next several years to support the SIPs in
major problem areas such as the Northeast, Los Angeles and the Gulf
Coast.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
In working to provide the technical information, control
technologies and support necessary for environmental managers to
carry out their legal mandate regarding oxidants, the EPA research
program conducts activities in three major research areas and two
support areas. The major research areas are:
Determining exposure and effects of oxidants and NO on
human health and ecosystems, x
Producing reliable and useable air quality models and
monitoring methods, and
Developing and proving NOx and volatile organic
compound control technologies.
The support areas, in common with many of the other research
programs described in this report, are quality assurance, and long-
term exploratory research.
Our research plans and strategies, as they relate to oxidants, are
discussed below.
Exposure and Effects
The exposure and effects program develops information to be
used in the updating of criteria documents and the improvement of
air quality standards. Research is planned to provide two types of
data on health effects and on environmental effects. This data
will be used in a third sub-program, called scientific assessment, to
produce pollutant criteria documents.
The environmental processes and effects program will produce
technical information and guidance on the effects of various O, and
NO2 air pollution levels on economically important agricultural
crops. A major report relating O, and NO2 concentrations to crop
impacts on a region-by-region basis is scheduled for 1985.
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The strategy of the health effects program is to provide the
health effects information required to update the criteria documents
for ozone and nitrogen oxides. In addition, information will be
developed to describe the public health effects associated with other
photochemical oxidants which are not regulated. Such compounds
include aldehydes and peroxyacetyl nitrate.
Research areas which are considered appropriate to provide a
reduction in the uncertainty in estimates of risks to public health
associated with exposures to photochemical oxidants include the
following:
Evaluation of the health significance of clinical indicators
of biological response (coughing, chest tightness, etc.).
Characterization of responses of sensitive populations
(youth, aged, pregnant).
Characterization (synergism, antagonism) of the effects
of multiple, simultaneous stresses such as temperature
and/or activity.
Improvements in estimates of risks associated with long-
term low-level exposures especially in the range of
present standards.
A reduced but still significant effort to improve the
capability to use animal data to estimate human risk.
EPA's human health studies will emphasize the effects of
multiple stresses and sensitive population groups. Biological (animal)
studies will be directed to improved models for quantitative
extrapolation to estimate risks to humans, to indicate appropriate
indices of biological significance of low-levels and to understand
chronic effects on defense mechanisms. In both areas, emphasis will
be on biochemical indicators and immune defense mechanisms.
Specifically, by 1984, results of major research efforts are
expected to:
Develop a biochemical model for O, uptake in rats,
Determine the effects of NO, on viral activity in humans,
Identify the ozone threshold in normal subjects, and
Determine systemic effects of oxidant exposure on human
populations at risk.
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The scientific assessment program ties together in a decision-
supporting format (criteria documents) reliable information in
support of the standard-setting process. The next planned criteria
document addresses ozone and related photochemical oxidants, and is
scheduled for completion late in 1983.
Each of the existing national ambient air standards is on a
staggered five-year update schedule. In mid-late FY-83, it will be
time to initiate planning for the next review of the air criteria
document for nitrogen oxides. Typical air criteria updates take two
years to complete.
Air Quality Models
The models and techniques developed under this program are
the mainstay of the oxidants regulatory effort. Research in this area
produces four types of products: urban models, regional-scale
models, data on biogenic compounds and their relationship with
ambient ozone levels, and guidance to air pollution officials on the
application and use of air quality models.
Adequate urban models of ozone air quality are essential in the
evaluation of state implementation plan regulatory strategies.
Analysis of several existing chemistry submodels indicates that their
use could introduce errors in predicting ozone air quality patterns.
Specific inadequacies of existing mechanisms aret (a) they do not
accurately predict the effects of organic reactant compositon
changes upon ozone yields, (b) they do not treat reliably- the role of
aromatic organics, and (c) they do not predict accurately non-ozone
oxidants such as HMO, and formaldehyde.
In addition, these existing ozone air quality models cannot be
used to model NC^. Such a capability would be useful for the
revision of NO~ state implementation plans. In response to these
shortcomings, a chemistry submodel will be developed that
accurately treats the atmospheric chemistries of paraffinic, olefinic,
aromatic and aldehydic emissions, and predicts the effects of organic
emission composition changes on ambient ozone and NO2. During
1984, a mechanism will be delivered to dispersion modelers which
predicts the formation of PAN, HNO,, aldehyde, ozone, NO2 and
other major oxidant-reiated pollutants.
A first generation regional-scale (up to 1,000km) model for
ozone has been developed and is being evaluated for the northeastern
U.S. The regional model supports state implementation planning and
EPA's air regulatory program. It is scheduled for completion in the
1985 - 1986 time frame.
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The regional model will serve as follows. It will provide inflow
boundary conditions of ozone and its precursors from major upwind
emission centers (usually other urban areas) to the urban scale model
used in assessing control plans within the urban area. The model will
also allow decision makers to evaluate the impact of oxidant control
plans of individual cities from a regional perspective as well as
provide the opportunity to assess a regional approach to oxidant
control planning. In this way the contributions of ozone transport
from one area to another can be taken into account. In addition to
ozone problems, this regional modeling approach will address other
air pollution problems. In the gases and particles and acid deposition
research area, aerosol chemistry submoduies are being developed in a
way to be adapted to this regional model development program. The
contribution of biogenic emissions to regional oxidant production will
be assessed 'with the use of a regional scale ozone model. While there
is a significant amount of information on the anthropogenic sources
of ambient ozone precursors, very little is known about the
contribution of natural sources. While it is known that isoprene and
terpenes (hydrocarbons emitted from vegetation) can produce ozone
under certain laboratory-controlled conditions (e.g., smog chambers),
the information is not available to allow for a quantitative
assessment. What data does exist regarding biogenic emissions is
often conflicting. For example, measurements of ambient
hydrocarbon (HC) concentration did not agree with the predicted
concentration based on emissions factors. The inconsistency of the
data may be due to erroneous ambient HC concentration
measurement in urban and rural areas, erroneous emissions factors
used to calculate the theoretical concentrations, different biogenic
HC than predicted, or erroneous extrapolation of small-scale
measurements to large-scale emissions levels.
It is the strategy of this research effort to determine accurate
biogenic hydrocarbon emissions factors using a variety of vegetation
under a controlled set of environmental factors. Smog chamber
studies using terpenes and isoprenes will be used to determine the
ozone-forming potential of these biogenic hydrocarbons. Once
accurate emissions factors have been developed, the contribution of
biogenic hydrocarbons to ozone formation can be predicted using the
regional-scale model described above. A combination laboratory and
field program will be conducted.
Longer term research will focus on developing a better
understanding of fundamental chemicals and physical processes of the
atmosphere. Emphasis will be on developing more accurate chemical
mechanisms for the formation of ozone and non-ozone oxidants such
as peroxyacetyl nitrate and on developing and validating new
techniques to acquire accurate emission inventories of ozone
precursors for all major source categories.
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To make this research information directly useful, authoritative
guidance will be provided to air pollution officials in EPA's program
offices and state/local governments. These guidance documents will
address the application and use of air quality modeling techniques in
evaluating the effectiveness of control strategies. These efforts will
be flexible enough to satisfy the individual needs of the user
community.
Control Technology
Major regulatory decisions regarding both State Implementation
Plans, New Source Performance Standards and National Emission
Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants are based, to a significant
extent, upon an understanding of the costs and efficacy of available
pollutant control technologies. The control technology program will
continue to review and update existing NSPS on the basis of the best
engineering information presently available on control approaches to
meet existing or revised standards at the least burden to industry.
While NO control technologies will continue to be assessed,
the main focus of this program is on mechanisms to control VOCs.
Many areas of the country are in violation of the national ambient air
quality standard for ozone, one of the major oxidants. Volatile
organic compounds are major precursors of oxidants in the
atmosphere. Hence, control of these compounds is a prerequisite of
oxidant control.
Volatile organics are emitted by many industrial processes,
including surface coating, refining, chemical production solvent use,
and gasoline handling and marketing. At this point, however, there is
a lack of reliable data on demonstrated, cost-effective and energy-
efficient control technologies for many medium and small sources of
volatile organics.
This research program is testing the two most promising control
techniques for volatile organics. The carbon adsorption system is
being evaluated for industrial applications, and data will be made
available regarding its cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency in
controlling both volatile organics and hazardous air pollutants. The
other major technology catalytic oxidation is also being
evaluated. The results of this research will be determinations of the
capabilities, costs and efficiency of these and other control
technologies such as thermal oxidation, flaring, capture systems and
material substitution. This information will be made available to
support regional and state efforts to implement controls for large
numbers of VOC-emitting industries so as to attain ambient air
quality standards.
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Quality Assurance
As required under the Clean Air Act, the oxidants research
program provides for quality assurance and audit support for the rest
of EPA and for federal and other laboratories. Monitoring support is
provided to the air-program offices and regions, and monitoring
equipment and methods are developed.
Most quality assurance support is of a continuing nature. The
program supports the National Standards Laboratory, maintains
standard reference materials and provides gas samples, permeation
devices and flow rates, traceable to NBS standards. It conducts the
National Audit Program and provides extensive short-term and quick-
response monitoring support for EPA's air standards office.
Other tasks involve special developmental efforts. The
National Atmospheric Pollutant Background Network, for example, is
a multi-year effort which will provide the background data necessary
for reviewing state implementation plans and for testing of regional
air pollutant models. This study is scheduled for completion in 1983.
For field measurement of ozone, a UV photometer will be developed
as a reference standard. Also, methods for analyzing non-methane
organic compounds will be evaluated and recommendations made to
the Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.
Long-term Research
.EPA's exploratory research in oxidants seeks to build the
fundamental knowledge base which underlies EPA's oxidant control
strategy. Major active studies will include analyses of pulmonary
effects of oxidant exposure in animals, chamber studies of the
chemistry of NO species and a study on photochemical kinetics
models which may be useful in improving air quality simulation
models. Future research may include investigations of the effects of
oxidants on sensitive populations especially those with
cardiorespiratory impairment, and of the impacts on the
photochemical problem of the use of alcohol in gasohol.
MAJOR MILESTONES
Publication of criteria document for ozone and related
photochemical products - 12/1983
Collection of baseline conditions data from National
Atmospheric Network - 1984-1985
Development of improved chemistry mechanisms for
urban scale ozone models - 1984-1985
Determination" of the effects of ozone and NO^ on
agricultural crops - 1985
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Development, validation and dissemination of regional
scale ozone models - 1985-1986
Determination of biogenic contribution to ambient ozone
levels - 1986
Evaluation of carbon adsorption and catalytic oxidation
systems for control of volatile organic compounds - 1985-
1986
Provide innovative validated test systems and animal-to-
man extrapolation models, relating exposure to ozone and
NO to tissue dose - 12/1986
A,
Provide data on the occurance, exacerbation, and
significance of cardiovascular, cardiopulmmary,
respiratory, and immunological disorders following
exposure to ozone and NO9 alone and in combination -
12/1986 i
Provide data on respiratory, morphological,
immunological and metabolic effects of NCu exposure in
animals - 3/1987
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 15.2
1983 1984 1985 1986
GROWTH Projected Projected Projected Projected
NO 11.5 11.5 11.5 11.5
MODERATE 11.5 11.8 12.2 12.6
HIGH 11.5 12.2 12.9 13.7
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. Emphasis will be on the evaluation and assessment
of pollution control technologies capable of reducing or eliminating
emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC). Work on regional
ozone modeling will continue to be of high priority. VOC monitoring
equipment as well as audits and standards data for ozone, nitrogen
oxides, and hydrocarbons, will remain priority research areas.
Emphasis will also continue to be placed on the controlled clinical
health program to determine the adverse effects of chronic, low-dose
exposure to ozone and NO^
Moderate growth. Kesearch on VOC control technology and
monitoring equipment will be accelerated." The clinical health and
ecological effects programs will remain at current levels. Efforts to
add better chemistry mechanisms into urban models will continue at
current levels. Work on regional ozone modeling will remain at
current levels. The monitoring of background ozone will continue.
High growth. In addition to the above, studies of the health
effects of non-ozone oxidants (e.g., PAN, formaldehyde) will- be
undertaken. The human (clinical) studies program will be accelerated
to better ascertain the sensitivity of susceptible populations to
exposures to ozone and nitrogen dioxide. Efforts will take place to
model dispersion of ozone across regions, to identify the level of
natural precursors of ozone and to better understand transportation-
related emissions.
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MOBILE SOURCES
INTRODUCTION
The control of emissions from mobile sources is a key element
in the overall national program to protect public health and welfare
from the adverse effects of air pollution. In keeping with its
legislated mandates, EPA sets emission standards for selected
pollutants from motor vehicles, establishes ambient air quality
standards for airborne pollutants, including mobile source pollutants,
and regulates the fuels and fuel additives which can be used to power
motor vehicles. EPA also ensures that motor vehicles meet
prescribed standards before manufacture, during manufacture, and
while they are in use. In order to accomplish its mission in the area
of mobile sources, the Agency requires research information on the
amount of exposure which the population sustains from motor vehicle
emissions, the effects of that exposure, and the level of risk incurred
if the-exposure continues. The Agency also needs some guarantee
that the data used to make decisions about mobile sources are
reliable and accurate, as well as sufficient to enable the states
implementing the Clean Air Act to adopt and enforce cost-effective
control measures. The mobile sources research program is
responsible for amassing the research base necessary to enable the
Agency to fulfill its mandates regarding mobile sources under the
terms of the Clean Air Act.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
Section 109 of the Clean Air Act requires the Administrator of
EPA to establish ambient air quality standards for certain pollutants,
among them carbon monoxide (CO) which is emitted principally from
mobile sources. Primary standards protecting human health and
secondary standards protecting welfare are based on air quality
criteria published and updated by the Administrator every five years.
The criteria, as stated in Section 108 of the act, are to "accurately
reflect the latest scientific knowledge useful in indicating the kind
and extent of all identifiable effects on public health or welfare
which may be expected from the presence of a particular pollutant in
the ambient air." EPA's research program produces much of the data
upon which these criteria are based.
EPA has established particulate emission standards for diesel-
powered light-duty vehicles based on assessments of cost,
technological feasibility and the contribution of diesel particles to
the total suspended particulates (TSP). The Agency is required,
however, to prescribe standards for those pollutants from motor
vehicles which could endanger health and welfare (Section 202) (a)
(1). While providing a fuel-efficient alternative to the gasoline
engine, a comparable diesel-powered engine emits 30 to 100 times
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more particles. The combustion of any organic matter can produce a
complex mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other
compounds, a number of which are carcinogenic. The problem has
been to identify the biologically active elements in diesel exhaust,
estimate the likely levels of human exposure and assess the cancer
risk in humans posed by increased use of diesel engines.
Experimental results using a variety of biological assays indicate that
the responses induced by extracts of diesel particles fall within the
range of responses induced by extracts of other products of
incomplete combustion, such as coke-oven emissions. However,
experts have concluded that even a major increase in the diesei fleet
would not pose a serious threat to public health.
In light of the advance planning and huge commitments of
capital that are necessary for synthetic fuel production, EPA, in
keeping with the Section 211 mandate, must be in a ready position to
assess the health risk posed by synthetic fuel combustion in motor
vehicles. Thus, the test methods that will be developed through the
mobile source research program must be available for this new
application.
In determining whether any unreasonable risk to human health
is posed by emissions from motor vehicles or their control devices,
EPA is required to consider the effects of unregulated as well as
regulated pollutants (Sections 202) (a) (1) and 202 (a) (*). In many
cases, such as gas phase hydrocarbons and nitroaromatics, the task of
capturing and measuring the pollutant poses a scientific problem.
Once samples are acquired, the pollutant must be subjected to some
kind of testing regimen to determine whether it presents a health
risk. To support this regulatory mandate, the mobile source research
program will provide the tools needed to sample, measure and test
unregulated pollutants.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
For those vehicle classes where Congress has not specified
emission standards, current mobile source emission standards for
carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides are based, in
large part, on judgments of technological and economic feasibility.
Before attempting to determine whether these standards adequately
protect human health, it is necessary to know whether a reading from
a fixed monitor provides an accurate picture of the levels of
automotive pollutants to which people are exposed.
To respond to this problem, ORD is conducting a major study to
determine actual human exposures to carbon monoxide. Carbon
monoxide will be studied first because it is emitted almost
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exclusively from mobile sources, it is relatively easy to measure and
concentrations vary greatly as a function of location. The project
will make use of personal monitors to measure the concentrations of
CO to which subjects are exposed at different times and locations.
Human activity profiles will be developed for selected cities to
determine where and when the overall population would be exposed to
CO.
To assess how levels of other motor vehicle pollutants vary as
functions of time and location, similar field experiments using
personal monitors will be necessary. The applicability of CO as a
surrogate for other mobile source pollutants will also be studied. The
human activity profiles developed in the CO study should provide a
tool for estimating exposures to other mobile source pollutants,
including diesel particuiate. We are also studying the effects of NOx
and ozone emitted from mobile sources. This research is described in
the Oxidants Chapter.
Accurate human exposure readings are necessary so that EPA
can more accurately evaluate the health and welfare effects of diesel
particuiate. Exposure assessment and measurement techniques,
refined in the CO research program, will be adapted for use in
studying diesel exhaust exposure.
The Agency is pursuing these research areas because results of
other studies suggest that additional investigation is required to
reduce uncertainty in the estimates of adverse CO effects. These
adverse effects need to be addressed in evaluating the carbon
monoxide ambient air standard and the automotive emission level
that such a standard implies. .
EPA has the responsibility to ensure that motor vehicle fuels
and fuel additives will not have adverse effects on public health
(Section 211). Development of reliable test methods that can be used
to evaluate the effects of the fuels and additives is a major objective
of the mobile sources research program.
The health effects of chronic exposures to CO concentrations
at or near the ambient standard need to be established more
definitively. ORD is responding to this need with clinical and animal
toxicologic studies. The clinical studies will (1) assess the validity of
a method for relating ambient CO levels in air to actual CO levels
bound to the blood and (2) report on the effects on young and middle-
aged normal people and on cardiovascular patients of exposures to
various levels of CO and CO/ozone (OJ mixtures. The animal
toxicologic study will look for reproductive and neurobehavioral
effects caused by CO exposure.
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EPA will use data from diesel emissions research to evaluate
the health and welfare effects of diesel particulate. Major
components of the health research strategy include:
Exposure of animals, via skin painting and intratracheal
instillation, to diesel soot, coke-oven emissions, roofing
'tar emissions and cigarette smoke condensate. Since the
last three substances are known human carcinogens, by
comparing diesel soot with these substances, we expect to
be able to estimate the soot's potency.
Development of techniques to use short-term in vitro
tests, such as mammalian cell tests, to identify the
biologically active components in diesel exhaust and to
verify the biological activities that were assayed using
the Ames test system. This work will continue through
1983 and then be phased down. The result will be major
reports on relative potency of diesel exhaust as a
carcinogen and recommendations on the extent to which
in vitro tests might be used for cancer-based regulation of
engine systems and fuels and fuel additives.
The importance of the program extends beyond the immediate
problem of assessing the risk of increased use of dieseis. It
represents a pioneering effort in the evaluation of the biological
activity of complex mixtures for the purpose of supporting risk
assessments.
The information on exposure and animal testing will be used to
develop human risk assessments. These assessments are developed
using the most appropriate animal testing data, extensive review of
the data for completeness and adequacy, and the application of
various statistical techniques.
Future trends in engine and fuel use for vehicles will require
the development of tests that can be used to determine whether
different engine systems, fuels and fuel additives pose an
unreasonable risk to human health, jn vitro tests are being developed
and validated. These are to be used to characterize biologic activity
and to screen emissions for further testing. If successful, such short-
term tests will enable quantitative estimation of risks without having
to go to larger and more expensive tests.
It is necessary to develop a testing scheme to assess
carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, reproductive effects, and other
chronic effects of fuels and fuel additives. The testing approach will
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include bioassays which identify the potential health risks in a
practical and cost-effective manner. If any of the fuels or fuel
additives are shown to be potential biohazards, supplemental tests
will be considered to estimate the risk posed to humans. All aspects
of the testing scheme will be developed in accordance with Agency
risk assessment guidelines and will be subject to peer review by
experts in each of the chronic effects areas.
Tier bioassays developed under this research effort presumably
can be applied with little modification to the study of unregulated
emissions. Eventually, these systems too can provide the basis for
health risk assessments.
Chemical and physical data on diesel-powered vehicle emissions
will be obtained in order to assess the impact of those emissions on
the environment and to determine the ultimate fate of these
pollutants. This information is needed to determine the actual levels
of regulated and unregulated pollutants from vehicles operating under
a variety of driving conditions such as high acceleration, low
temperature or heavy loads. Also, there is a need to determine the
abundance of the carcinogenic and mutagenic components of motor
vehicle emissions in order to assess their impact on human health.
Characterization studies will be conducted to identify and
quantify potentially harmful tailpipe and evaporative emissions from
in-use gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles as well as from those
using such synthetic fuels as methanol and m-gas. The studies will
address both gaseous and particuiate pollutants, particularly
aldehydes, gaseous mutagens, NPL and HCN.
One problem area concerns identification and measurement of
emissions (and components of emissions) from a variety of engines
burning different fuels under varying operating conditions.
Researchers will strive to answer questions regarding optimal control
of mutagenic substances in diesei emissions and likely environmental
effects of combustion of synthetic fuels. Emphasis will also be
placed on characterizing the emissions from in-use heavy-duty diesei
engines. Sampling gaseous emissions from engines has presented
some difficulty. A method must be developed that does not change
the biological characteristics of the exhaust, either by generating
active artifacts or by suppressing biological activity.
Developing sampling and chemical analytical methods to
characterize pollutant emissions from automobiles requires: (1)
procedures for detecting chemical mutagens and hazardous pollutants
in particle and gaseous tailpipe emissions for both diesei and gasoline
engines and (2) procedures for real time analysis of priority
unregulated pollutant?, such as formaldehyde.
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MAJOR MILESTONES
Final report on bioassay of gaseous emissions from mobile
sources - 9/1982
Final report on evaluation of cardiopulmonary effects of
CO and O, in healthy subjects and in patients with
ischemic heirt disease - 9/1983
Report on respiratory carcinogenicity of diesei fuel
emissions via intratracheal instillation - 9/1983
Final report on comparative carcinogenicity of mobile
source pollutants using mouse pulmonary adenoma model
-9/1983
Determine the emissions from in-use heavy-duty trucks
and buses - 9/1983
Final human carcinogen risk assessment of mobile sources
- 12/1983
CO risk assessment - 3/1984
Determine the CO and VOC emissions of prototype light
duty diesei vehicles - 3/1984
Publish results of study of activity patterns of individuals
as related to exposure to air pollutants - 9/1984
Final report on replication of EPA cardiovascular CO
exposures in young, healthy, male subjects through
measurement of systolic time intervals - 10/1984
Assess pollutant exposure from control of diesei vehicles -
9/1985
Publish results of CO studies - 9/1986
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 5.6
1983 198* 1985 - 1986
GROWTH Projected Projected Projected Projected
NO *.5 *.5 *.5 *.5
MODERATE *.5 *.6 4.8 4.9
HIGH 4.5 4.8 5.1 5.*
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. Emphasis will remain on assessments of human
exposure to motor vehicle pollutants and development of short-term
screening tests for vehicle exhausts.
Moderate growth. Development of methods to isolate and
measure mutagenic substances in motor vehicle exhaust will continue
at their present levels. Efforts will focus on emissions from heavy-
duty diesel engines and from engines powered by synthetic fuels.
High growth. Clinical studies of the chronic effects of
exposures to carbon monoxide will be undertaken. Studies will focus
on cardiovascular effects.
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RADIATION
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of the EPA's radiation research program is to
produce scientific data in support of EPA's Office of- Radiation
Programs. The program has two distinct components: ionizing and
nonionizing radiation (NIR). Ionizing radiation activities consist of
radiological monitoring in support of Department of Energy (DOE),
nuclear testing programs primarily at the Nevada test site, and a
quality assurance program which serves as a source of radionuclide
and instrumental standards and radiochemicai methods for analysis of
environmental samples for use by both state and DOE contractor
laboratories. The program- also endeavors to assess the population's
exposure to man-made radioactive materials through its monitoring
and quality assurance efforts. The research on NIR or radiofrequency
(RF) radiation is designed to develop data on the health effects and
health risks posed by exposure to NIR frequencies currently present
in, or to be introduced into, the environment. These frequency bands
include broadcast radio and television, radar, land mobile radio, and
microwave ovens.
Over the next five years, EPA plans to continue investigating
both NIR and ionizing radiation. These efforts will support ongoing
development of radiofrequency exposure guidelines, improve the data
base on interactive mechanisms and health effects of continuous low
level exposure to NIR and support the country's atomic energy
activities, including those at the Nevada test site.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
Executive Order 10831 of 1959 (24 Fed. Reg. 6669) established
the Federal Radiation Council (FRC). Statutory authority for-the
FRC is also contained in amendments to the Atomic Energy Act of
1954 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 2021) (h). Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970
transferred the FRC authorities to EPA. ORD's radiation research
program supports the Agency's Federal Radiation Council authority.
FRC authorities stipulate that the Administrator is to advise the
President with respect to radiation matters, directly or indirectly
affecting health, including guidance for all federal agencies in the
formulation of radiation standards and in the establishment and
execution of programs of cooperation with states. Further, the
Reorganization Plan also transferred certain regulatory and research
responsibilities of the Bureau of Radiological Health as derived from
the Public Health Service Act.
The NIR health research program directly supports the
activities of the Office of Radiation Programs (ORP). Research
needs are determined in conjunction with ORP. ORP is considering
developing environmental guidance for radiofrequency and microwave
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radiation and has requested health effects data and evaluation. ORD
scientists are p'roviding a background health effects review and
assessment document, which will serve as the primary health effects
reference in developing the Federal Radiation Protection Guidance.
The principal thrusts behind the NIR program area are (1) the
explosive growth in the employment of nonionizing radiation sources
in communications, industry, and home applications which has raised
the general level of population exposure to RF radiation and (2) a
general absence of information on whether continuous, low level
exposures to RF constitute a health risk. The public is exposed to
individual frequency-bands of NIR, within the range of approximately
5.6 x 10 to '4 x 10 Hertz, each of which has different physical and
energetic characteristics and may have variations in modulation as
well. A variety of industrial, communications, consumer, and
medical devices operate within this range, e.g., radio, television,
radar, microwave relay systems, navigational aids, diathermy units,
microwave ovens, and dielectric heaters and sealers.
In response to this accelerated use and to meet the Agency's
mandate to develop Federal radiation protection guidance, the EPA
NIR health research program was established. While several federal
departments investigate other aspects of NIR, these other agencies
have narrowly defined missions; their NIR research programs are
directed toward specific frequencies, devices, and applications. EPA
may address all NIR frequencies of concern for the protection of
public health and the environment.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
Nonionizing radiation health research is inherently complex.
Many biological systems are possibly at risk. The electromagnetic
radiation spectrum cannot be thought of as a single pollutant; it is
conceptually akin to a complex mixture of chemicals since each
frequency may pose different potential risks. For a given exposure,
dosimetry or energy absorption is a complex function of frequency
and the size, shape, and orientation of the animal. Potential
mechanisms of interaction, other than heat effects, are not yet
known.
At present, a body of information is available on effects
associated with acute or average exposures for continuous wave
radiation. Over the next several years research efforts will be
directed toward providing information on remaining questions. Data
needs include the:
effects on the mammalian nervous system and long-term
pathophysiologicai effects,
basic mechanisms of radiofrequency radiation interaction
with living organisms,
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effects of modulation, intermittent exposure, peak versus
average exposure, pulsed versus continuous wave
radiation, and simultaneous exposure to multiple
frequencies, and the improvement of available dosimetry.
The health effects program encompasses three basic study
areas: (1) mechanisms, (2) NIR energy deposition modeling, and (3)
experimental studies on cumulative effects, using animal models.
Each of these is discussed in the following.
At high-level exposures to NIR, the basic mechanism operating
to produce effects is heat. However, many effects are reported at
exposure levels which do not produce detectable temperature
increases in biological systems. This implies the existence of other
mechanisms operating at low-exposure levels. Experimental studies
will seek common mechanisms to allow extrapolation across a large
portion of the frequency band. In addition, several reports in the
literature allege effects on growth and function of bacterial and
other unicellular organisms at specific frequencies. If frequency-
specific response pertains also to multiceiluiar and mammalian
systems, different guidance strategies may become necessary.
Research will be directed at developing an understanding of these
underlying interactive mechanisms. The results will improve the
Agency's capability to predict potential effects for given frequencies
or exposure conditions.
Computer modeling of the interaction between radiofrequency
radiation and humans which results in energy deposition in the body is
a key element of the program in the period 1983-1987. The energy
absorbed and its spatial distribution within the body - are direct
functions of frequency. Again, because of the breadth of the
frequency spectrum of interest to EPA, computer techniques are the
only feasible way to assess the potential hazard associated with
specific frequencies in terms of energy deposited.
Humans act as nearly perfect antennae for the absorption of
electromagnetic radiation energy in FM-radio and VHF-TV
frequencies. Limited clinical data from studies of occupationally
exposed people suggests that the effects of radio-frequency radiation
are reversible given a respite; however, population exposures are
continuous. It is not known whether such long-term, low-level
exposures can lead to irreparable damage accumulating into
observable effects or overt clinical disease or whether adaptation can
occur. To help resolve this issue, a lifetime exposure system will be
used to continuously expose rats to 500 MHz (UHF-TV). The
resultant impact on life span (survivorship), morbidity, and cause of
death will be examined.
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ORD's ionizing radiation activity has two major components:
(1) the conduct of an analytical radiochemical quality assurance
program and (2) the conduct of the off-site monitoring program. EPA
has a responsibility to assure that the research data which is
employed in regulatory and other decision making is as accurate as
possible. Over 200 state, local, and independent contract
laboratories make radiation measurements which are reported to
various local, state and federal organizations. The data used in
assessments of population exposures to radiation is validated by a
quality assurance program using National Bureau of Standards (NBS)-
traceable radionuclides and other radiation standards. Under a
Memorandum of Understanding with the DOE, EPA provides a
comprehensive off-site radiological safety program for the Nevada
test site and other locations of nuclear testing activity.
MAJOR MILESTONES
Annual reports will be produced on several major topics
including: biophysical models to explain calcium release from NIR-
exposed brain tissues, use of membrane properties as indicators of
NIR interaction, mathematical models of absorption and distribution
of NIR energy in humans, effects of chronic NIR exposure on immune
functions, and provision of off -site support to the Nevada nuclear
test site. Some major specific products are mentioned below:
Report on sites in brain tissues affected by
electromagnetic radiation - 1983
Final report on behavioral effects of prolonged,
continuous exposure to 970 MHz - 1983
Report on the ther mo-regulatory responses, both
physiological and behavioral, of squirrel monkeys
chronically exposed at low levels - 1983
Report on extending calcium efflux studies to extremely
low frequencies and to tissues other than the brain - 1984
Verification of the NIR-thermal response computer model
in squirrel monkeys -
Final report on mortality, cause of death, and morbidity
in a population exposed to radar 40 years ago - 1984
Determination of potential teratogenic and feto-toxic
effects in mice repeatedly exposed in utero to varying
levels of 2450 MHz microwave radiation - 1984
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 2.5
GROWTH
NO
MODERATE
HIGH
1983 198*
Projected Projected
1.6
1.6
1.6
1.6
1.6
1.7
1985
Projected
1.6
1.7
1.8
1986
Projected
1.6
1.7
1.9
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. The nonionizing radiation health effects program is
being re-oriented to provide the remaining data required for issuance
of federal radiation exposure guidelines. The program emphasis will
shift from developing dose-response data in animals for selected
specific frequencies to a greater focus on establishing information on
biophysical interactions and mechanisms and on developing models to
predict and interpret the significance of nonionizing radiation
deposition lor humans.
Moderate growth. The health program will continue its efforts
as described above but will remain at a level of effort equivalent to
the current health research program.
High growth. Radiation quality assurance activities will be
increased.
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PESTICIDES
INTRODUCTION
ORD's pesticides research program is designed to establish and
maintain a sound, scientific basis for pesticide regulation and
compliance activities. The program's focus is on developing
knowledge and techniques as well as quality assurance procedures to
assess potential health and environmental risks from pesticides.
Results from this research effort will reduce the uncertainty under
which regulatory decisions are made, increase the knowledge and
understanding of the environmental and physiological phenomena
involved, and improve the quality of pesticide risk assessment. In
pursuit of this objective, ORD conducts field and laboratory research
to expand the amount of accurate information available on chemical
and biological pesticides, including their interactions with the
environment and the identity of populations that are exposed.
Additional ORD activities include the assessment of human and
environmental risk and the provision of quality assurance support.
Research activities which will be pursued during the next five years
will emphasize the development, demonstration and predictive
capabilities of protocols for identifying pesticide exposure and
effects, and for defining consequent risks from pesticide use.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
EPA's regulatory responsibilities for pesticides are to review
and register pesticide products that do not pose unreasonable risks to
human health or to the environment. This process must take into
consideration the economic, social, and environmental costs and
benefits stemming from use of the pesticide. Risk is often quantified
in terms of the number or probability of certain health effects in a
given population, while benefits are most often stated in dollar
valuations of such effects as increased crop yields, lower food costs,
reduced chance of disease, or cost savings with respect to use of
alternative control measures. Currently, EPA is in the midst of a
massive project to review and re-register all pesticide products which
are currently on the market. Approximately 85 percent of these
products were originally registered before chronic effects (e.g.,
cancer, birth defects, gene mutations, etc.) of exposure to toxic
chemicals were well understood. Their re-registration will, thus,
require more thorough review of all test data for both acute and
chronic effects. In many cases, the process will require the
collection and review of the basic data itself.
These activities and the research activities needed in their
support are mandated by several provisions of the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), as amended,
and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FFDCA), as
amended. Section 20(a) of FIFRA authorizes EPA to undertake
research necessary to carry out the purpose of the act.
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Section 3 (registration of pesticides) establishes a registration
process to control the availability of pesticides through a premarket
clearance or license- The 1978 amendments to FIFRA require that
all pesticides on the market be reviewed and classified as to general
or restricted use. For registration/re-registration, EPA will identify
test guidelines which specify the kinds of health and safety
information that manufacturers will be required to submit to EPA.
EPA is then responsible for evaluating and assessing risk from
exposure on the basis of the data compiled.
Research in support of Section 3 aims primarily at three high-
priority areas: regulatory assessments, quality assurance, and
development of pesticide testing protocols and exposure/assessment
models. The primary need tor pesticide research is to ensure that
regulation is based on scientifically sound, legally defensible,
information and methods which are acceptable to the public, cost-
effective and up-to-date. Data having these characteristics are best
generated by the registrants through the use of environmental and
public health testing protocols of established scientific validity and
regulatory relevance. This will require that some test protocols be
developed and demonstrated to determine the exposure to, and
effects of, the use of chemical and biological pest control agents.
Hazard evaluation uses research test data, ordinarily provided
by the applicants for registration, to evaluate the extent of human
health and environmental hazards. This process may require
information about populations at risk, their potential exposure, and
the adverse effects of that exposure. Techniques need to be
developed for estimating exposures that result from approved
pesticide uses, for predicting expected environmental concentrations
in various media, for judging the efficacy of various regulatory
control options in minimizing human and environmental exposures,
and for improving the means to prevent excessive exposures.
Adverse effects of pesticides need to be defined and protocols
developed and validated for measuring effects acute, subchronic
and chronic on single organisms and on communities of organisms
or ecosystems. The generation of all of this data by the registrants
requires monitoring and quality assurance procedures which assure
accurate test results.
In addition to registering and re-registering pesticides, EPA
enforces compliance with FIFRA requirements by the pesticide-
producing industry and by users and applicators of pesticides. The
compliance program, conducted in cooperation with state agencies
(Sections 23 and 24), includes registration of pesticide-producing
establishments (Section 7), product sampling and label checks at
production sites and in the marketplace (Section 9), certification and
observation of pesticide applicators (Sections k and 11), and
laboratory audits and inspections to ensure that good laboratory
practices are being observed (Section 8). -These compliance activities
require cost-effective testing protocols and equipment. Support
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needs include instructional materials and technical assistance for:
hazard situation sampling or analyses, teaching and assisting
investigators in applying procedures in biological and chemical
testing and quality assurance, and maintaining standard reference
materials and instrumentation.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
ORD's research support includes transfer of research results,
products or services to meet the Agency's needs and the utilization of
the talent and other ORD resources to provide advice, consultation
and short-term investigations as technical support. The research
strategy addresses human risk assessment, environmental risk
assessment, quality assurance, scientific assessment, and exploratory
research.
Human Risk Assessment
Testing protocols will continue to be developed, improved and
validated for the purpose of determining the exposure of humans to
chemical and biological pesticides and to determine the human health
effects resulting from the exposure to biological and chemical
pesticides. This activity will concentrate in four research areas: (1)
studies in experimental animal models to understand the absorption,
metabolism, storage, and excretion levels of chemical pesticides, (2)
development and improvement of sensitive test procedures for
detecting possible harmful effects of chemical pesticides in humans,
including adverse effects on fertility, the nervous system, the
immune defense system, and vital organs, (3) development of testing
protocols for biological pest .control agents which will be used to
evaluate possible human health hazards, and (4) extramuraily funded
field studies to determine the routes of exposure to humans.
Environmental Risk Assessment
The objective of environmental risk assessment research is to
develop documented protocols and models for estimating the
environmental risk associated with the use of pesticides. Research is
conducted to determine the exposure concentrations to which non-
target organisms are subjected and to determine the ecological
effects of those pesticide exposures.
The development of predictive models is based upon a solid
understanding of the human and environmental mechanisms and their
kinetics (i.e., transport and fate, toxic effects, toxicology,
environmental chemistry and biology, etc.). This objective includes
basic research for the purpose of developing test protocols for
environmental processes, such as sorption, microbial degradation,
chemical transformation and movement. Field validation studies are
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underway to compare laboratory findings and predictive assessments
with actual site conditions. These efforts will include field studies of
fate and effects in surface and subsurface water supplies and in
terrestrial systems.
The development of predictive capabilities to estimate the
environmental hazards from chemical and biological pesticide use
will continue. Mathematical models are being developed to identify
ecosystem components and interactions sensitive to pesticides.
These models will include the capability to predict the transport,
transformation, bioaccumulation, fate and effects on non-target
organisms in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments.
Currently, a model is available to determine the environmental
concentrations in fresh water that would result from the use of a
pesticide. The longer range goal of this objective is to expand this
predictive capability to enable it to handle multi-media exposures
and effects. While still Requiring the registrants to submit data, such
modeling may be useful in identifying the key data requirements and
thereby reducing the need for some of the routine testing in the
registration process.
Testing protocols also will continue to be developed for
assessing the effects resulting from the exposure to chemical and
biological pesticides on biota in marine waters, freshwater and
terrestrial ecosystems. These protocols will be useful in determining
the effects of pesticides on non-target birds, wild mammals,
domestic animals, plants, aquatic organisms, and insects, including
honey bees.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is a major pesticides scientific support
activity. Quality assurance results in accurate and precise data being
available for the regulatory decision-making process and
federal/state enforcement activities. This activity maintains a
repository of high purity pesticide analytical reference standards for
EPA, other federal agencies, and private pesticides laboratories. In
fact, the FDA relies upon this service for the standards used in its
pesticides surveillance program to ensure that residues on food are
within established tolerances. In addition, this function provides
technical support to the Agency's field and contract laboratories in
support of compliance activities and for human and environmental
monitoring programs. ORD will provide scientific expertise to assure
that the scientific data are of the highest quality.
Scientific Support
ORD will assist the Agency by providing scientific support
through the review and conduct of human-health risk and exposure
assessments in the areas of cancer, mutagenicity and reproductive
effects. This activity will update the Agency's risk assessment
guidelines and assure that they are consistent with those of other
regulatory agencies. Technical expertise will be provided to assist
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the Agency in supporting regulatory actions and to review exposure
and assessment methodology projects. The main emphasis of recent
reviews and assessments has been on carcinogenicity, mutagenicity,
reproductive toxicity and exposure assessments. Future activities
will be broadened to include other chronic effects, such as behavior,
cardiovascular, and neurotoxicity effects.
Data on pesticide effects will be provided for estuarine,
freshwater and terrestrial organisms. The Pesticide Environmental
Exposure Assessment Team estimates environmental concentrations
and durations of pesticides in air, soil, sediment and various fresh and
marine waters. This effort will provide data on pesticide transport,
transformation, and bioaccumulation in estuaries, coastal waters,
freshwater and terrestrial environments.
Exploratory Research
Research activities under the exploratory research program are
designed to provide basic knowledge about pesticide transport and
fate processes as these effect both humans and the environment.
Fundamental knowledge is needed to support the development of
more cost-effective testing protocols and data analysis and
evaluation methods for both chemical and biological pest control
agents.
Exploratory research will attempt to provide information on the
major trends that could significantly alter the type and manner of
pesticide use. Studies of emerging issues will provide initial risk
assessments and estimations of the costs and benefits of alternative
regulatory strategies.
MAJOR MILESTONES
Pest predation of crops, forests, and structures is an evolving
problem. For example, new pests may be accidentally introduced,
pests may attack different crops, or pests may develop resistance to
control agents. Consequently, the major research milestones must
assure that the continuing needs of the regulatory program are being
met. There are three major types of high-priority pesticides research
products which will be provided to the regulatory program within the
next five years. These are: (1) scientific expertise to augment the
resources of the regulatory office by providing assessments (such as
on health and ecological effects) to fill gaps in data on chemicals
under special regulatory review, (2) quality assurance services,
including a repository of high-purity pesticide reference standards, to
permit a high degree of technical precision for pesticide
measurements, and (3) improved pesticide testing protocols and
hazard assessment models to provide more effective ways to predict
and evaluate the health and environmental risks associated with the
use of pesticides.
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Specific major research products scheduled for the next half decade
include:
Determine acute and chronic effects of selected
pesticides on estuarine plants, invertebrates and fishes -
1983
Determine effect of microbial adaptation on pesticide
transformation rates - 1983
Develop test methods and improve mathematical models
for exposure assessments and transport and fate in
ecosystems - 1983
Improve test protocols for transport and fate of pesticides
in marine coastal waters - 1984
Define parameters and determine pesticide stress effects
on selected ecosystems - 198*
Complete health risk assessment guidelines, for EPA use,
for mutagenic and reproductive toxicity - 198*
Conduct field studies to validate laboratory-derived data
and predictive mathematical models - 1985
Develop methods for testing the effects of pesticides on
estuarine communities and ecosystems - 1985
Determine genetic stability and interaction of biological
pesticides and the immunological effects of baculoviruses
-1985
Determine effects of pesticide exposure on liver enzyme
production and circulating alpholipoproteins in animals -
1985
Determine health implications of biological pesticides
with emphasis on genetic stability and interaction of
baculoviruses - 1986
Determine effects of pesticides on animal reproduction
and development - 1986
Assess the sensitivity and utility of adapting tests of
peripheral nerve integrity as indices of toxic neuropathies
- 1986
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Determine effects of age, sex, stress and species on the
bioaccumulability of pesticides and develop a suitable
animal model for extrapolation to humans - 1987
Conduct field studies to determine pathways of human
exposure to pesticides - 1987
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 5.6
1983 198*
GROWTH
NO
MODERATE
HIGH
Projected
6.5
6.5
6.5
Pro
6.5
6.7
6.9
1985
Projected
6.5
6.9
7.3
1986
Projected
6.5
7.1
7.7
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. The types of institutions served by ORD's
pesticides repository will continue to be those with immediate
regulatory needs.
Moderate growth. Work will be slightly increased in the
development of new or improved risk assessment methodologies,
including field validation of exposure models.
High growth. Research will expand to develop new or improved
methods for making human and environmental risk assessments, as
will repository services and quality assurance to provide assistance
commensurate with the needs of the program offices.
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x TOXIC CHEMICAL TESTING AND ASSESSMENT
INTRODUCTION
Research in the area of chemical testing and assessment is
concerned with studying, evaluating, and documenting the health and
environmental impacts of chemicals. The purpose of the research
effort is, first, to provide a sound, scientific basis for regulating
toxic chemicals and, second, to develop the tools for identifying
potential hazards to health and the environment from the production,
use, and disposal of chemicals.
The specific objectives of this research during the next five
years are (1) to refine models and procedures for testing health and
environmental effects and for characterizing chemical transport and
fate, (2) to continue to develop guidance for evaluating test results as
a basis for risk assessment, (3) to establish monitoring and quality
assurance procedures which guarantee accurate and precise test
results, and (4) to ensure that the most accurate, scientifically
rigorous, and timely information available has been incorporated into
supporting documentation for regulation.
The chemical testing and assessment effort is designed to
directly support the Agency's needs for information and data
collection methodologies to support regulatory activities mandated
under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
TSCA provides information gathering, chemical screening,
testing, and chemical control authorities, serving, to protect health
and the environment through a broad spectrum of regulatory actions
applied to new and existing chemicals.
Section * (testing requirement) authorizes EPA to require
manufacturers and processors to test already marketed chemicals for
potential health and environmental effects, if the Agency can make
certain findings as to the lack of data about the chemicals and their
potential risk of significant or substantial exposure. The Agency is
mandated to establish and anually review test protocols and
methodologies for each test to the extent necessary to assure that
the data produced will be reliable. EPA has decided that protocols
are to be proposed initially by the persons performing the testing,
subject to EPA's review and approval. EPA is developing testing
guidelines which, among other sources, may be used by test sponsors
as a source for the development of protocols.
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Section 5 (premanufacture notification process) requires
notification prior to the manufacture of new chemicals; EPA may by
rule extend this to certain existing chemicals proposed for significant
new uses. EPA reviews the new chemicals to identify those which
may present unreasonable risks or for which additional information,
including testing, should be developed. This process represents an
information gathering mechanism crucial to the overall success of
-the TSCA program. Most notices contain little or no data relative to
the health and environmental effects of the new chemical. However,
the EPA review of premanufacturing notices must be completed
within three months of notification, extendable to six months for
good cause. Accordingly, techniques must be available to provide
within the statutory period most of the data that is needed to
perform risk assessments. These techniques must be based on
established procedures that have been thoroughly evaluated on a
standard data base.
Sections 6 and 7 (control for existing chemicals and imminent
hazards) authorize EPA to limit the processing, production, transport,
disposal, or use of a chemical if EPA determines that it poses an
unreasonable health or environmental risk. Information concerning
existing chemicals must be collected and reviewed to assess hazards
for regulatory purposes. After review, EPA may take action to
control high risk chemicals, and has done so for polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) and certain uses of chiorofiuorocarbons (CFCs).
Existing chemicals are evaluated as the need arises. Regulatory
activities are determined by the urgency of potential hazard and the
Agency's obligation to take action, as specified under TSCA.
Section 8 (information reporting) authorizes EPA to require
submission by industry of reports concerning various aspects of
chemicals, including commercial distribution and exposure, and
health and/or safety studies concerning hazards which may be posed
by the chemicals. What chemicals are produced, in what amounts,
for what purposes, and with what consequences? Also, an inventory
of chemicals in commerce has been compiled. If at any time a
chemical or chemical class is deemed important enough to continue
assessment although key information is lacking, a reporting rule will
be considered to obtain the necessary data. The information derived
through this means will provide a basis for developing risk
assessments.
Each of the activities outlined above requires the development
and application of validated measures and techniques to assure
quality. Data bases used for risk assessments and regulatory
decisions must meet minimum standards of precision and accuracy.
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RESEARCH STRATEGY
The effort to address the research and information needs
required by TSCA benefits from expertise already available from the
EPA's Office of Research and Deveiopment (ORD). Research from
ORD to support TSCA-related needs for chemical testing and
assessment is provided in the areas of health effects, scientific
assessment, environmental processes and effects, monitoring and
quality assurance, and environmental engineering and technology.
Health Effects
Efforts in health research are to develop and validate testing
methods in the areas of general toxicology, reproduction and
teratology, neurotoxicology, mutagenesis, carcinogenesis,
metabolism, and epidemiology.
In the first five areas, emphasis is on designing techniques and
approaches to detect harmful effects of chemicals with cost-
effective methods. In most cases, this concerns the development of a
tiered scheme of biological tests. This approach utilizes quick and
inexpensive preliminary tests to determine the need for more
thorough studies. Initial screening would determine whether a
chemical requires further investigation. If this screening (level one)
establishes that the compound may pose a significant risk, but there
are insufficient data to determine the extent of risk, the compound
could be carried through a progressively (levels two and three) more
detailed and expensive testing and assessment process where risk is
analyzed. Level three tests are currently accepted as being
definitive in quantitative as well as qualitative terms and are often
lifetime or multiple generation studies performed at substantial cost.
Methods employed in the other two areas, metabolism and
population toxicology, provide a means for determining whether a
test system or species is predictive of human responses to a
particular chemical. While the predictive capability of mammalian
species is reasonably good, there are specific cases where test data
cannot be extrapolated to man. As an alternative, exposures that
occur in the general population must be related by actual internal
dose determination (i.e., the actual partition of the pollutant and its
metabolites within the body) to the data base of effects being
measured by population toxicology studies. Research on metabolism
will be continued to evaluate methods to determine which animal
model best approximates the human response in order to evaluate
absorption, distribution, and metabolism of chemicals and to assess
the reaction of intermediate compounds with target organs. ORD
will also continue to develop and validate methods in the area of
population toxicology for determining effective internal dose through
the use of chemical-specific dosimeters, blood, urine, and tissue
analyses and the study of chemical-receptor interactions in animals
and humans. Methods to determine indicators of advejse response
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will also be validated in order to better understand the biological
significance of human test systems and to verify the ability of animal
models to predict the human situation.
The new effort in population toxicology will be coupled with
epidemiological studies conducted by others to validate the
predictive capability of tiered system tests used for hazard
assessment. This research will also enable better data to be
generated for use in risk assessments. ORD's health research
program has also initiated research efforts on structure-activity
relationships in support of the pre-manufacture notification process.
Scientific Assessment
Review procedures and guidelines for conducting exposure and
health effects assessments will be established. This is part of a
larger effort directed toward establishing intra- and inter-agency
guidelines for hazard, risk, and exposure assessment. These efforts
include investigation and analysis of the procedures used by program
offices within EPA and by other regulatory agencies within the
federal government and development of standard factors, methods,
and approaches where appropriate. Intra-agency guidelines for
carcinogenicity and mutagenicity hazard/risk assessments and
exposure assessments have been developed. Periodically, these
guidelines will be reviewed to incorporate advances in the state-of-
the-art. Carcinogen, Reproductive Effects, and Exposure Assessment
Groups have been established to review and participate in the
conduct of assessments required under TSCA.
Assistance will also be. provided in the design of tests and
procedures used to obtain data needed for health and exposure
assessments. An extensive technical library on documented human
health effects will be surveyed to provide data on specific compounds
for use by the Office of Toxic Substances.
Environmental Processes and Effects
Improved and more cost-effective methodologies to assess
ecological fate and effects of chemicals in the environment will be
developed. Environmental research on toxic substances is being
carried out under two categories: toxics-fate and exposure and
toxics-ecological effects. Fate research is directed toward
predicting more accurately the transport, transformation and
persistence of toxic chemicals in the environment. Transport and
fate methodologies will be used to develop data for testing of
chemicals and in developing models for defining exposure
concentration of chemicals. Ecological effects research is directed
toward the development of testing protocols and hazard assessment
models for defining toxic hazards. Exposure and hazard data will be
used to estimate environmental risk associated with toxic chemicals.
Environmental processes and effects research falls into five major
areas.
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Environmental fate. The Office of Toxic Substances needs standard
advanced fate tests which precisely define laboratory test
parameters so that test results can be extrapolated to the real
environment. Such fate tests will provide exposure data for chemical
risk assessments performed by the Office of Toxic Substances under
Section * of the Toxic Substances Control Act. The program will
address the specific need of the Office of Toxic Substances by
developing methodologies for testing the fate, effects, and exposure
of metal and organometallics in the environment. Such
methodologies will enable the Office of Toxic Substances to carry out
risk assessments for organometallics.
Environmental toxicology. Research will continue in aquatic
toxicology. The Office of Toxic Substances uses the validated tests
in test rule development for determining the hazard and risk of
chemicals -under Section * of the Toxic Substances Control Act. The
Agency has developed several test methods for defining toxicity
based on single species. System-level research will now focus on
developing tests to define toxicity at the community level. The
Office of Toxic Substances needs data on toxic effects at the
ecosystem level when it evaluates the total toxicity of chemicals.
The development of culturing techniques will help to define and
standardize species and diets for environmental effects testing. Such
standardization of species will reduce the number of species, and
hence resources, in the tests required to evaluate chemicals under
Section 4- of the Toxic Substances Control Act. Research will
continue to develop terrestrial toxicology which the Office of Toxic
Substances needs to evaluate, the impact of toxic chemicals on the
environment, and ultimately, on man.
Development of predictive techniques. Exposure assessment models
will predict exposure concentrations of chemicals in air, water, land,
food chains, and multi-media environments. During 1983 work wiH be
devoted to developing and validating such models. Data generated by
these predictive methodologies will be used by the Office of Toxic
Substances to perform risk assessments and risk benefit
determinations on chemicals. The research program will continue to
develop structure/activity methods for rapid toxicity and fate
screening of existing and new chemicals and for extending hazard
evaluation methods to additional classes or types of chemicals by
comparative techniques. This approach will provide a cost-effective
tool for the evaluation of the potential toxicity of new chemicals.
Comparative toxicology is designed to define (1) how much
testing is needed for an adequate assessment of risk, (2) when one
species can be used to test and predict for other species, and (3)
which combination of species and toxicity tests can be considered
most predictive. It will also involve the assessment of the relative
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sensitivity of various testing systems (single species, multispecies,
microcosms, etc.). This research will reduce the number of species
to be tested under Section 4 of the Toxic Substances Control Act, and
thereby decrease the costs of testing.
Extrapolation from the laboratory to the real environment. ORD will
continue to develop microcosms and model ecosystems to validate
test methods and models. Microcosms provide a cost-effective tool
to validate exposure assessment models and to screen the fate and
effects of chemicals in order to implement Sections 4 and 5 of the
Toxic Substances Control Act. This research will provide the
capability to extrapolate from laboratory models and methods to the
real environment.
The field validation program will focus on identifying tests and
models that should be validated. Such field validation studies will
improve the scientific basis of regulation conducted by the Office of
Toxic Substances.
Indirect human exposure. Activities will focus on developing
methodologies to measure and predict indirect human exposure that
occurs through consumption of plants and animals that have become
contaminated. The Office of Toxic Substances needs such
techniques, along with direct exposure assessment data, to perform
risk assessments on toxic chemicals.
Data base development. ORD will develop a specialized data
base system by compiling, consolidating, and critically reviewing
existing chemical and toxicity data. The information generated will
be incorporated into a user-oriented data base to be used by the
Office of Toxic Substances in evaluating complex data on new
chemicals.
Monitoring and Quality Assurance
The monitoring systems and quality assurance program will
continue to develop improved methods and protocols to more
effectively ensure that the Agency's testing and evaluation
procedures produce data of the highest possible quality. The Office
of Toxic Substances needs sophisticated, chemical-specific, sampling
materials and measurement instruments in order to evaluate and
regulate chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act. The
research program will support the Office of Toxic Substances through
activities such as: continuation of the 1982 research to develop new
sampling methods and improved high pressure liquid chromatography
systems to analyze complex mixtures, publication of protocols that
outline procedures to assure the quality and consistency of data when
blood and urine tests are used in chemical exposure and effects
evaluation.
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While analytical methodologies exist for many compounds of
interest related to evaluations under TSCA, in many instances, using
these methodologies is extremely expensive and time-consuming.
Accordingly, emphasis in development of analytical capabilities will
focus on examining approaches to minimize or eliminate the
extraction step in the analysis and adapt existing equipment to
maximize throughput by mechanization. State-of-the-art analytical
equipment will be installed in EPA analytical laboratories to advance
research efforts for developing and applying analytical techniques to
the most urgent TSCA-related monitoring problems. These
techniques will be refined to the point that they can be transferred to
other technical laboratories.
Emphasis in the field monitoring area will focus on
measurement techniques that can be used to document environmental
exposure at the receptor of interest. Monitoring systems techniques
will be developed to establish concentration gradients, population
activity patterns, and personal monitors.
Efforts in the first year of the quality assurance program will
be directed toward establishing a bank of standard reference
materials, a laboratory audit program, and a standardized system by
which round-robin tests can be conducted. In the quality assurance
research program, emphasis will be on providing standardized
methods for handling biological material and developing appropriate
field sampling protocols and guidelines.
Environmental Engineering and Technology
Support will be provided in assessing potential risks involved in
the manufacture, use, and ultimate disposal (such as PCB destruction)
of new and existing chemical products. This research effort provides
technical expertise and specialized engineering for collecting and
interpreting process or production data to evaluate toxic material
emissions and determine release rates.
MAJOR MILESTONES
The emphasis of the research program has shifted significantly
from previous years. Several of the methods, mathematical models,
as well as monitoring guidance have been developed as a result of this
program. As the development of these new methods and techniques
is completed, the current research program will place greater effort
on testing and validation as opposed to further new development.
To be useful, the accuracy and precision of measurements,
methods, and models must be more clearly defined. Furthermore, the
assumptions upon which monitoring guidance and predictions are
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made must be validated. Consequently, the projects and milestones
presented here are oriented to testing and validation of newly
developed techniques.
Specific milestones include the following:
Verification of testing protocols for fiber release of
commercial asbestos products and proposed substitute
materials - 1982
Guidelines for field validation of stream models - 1982
Development of guidelines for reproductive effects
assessments - 1983
Final validation of structure-activity models to be used in
rapid evaluation of environmental toxicity and multimedia
fate for pre-manufacture review - 1985
Development of multimedia (air, water, and land)
monitoring systems - 1985
Development of methods to monitor total human and
environmental exposure - 1985
Report on the development of structure-activity
relationships to predict human health effects for use in
pre-manufacture review - 1986
Revision of Exposure Assessment Handbook - 1986
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RESOURCES OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 31.2
1983 198* 1985 1986
GROWTH Projected Projected Projected Projected
NO 26.6 26.6 26.6 26.6
MODERATE 26.6 27.* 28.2 29.1
HIGH 26.6 28.2 29.9 31.7
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. Overall emphasis will continue on development,
refinement, and application of methodologies for testing,
characterizing, and evaluating the health and environmental fate and
effects of chemicals. This includes developing procedures to
determine whether a given chemical poses unreasonable
environmental risks and, if so, to provide accurate, validated tests.
The program will provide predictive capabilities for hazard
assessments, will contribute to guidelines and protocols ensuring the
adequacy of tests that may be used by industry and will support
research into structure-activity relationships. The monitoring
research program will provide methods development and validation as
well as on-going quality assurance support. The engineering program
will provide support for pre-manufacture notification review.
Moderate growth. The program will evaluate exposure levels
and resulting hazard potentials to humans and the environment from
a variety of pollutant concentrations and transport pathways.
Molecular indicators of human exposure (i.e., presence and dose) will
be studied for certain classes of compounds. Studies of metabolism
and target organs will be accelerated and expanded to include
multiple species. Research for use in predictive and risk evaluations
will be accelerated; emphasis will be on promising techniques such as
the use of chemical structure-activity relationships. Top priority will
be given to the quality assurance program tailored to EPA's
regulatory and enforcement activities.
High growth. Both the health and environmental processes and
effects programs will accelerate research on predictive models. Such
models will employ systems which take into account the multiple
interactions of toxic chemicals as they move through the
environment and their effects on receptor organisms, including
humans. The health and environmental processes and effects
programs will augment investigations into structure-activity
relationships.
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HAZARDOUS WASTE
INTRODUCTION
The solid and hazardous wastes program coordinates research
efforts relating to the implementation of the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA). Prior to 1980, the main focus of EPA's
solid waste research program was on the collection, treatment, and
disposal of all municipal and industrial wastes. Since that time,
emphasis has shifted to focus on the more hazardous portions of those
waste streams. This focus will continue for the next five years.
Research into hazardous waste will be directed at developing basic
scientific data on hazardous materials and at developing new methods
for identifying, assessing, and treating hazardous wastes. Research
inta energy and mineral wastes will be limited, and may be phased
out as early as 1984.
There is close coordination between the research conducted
under the RCRA hazardous waste program and the activities
supported under the superfund program. In essence, the dividing line
between the two research programs is determined by the state of
readiness of a particular technology or method to be used in
environmental cleanup situations. If the technology is ready to be
used and lacks only application and user-support tools, those tools are
developed under the superfund research program. If, on the other
hand, additional research is necessary to make the technology or
method usable, that additional research is part of the hazardous
waste program. There are some exceptions to this rule, based upon
legislative mandate, which will become apparent in the following
pages.
Because of the relative newness of the hazardous waste issue,
there is a significant lack of experience and technical expertise in
this area. This dearth of technical know-how affects the EPA-and
industry alike. The research conducted under this program will
provide the scientific basis for the private and public sectors to:
reduce the quantities of hazardous waste requiring disposal through
process change, waste recycle and re-use, and waste treatment,
ensure environmentally sound disposal and destruction of future
wastes, and correct past mismanagement practices.
Objective
The overall goal of the RCRA hazardous waste research
program is to provide the EPA program offices with the research
they require to complete their regulatory, enforcement, and
technical support missions. The research provides the scientific and
engineering basis for the identification, characterization, monitoring
and disposal of hazardous waste in an environmentally safe, yet
economical manner.
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The program defines five major objectives:
Identification; Provide measurement methods and protocols,
monitoring guidelines and a quality assurance program for use in the
development and enforcement of regulations.
Treatment and disposal technology; Assess both existing and
new technologies under new conditions. The goal is improved ways to
reduce the quantity of hazardous waste through recycle and reuse, to
destroy or detoxify hazardous waste through treatment, and to
dispose of hazardous wastes in an environmentally safe manner.
Technology for sites requiring remedial action will be developed and
evaluated. Because of the scientific and technical expertise it will
have as a result of these development efforts, ORD will also actively
assist the Office of Solid Waste in reviewing individual permit
applications.
Risk assessment; Produce the information and methods
necessary to determine the magnitude of risks to human health and
the environment resulting from mismanaged treatment, storage and
disposal of hazardous waste. Outputs from this work will steer the
setting of priorities, influence decisions about regulatory options, and
serve as a basis for necessary enforcement actions.
Oil and hazardous chemical spills response; Develop the
methods, techniques, guidelines, systems, and technology necessary
to provide the agency with the capacity to respond effectively to
emergencies caused by spills of oil and/or hazardous chemicals. This
capability is required under the Clean Water Act, Section 311.
Long-term research; The exploratory research program
provides for initial investigations into advanced technology areas.
This research will help to develop the technology necessary to
properly analyze and assess the impact of hazardous waste problems
and to control them in the most effective manner.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
EPA's hazardous waste research is conducted in response to the
mandates of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of
1976, and its amendments. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act
(FWPCA) of 1972 and its amendments also directs some of the
research, specifically the spills-related efforts.
Investigation of treatment and disposal technologies is
mandated under Section 8001 of the RCRA. Such technology-
oriented research supports the development of the regulations
promulgated under Section 3004. In addition, technology research
provides firms which treat, store and/or dispose of hazardous wastes
with the tools necessary to comply with hazardous waste regulations.
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Hazardous waste analysis, the essential first step in control, is
a major priority of this research program. A waste is difficult to
treat if it cannot be accurately characterized. Research supported
by this program seeks to establish a sound scientific and legal basis
for data required by Sections 3001, 3004, 3013, 7003, and 8001 of the
RCRA.
Finally, in order to properly assess whether particular
regulatory approaches would protect human health and the
environment, reliable tools are necessary. Such tools will help
environmental decision makers to gauge the potential impacts of
various substances under various circumstances. The risk assessment
program produces such tools based upon responsibilities contained in
RCRA, including identification (Section 3001), standards applicable
to storage, treatment, and disposal facilities (Section 3002, 3003, and
3004), permits (Section 3005), monitoring (Section 3013), and the
"imminent hazards" authority (Section 7003).
The hazardous waste spills program supports Section 31 IK, the
National Contingency Plan for oil and hazardous spills, and the Spill
Prevention Control and Countermeasure Program as mandated by the
Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
RESEARCH STRATEGIES
The research strategy required to achieve the previously stated
objectives involves an integrated program which identifies and
characterizes hazardous wastes, assesses the environmental and
health risks they represent, and determines the techniques and
technologies required to dispose of them in an environmentally safe
and economical manner.
Waste analysis research is exceedingly important because of- the
general dearth of standardized methodology and techniques for
sampling, identifying and characterizing potentially hazardous
wastes. Without this capability, the risk assessment and subsequent
program priority setting processes will be far less certain.
Risk assessment research provides the health and environmental
data needed to help environmental officials set enforcement and
clean-up priorities as well as to develop the regulatory program.
Ideally, once a waste has been identified as potentially hazardous the
documentation would be available to determine its health hazard,
environmental effects, likelihood of transport through water and soil
and persistence. Appropriate decisions can then be made with regard
to waste treatment and regulatory options. Currently, not all of the
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required information is not available. The risk assessment sub-
program together with an extramural effort being conducted by OSW,
is producing this information, and is developing scientific evaluations
of all available alternative approaches to specific problems.
Two of the hazardous waste sub-programs deal with control
technology development and testing: the hazardous waste control
technology sub-program and the oil and hazardous chemical spills
response sub-program. The former develops various means of safely
isolating various types of hazardous wastes as well as developing new
methods for cleaning up sites where wastes have been improperly
released into the environment. The latter sub-program produces
information both on spill hazards and containment, and on clean-up
and prevention techniques as they relate to water-borne spills. This
information is packaged to be of immediate applicability in
emergency or quick-response environments.
The final major research sub-program exploratory research
goes into far greater depth in key areas to identify the basic physical,
chemical and biochemical processes that determine the generation,
environmental transport, effects and control of hazardous wastes.
Breakthroughs in understanding these processes, when fed into and
exploited by other research sub-programs, may contribute
significantly to improving our ability to control hazardous wastes.
In the following sections, each of the above sub-programs are
discussed, and the strategy with regard to priority areas of research
is delineated.
Hazardous Waste Analysis
The ability to provide standard methods and guidelines for the
analysis of hazardous wastes is essential to establish the level of risk
of the waste and to define adequate control technology.
Enforcement actions will rely heavily on obtaining scientifically
accurate and legally defensible data.
Hazardous waste analysis research develops sampling and
analysis techniques for wastes which are potentially hazardous. The
present program is focused on the development and maintenance of
quality assurance for the hazardous waste monitoring program, and
the development of monitoring methodologies and guidelines.
Research into the use of screening methodologies will increase in the
1983 to 1987 time frame. A major program will develop improved
field sampling methods.
Monitoring guidelines will be developed for EPA regional, state
and local use. These guidelines will include air, biological,
groundwater, and exposure monitoring. Other guidelines will assist
environmental program officials in site selection and evaluation. The
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guidelines will help to assure adequate, consistent, and cost-effective
monitoring of hazardous waste efforts. "Interim" guidelines based
upon available methodology and current knowledge are being
prepared. As the interim guidelines are tested and the hazardous
waste problems become better defined, improved guidelines will be
developed, tested, and published.
Development, improvement, and evaluation of the sampling and
analytical methods required for hazardous waste monitoring will
receive high priority. This activity provides for the development of
new methodology where none exists and for the improvement of the
accuracy, precision, and reliability of existing methodology. It
includes chemical and biological methods in field and laboratory
applications. New techniques will be evaluated, and biological and
exposure assessment methods developed. Some of these techniques
are intended to reduce the time required for the analysis of wastes
and to provide quality-assured data. A compendium of procedures for
chemical analysis of hazardous waste will be issued and periodically
updated to assure that the best known methods are available from the
Agency's documents. Research will seek to improve bioassay
methods for screening waste samples. The use of bioindicators to
evaluate relative hazards will be assessed and methods for detecting
and monitoring dioxins will be developed.
The quality assurance efforts will continue to develop standard
reference materials and methods for analysis of complex matrices,
and to improve and validate the detection limits of existing methods.
The program provides for the research required to correct
inadequacies that limit the quality of data from the current
monitoring program. Quality control procedures for automated
laboratory analytical systems will be developed. The quality
assurance program will provide standards for calibration, reference
solutions and samples, and will validate field sampling and analytical
methods.
A major initiative planned for the next several years is a
research effort into post-closure monitoring of hazardous waste sites.
The new program will develop a multi-media systems approach to
subsurface monitoring to determine the success of actions on RCRA-
permitted and properly closed hazardous waste facilities. Initially
the program will focus on in-situ sensors for monitoring the vadose
and saturated zones. Remote monitoring systems such as
photography, multi-spectral and thermal scanners will be investigated
to determine their applicability to monitoring guidelines for closed
hazardous waste disposal facilities. Cost-effective long-term
monitoring will be a critical element in this research.
S3
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Risk Assessment
The research strategy for risk assessment includes the
production of risk assessment documents for specific chemicals
(scientific assessment), the determination of toxic effects on humans
likely to result from exposure to hazardous wastes, the development
of methods and data to define environmental transport and fate
characteristics of hazardous wastes, the determination of likely
ecological effects of environmental exposure to hazardous wastes,
and the development of models to predict the impacts of various
waste management procedures or disposal methods.
In addition to the activities mentioned above, the continuing
research program is directed at developing a health effects data base
on selected compounds and information on the subsurface transport
and fate of hazardous wastes. In the near term, projects studying
ecological effects and socio-economic effects will be added.
Beyond 198*, the emphasis of the risk assessment research
program will be on assessment of health effects and on the
estimation of exposure through transport and fate modelling. Within
the health effects research area, screening and identification,
relative risk evaluation of complex mixtures of hazardous waste
samples, and human studies will make up the program. Subsurface
transport and fate research will build upon prior drinking water media
research, although it will go beyond drinking water concerns to
address other health and environmental impacts.
Major efforts will develop and validate both test systems for
screening wastes based on toxicity, and bioassays for describing the
effects of hazardous wastes or complex mixtures on health. This
research will produce a variety of outputs at several levels of
technical detail. Health summaries are one- to four-page documents
which provide qualitative adverse health impact information. A
health profile is five to 15 pages in length and provides a limited
literature search and inventory of health data for ail significant
health effects. Health assessments are comprehensive compilations
(all known toxic effects) of health effects involving a search of
worldwide literature, an evaluation of key studies, and can be 25 to
200 pages in length. These documents typically satisfy scientific and
legal requirements for major regulatory action and are usually
submitted for rigorous public and scientific review. A hazard
assessment is similarly comprehensive, has quantitative measures of
health toxicity and has an exposure component added to the health
assessment portion. Its typical use would be to define the health
hazard to a population. This type of document, with both the
toxicological and exposure evaluations, represents the ultimate
assessment output. Health hazard assessments, for specific
chemicals will be provided, to further specify the potency of
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the chemicals listed in Appendix VIII (40 CFR Part 260) and for use in
permit and enforcement situations. Health hazard assessments,
together with exposure components, can be used to either
qualitatively predict the nature of the hazard for a set of
technologies and siting situations, or can be used to estimate the risk
of potentially exposed populations. Special oversight and
consultation will be provided to support new Agency guidelines for
uniformity and consistency in exposure assessment procedures across
the various EPA programs.
Finally, to determine potential exposure to hazardous wastes,
information is needed on how these wastes travel through the
environment. Research will be conducted on transport and fate,
pathways to human exposure, and bioassay development. By the end
of 1983, we will have initiated field evaluation tests of mathematical
models of subsurface transport and fate. Subsurface geological
environments will be evaluated in order to identify areas relatively
suited or unsuited for land disposal of hazardous wastes. The rates of
change caused by environmental processes will be determined for
chemicals of special interest to OSW. The result will be more
accurate estimations of multi-pathway human exposure.
Environmental processes and effects research into terrestrial
Control technology
The engineering and technology program is designed to support
regulatory development efforts at the federal, state and local levels,
as well as regulatory reform efforts, by providing a technology base
for reducing the quantity of hazardous wastes through
environmentally sound destruction, treatment and disposal practices.
This information is necessary to ensure that regulations promulgated
under RCRA, section 3004, are based on sound engineering and
scientific data, achieve maximum cost-effectiveness, and provide the
regulated community with the tools necessary to comply with'the
regulations.
Improved treatment and disposal technology is necessary if
hazardous materials are to be managed in a manner that is
economically as well as environmentally sound. EPA treatment
research strategy in the short term will be directed primarily at
areas where industry research is not expected to be sufficient to
meet needs. This includes the analysis of advanced techniques for
incineration of hazardous wastes, improvement of air pollution
control technology, development of improved leachate collection and
plume removal systems, and determination of the compatibility of
various liner materials with specific wastes.
For active hazardous waste disposal areas there are several
areas where research will focus. First, various liner materials will be
investigated to determine their mechanical strength and chemical
resistivity when exposed to various types and mixes of wastes. The
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compatibility of various clays with acidic and basic wastes will be
assessed. Various liner designs and leachate collection systems will
be tested, and leachate removal and treatment methods will be
assessed. System to scrub contaminants from soils and to
concentrate contaminants from collected leachates and gaseous
emissions will be developed.
Another major problem confronting active hazardous waste
disposal sites is the plume of contaminated leachate which may be
created in the groundwater. Methods for detecting and monitoring
the plume will be developed and tested. Remedial action via plume
removal and treatment will be investigated. Priority research in this
area focuses on the development of methods to determine subsoil
transport and fate of leachate, and of models which can be used to
predict the movement of leachate plumes.
After a hazardous waste site is dosed, two major concerns
remains how to securely cover the site to minimize the inflow of
leachate-causing water, and how to monitor whatever ieachate may
be released. The major research priority with regard to covering or
capping hazardous waste sites is to find a solution to the problem of
subsidence. As the waste pile settles, areas will collapse beneath the
cap. Research will seek to identify capping techniques and/or
materials which will withstand the subsidence process without losing
their integrity as water barriers. Other research will seek to
determine the efficacy of such isolation techniques as grout curtains.
Research to optimize the performance of a secure landfill will
be continued. The goal is to predict and control the movement of
liquids and gases in and around a landfill. The sub-program will
prepare reports on research for user manuals for permit writers,
design engineers, and operators. Medium-term research will produce
a manual for hazardous-waste landfill siting, design, and operation.
Technical resource documents to predict the performance of
landfills, surface impoundments and land treatment facilities will be
revised as new information becomes available. Waste
characterization and decomposition studies will continue.
Containment systems and waste modification concepts to minimize
the potential for pollutant movement are being evaluated. Design
criteria will be developed for surface capping as a function of soil
type, site topography and capping material. Ongoing remedial action
efforts that involve in-situ waste stabilization are being monitored
and studied to evaluate chemical fixation and solidification.
A significant portion of the hazardous waste control technology
research effort entails the provision of technical assistance to
industry, state and local governments for the design, construction and
operation of secure landfills for hazardous waste. Field
investigations will test the stability of mixed wastes. The resultant
data will be correlated with laboratory-developed data to produce
models which can, in turn, be used to predict the behavior of mixed-
waste depositories.
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In the present program, high priority is given to thermal
decomposition research. This is a relatively new research area
wherein increased knowledge should lead to the continued refinement
and improvement of existing incinerator regulations. Research will
continue to develop better sampling and analysis protocols or
analyzers to be used to routinely test incinerators to ensure they
maintain their destruction efficiency. In developing the
measurement protocols, special attention will be given to on-line
hotzone sampling techniques. These techniques will be studied,
modified, and verified during pilot-scale test burns. In addition,
priority will be given to ranking certain types of wastes according to
the ease with which each can be destroyed through incineration.
Such a ranking will be a valuable tool in testing the effectiveness of
waste destruction of new and existing incinerations.
The incineration sub-program is also investigating the
feasibility of firing hazardous waste in high-temperature industrial
processes. Laboratory thermal decomposition analyses and pilot-
scale destruction studies will be conducted to determine the
conditions required for destruction of hazardous wastes. The
products of this work will include guidance manuals and updated
incineration and treatment technical support documents.
Technologies and techniques developed for other purposes are
showing great promise when adapted to hazardous waste destruction.
Under the innovative technology sub-program, research will be
conducted to develop advanced hazardous waste treatment
technologies. There is already sufficient information to support the
start of bench-scale studies on advanced biological conversion
processes, supercritical solvents and metals recovery using adapted
metallurgical techniques. Work will continue through 1986 if results
show promise.
Land treatment via spreading may be a viable waste
management option for selected hazardous wastes with potential
economic and environmental advantages over other options. The
objective of the land treatment technology research program is to
define the operating condition for the disposal of these wastes in an
environmentally safe manner utilizing the natural biological,
chemical and physical processes in the soil for the purpose of
degrading, attenuating, or otherwise rendering innocuous those
wastes receiving such treatment.
This part of the research program will continue to support the
EPA program office and regions in developing RCRA regulations and
reviewing applications for hazardous waste disposal facilities.
Spills response
When hazardous substances are released into the environment,
it is the responsibility of local, state and federal response personnel
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to make the major decisions concerning the extent of contamination,
clean-up priorities and selection of clean-up alternatives. These
decisions will be based on the potential impact on public health and
sensitive environmental areas. In support of this decision-making
process, a uniform set of procedures employing state-of-the-
knowledge and scientific information on transport, fate and effects
of hazardous substances (released as well as those used to mitigate
the contamination) will need to be developed. The basic scientific
information to support development of these procedures will be
provided through this program.
Many different technologies and techniques have been
suggested to contain and ciean-up spills of oil and hazardous
materials. Under this program, ciean-up options are tested and
developed. Our evaluation test tank is used to simulate realistic
water and shoreline conditions for testing and improving spill clean-
up and shoreline restoration techniques. Guidelines will be developed
which will establish ecologically acceptable residual levels of
contaminants where criteria for extent of clean-up do not exist. Oil
spill prevention techniques will be evaluated and user manuals and
guidelines will be prepared.
The ORD will continue to provide in-house support to the
compliance monitoring programs of the regions. Through the use of
aerial photography, inspection teams will be able to identify problem
areas before spills occur at transfer and storage facilities. The
photography program will also continue to support the response to
major spills by acquiring and analyzing aerial photography.
Long-term research
The long-term research program is currently active in
innovative technology (these include a wet air oxidation process for
destroying hazardous wastes, a super-critical fluids process for
concentrating and recovering wastes, and the genetic engineering of
yeasts for degrading hazardous wastes), waste detoxification, unit
process analysis to determine waste characteristics, and non-point
source control techniques. Additional research is planned to develop
new methods for detecting hazardous wastes, including non-volatile
pollutant analysis, biological and enzyme sensor systems, spectral
reflectance and chemical electronics. Additional research may focus
on organics recovery and destruction methods, determination of
threshold factors for irreversibility of ecosystem damage, and long-
term hazardous chemical biodegradation rates.
MAJOR MILESTONES
Numerous support activities will be provided to EPA
enforcement offices and state and local officials. These include
quality assurance programs, health assessment, population-at-risk
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hazard assessments, component exposure hazard evaluations,
technical information and liaison functions, monitoring activities, and
studies in direct response to OSWs RCRA requirements.
In addition to these continuing support activities, a number of
major research products are planned. A few of those are listed
below:
Improved health risk assessment methods for complex
mixture and multi-exposure situations - 7/1983
Report on innovative hazardous waste disposal
technologies - 7/1983
Rapid response test methods for toxicity of complex
mixtures interim report - 9/1983
Guidelines for establishing acceptable residual levels
interim - 9/1983
Report on incineration of hazardous wastes in high-
temperature industrial processes - 10/1983
Monitoring guidelines for sampling and remote sensing of
hazardous wastes - 9/198*
Validate currently available population toxicology
methods 9/1984
Post-closure monitoring guidelines for hazardous waste
disposal sites - 10/198*
Oil spill control and clean-up methods user's manuals -
6/1985
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 29.5
1983 1984 1985 1986
GROWTH Projected Projected Projected Projected
NO 29.6 29.6 29.6 29.6
MODERATE 29.6 30.5 31.* 32.3
HIGH 29.6 31.* 33.3 35.3
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. Major emphasis will be on waste analysis, risk
assessments and control technologies. Hazardous identification will
initially focus on the development of sampling and analytical
protocols, quality assurance, and evaluation of existing methods and
procedures. Later work will shift toward waste characterization,
exposure assessment, and the development of improved sampling and
analytical methods. Control technology research will develop the
information base that will support the permitting program for
hazardous waste. Particular attention will be paid to evaluating
thermal decomposition, containment, and other hazardous waste
treatments. Risk assessments will be used to: (1) develop the criteria
to support "listing/deiisting" of hazardous wastes (2) adapt and
develop techniques to assess risks from disposal of hazardous wastes
and (3) make decisions regarding various disposal options for specific
wastes.
Moderate growth. More emphasis will be on hazardous waste
analysis in an effort to more rapidly develop waste characterizations,
exposure and risk assessments, and new sampling and analytical
methods. Control technology research will augment studies of
thermal decomposition, control and containment of wastes and land
disposal. Also, development of innovative techniques for destroying
wastes will be augmented.
High growth. Research will focus on expanded monitoring
techniques, control technology, and risk assessment with the
objective of producing key results earlier than under the no-growth or
moderate-growth options.
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SUPERFUND
INTRODUCTION
Activities pianned as part of the superfund program have two
main purposes: first, to coordinate efforts related to hazardous
substance response within EPA's overall research program, and
second, to make available to both EPA offices and others dealing
with hazardous waste sites the latest research information, in usable
format, on discovery, control, monitoring and cleanup of hazardous
material spills and uncontrolled waste sites.
This is EPA's newest major research area and its planners work
closely with program planners and managers in the hazardous waste
research and technology exchange area. The efforts of the superfund
program aim at quickly assembling and adapting existing state-of-
the-art technology and information for use by on-the-scene
coordinators and state and local personnel. In contrast, the focus of
the hazardous waste program described in chapter nine is on research
and development of new hazardous substance science and technology
which may later be adapted for use by science coordinators. For
example, hazardous waste site construction techniques developed
under the hazardous waste program might be given accelerated
evaluation and testing in order for them to be available sooner for
use in the superfund program. In a similar vein, some of the
monitoring systems and quality assurance procedures developed and
improved under the hazardous waste research program will be applied
and field evaluated under the superfund program.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Since the EPA program offices are the primary clientele of the
superfund program, their needs determine the objectives of this ORD
program. The EPA superfund program provides emergency cleanup
response to hazardous spills and more long-term remedies for
releases from uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Technologies for
performing these tasks are relatively new, and their long-term
reliability, effectiveness and costs have not been fully evaluated.
Hence, this program will assess these technologies and methods. In
addition, evaluations will be made of the risks to human health and
the environment posed by releases of hazardous materials and by
defective, uncontrolled sites.
In addition to cleanup hardware and techniques, instrumentation
and analyses, in the form of on-site kits, are needed for screening a
variety of samples to determine what samples are suitable for more
precise, but more time-consuming and costly, analyses. Physical and
mathematical models usable in the field with a minimum of input
data are needed for prediction of the movement of released
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materials. Other efforts will focus on testing and evaluating safety
equipment for on-site personnel including communications, protective
clothing, breathing apparatus, equipment and standards for personal
monitoring for exposure (such as medical monitoring), test systems to
assess the human health effect of exposure to hazardous substances,
safety procedures for extended site operations, and decontamination
procedures for personnel and equipment.
Situation assessment, evaluation of control alternatives, and
quality assurance technical assistance during decision-making
activities are high on the priority list of support requirements. Also
high on the priority list are standard practices for hazardous
materials removal and technical support in the review of required
program office regulatory support documents.
The program offices have a basic requirement for protocols and
procedures manuals for ail phases of activity associated with site
management. These manuals will cover such problem areas as
monitoring methods to determine the extent of contamination in all
media, alternative removal or remedial procedures, and technical
requirements for post-closure monitoring. Of particular importance
are documents establishing generic risk categories as a basis for
determining requirements for reportable quantities, sampling, and
monitoring.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
Hazardous materials spills have been of concern for decades,
and problems with uncontrolled waste sites have periodically caught
the public eye. Formal efforts to address these problems were begun
a decade ago. At that time the Federal Water Pollution Control Act
(FWPCA) (PL92-500 as amended 1978) prohibited unpermitted
discharges into waters of the United States and established a fund for
responding to discharges of oil and hazardous substances into U.S.
waters. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976
(RCRA) directed the control of hazardous waste from the time of
generation to ultimate disposal. Finally, the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980
(superfund) provides authority for federal response to the release of
hazardous substances into the air, land or water.
The Agency has a lead role in the implementation of each of
these Acts. The Office of Emergency and Remedial Response
(OERR) was established to implement the superfund legislation. That
office shares with ORD responsibility for planning EPA's research and
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development program in support of Agency superfund activities.
ORD's program in this area is in direct support of the superfund roles
played by OERR's Emergency Response Division, the Hazardous
Response Support Division and the Hazardous Site Control Division,
and by the Office of Waste Programs Enforcement, the Office of
Solid Waste, the Office of Occupational Health and Safety, and the
EPA regional offices.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
In response to the support requirements outlined above as
expressed by the relevant program offices, the Office of Research
and Development has planned activities in four basic areas: 1)
environmental engineering and technology, 2) monitoring systems and
quality assurance, 3) environmental processes and effects, and 4)
evaluation of adverse health impacts (hazard assessment). Specific
activities and projects within these broad categories are described in
the following pages.
- This strategy covers program office support activities relevant
to both emergency response (removal actions) and remedial actions.
This division corresponds to the organization of OERR and that of the
superfund legislation itself.
Engineering and Technology
Because of fundamental differences in the technology
requirements of emergency removal actions and remedial actions,
environmental engineering and technology support activities are
divided into two corresponding categories.
Removal actions. Removal research activities fail into three
major areas: spill prevention and pre-response planning, spill clean-
up and safety, and the separation and concentration of hazardous
materials. The first area involves the preparation of manuals on
prevention and pre-response planning. Technical handbooks are being
prepared for use in prevention of hazardous substance spills both in-
plant and during transportation.
Research in the second area will prepare manuals on emergency
spill cleanup, safety, situation assessment, and analytical support.
Specialized equipment and procedures for insuring personnel safety
above ground and under water will be examined. Guidelines will be
produced to aid in the selection of alternative removal methods and
in determining the extent of required removal. Also planned are
guidance documents on equipment and techniques for control of the
spread of contamination. Equipment designed for spill control will be
evaluated for cost-effectiveness and multi-media removal
capabilities. This equipment includes a mobile incinerator, a carbon-
treatment system, a carbon reactivator, and a stream diversion unit.
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Research in the third area will concentrate on the separation
and concentration of hazardous materials in all media, ultimate
disposal of cleanup residuals and restoration of contaminated areas.
Technologies for separation and concentration of hazardous
chemicals will be advanced through field evaluation. An interim
manual on state-of-the-art practices for restoring spill-damaged
lands, streams and lakes will be prepared.
Remedial action. Research activities will concentrate on the
application of new techniques for pollutant control, adaptation of
existing techniques to the special conditions that exist at
uncontrolled sites and the evaluation of these techniques for
reliability and cost-effectiveness. A survey and assessment of
current technologies for remedial action sites will be undertaken to
determine what worked under different conditions and what costs and
levels of effectiveness can be expected.
Special emphasis will be on the adaptation and demonstration of
remedial action technologies and on the analysis of site designs.
Remedial technologies and techniques that will have the highest
priority for evaluation and adaptation include: methods for ensuring
personnel safety, methods which minimize pollutant discharge from
sites with a high groundwater table, increasing the in-situ
stabilization rates of organic contaminants, and the treatment of
contaminated soils by chemical and biological modification.
Njonitoring and Quality Assurance
Monitoring and quality assurance play an essential role in all
stages of site assessment, cleanup and post-closure activities in both
remedial and removal actions. Inter-comparison and performance
evaluation studies will be conducted to examine the capabilities of
analytical laboratories involved in hazardous waste assessment.
A guideline document will be prepared for conducting
monitoring assessments at release sites. Emphasis will be on
procedures applicable to emergency situations. The document will
include information on requirements for: characterizing the waste
site location, conducting the emissions inventory, identifying the
critical receptor populations, selecting assay and sampling
procedures, identifying the major transport pathways and, finally,
presenting the requirements for data tabulation.
A manual of methods for the characterization of hazardous
waste sites will be published in 1982. The document will present an
integrated approach to investigating and studying hazardous waste
sites. The manual will be periodically updated to include new and
improved sampling methods. The evaluation and field testing of
methods will be initiated in 1983.
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Special analytical services will be provided to support and
maintain the quality assurance and field response requirements of
superfund programs. This support will include analyses of quality
assurance samples from field investigations, quick turn-around
analyses, and analyses of difficult samples with state-of-the-art
equipment and methods.
The program will continue to use current and historical aerial
imagery in analyzing sites. Site conditions, past and present disposal
practices, land-use changes and on-site problems will be depicted.
The program will also provide geophysical sensing of buried wastes,
monitoring of hydrological characteristics of sites and groundwater,
and monitoring of ambient air conditions.
Environmental Processes and Effects
The primary products of this program area are the operational
manuals which present information necessary to determine if
uncontrolled releases of hazardous substances pose a significant
hazard to public health and/or to sensitive environmental areas. Such
manuals will, in addition, be of use in determining the extent of
contamination and the effectiveness of clean-up actions.
Manuals will synthesize information from recent research into
the multimedia transport and fate of hazardous materials. These
manuals will enable federal, state and local response personnel to
conduct scientific assessments of hazardous waste sites and to select
the most appropriate response procedures. One project entails the
preparation of a manual synthesizing existing information from
recent research on biomonitoring techniques and on the movement,
persistence and transformation of hazardous substances through all
environmental media. Another project will produce a manual and
software packages of the best surface water models for use by the
on-scene coordinator in predicting the extent of surface -and
subsurface water contamination.
Hazard Assessment
As with engineering and technology, health and environmental
assessment activities are divided between removal and remedial
response requirements. Activities in hazard assessment for
emergency response operations focus on rapid turnaround to provide
toxicological information on the identified compounds at the site.
This information will aid in the determination of the extent of the
health risks to the public and will assist the on-scene coordinator in
deciding on the best safety measures for protection of workers and
the public. Specific activities to be conducted under this program
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include quick reference works summarizing health hazards for
compounds for which subchronic or chronic data exist, and guidelines
and methodology for rapid hazard assessment of chemical mixtures
based on monitoring data or on historical records.
Activities associated with remedial response requirements
include the preparation of hazard profiles and exposure and health
hazard assessments for individual chemicals leading to combined,
site-specific, health hazards assessments. Research activities
include guidelines for assessing health hazards from multi-route
exposures to chemical mixtures, and methods for incorporating into
the site-ranking process information on toxic effects, no-effect
levels, and dependence of toxicity on exposure routes.
MAJOR MILESTONES
Since Superfund is a program of limited duration, research must
be done at the beginning of the program if it is to have any impact.
Consequently research funding was at its highest level in FY 1982 and
will gradually decline from that level. As cleanup manuals and
guidelines are completed, funding for those activities will decline.
Among the major specific products planned for this program
area are the following:
Contractor-operated laboratory for analysis of complex
samples from removal and remedial programs - 9/1983
Manual for cleanup site safety equipment and procedures
- 10/1983
Guidelines for use of chemical agents for hazardous
materials spills response - 10/1983
Demonstration of prototype advanced equipment and
techniques - 6/198*
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 13.9
GROWTH
NO
MODERATE
HIGH
1983 1984
Projected Projected
6.3
6.3
6.3
6.3
6.7
1985
Projected
6.3
6.5
7.1
1986
Projected
6.3
6.7
7.5
Figures are in millions of dollars.
In support of superfund legislation, the immediate effort will
focus on development of guidance documents and the technical and
scientific back-up for the regions and program offices. Methods will
be evaluated for discovering, evaluating, and remedying releases or
threats of releases; relative costs of remedies will also be analyzed.
Criteria will be developed for determining the appropriate extent of
removal, remedy, and other measures and for establishing priorities
for actions to deal with releases or disposal sites. Some effort will
be devoted to establishing the scientific basis for determining the
minimum quantity of hazardous wastes that would trigger a reporting
requirement. As superfund is a program of limited duration, research
activities are expected to decline in the coming years.
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DRINKING WATER
INTRODUCTION
EPA's drinking water research program is designed to support
the states and the EPA program office in their implemention of the
Safe Drinking Water Act. This research provides support in the areas
of contaminant identification and health effects, analytical
procedures for monitoring and quality assurance, control technology
and costs and protection of underground sources of drinking water.
With 49 of the 57 states and territories currently delegated primary
enforcement authority for public water systems, this support is
increasingly oriented towards local needs. Several groups including
the non-governmental National Drinking Water Advisory Committee
(NDWAC), the EPA's Science Advisory Board, and the National
Academy of Sciences (NAS) have helped to identify the research
necessary to answer the following questions: How can analytical
measurements be assured to be precise, accurate and thereby create
valid data? What unique problems are associated with the delivery of
high quality drinking water in small systems? What research should
be done and what assistance should be given to the Office of Drinking
Water (ODW) relating to drinking water additives? What are the
costs of health degradation due to water contamination incidents?
How can underground sources of drinking water be adequately
protected at minimum cost?
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
The drinking water research strategy is guided by P.L. 93-523
and its amendments, which together are referred to as the Safe
Drinking Water Act (SDWA). From this and other legislation, EPA is
responsible for preserving the quality of drinking water throughout
the water cycle and developing programs to set National Drinking
Water Regulations. The SDWA requires the Office of Drinking Water
to provide National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWR) in
relation to drinking water contamination and human health and to
provide National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations concerning
human welfare. A memorandum of understanding with the Food and
Drug Administration defines EPA's responsibilities in regard to
drinking water additives. The ODW provides advice and assistance to
states and communities when they encounter extreme or emergency
pollution problems for which there are no current guidelines or
regulations. The ODW provides health advisories for constituents
present in drinking water.
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Section 1442 of the SDWA specifically authorizes EPA to
conduct research studies concerning the occurrence and health
effects of contaminants in drinking water, analytical procedures for
monitoring contaminants, treatment technologies, protection of
underground drinking water sources and exploratory research. Health
research data helps ODW to evaluate the relative hazards posed by
various contaminants and thus carry out the requirements of SDWA
Section 1412.
The ODW has set priorities for work areas based on
interpretation of the SDWA and its target dates. Shortcomings in
existing information and problems referred from the regions, the
NDWAC, and the NAS are determining factors as well. The role of
the research staff is also important in priority-setting because of the
staff's knowledge of time and cost estimates and its experience in
designing and conducting research projects.
During 1982, ODW plans to issue several documents related to
development of Revised National Primary Drinking Water
Regulations. This includes two Advanced Notices of Proposed Rule
Making (ANPRM) one for organic chemical contaminants of
groundwater and one a comprehensive discussion of organic,
inorganic, microbiai and radionuciide contaminants. In addition, a
decision will be made on revised fluoride regulations.
In 1983, ODW plans to continue the development of revised
National Primary Drinking Water Regulations which will include
publication of Recommended Maximum Contaminant Levels (RMCLs)
for organics, inorganics, radionuclides and microbiai contaminants,
proposed MCLs for volatile organics and fluorides (if appropriate) and
a final rule (MCL) for fluoride.
In 1984 and 1985, ODW plans a comprehensive review of all
contaminants related to disinfection processes, including
trihalomethanes and other by-products, and the disinfectants
themselves. ODW's priorities become the basis for the Research
Committee's Strategy. Research planned for 1984 and 1985 will in
part depend upon the reauthorization of the SDWA and any changes
that occur during its reauthorization.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
EPA's basic research strategy is to create a balanced program
including short- and long-range health studies, improvements to
analytical methods, a quality assurance program and treatment
techniques. Many projects consider both ground and surface water
problems. In addition, some groundwater protection research has
been directed towards understanding and predicting underground
movement of injected contaminants.
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One area where there is a large need for data is in the
measurement of long-range potentially harmful effects of trace
organics and the treatment of waters containing them. Another
priority area is research into the relationship of inorganic drinking
water contaminants (including metals, non-metals, asbestos,
radionuclides and corrosion-related issues) to human health.
Microbiological contaminant exposure assessment, measurement,
effects and control must remain the highest public health priority
because outbreaks of waterborne diseases still occur in the United
States. Distribution and containment systems in general need more
study in order to understand and control corrosion and other
situations where indirect additives can be leached into drinking
water. Other research efforts seek cost-effective treatment units to
remove most of these contaminants from small water supplies that
are out of compliance.
Many of the ORD laboratory studies are planned to support
ODW in implementing or reducing regulations. In 1982 and 1983,
research will emphasize direct support for the regulatory decision
processes on volatile organics, microbiological contaminants,
radionuciides, inorganic chemicals, and other organic contaminants.
A discussion of specific research areas follows.
Exposure and Effects of Contaminants
Advances in methods make it possible to identify and measure
contaminants in water which could not be addressed before. Some
water treatment technologies and materials presently in use have
been found to introduce contaminants into water, or to create in the
water reaction products whose existence was not known at the time
these treatment methods were developed. Exposure studies provide a
basis for surveys or monitoring of the frequency and concentration of
contaminants in various types of water supplies and for estimating
the amount of a contaminant being absorbed from drinking water by
consumers. Exposure studies and pharmacokinetics (absorption,
distribution, excretion and metabolism) provide a partial basis for
determination of relative source contribution and dose assessment.
When adverse effects are known to be associated with a
contaminant's occurrence, exposure data may help to focus priorities
for control strategies. 'Health research further determines whether
organic, inorganic, radionuclide, microbiological and combined
pollutants cause health problems and, if so, how the problem changes
with concentration or water treatment method.
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Analytical Procedures
A national quality assurance program is mandated to support
the SOW A and the National Interim Primary Drinking Water
Regulations. This effort includes provision of precise and reliable
measurement systems for official use. It includes methods research
and methods standardization to provide monitoring procedures for
chemicals, radio-chemicals and microbes. Quality control procedures
and guidelines are provided for use in documenting data quality and
systems performance. The program provides criteria and procedures
for on-site evaluation and certification of laboratories, an evaluation
of alternate test procedures, and an overview of Agency-wide
mandatory quality assurance activities. Some specific functions of
the program are: 1) to produce and distribute quality control and
performance evaluation samples for chemical and microbiological
analysis for water supply laboratory certification programs; 2) to
develop and distribute radioactivity standards and reference
materials for radiochemistry analysis; 3) to conduct methods
validation studies for chemistry, radiochemistry and microbiology; 4)
to conduct laboratory evaluations and intercom par ison studies; 5) to
modify well-sampling equipment; and 6) to conduct feasibility studies
for a national program to locate abandoned wells and investigate the
feasibility of mapping underground fluid movement from injection
wells.
Treatment Technologies
Research is primarily concerned with treatment technologies
which will control three types of contaminants: organic chemicals
(including disinfection by-products), inorganic chemicals (including
particles), and microbiological.
In the organic chemical category, studies are being conducted
to increase knowledge of organic chemical behavior in aqueous
systems and to assess treatment technologies to determine their
feasibility in meeting drinking water standards. Other research
covers the removal of organics by aeration and adsorption, control of
disinfection by-products, and the role of natural humic substances.
Emphasis is on the evaluation of control technology specifically
adapted to small systems.
In the inorganic chemical category, there are a number of
contaminants of health concern including nitrate, metals and
radionuclides. The effects of corrosion in distribution systems on
drinking water quality are of major concern. Technology
development research focuses on evaluation and field testing of
removal techniques for radionuciides and other inorganics including
uranium, radium, arsenic, barium, selenium, fluoride, and nitrate,
with emphasis on small systems applications.
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Research on corrosion control includes methods for protection
of asbestos-cement pipe from deterioration, prevention of corrosion
of lead pipes by methods other than pH adjustments, control of
corrosion in galvanized pipe, and determination of leachates from
plastic pipes and various coatings and linings. A corrosion control
manual will be produced describing treatment methods and their cost
and benefits.
In the microbiological category, technology research addresses
the occurrence, identification and control of waterborne pathogens
including Giardia cysts, Legipnella pneumophila, and viruses. Studies
are included to determine causes of bacteriologic water quality
deterioration in treatment processes and in distribution systems. The
use of disinfection procedures other than chiorination to reduce
organics in drinking water has raised questions regarding the
adequacy of microbial control. This problem is being addressed.
Research emphasis is on the evaluation of various water treatment
processes to remove or inactivate pathogens in small water systems.
Engineering economics is an integral part of the technology
research and development. Studies address the development of
cost/performance data for water treatment unit processes and costs
of treatment technologies for removing specific contaminants.
Included is the analysis of the cost-effectiveness of alternatives such
as package plants, circuit riders, and regionalization as compliance
methods for drinking water contamination in small systems. In
addition, efforts are underway to develop improved cost/benefit
estimating methods.
Protection of Underground Sources
Research addresses the following four areas: (1) improved
methods for detecting contaminants in the subsurface and
interpreting the results? (2) methods for predicting the behavior of
pollutants in aquifers based on subsurface (site-specific)
characteristics and on characteristics of the pollutants; (3) data for
regulatory and management decisions on control of specific sources
of underground water pollution; and (4) evaluation of water sources
for in situ aquifer reclamation methods. In addition, several
products are being generated to support the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA). These products are models and field
evaluations to predict pollutant plumes in underground water sources.
The subsurface environment continues to be expensive to access
and the results of sampling difficult to interpret in terms of
predicting the transport and transformation of contaminants. In 1982
indicators of underground water contamination will be selected and
evaluated. The behavior of 20 organic chemicals in a few subsurface
environments has already been determined. However, with numerous
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chemicals of concern and many soil types, the subject has barely been
touched. The findings do indicate that we will ultimately be able to
determine a few characteristics of concern both for chemical
contaminants and soil type which will allow the prediction of the
impact of whole classes of chemicals in various subsurface water
environments. Also of importance is research into the behavior of
microbiological contaminants, especially viruses.
A number of sources of underground water pollution are being
studied. Manuals are in preparation on safe injection of treated
wastewater and determination of appropriate septic tank density.
The latter is being prepared in cooperation with the small wastewater
flows research program.
Since the pollution of underground water seriously threatens
public drinking water supplies, the underground water sources
research program will begin investigating the economic and
technological feasibility of cleaning up polluted aquifers in situ. This
is generally a very expensive process, but there may be locations
where this will either be more cost-effective than treatment, or
development of alternate drinking water supplies will be the only
feasible option. In 1982 the efficacy of practices tried in the past
will be determined.
Exploratory Research
Potential exploratory research subject areas include:
adsorption reactions, process improvement, new microbiological
quality measurement methods for microbes in water distribution
systems, microbial reduction in different treatment trains, modes of
viral inactivation, bromide reaction during ozonation, organic
compound combustion during granular activated carbon regeneration,
industrial recycle/reuse potential, occurrence and health effects of
microbial contaminants, and remedial measures for underground
water supplies contaminated by agricultural pollutants.
MAJOR MILESTONES
A sample of major milestones in the drinking water research
program is listed below.
State-of-knowledge report on mobility of organic
chemicals in different soil regimes - 8/1982
Report on efficiency of unit processes used in treating
drinking water for control of viruses and bacteria - 6/1982
Description of available methods for determining
mechanical integrity of injection wells in terms of
accuracy, cost, and effectiveness - 9/1982
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Complete health research for lead, sodium, barium and
asbestos - 9/1982
Determine effects of treatment processes on
microorganisms - 8/1983
Reports on control of organic contaminants from ground
and surface sources, control of inorganic contaminants,
control of corrosion of distribution systems and removal
of particulate contaminants - 9/1983
Modify well-sampling equipment and report on locating
abandoned wells and mapping underground fluids
movements - 9/1983
Report on detection of groundwater pollution by using
indicator parameters based on transport and fate - 9/1983
Report on past groundwater reclamation practices -
9/1983
Determine the health hazard of Legioneila - 10/1984
Determine effects of chemical contaminants of water
including: selenium, selected pesticides, and uranium -
6/1985
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 28.4
1983 198* 1985 1986
GROWTH Projected Projected Projected Projected
NO 22.9 22.9 22.9 22.9
MODERATE 22.9 23.6 24.3 25.0
HIGH 22.9 24.3 25.7 27.3
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. Major attention will be placed on developing (1)
methods for assessing and monitoring groundwater contamination, (2)
methods for determining the adsorption, movement, and trans-
formation of contaminants in the subsurface (especially organic
chemicals and viruses), and (3) the scientific data for regulatory
decision-making on specific sources of potential groundwater
contamination. A new area addressed beginning in FY 82 is aquifer
reclamation.
Emphasis will continue to be on determining the health effects
of organic, inorganic and microbiological contamination and on
developing the methods for controlling contamination in order to
support drinking water regulations and health advisories. Emphasis
will also be on evaluating technologies which will assist water supply
utilities, particularly those serving small populations, in meeting
drinking-water regulations.
Moderate growth. Greater emphasis will be given to
determining health effects of synthetic organics and methods- for
organics control.
High growth. Health effects activities will center on
conducting toxicology studies on fractionated water samples in order
to identify classes of compounds posing the greatest health risks and
on assessing the potential extent of those risks. Control technology
research will focus on the field evaluation of chemical contamination
control systems to establish reliable cost and operating information.
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WATER QUALITY
INTRODUCTION
The objective of EPA's water quality research is to provide
assessment methods and information that wiii help federal, state and
local governments to make water pollution control decisions that are
scientifically defensible, cost-effective, energy-efficient, minimally
disruptive to ecosystems and decisions that make optimal use of
water resources. The research plan to achieve this objective will, for
the next five years, concentrate on support ofi future water quality
criteria and standards, water quality-based effluent limitations,
ocean discharges and disposal, and national strategies for water
quality protection and for assessing progress of water pollution
control efforts.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
The goal of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (1948) and
its successors, particularly the Clean Water Act of 1977, is improved
water quality nationwide. EPA is pursuing the goals of these Acts in
two phases. Phase I emphasis is on establishing minimum or base-
level point-source pollution control throughout the country. The
level of control is determined by state-of-the-art technology and
cost. Regulations for these technology-based controls wiii be largely
promulgated in the early 1980s and incorporated into revised effluent
discharge permits shortly thereafter. Pollution control facilities
constructed in accordance with the new requirements should be
completed in the 1980s. Phase II emphasizes development and
implementation of a national water quality strategy for cases in
which base levels of controls are insufficient or otherwise
inappropriate. In keeping with the mandates of the Clean Water Act,
the nation's energy and economic problems will be specifically
considered in the strategy, as will site-specific water quality
objectives.
The water quality research plan is directed toward providing
the most important elements of the scientific base needed for
effective implementation of Phase II. The most immediate problems
are those of a technical assistance nature. In response to the Natural
Resource Defense Council consent agreement, for example, EPA is
issuing water quality criteria, effluent guidelines, and associated
standard reference measurement methods covering 65 toxic
pollutants or pollutant classes (expanded to 126 chemicals).
A second task requiring immediate attention is the need to
revise ocean disposal regulations developed under the Marine
Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act for waste residuals and
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dredged materials. The revisions are necessary to ensure that
requirements for evaluating these materials are consistent with the
latest state of knowledge and recent court decisions. These revisions
will reflect the latest changes in the London Dumping Convention of
which the United States is a contracting party. The revisions will
also incorporate the requirements on low-level radioactive wastes
adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The research
effort to support this requirement consists of providing technical
assistance in the revision of the regulations in question.
A number of other regulations also are undergoing routine
development, revision, and implementation. Some key legislated
requirements expected to receive emphasis beginning in 1982 and in
forthcoming years are those covering water quality standards, the list
of toxic pollutants, designation and determination of hazardous
substances, and point source wasteload allocations.
Current priority problems of a longer-term nature are
associated primarily with the many deficiencies in the scientific base
needed to address toxic pollutants rationally in Phase II. The most
significant constraint on effectively addressing Phase II water quality
impacts is an inability to accurately quantify the risks associated
with long-term exposure to toxins. In Phase I, the basic assumption
has been that the benefits of providing the minimum base level of
control are worth the costs and need not be specifically
demonstrated. Beyond this base level, however, each additional
increment of control will come at a much higher unit cost, and the
probability of incurring significant economic and social costs in
excess of the economic and social benefits becomes greater.
Accordingly, a greater effort must be made to target available funds
to the resolution of the most pressing problems and the selection and
attainment of balanced, reasonable water quality goals.
The proper management of toxic pollutants is of particular
concern to state programs responsible for protecting marine -and
estuarine resources. With increasing amounts of waste being
generated, the nation requires the means to dispose of its wastes in
an affordable, safe, and aesthetically inoffensive way. Where ocean
disposal is a potential alternative, it is essential that adequate
information be available to allow environmental officials to make
reasoned choices with regard to the use of the oceans for waste
disposal.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
To fulfill regulatory mandates for water quality, especially
implementation of Phase II as described earlier, research results are
needed primarily in the following categories: measurement and
quality assurance methods, health and ecological impact assessments,
water quality standards derivation, total maximum daily loads,
wasteload allocation and impact assessments, cost-benefit analyses
for implementing water quality goals, and ocean disposal impact
assessments.
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EPA's research in these categories provides EPA, state, and
local officials with the scientific information and techniques required
to identify: 1) existing and potential future water quality problems
and their origins, 2) reasonable site-specific water quality goals
relevant to key pollutants, 3) current and future levels of pollution
control necessary, and the most equitable allocation of allowable
waste loadings, *) the most cost- and energy-effective control
strategy for achieving assigned waste loadings, and, 5) the most
appropriate institutional mechanisms for implementing the control
strategy.
Such a capability requires the availability of the following
scientific base:
A range of cost-effective monitoring and measurement
methods for identifying priority waters and evaluating
compliance with source-control and ambient quality
requirements.
Field-validated surface water-quality criteria known to
closely reflect conditions actually required for various
water uses. These criteria should be applicable to
identification of impacts of non-point source pollution and
deposits of sediment-bound pollutants on aquatic life,
recreational, and other uses. The criteria also should
permit identification of incremental benefits that would
result from additional increments of pollution reduction
for a specific body of water.
Methods for selecting and translating water quality goals
into total maximum daily loads and waste load allocations
in water-quality limited segments.
Methods and associated data bases for evaluating
environmental, dollar and energy costs and associated
benefits of alternative water resource management
strategies, including alternative dredge spoil and other
waste residual disposal schemes.
- Point source and non-point source, control techniques, and
water-body restoration techniques whose costs and
effectiveness are known for the full range of typical
operating conditions.
Alternative strategies for the effective implementation
of water quality management/control systems, alone, and
in conjunction with related public or private activities
(e.g., flood control or soil conservation).
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To be as responsive as possible to immediate EPA needs, efforts
will be directed at providing interim techniques and scientific
information within one to three years of initiation of each given
piece of work. Once this scientific base is assembled, efforts will be
directed at testing the validity of and upgrading the earlier products.
The research goal here will be to provide the variety of high-quality
techniques and data files necessary for effective implementation of a
water-quality based program.
To date, Agency reference methods have been completed for
the measurement of the Consent Decree toxic and conventional
pollutants in wastewater and fresh surface water. However, no low-
cost, practical screening techniques exist to scan large numbers of
samples for the presence or absence of toxic pollutants in toxic
amounts or for sampling or analysis of viruses. Existing reference
methods for toxic metals are not sufficiently sensitive. Laboratory-
derived water quality criteria for many of these metals are in the
order of 0.1 of the minimum concentration detectable by existing
methods. Another deficiency is the inability to measure effluent
discharge flow at the necessary level of precision to calculate
receiving water impacts and, therefore, waste treatment
requirements to protect water quality. Lastly, many of the activities
providing monitoring data to EPA will require the use of an on-going
quality assurance program.
Under the chemical measurement methods sub-program,
emphasis will be given to the development and standardization of
measurement and quality assurance methods for priority toxic
pollutants in fresh and marine bottom sediments, fish tissue, and
marine water. A high priority will also be given to increasing the
sensitivity of methods for nine toxic metals in water in order to allow
measurements at concentrations down to their laboratory-derived
criteria values. In the biological methods sub-program, emphasis
will be on developing and standardizing methods to quickly and cost-
effectively screen for priority wastes with respect to both human
health and ecological impacts. Other biological methods research
will develop quality assurance procedures for chronic and acute
toxicological analysis, standardize microbiai/virai sampling and
analysis methods, and select techniques for obtaining representative
samples.
In the area of physical measurement methods, emphasis will be
given to documenting the validity, accuracy, and precision of existing
sampling and flow sensing equipment.
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Monitoring systems research will emphasize the statistical
design of optimal water and sediment sampling programs, as needed
in identifying priority waters and determining pollution trends.
Health and ecological effects information is crucial to the
water-quality based approach to water-pollution control. Health and
ecological criteria based on existing laboratory-derived effects data
are almost complete for the 65 consent decree pollutants. Those
criteria derived from marginal existing data and those pollutants for
which insufficient data existed to develop any criteria require further
work, most of which should be completed in 1983. In addition, data
on health and ecological effects will be needed in 1983 on 10 to 20
potentially toxic pollutants that are expected to be identified by
state and local agencies and EPA abatement and control programs as
warranting concern. Just how many of the toxic chemicals will need
to be assessed in this manner is not now known. However, the
number is not expected to exceed 80 in 1983.
Gaps in data on the health effects of selected pollutants will be
filled as required to support or revise criteria. A lower cost, short-
term test -method will be developed and field tested for use in
deriving human health effects data and for screening water samples
for the presence of human carcinogens and teratogens. A field
validation protocol for translating both health and ecological criteria
to site-specific field conditions will be developed for use by the
states in setting water quality standards for toxic pollutants. In
addition, first generation guidelines will be developed describing the
scientific approach to evaluating health and ecological effects of
exposure to mixtures of toxic chemicals.
As state and EPA programs continue to review and update state
water quality standards, health criteria documents will be reviewed
to ensure that up-to-date scientific data are available for state and
regional evaluations. The existing criteria are based upon scientific
data available in 1980.' In addition, a limited amount of effort will be
devoted to evaluation of local health hazards prior to finalizing state
standards and permits. Outputs would include health assessment or
mini-criteria documents.
A small effort will be undertaken to field-evaluate selected
laboratory-derived ecological water-quality criteria and to identify
field situations in which criteria adaptation protocols are most
urgently needed.
Development efforts will continue on protocols for translating
laboratory-derived freshwater and marine ecological criteria to site-
specific field situations. This work is expected to require five years
or more to complete, with useful outputs produced serially as work
progresses.
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Work on assessment procedures for determining biological
integrity of fresh waters and for distinguishing natural vs. human
influencing factors will be continued. These procedures are needed
for identifying stream reaches where meeting specified quality
standards will not improve the fisheries or allow other additional
beneficial uses, and for evaluating where goals of the Clean. Water
Act are and are not being met. These same procedures also are
useful in identifying priority waters in terms of adverse ecological
impacts, and for distinguishing between the adverse ecological
impacts resulting from POTW discharges and storm-sewer discharges
in urban areas.
Some of the available mathematical models for identifying
water-quality limited stream segments and making wasteioad
allocations of conventional pollutants have not been adequately field
validated. Existing models are inadequate for making wasteioad
allocations of the priority toxic pollutants. They will be expanded to
address toxic pollutants both in the water column and in sediments
and to predict environmental exposures resulting from alternative
levels of toxics control. Selected waste-load allocation models will
be upgraded to provide a capability to address toxic metals. The
objective is to provide a capability to determine discharge limits
necessary for each permittee in order to comply with water quality
standards.
Work begun in 1981 on a generic protocol for toxicity wasteioad
allocations, based on effluent bioassays, will continue. This protocol,
if successful, will allow wasteioad allocations to be based on the net
(i.e., resultant) toxicity of all the various toxicants present in
discharges in combination, thus avoiding the more costly and time-
consuming chemical-by-chemical approach to wasteioad allocations.
Work on development of the toxic metals exposure analysis
modeling system (MEXAMS) will continue. Operation of the Center
for Water Quality Modeling will continue to provide manuals and
computer tapes/card decks on various models to states and EPA
client offices and to assist them in their use.
A technique has been developed for predicting the movement
and dispersion of effluent plumes in marine waters. Interim
techniques have been developed (but not fully field validated) for
estimating the ecological impact of dredged material disposal in
ocean waters. In addition, techniques for measuring pollutant effects
on marine organisms in the laboratory have been developed. Work on
ocean disposal impact assessment will focus on continuing the
development of techniques applicable to both shore-based point
source discharges and ocean disposal of waste materials. The
techniques are for: predicting the ecological impacts of proposed
discharge/dumping options, identifying acceptable discharge/dumping
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options, and documenting the ecological impacts of current
discharge/dumping practices. Technical analytical support also will
be provided in the review of applications for POTW modifications
under Sec. 301(h) of the Clean Water Act.
MAJOR MILESTONES
There is a multitude of regulatory development and
enforcement support services provided by the water quality research
program. These include review of health-based water quality
criteria, provision of health assessments, development of sediment
and dredge spoil impact assessment protocols, quality control
support, and review of requests for modifications in waste treatment
requirements.
In addition, major research output milestones include the
following:
Guidelines for using criteria in complex mixture exposure
situations - 6/1983
Monitoring guidelines for rapid biological screening
techniques to characterize water quality problems -
8/1983
Model for making toxic metals wasteload allocations
among dischargers - 9/1983
Field evaluate and validate water-quality criteria
development protocols for freshwater and marine
applications - 9/1983
Procedures for determining biological integrity of fresh
waters and distinguishing natural from human influences -
12/1983
Standard chemical speciation monitoring systems - 8/198*
Statistical sampling programs to measure- local water
quality trends in both water and sediments - 8/198*
First generation toxic metal exposure analysis model -
12/198*
Develop and field test short-term tests for health
endpoints in priority waters investigations - 198*
Procedures for predicting ecological impacts of, and
criteria for establishing 'unreasonable degradation1 for,
ocean dumping - 3/1985
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Standard technique for detecting trace levels of
contamination of fish tissue - 6/1985
Protocols for determining transport, fate and probable
ecological effects of ocean outfalls - 4/1986
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 19.1
GROWTH
NO
MODERATE
HIGH
1983
Projected Projected
11.0
11.0
11.0
11.0
11.8
1985
Projected
11.0
11.8
12.5
1986
Projected
11.0
12.1
13.2
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. Emphasis will be on the development of interim
measurement methods, of the capability to derive site-specific water
quality standards. Priority will also be given to developing
alternative abatement strategy impact assessment techniques needed
in pursuing a water-quality based approach to the control of toxic
pollutants. Criteria document support for the regulatory offices will
continue.
Moderate growth. Some work on the most essential research
areas addressed in the No Growth option will be accelerated.
High growth. Work on the essential research areas addressed in
the above options would be further accelerated.
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INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER
INTRODUCTION
The aims of EPA's research and development efforts in the area
of industrial wastewater are twofold. First, they are to establish a
sound technical and scientific basis for regulations and policies.
Second, they are to identify lower cost and more efficient methods
for mitigating water pollution resulting from industrial discharges.
Specific activities range from the development of techniques to
simplify the issuance of industrial discharge permits to the pursuit of
fundamental scientific knowledge upon which to develop
environmental policy decisions related to control of industrial
pollution.
The pollution problems included in the industrial wastewater
area covers the wastewater discharge problems of the manufacturing
and process industries^ The research covers the development of
technically and economically feasible methods for pollutant
measurement and monitoring and for pollution control of industrial
effluents. ORD's efforts also provide direct analytical, quality
assurance and other technical support for establishment and revision
of effluent guidelines and issuance of discharge permits.
The principal client program offices within EPA are the Office
of Water Regulations and Standards and the Office of Water
Enforcement of the Office of Water. These offices, along with EPA's
regional offices and the states, are charged with establishing effluent
guidelines, issuing individual industrial discharge permits, and
enforcing compliance.
Perhaps the major "issue" in this area regards the balance
between technology-based and water quality-based philosophies for
the promulgation of industrial effluent guidelines and the issuance of
discharge permits. In this context, the Agency will continue to
require its research program to collect and analyze technological,
economic, health and general environmental factors for the
finalization of specific regulations required by the Clean Water Act.
More and better information of all types will be necessary for the
conduct of meaningful risk-benefit analyses.
A second issue of continuing concern is simply the nation's cost
burden in complying with discharge and pretreatment regulations.
The cost burden with regard to both industry's cost in achieving
compliance and regulatory agencies' costs in permitting and
compliance monitoring must be minimized to the greatest extent
possible.
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LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
A number of provisions of the Clean Water Act (P.L. 95-217), in
addition to Title I, Research and Related Programs, which directly
authorizes a range of research and development activities, reflect
the need for new technical or scientific information. One of these
provisions, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(Section 402), serves as the basic regulatory tool for the control of
industrial water pollution. Under this provision, EPA or approved
state regulatory agencies issue permits limiting the release of various
pollutants. Technologically attainable discharge limits must be
identified by EPA through promulgation of effluent guidelines for
particular industries (Section 301). The initial set of guidelines and
permits supported the achievement of best practicable technology
(BPT), aimed at the earliest possible control of conventional
pollutants. A 1976 consent decree plus the 1977 amendments to the
Clean Water Act modified the Agency approach by identifying 65
pollutant classes on which the Agency would be required to focus
regulatory efforts. These "priority pollutants," plus others as
appropriate, are to be considered by EPA in the preparation of
further effluent guidelines which define best available technology
economically achievable (BAT).
BPT, best conventional pollutant control technology or BCT,
BAT and associated permits are characterized as "technology-based."
In other words, they call for discharge limits based on what current
treatment technology can achieve limits independent of the
receiving water to which the wastewater is discharged. They require
research information on the treatability of various pollutants by
various types of treatment processes along with information on the
costs of treatment, its reliability, conditions under which it can be
used, etc. Where additional treatment beyond BAT is required to
protect receiving water quality, as in areas with large numbers of
dischargers and/or relatively small stream flows, case-by-case
decisions are made by the permitting authority such that adequate
water quality will be achieved in the receiving stream (Section 303).
These "water quality-based" actions require research information
such as how to enhance existing treatment process performance,
what innovative treatment and control options are practicable and
what the costs would be for various levels of control.
In addition to the above requirements for direct dischargers,
pretreatment standards, which describe comparable treatment needs
for industrial discharges into municipal treatment facilities, were
also required by Congress (Section 307). The legislative mandate for
technology-based standards, pretreatment standards, and water
quality-based permits require a variety of research results.
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In developing new regulations and in reviewing existing ones,
there is a major effort to integrate requirements of the Clean Water
Act with those of other statutes. As an example, new technology for
recycle and reuse of industrial wastewater and its constituents is
being considered both in the development and review of BAT
regulations and in related Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) requirements for disposing of hazardous industrial wastes.
The 1976 consent decree and the recent Clean Water Act
Amendments have added new requirements to the regulation of
industrial wastewaters. Supporting research, in addition to
establishing the removal capabilities and costs of various treatment
options and developing new and improved control technologies, also
needs to develop reliable, practicable and cost-effective analytical
techniques and monitoring methods for many individual toxic
pollutants.
With the Office of Water Regulations and Standards (OWRS)
now moving into the final phase of its schedule to promulgate BAT
guidelines for the most important industrial categories, a higher ratio
of short-term technical support to longer-term research by EPA's
research program is seen as desirable by that Office. The Agency's
regulations for BAT, new source performance standards and
pretreatment standards are now aimed,at controlling the wastewater
discharges of the "priority pollutants" some 126 specific toxic
chemicals from a number of primary industry categories. Many
studies have been or are nearly completed and proposed regulations
are being issued.
For the Office of Water Enforcement (OWE) and the regional
offices, it seems clear that increasing reliance on individual
permitting decisions at the regional office and state level is
desirable. This, in turn, places priority for support from ORD on
information for the issuance of individual permits and methods-for
expediting the permitting process.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
Industrial wastewater research efforts will be aimed primarily
at providing more cost-effective measurement and control methods
for toxic pollutants, particularly those listed in response to CWA
Section 307 (the priority pollutants), to enable industry to comply
with EPA regulations. The thrust toward more cost-effective
alternatives is aimed at meeting industry's needs for satisfying
permit requirements and reflects a shift in emphasis, now underway
for more than a year, toward facilitating permit issuance by EPA and
the states and permit compliance by industry and away from support
of effluent guidelines development as Agency effort on Best
Available Technology (BAT) winds down. "Consulting-type" responses
and technical support to the client offices will still be provided for
high priority needs.
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Over the next five-year period, the balance of effort will move
from short-term client office technical support toward longer-range,
more fundamental research.
Planned efforts will improve measurement and control
capabilities for the legally-defined set of CWA Section 307 toxic
pollutants and will broaden the identification of toxic pollutants in
industrial wastewaters. In addition, EPA's research will provide
monitoring and control methods for those industries that are most
important from the standpoint of impacts on human health and on the
environment. The importance of conventional pollutants will be
periodically re-evaluated, however, to assure that research and
development continues to focus on the most important problems as
well as to determine if more conventional and easier-to-measure
parameters can serve as Appropriate and less costly replacements for
detailed and relatively expensive pollutant-by-pollutant assays. The
search for less costly parameters is prompted by the complexity and
cost of determining the individual concentrations of numerous toxic
compounds. In addition to the more traditional analyses, other
possible alternative- parameters include use of a pollutant class
characteristic, e.g., a structural property or the measurement of an
overall waste characteristic such as "toxicity to living organisms."
These parameters could be useful as compliance parameters and in
monitoring of effluents as well as in evaluating the effectiveness of
various treatment and control options.
The general R&D approach is traditional-problem definition,
assessment of already-available solutions, identification of research
objectives and then desk-top.analysis, bench-scale experiments and
pilot-scale development efforts followed by full-scale prototype
demonstration where appropriate. When investigating control
alternatives, generic approaches applicable across several industries
will be pursued when possible rather than taking an industry-by-
industry approach. Moreover, this strategy recognizes that,
increasingly, non-conventional approaches should be examined. This
includes - consideration of improved and up-graded end-of-pipe
treatment methods (end-of-pipe control will continue as the mainstay
for industrial pollution control for some time to come) including
examination of the reductions in industrial pollution discharges which
could be attained through low-cost concepts such as improvements in
treatment plant operation and maintenance or even in plant
management practices or "housekeeping." Also included are
wastewater recycle/reuse and process change/raw material change
concepts. It must be stressed, however, that while recycle/reuse and
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process change and best management practices will be important
components of least-cost industrial pollution control solutions in the
future, the private sector is being relied upon to take the primary
initiative in these areas.
R&D resources will generally be allocated to those industry
categories with known or potentially high human-health or ecological
impacts. Efforts will be concentrated on those industries that
discharge waste streams with components that are suspected of
producing serious or irreversible human health or ecological impacts.
A major research challenge will be to assess the significance and the
treatability of the many chemical compounds which have been and
are being identified in various industrial effluents and which are not
now included in the present priority pollutant list. In addition,
identifying industries whose environmental impacts are particularly
widespread, either through manufacturing locations or product-use
patterns, provides another criterion for focussing industrial
wastewater research. Because of possible new types of
environmental problems which might result, special attention should
also be given to the potential water pollution problems of newly-
developing industries such as solvent or oil recovery, genetic
engineering and hazardous waste disposal.
The Agency's recent initiative toward consolidated permitting
procedures, together with the need for cost reduction in regulatory
compliance, has focused attention on cross-media implications of
wastewater control options. That is, serious consideration must be
given to assuring full cognizance of the air and land pollution
consequences of various water pollution control alternatives and
vice-versa, viz., the water pollution implications of new and different
kinds of air and land pollution controls must be recognized and
evaluated. This is particularly important with regard to hazardous
waste generation as a result of increased waste treatment
efficiencies.
Finally, it is recognized that cooperation between ORD and
industry will be beneficial. A maximum rate is attained when
enforcement and regulatory efforts are complemented by cooperative
liaison with industry. Such liaison 1) promotes realistic appreciation
by EPA of the technical and economic factors which impact
industry's ability to comply with regulatory and enforcement actions
and 2) promotes reasonably substantial progress by industry in
developing and putting into practice new, more effective and more
economical technological solutions to industrial waste problems.
In meeting specific commitments and carrying out continuing
support activities, emphasis will be given to the following areas:
ensuring data quality, least-cost control options, treatability studies,
characterizing and monitoring complex, effluents, early-warning
studies and technical assistance.
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Ensuring Data Quality
Many important policy and funding decisions at local, state and
federal levels and in private industry rely on data obtained from
sampling and analyzing pollutants in industrial wastewaters. It is
essential that such data be reliable and accurate. This can be assured
only through the vigorous application of quality assurance techniques
such as verifying the efficacy of the analytical methods used,
auditing the performance of analytical laboratories and even
conducting performance evaluations of individual analysts. If carried
out on a continuing basis, these actions will assure that results
obtained are of consistently good quality.
Many analytical methods currently in use remain incompletely
tested. Also, new analytical methods are constantly emerging and
are only tenuously applicable to EPA and state regulatory needs
because they may be unreliable and lack verification. Even when an
analytical test procedure has been thoroughly tested and its
performance expectations are known with a high degree of
confidence, factors of which the analyst is not aware can render the
test unreliable. Data generated can be completely false. For these
reasons, tools and laboratory protocols are provided by this research
program for quality control and quality assurance. Quality control
protocols provide check systems whereby analysts can evaluate their
own performance.
Quality assurance protocols are quite adequate for BOD, COD,
nutrients, minerals and trace metals. However, for trace organic
priority pollutant analyses . in complex industrial discharges,
especially for organic chemical pollutants from the synthetic organic
chemicals manufacturing industry, the protocols are less reliable.
A primary focus of this work involves the provision of certified
monitoring methods and quality assurance support for chemical,
physical and biological analyses and bioassays for EPA's overall
regulatory and enforcement programs. The monitoring and quality
assurance research efforts also offer direct, ongoing technical
support to EPA's effluent guidelines and water permitting programs.
This includes assistance in the performance evaluation of NPDES
discharger laboratories and the evaluation of the quality of the data
which are generated and submitted in discharge monitoring reports.
This is part of an Administrator-mandated Agency-wide quality
assurance effort related to monitoring data. Continuing support is
provided to the Office of Water Regulations and Standards, the
Office of Water Enforcement and the regional offices.
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Least-Cost Control Options
It is important that necessary pollution control requirements be
achieved by industry at least possible cost. Additional research
priority will be given to possible improvements in operation and
maintenance of existing industrial waste treatment facilities which
can yield enhanced performance at little or no additional capital
cost. In this respect, full-scale evaluations of both conventional and
improved biological treatment systems are carried out. These studies
should provide definitive information on which the Agency can base
decisions regarding the use of biological treatment alone in meeting
effluent limitations for the priority pollutants. In addition, as new or
newly-recognized industrial pollution problems arise, cost-effective
source controls may be needed.
Treatability Studies
The treatment of industrial pollutants is based on their
susceptibility to removal, destruction, or detoxification by various
physical, chemical, or biological processes. Having ready access to
information on how different pollutants respond to various treatment
alternatives is important in preparing effluent limitation and
pretreatment regulations and in issuing discharge permits. Data on
the treatability (removability) of priority pollutants have been
compiled and formatted into a Treatability Manual for joint use by
permit writers (state or EPA personnel) and by industrial permit
applicants in expediting and simplifying negotiation of realistic and
attainable permit conditions. Further effort is planned to assure both
currency and reliability of data and to extend usefulness accross a
wide range of U.S. industry categories, especially the organic
chemicals manufacturing industry. An up-dated manual has been
produced and a computerized design and a cost model for industrial
wastewater treatment is to be incorporated in 1983. Research
-efforts involve obtaining, analyzing, and compiling data on pollutant
treatability, with specific emphasis on toxic pollutants. Data on the
treatability of "toxicity" by various control technologies is also being
compiled. Treatability studies range from experimental evaluations
of specific pollutant removals by various processes to the
development of theoretically-based predictive models of pollutant
treatability.
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Characterizing Complex Effluents
Since many industrial wastewaters contain mixtures of 10 to
100 or more individual toxic compounds in varying concentrations,
the cost to monitor each compound individually and to characterize
the effectiveness of various treatment processes would be high. One
alternative approach is to develop bioassay techniques capable of
directly measuring "toxicity" (i.e., the combined toxic impact of all
toxicants present in the wastewater). Such methods would not only
greatly reduce the cost of analysis but would help move more quickly
to a more realistic understanding of the actual water quality impacts
of industrial wastewaters on rivers and streams. Currently available
aquatic bioassay methods are limited in applicability and most
methods can assess only acute, short-term toxicity to fish and
aquatic life. More reliable and more widely applicable methods will
be investigated, particularly methods which ultimately would allow us
to relate industrial wastewater quality to human health implications
in downstream public water supplies. The success or failure of work
in this area will influence where future emphasis in both monitoring
and control technology research should be placed.
Early-Warning Studies
Rather than spreading research, regulatory and industrial
pollution control resources broadly across all categories of industry,
ail areas of the nation and all types of pollutants, research
information is needed to help focus limited environmental protection
resources on those problems of greatest concern and on prevention of
new problems before they emerge. In this regard, effluents from the
21 industrial categories covered by the Consent Decree have been
characterized primarily with respect to the list of specific priority
pollutants. Work is underway to identify other potentially toxic
organic chemicals found repeatedly in effluents typical of each of the
industrial categories. This information is needed to determine which
toxic pollutants warrant closer attention and to evaluate the
reliability and usefulness of the above-mentioned bioassay techniques
for toxicity determinations. The characterizations need to be
sufficient to provide inputs to mathematical models that predict fate
and transport for use in risk assessments.
Technical Assistance
Second Round NPDES permits will require complex technical
and economic issues to be addressed. Biological assessments,
engineering analyses and statistical evaluations, for example, will be
required for many of the major industrial permits. ORD's expertise
in specific areas, particularly the chemicals and related industries
will be provided on an as-required basis. Technical assistance will
include participation on industry teams, special engineering analyses
and toxicity reduction plans, for example.
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MA3OR MILESTONES
Much of the ORD support for the Agency's efforts on regulating
industrial wastewater discharges is of a continuing nature. The
provision of quality assurance (QA) for sampling and analysis
activities by EPA, the states and by industry itself is a good example.
Similarly the validation and standardization of new analytical
methods for non-priority-pollutant pesticides, etc. and the correction
of deficiencies in such methods must, of necessity, be of an on-going
nature.
Specific milestones expected include:
Publication of up-dated Treatability Manual - 7/1982
Report on high surface area electrochemical waste
treatment technology - 9/1982
Promulgation of the analytical methods regulation for the
priority pollutants - 7/1982
Incorporation of design and cost model for industrial
wastewater treatment into Treatability Manual - 2/1983
Identification of priority and other pollutants in industrial
wastewaters by spectral matching of GC/MS tapes -
10/1983
Report on use of operation and maintenance techniques to
improve the cost-effectiveness of already-installed
treatment facilities - 9/198*
Report on lower-cost treatment technologies - 10/1984
Report on viability of toxicity reduction concept as an
integrated compliance parameter for complex industrial
discharges- 6/1985
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate
GROWTH
NO
MODERATE
HIGH
1983 1984
Projected Projected
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.3
1985
Projected
5.0
5.2
5.6
1986
Projected
5.0
5.3
6.0
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. Future efforts will emphasize provision of essential
support to permitting and compliance monitoring efforts by EPA and
the states. Analytical methods will be standardized and validated
and, where necessary, shortcomings in methods will be corrected.
Quality assurance support to Agency, state and discharger
laboratories will be provided. In further support of permitting,
additional pollutant treatability and toxicity reduction data will be
generated from pilot-scale studies on wastewaters containing highly
toxic components. Related cost vs. performance correlations will be
developed to support cost-benefit evaluations associated with use-
attainability determinations.
Moderate growth. In addition to the above efforts, work will be
conducted to develop the toxicity reduction concept as a means of
simplifying permit issuance and compliance monitoring.
High growth. In addition to the above efforts, attempts to
develop lower-cost analytical surrogates will be made.
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MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER
INTRODUCTION
More than 15,000 publicly owned treatment works (POTWs)
exist in the United States. These facilities treat the liquid waste of a
population of more than 156 million people and the wastes from
thousands of industrial and commercial facilities. This results in a
total flow of more than 34 billion gallons of treated wastewater each
day. By the year 2000 more than 21,000 POTWs are expected to exist
and to serve more than 250 million people. In addition, more than 12
million people are currently served by on-site treatment facilities
primarily septic tanks.
The impact of the discharge of such large volumes of municipal
and industrial wastewaters to this country's waterways and land
surfaces can be severe unless adequate treatment and management
practices are used. Bacteria and viruses in wastewater can cause
cholera, hepatitis, and amoebic dysentery. Oxygen-using organic
material can deplete lakes and streams of oxygen necessary for the
survival of fish. Municipal wastewater also contains materials
(phosphorus and nitrogen) that stimulate the growth of algae. An
excessive algal growth can produce thick mats that interfere with
recreation, cause unpleasant taste and odors in water supplies, and
exert a significant oxygen demand after the algae die. Toxic
materials in municipal wastewater can kill fish and deteriorate
sources of drinking water.
LEGISLATED RESPONSIBILITIES
*
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972
(PL 92.500), as amended by the Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1977 (PL
95-217) and the Municipal Wastewater Treatment Construction Grant
Amendments of 1981 (PL 97-117), form the legislative basis for the
Agency's efforts in municipal wastewater pollution control. Basic to
the Act is the imposition of technology-based controls on municipal
wastewater discharges. Section 104(d) of the CWA requires that EPA
develop and demonstrate practicable means of treating municipal
sewage to support the multibiilion dollar Construction Grants
program. This provides the fundamental impetus to EPA's research
efforts in control technology development. The specific
requirements of the Act foster research activities in several areas;
Toxic pollutants control. Section 307 of the CWA allows credit
for the removal of toxic pollutants by publicly owned treatment
works in the setting of pretreatment standards for industrial
dischargers to POTWs. Research on removal of toxics by POTWs is
helpful in establishing a basis for determining removal credits.
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Sludge management. Section 405 of the CWA requires that
EPA issue guidelines for the disposal and use of wastewater sludge.
Additional legislation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act (RCRA) of 1976 (PL-580) defines sludges from wastewater
treatment plants as solid waste, and requires that solid wastes be
used or disposed of in a safe and environmentally acceptable manner.
EPA also carries out research to develop alternatives to ocean
dumping as a sludge disposal option.
Land treatment/aquaculture. Section 2Ql(g)(5) of the CWA
prohibits the award of a construction grant unless land treatment has
been fully studied and evaluated. In addition, Section 201(d)
encourages recycling of potential sewage pollutants through
agriculture, silviculture, or aquaculture techniques.
Small wastewater flows. Section 104(qXD of the CWA requires
EPA to conduct a comprehensive program of research and
investigation into preventing, reducing or otherwise eliminating
pollution from sewage in rural and other areas where collection of
sewage in conventional, community-wide collection systems is
impractical or where soil conditions or other factors preclude the use
of septic tank and drainage field systems. In addition, Section
104(q)(3) requires the establishment of a national clearinghouse for
receiving and disseminating information concerning small wastewater
flows, and Section 205(h) requires 4 percent of the construction funds
to rural states (34) to be set aside for small rural communities.
Innovative and alternative (I/A) technology. Section 201(g)(5)
of the CWA requires the detailed consideration of I/A technologies as
part of each Construction Grant application. The Act authorizes a
federal' share of up to 85 percent for eligible construction costs for
I/A projects and the option to select I/A technologies that are up to
15 percent more costly than conventional practices. It further
provides for 100 percent grants to replace or modify I/A technology
failures and specific set-asides in the state construction grant
allotments devoted to funding I/A projects.
Health effects. Since many of the provisions of the CWA are
predicated on the need to protect public health, ORD's health effects
research supports requirements of the CWA for the safe treatment,
disposal and/or reuse of municipal wastewater and sludge, and for the
development of a health effects data base for setting water quality
standards and effluent guidelines.
Municipal Construction Grant Amendments of 1981
The Municipal Construction Grant Amendments of 1981
authorize EPA to grant to states up to $2.4-billion per year during
fiscal years 1982 to 1985. In addition, $200-miilion is authorized for
grants to correct combined sewer overflows. The federal share for
construction of conventional treatment works will be reduced from
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75 to 55 percent beginning in FY 1985. The only projects exempt
from this reduction in funding are segments of treatment works
where the initial segment received funding prior to October 1, 1984.
The new amendments also encourage states to assume greater
management of the Construction Grants program. Another major
provision of these amendments is that, effective October 1, 198*,
construction grants will be primarily for construction of treatment
plants, innovative/alternative projects, infiltration/inflow projects,
and interceptor sewers. A state may only spend up to 20 percent of
its federal share on collector sewers and other ineligible projects. In
addition, beginning on October 1, 198*, grants can be made for
combined sewer overflow projects in priority water quality areas.
RESEARCH STRATEGY
In concert with the new policies of the construction grants
program, the municipal wastewater research program will focus its
future activities on supporting the states in carrying out their water
pollution control programs. Emphasis will be on the development of
efficient and cost-effective treatment technologies to assure that
municipalities have the tools necessary to carry out their
environmental programs effectively and economically.
The EPA research program will: (1) augment technology
transfer activities to provide technical assistance to states and
municipalities in solving local problems with state-of-the-art control
technologies, (2) accelerate and encourage the use of innovative and
alternative technologies by providing technical support, technology
transfer and assessments of emerging technologies to states,
municipalities and design engineers, (3) develop improved process
design data and provide information that reduces construction and
operating costs while improving performance, reliability and/or
efficiency of publicly owned treatment works, and (*) provide health
effects data and assessments associated with various treatment
technologies.
The municipal wastewater research program currently focuses
on the following areas: innovative and alternative technology, plant
operation and design, sludge management, new treatment process
development, land application of wastewater, small wastewater
flows, toxic pollutants control, urban runoff, and health effects.
The innovative and alternative program will provide technical
support to encourage the use of I/A technologies by municipalities.
EPA's I/A technology research program is actively evaluating new
technologies that enhance the ability of municipalities to meet
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discharge limitations in a cost-effective manner. The emphasis is on
assessing emerging technologies that may help to reduce capital,
operational/maintenance, and/or energy costs. Several assessments
of emerging technologies will be published to promote their use by
the regions, states, municipalities and private sector. An information
clearinghouse will be operated in support of the states and
municipalities.
There is a continuing need for methods to upgrade plant design
and improve plant operation. EPA's research will focus on: (1)
identification of any operational, maintenance, and design problems
that affect POTW compliance capability, (2) preparation of
documents for use by treatment plant designers on the effects of
peak flows, aeration devices, energy conservation, and sidestreams,
(3) investigation of unit process reliability for future design
considerations, and (4) improvement of process control reliability
through development of better application information and the
establishment of a self-supporting Instrument Testing and
Certification Institute.
The sludge management research program continues to hold a
high priority. Sludge management represents a major operating cost
and environmental problem for municipalities. Research will focus
on providing more efficient and low-cost processes for the treatment,
conversion, use and disposal of sludge from publicly owned treatment
works. Major emphasis will be on: acceleration of the development
of the two-phase anaerobic sludge digestion process which has the
potential of reducing capital costs and increasing the gas yield,
evaluation of in-vessel composting and sludge to fuels, and the
application of cellulose enzymes for increasing destruction of sludge.
Efforts in sludge dewatering, incineration and assessment of the
effects of heavy metals -from land application to food-chain crops
will be reduced.
Conventional biological treatment plants can be expensive to
operate due to high capital, space, manpower and energy
requirements. EPA's research into new process development aims to
enhance the ability of municipalities to meet discharge limitations
with the least-cost combination of processes. Oxygen-demanding
solids, harmful microbes and specific pollutants, such as the priority
pollutants and the nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen, are primary
concerns in this research. Current emphasis is on evaluating novel
biological concepts and processes which may reduce cost and energy
requirements, increase reliability, reduce solids production, lessen
intermedia impacts and conserve natural resources. Efforts in
specific pollutants and wastewater disinfection will be reduced.
In many areas of the nation, land treatment can be a
particularly effective procedure for treating wastewater while at the
same time reducing costs and/or using the wastes as nutrients and the
water to irrigate cover crops. With this in mind, research will be
devoted to developing design and operating information for rapid
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infiltration and overland flow systems. The effects of colder
climates on overland flow systems, the more efficient management
of vegetative cover, the management of nitrogen particularly in rapid
infiltration systems, and the ability of these systems to treat
complex organics will be examined. Research will also address
aquaculture. Here, EPA research will produce design and operating
information for using water hyacinths and other plants for
wastewater treatment. A newly developed high-rate aquaculture
process called the nutrient film technique will be evaluated on a
small scale at a municipality.
The Clean Water Act requires that rural states set aside four
percent of their Construction Grant allotment for small communities.
The shortfall of technology applicable to small communities and on-
site use must be alleviated if system failures are to be avoided and
costs controlled. The current research program is directed toward
development and dissemination of a range of technologies in the form
of handbooks for design, operation and management. Specific
activities includes the Small Wastewater Flows Clearinghouse that
provides ready access to technical information by the user
community, the Cincinnati center for the controlled study of viable
alternative technologies, development of a handbook on alternative
wastewater collection systems for use by private design engineers,
and regional and state program managers in providing technical
assistance.
pollutants control program research will produce
information on the sources and treatability of toxic pollutants as well
as develop strategies for toxics control. The major focus of this
program is on: a report which, characterizes the sources, occurrence,
and concentration of the influents and effluents in POTW systems,
reports on the treatabiiity and removability of priority pollutants and
other toxic organics by a variety of conventional and advanced
processes and toxic control options and strategies using various
modeling and systems analysis approaches. The results of -this
research will aid in determining the levels of toxic industrial waste
discharge a POTW can handle without adverse effect on its treatment
process. Currently, wastewater characterization work is being
completed, and the program will focus its in-house resources on
treatability studies.
Historically, the urban runoff program has provided the
research support for the Construction Grants, Great Lakes, and
Nationwide Urban Runoff Programs. This support includes conduct of
problem assessments, development of cost-effective control
technologies, evaluations of best management practices, and the
development and documentation of management tools. The program
is being phased down considerably in 1982, with the development of
new infiltration/inflow measurement and control techniques receiving
continued support. ~~
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The municipal wastewater health program focuses on three
primary areas: land treatment of wastewater, wastewater
aquacuiture, and land application of sludge.
In the land treatment area, epidemiologicai studies of human
infectious disease will continue at land treatment sites in Texas and
Israel. Research is progressing on determining the fate of intestinal
pathogens during pre-appiication treatment, particularly in
wastewater stabilization ponds (holding ponds, lagoons). This
research will be expanded to include the study of the soil matrix
under various environmental conditions. Research will also
determine the consequent entry of bacterial and viral pathogens into
groundwater and the food chain. Since the health response of any
particular dose of virus depends upon the minimum infective dose,
research in this area has high relevance.
EPA research will evaluate the use of pretreated wastewater in
commercial aquaculture. Products from such aquacuiture systems
will be evaluated for the presence of harmful toxic organics, trace
elements, and human pathogens. This research is important in
determining the potential health problems from human consumption
of food products (fish and shrimp) grown in wastewater aquaculture
systems.
Land application of sludge to food-chain crops has the potential
of causing disease in humans from either microbial pathogens or toxic
pollutants by exposure through direct contact, bioaccumulation in
food products, or groundwater contamination. Research will
determine the public health hazard of exposure to microbial
pathogens as a result of land .application of sludge. In addition, the
bioaccumulation of toxic organics and heavy metals in plants and
animals grown on sludge-amended soil will be more precisely defined.
To date, animals fed crops grown on sludge-amended soil have shown
increased metal concentrations in certain organs as well as evidence
of reproductive effects. When available, the results of this research
^, will be used in developing guidelines for safe sludge disposal.
f\ *W
I \ *
< \ f MAJOR MILESTONES
c \ '
*? +j \ Emphasis will be placed on early identification and examination
Ĩ "jj \ of critical operating parameters for emerging and alternative
7 Ŗr ^ technologies before characteristic O&M problems develop. Improved
00 p guidance and design information will be disseminated for both
E3 CD conventional and newer technologies. In the innovative and
;":-, i?10 alternative technologies research program, technical assessments of
;
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Specific milestones expected include:
Production of emerging technology assessment reports by
the innovative and alternative technologies research
program - 2/1982 to 9/1984
Design information series to supplement existing body of
information on design of POTWs - 5/1982 to 9/1986
Completion of health assessments for land application of
municipal wastewater (subject to periodic updates) -
1/1983
Preparation of summary document on health effects of
cadmium in humans to support regulations to be developed
for sludge disposal under RCRA and the Clean Water Act
12/1984
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RESOURCE OPTIONS
1982 Current Estimate 16.6
1983 1984 1985 1986
GROWTH Projected Projected Projected Projected
NO 11.6 11.6 11.6 11.6
MODERATE 11.6 11.9 12.3 12.7
HIGH 11.6 12.3 13.0 13.8
Figures are in millions of dollars.
No growth. Major emphasis will be on research to develop and
evaluate innovative and alternative control technologies. Particular
emphasis will be on developing more effective sludge management
alternatives and improving the operation and maintenance of
treatment plants and their energy efficiencies.
Moderate growth. Further advances will be pursued in the
development and demonstration of technologies for aquacuiture.
High growth. Major emphasis will focus on providing expert
technical support and development of new or improved on-site
wastewater management systems.
U.S. Environment.?.! Fraction Agency
Region V, Ubr;-ry _,--
230 Sou Mi C ;j.rbj.rn Street ^'
Chicago, Illinois 60604 ""'"
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