Environmental
Response
Team
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U,S. Environmental Protection Agency
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Environmental
Response
learn
Contents
2 ERT: What we do
4 Operating in the Field
5 Making Environmental
Decisions
7 Developing Data
8 Training Response
Specialists
9 Incident Response Operations
10 ERTin action
10 Throughout the Years
11 Across the United States
12 Case Histories
16 How ERT is activated
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ERT: What we do
Congress enacted the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation,
and Liability Act (CERCLA) in December
1980 to broaden and strengthen Federal
initiatives in responding to hazardous
waste emergencies. Limited authority to
deal with these emergencies previously
had been based on Section 311 of the
Clean Water Act. A new office, the Office
of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
(OSWER), was established within the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency to ad-
minister CERCLA, Section 311 of the Clean
Water Act and the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA) which had
preceded CERCLA. OSWER has quickly
become the nerve center of a compre-
hensive, well-coordinated nationwide at-
tack upon solid waste problems dealing
with uncontrolled hazardous waste sites
and environmental emergencies.
One of the basic OSWER missions is
provision of technical services to both
National and Regional offices of EPA in
nonenforcement aspects of response ac-
tions. This mission is carried out by the
Hazardous Response Support Division
(HRSD) located in OSWER's Office of
Emergency and Remedial Response.
HRSD's responsibilities are to:
• Provide field support and technical
assistance to on-scene emergency
efforts.
• Train personnel involved in response
actions.
• Conduct a comprehensive program of
collecting, processing and disseminat-
ing technical information to National
and Regional offices.
• Serve as the focal point with EPA's
Office of Research and Development in
identification of new research needs,
evaluation of new technologies, and
their incorporation into EPA's emer-
gency response and hazardous waste
site program.
The Environmental
Response Team
The focal point of HRSD cleanup efforts is
the Environmental Response Team (ERT),
a group of 11 hazardous waste experts
who provide multidisciplinary assistance
to EPA's other hazardous waste response
experts located in its 10 Regional offices.
Together they can bring to bear upon a
problem nearly 100 years of technical
experience in dealing with hazardous
wastes.
The ERT was established in 1978 under
the National Contingency Plan, the ve-
hicle through which the Clean Water Act
directed coordination of Federal hazard-
ous cleanup and response efforts. The
basic ERT function initially was to advise
On-Scene Coordinators and Regional Re-
sponse Teams on environmental issues
dealing with cleaning up oil spills in
navigable waters, and accidents involving
approximately 300 hazardous substances.
When Congress enacted the Comprehen-
sive Environmental Response, Compen-
sation, and Liability Act in 1980 to estab-
lish adequate legal mechanisms for
cleaning up abandoned or uncontrolled
hazardous waste sites, it directed the
National Contingency Plan to broaden its
emergency responses. Thus, CERCLA,
commonly called Superfund, currently is
activated by emergencies at sites as well
as spills, by threats to air, land and
non-navigable as well as navigable wat-
ers, and by accidents involving a much
larger number of hazardous substances.
Local communities are on the receiving
end of all these environmental catas-
trophes, but solutions often are beyond
the communities' abilities and means.
Through the ERT EPA is able to furnish
around-the-clock support personnel
highly-skilled in all aspects of environ-
mental emergencies.
The 11 ERT members represent every
discipline involved in dealing with
hazardous substances, including: biology,
ecology; chemistry and chemical en-
gineering; civil and sanitary engineering;
environmental health and science; and
industrial hygiene. The Team is proficient
not only in planning but conducting
emergency operations, with special em-
phasis upon application of new technol-
ogy and equipment, especially safety
equipment and decontamination
procedures.
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Some of the primary functions Team
members are trained to perform include:
chemical, biological and physical treat-
ment and monitoring techniques; control,
restoration, disposal and contingency
planning during emergencies; installa-
tion, operation and evaluation of in-
strumentation and field response sys-
tems; sampling and analysis of air, water
and soil; water pollution biology and
toxicology; environmental radiation train-
ing; occupational health and safety, and
computerized gas chromatography/mass
spectrometry.
The ERT's major functions are to:
• Maintain an around-the-clock activation
system.
• Upon request, dispatch Team mem-
bers to emergency sites to assist Re-
gional and program offices.
• Provide critical consultation in water
and air quality criteria, toxicology, in-
terpretation and evaluation of analyt-
ical data, and engineering and scientific
studies.
• Develop and conduct site-specific
safety programs.
• Provide technical experts for a Public
Affairs Assist Team (PAAT).
• Supervise the work of contractors.
• Provide specialized equipment to meet
specific site requirements such as
monitoring, analytical support, waste
treatment, containment and control.
• Help to develop technical manuals,
policies, and standard operating pro-
cedures (SOPs).
• Assist in developing new technology
for use at environmental emergencies
and uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.
• Train Federal, State and local govern-
ment officials and industry repre-
sentatives in the latest technology for
environmental emergencies at hazard-
ous waste responses.
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ERT: What we do
The Nature of the Response
Each year, EPA answers hundreds of calls
for emergency assistance and cleanup
expertise at spills and hazardous waste
sites. The Agency's On-Scene Coordina-
tors and Superfund Coordinators are
drawn from more than 100 emergency
response specialists located in EPA's 10
Regional offices. These coordinators also
are highly trained in such disciplines as
biology, chemistry, engineering and
ground water hydrology. They are experi-
enced in cleaning up and removing spills
or mitigating the adverse environmental
effects of hazardous waste sites. They
review and implement spill prevention
control and countermeasures which must
be prepared by facilities handling oil or
other hazardous materials. If they need
help, they call upon the ERT
The type of ERT response varies. In a
chemical spill into a river, for example, the
ERT provides immediate assistance. (Re-
sponsibility for on-scene coordination
rests with EPA for inland incidents, while
the Coast Guard is responsible for those
in coastal waters and the Great Lakes.)
The assistance might include monitoring
the chemicals, predicting the dispersion
rate, and providing emergency water
treatment technology or alternate water
supplies. In the case of a hazardous waste
site, the Team assists in developing tech-
niques and solutions to minimize the
immediate threat, and then helps identify
long-term solutions.
The Environmental Response Branch,
The Organizational Entity for the ERT,
includes three sections: Operational
Support, Environmental Impact, and
Analytical Support.
Operating in the Field
The OPERATIONAL SUPPORT SECTION,
through the EPA Regional representative,
develops and implements site-specific
strategies for both short-term and long-
term responses at uncontrolled hazard-
ous waste sites and environmental
emergencies. The Section:
• Conducts or assists Regions in conduct-
ing engineering feasibility studies for
containment, cleanup and disposal ac-
tions at hazardous waste sites.
• Develops alternatives for on-site/off-
site disposal of hazardous materials,
toxic wastes and recovered spill mate-
rial, on both temporary and permanent
bases.
• Evaluates existing technical
approaches.
• Develops and implements new techni-
cal approaches as necessary.
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Performs cost analyses.
Ensures that all operations, such as
access control, decontamination, per-
sonnel monitoring and respiratory pro-
tection, incorporate the latest safety
and health preservation techniques.
Ensures compliance with all appropri-
ate Federal and State regulations, in-
cluding those of the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensa-
tion, and Liability Act, Resource Con-
servation and Recovery Act, Clean
Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Safe
Drinking Water Act.
Provides and supervises on-site con-
tract support as necessary.
As required, supports other programs
such as training, ADP and enforcement
activities, both in Headquarters and the
Regional offices.
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Environmental Emergency
Response Unit
Here is an example of how the Opera-
tional Support Section responds: The
Section is called upon to assist a Regional
office in lowering the liquid level in a
hazardous waste lagoon which is
threatening to overflow. Within 24 hours,
a Mobile Activated Carbon Treatment
Trailer is at the site to pump and treat the
contaminated water, thus minimizing the
environmental emergency. A Mobile Ana-
lytical Laboratory arrives to ensure that
the discharge from the carbon treatment
unit meets State water quality standards.
These pieces of equipment are part of the
arsenal which makes up the Environmen-
tal Emergency Response Unit (EERU).
The EERU is a cooperative effort between
the ERT the Oil and Hazardous Materials
Spills Branch (OHMSB) of EPA's Office of
Research and Development, and contrac-
tor personnel. The Unit provides the most
effective use of methodology and equip-
ment under development or already
field-tested. This technology, available for
operational response through the ERT
includes proven and prototype spill con-
trol and cleanup equipment, treatability
studies and laboratory consultation
services.
The ERT is responsible for activating
EERU when the latter's capabilities are
required. Upon such activation, the ERT
assumes operational control for EERU
and provides overall coordinating ca-
pacity during the incident.
Equipment available through the ERT/
EERU includes:
• Mobile Activated Carbon Treatment
Trailers (2).
• Mobile Analytical Laboratory (GC/MS,
GC, IR, AA, Compatability Studies).
• Mobile Flocculation/Sedimentation
System.
• Mobile Stream Diversion System.
• Pilot Plant Treatability Unit.
Other special mobile equipment, includ-
ing a unique mobile incinerator now
undergoing final testing, will be added to
the Team's arsenal in the future.
For further information on Operational
Support Section services, contact:
John Gilbert
Chief, Operational Support Section,
ERT
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
26 West St. Clair
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
513-684-7537
FTS-684-7537
Making Environmental
Decisions
The ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT SEC-
TION, through the Regional representat-
ive, develops and implements new ap-
proaches to risk assessment, determining
the extent of contamination, the degree of
cleanup necessary, and restoration re-
quirements at uncontrolled hazardous
waste sites and environmental emergen-
cies. The Section:
• Rapidly assesses the toxicity of
leachates, treatment system effluents
and environmental samples.
• Develops and implements priority sys-
tems to ensure that all corrective ac-
tions are directed to the most sensitive
and vulnerable environmental, social
and economic areas.
• Coordinates human health studies
conducted by the Communicable Dis-
ease Center of the Public Health Serv-
ice and/or State health officials to
identify impacts and remedial activities
on specific population segments.
• Prepares, evaluates and reviews En-
vironmental Assessments to ensure
that response actions produce the
fewest possible complications for the
environment and local population.
• Develops data and evaluates informa-
tion to ensure that the effective cleanup
and restoration activities are carried
out.
• Provides input to other programs as
required.
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ERT: What we do
Hazard Assessment
One of the first steps the Environmental
Impact Section takes in formulating a
hazardous substance strategy is to de-
termine the degree of risk to people and
the environment. Since the hazard may
affect its target population in several
ways, it is essential that the assessment
consider all environmental media —air,
surface water, ground water, soil, and
biomass.
The Section has been conducting hazard-
ous assessments at a variety of spills and
waste sites; each operation produces an
increasingly refined hazard assessment
technique. This increased sophistication
has resulted in improved documentation
of the extent of contamination, a logical
approach for defining "when clean is
clean enough," and the extent of cleanup
ultimately recommended.
The Section's approach is first to consider
the hazard itself, then to determine its
probable pathways. Identification of the
actual pathway or pathways and the
speed of the contaminant's migration will
dictate selection of the most cost-effective
remedial actions. These findings are then
used to develop engineering options for
containing and removing contaminants,
and restoring the site.
Toxicity Testing
In its field activities the Environmental
Impact Section employs a new instru-
ment which rapidly assesses the toxicity
of leachates, treatment system effluents
and ambient water. The portable instru-
ment has been used successfully at a
number of hazardous waste sites and
spills for toxicity screening of waterborne
contaminants, as well as for substantia-
tion of other aquatic bioassay tests. The
instrument operates on the fact that toxic
chemicals in water inhibit the light-
emitting capacity of certain marine bac-
teria. The degree of light inhibition is
directly proportional to the concentration
of the chemicals.
The instrument's effectiveness is derived
from its portability, its compactness and
its dependence upon regular household
electric current. Requiring only four feet of
table top or laboratory bench space, it can
be set up in a command post or a motel
room. Individual samples can be assayed
in 5-15 minutes. This type of speed can be
particularly valuable if the sample is from
stored, treated wastewaters that must be
discharged only after toxicity tests are
completed. The instrument also reveals
the synergistic effects of toxic mixtures,
which cannot be predicted by interpreting
data from chemical analysis.
The data produced by the instrument are
the result of toxic chemicals acting on
various physiological systems of the
marine bacteria. As such, the data do not
have as much ecological relevance as a
bioassay of fresh water fish or macroin-
vertebrates. However, the instrument has
been used enough on certain fish/macro-
invertebrate bioassays to make correla-
tions with specific toxic chemicals.
The Environmental Impact Section is also
developing a portable unit using fresh
water fish and Daphnia (a small crusta-
cean) to generate toxicity information.
This unit will soon be combined with the
rapid assessment instrument to provide a
complete system for defining toxicity in
aqueous hazardous materials.
This new unit consists of modules that
can be transported as baggage on most
airlines and set up in a trailer. Its own
temperature control unit maintains ap-
propriate temperatures for test
organisms.
While the unit's diluter system is espe-
cially designed to produce the concen-
trations of pollutant required for generat-
ing standard TL50 data, it can be easily
modified to perform special tests using
more than one pollutant at a time.
The information generated from these
two new instruments can be used to
determine:
• The most environmentally acceptable
means of counteracting effects of
hazardous material discharges.
• The environmental acceptability of the
effluent from various treatment
processes.
• The biological "zone of influence" re-
sulting from the discharges of hazard-
ous materials.
For further information on Environmental
Impact Section services, contact:
Dr. Joseph Lafornara
Chief, Analytical Support Section, ERT
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Edison, New Jersey 08837
201-321-6741
FTS-340-6741
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Developing Data
The ANALYTICAL SUPPORT SECTION,
through the Regional representative, de-
velops and implements sampling and
analytical programs to handle particular
problems associated with environmental
emergency and uncontrolled hazardous
waste sites. The Section:
• Ensures that collected samples are
representative of the problem at hand.
• Provides mobile laboratory equipment
operation and support personnel.
• Provides nonroutine analytical support
on or off site, either through in-house or
contract laboratories.
• Interprets data and provides informa-
tion in a format that can be readily
used by operational personnel.
• Provides remote sensing services for
multimedia episodes through aerial
reconnaissance, fixed-position monitor-
ing equipment and portable
instruments.
• Provides and ensures quality control so
that data generated on a case-by-case
basis can be used with confidence by
those making technical remedial
decisions.
Prepares site-specific safety plans, in-
cluding the levels of protection re-
quired by workers onsite, control of
access to the site, and decontamination
procedures.
Site-Specific Analytical Plans
The Analytical Support Section has
pioneered the development and im-
plementation of analytical plans tailored
to the needs of individual sites. At uncon-
trolled hazardous waste sites, for in-
stance, the Section developed and im-
plemented compatibility testing protocols
(CTP) to allow the safe bulking of barrel-
led wastes. The basic protocol, modified
for each site, consists of spot tests for pH,
oxidation-reduction potential, radiation,
flammability, volatile gases, and water
reactivity. At sites where disposal re-
quirements demand testing for specific
materials, such as PCBs, cyanides and
organic chlorine, the Section adds rapid
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analytical procedures to screen each bar-
rel. Custom compatibility schemes have
been developed and used successfully at
several sites, including those in Kingston,
New Hampshire; Coventry, Rhode Island;
Baltimore, Maryland; Rock Creek, Ohio;
Ellisville, Missouri; and Lock Haven,
Pennsylvania. Compatibility testing is
very economical because it avoids the
necessity of separately and completely
characterizing the contents of each of the
thousands of drums found on most sites.
Site-Specific Safety Plans
At the request of the On-Scene Coor-
dinator, the Section develops and imple-
ments site-safety plans incorporating the
unique requirements of each site. Using
"Interim Standard Operating Safety Pro-
cedures" issued by the Office of Emer-
gency and Remedial Response, the Sec-
tion determines the zones of contamina-
tion, the type of personal protective
equipment required for each operation
being conducted in a given zone, the
method and frequency of workplace air
monitoring for each zone and type of
operation, and the method and location of
personnel and equipment decontamina-
tion. Custom safety plans have been used
at several sites, including Stroudsburg,
Pennsylvania; Ellisville, Missouri;
Elizabeth, New Jersey; Lock Haven,
Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; Ep-
ping, New Hampshire; Tacoma, Washing-
ton; Fresno, California; and Nampa, In-
diana.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Royal Nadeau
Chief, Environmental Impact Section,
ERT
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Edison, New Jersey 08837
201-321-6743
FTS-340-6743
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Training Response Specialists
Item: An abandoned storage warehouse
catches fire. Local volunteer firemen ex-
tinguish the blaze but find many drums,
containers and cartons whose labels indi-
cate they contain a variety of chemicals.
Pungent odors also are obvious. Realizing
their lack of expertise in dealing with
chemicals could present a serious threat
to themselves and local inhabitants, the
firemen seal off the warehouse and re-
quest outside help.
Item: A flat-bed tractor trailer rig,
placarded with diamond-shaped signs
reading "DANGEROUS," spills its load at
an intersection off a freeway exit during
the morning rush hour. A number of
55-gallon drums and boxes of various
sizes litter the site. A deputy sheriff arrives
on the scene, reroutes traffic and radios
his office that a serious situation involving
hazardous materials could exist. He re-
quests expert assistance immediately to
assess the situation and advise on
cleanup.
If uncontrolled, release of hazardous sub-
stances in these two incidents could have
adversely affected public health or the
environment. The incidents, however,
were not real but simulated. Staged
periodically by the ERT at EPA's Region II
facility in Edison, New Jersey, they are
designed to approximate real events as
closely as possible. "Assistance" is pro-
vided by participants in a training course
entitled "Hazardous Materials Incident
Response Operations." Following a week
of instruction, the truck incident provides
a mock crisis to which the class responds
as a team.
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To improve EPA's readiness to manage
environmental episodes involving
hazardous materials, EPA's Office of
Emergency and Remedial Response di-
rected the ERTto plan, organize and
conduct a training program. As a result,
courses were developed to train emer-
gency response personnel from Federal,
State and local levels in five areas of
hazardous environmental response: a
general introduction, monitoring and
sampling, hazard evaluation, mitigation
and treatment, and personnel protection.
The program's goal is to provide practical
knowledge about response activities dur-
ing the initial phase of hazardous sub-
stance incidents. Focusing on team func-
tions, methods, procedures, organization
and safety in responding to hazardous
episodes, the courses emphasize the fol-
lowing considerations:
• Recognizing the hazards associated
with specific materials.
• Determining the risks to the public and
the environment.
• Developing methods of reducing or
preventing hazardous effects.
• Protecting response personnel.
Although each release of a hazardous
substance presents a unique situation,
corrective principles remain the same;
they must merely be adapted to meet
specific incidents.
Incident Response Operations
The course on Hazardous Materials Inci-
dent Response Operations is a unique
course within EPA because it emphasizes
field exercises. Each course presentation
is limited to 18 participants who come
from EPA, Coast Guard, State and local
emergency response offices, other Fed-
eral agencies and private organizations.
During the work and field sessions, parti-
cipants are divided into small groups
which operate independently. The first
part of the instruction covers problem-
solving and decision-making, evaluation
of hazards, determination of risks and
selection of appropriate personnel protec-
tive equipment and methods.
The next block of instruction provides
detailed direction in the use of protective
clothing and breathing equipment, the
body's first line of defense against hostile,
toxic environments. All students receive a
self-contained breathing apparatus and
full-face air purifying mask. After thor-
ough instruction in its uses, limitations
and inspection procedures, the equip-
ment is worn by the students in a
smoke-filled environment, on obstacle
courses and while operating field instru-
ments. The participants also practice
wearing various types of fully encapsulat-
ing suits over the breathing apparatus.
Both laboratory and outdoor exercises
provide students with a basic understand-
ing of the fundamental instruments avail-
able for initially assessing the hazards and
characterizing the site. While learning
how to work under adverse conditions,
the students also establish a series of
decontamination lines to demonstrate the
correct procedures for removing chemi-
cals from protective clothing during re-
sponse operations.
As they move through their exercises, the
students begin to develop an awareness
of the complexities involved in hazardous
substance incidents. Each situation in-
volves specific factors which must be
evaluated and managed, based upon the
information available. The class learns to
organize, develop and mount a team
effort that effectively reduces the en-
vironmental impact of the incident.
The final exercises are designed to test
the participants' ability to use their
newly-acquired knowledge in a full-scale
environmental episode. Although simu-
lated, the incidents represent events that
have actually happened. Throughout the
course, emergency response principles
and procedures are discussed in detail;
the final test is their application to the
simulated environmental episode.
Plans call for at least one training presen-
tation per month for the next fiscal year.
For more information about this course
and the other technical courses, contact:
Thomas Sell
Training Coordinator, ERT
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency
26 West St .Clair Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
513-684-7537
FTS-684-7537
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ERT in action
Since its founding in 1978, the ERT has
responded to more than 170 emergency
incidents and hazardous waste sites; it
has provided direct technical assistance in
another 250 incidents. Responses have
been provided for all 10 EPA Regions,
including Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the
Commonwealth of the Northern
Marianna Islands (Saipan). At the request
of the government of Mexico, the Team
provided technical aid in controlling the
IXTOC blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. It
also provided on-scene advice on spill
control measures following a train de-
railment involving liquid chlorine near the
city of San Luis Potosi.
The type of support the ERT provides has
changed since 1978 from strict "emer-
gency" response, typically short in dura-
tion, to "quick" response involving more
FISCAL YEAR 1980
TOTAL RESPONSES - 53
(includes 1 carryover-FY79)
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FISCAL YEAR 1982
TOTAL RESPONSES = 29
(includes 5 carrvovers-FYSI)
FISCAL YEAR 1981
TOTAL RESPONSES -- 49
(includes 3 carryovers-FY80)
-------
FISCAL YEAR
TOTAL RESPONSES = 42
FISCAL YEAR
TOTAL RESPONSES = 53
1 1
II
III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X
FISCAL YEAR 1981
TOTAL RESPONSES = 49
(includes 1-Mexico)
13
FISCAL YEAR 1982
TOTAL RESPONSES = 29
II III IV V VI VII VIM IX X
IV V VI VII VIII IX X
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ERT in action
Team members over a longer period. For
example, during its first year of operation,
the ERT responded to 42 incidents, ap-
proximately half of which were oil spills.
Oil can be handled by a single individual
with little or no respiratory protection. The
present responses, however, require a
minimum of two people operating on the
"buddy system" and generally utilizing
sophisticated personnel protection
equipment.
Average duration of responses has in-
creased from 4.5 days in 1978 to nine
days. Some responses have entailed in-
termittent actions over several months. At
the present rate of response, the ERT will
be on-site at more than 60 incidents
during Fiscal Year 1982.
The ERT's responses have historically
been concentrated in the Eastern half of
the United States, primarily because of
the area's large concentration of industrial
operations.
In the ERT's early years, when its re-
sponses were primarily to oil spills, ac-
tivities peaked in the early spring when
the annual thaw brought increased
movement of petroleum products on
waterways and through pipelines. Curi-
ously, this response pattern persists even
though the Team's responses are shifting
to hazardous waste sites.
Overall, preventable incidents such as
housekeeping-type oil spills, which for-
merly comprised approximately 90% of
all reported hazardous substance epi-
sodes, have decreased steadily in recent
years. Credit for this welcome trend is due
to a growing sense of responsibility by
industry, to rapidly-advancing waste dis-
posal technology, and to the Spill Preven-
tion Control and Countermeasure Pro-
gram which is a part of Section 311 of the
Clean Water Act.
12
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11
Case Histories
Problems and complaints involving
hazardous substances at the site of a
surplus materials retailer, and the threat of
the materials' migration into nearby water
sources, led EPA to place the area on the
Interim Priority List of 115 hazardous waste
sites. When a spectacular fire at the site
destroyed and weakened storage con-
tainers, EPA's Emergency Response Team
was called. Arriving at the scene 12 hours
later, the ERT had conducted a hazard
assessment within the next 24 hours. Its
report was approved by the OSC within
48 hours. Maintaining contact with the
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ERT in action
ERT safety expert in Edison, the Team's
field representative coordinated prepara-
tion of a revised air monitoring and safety
plan, procurement of a State industrial
hygienist to do the monitoring, and a
laboratory for the air analysis. The ERT
representative also identified the criteria
needed to evaluate the danger to drinking
water.
ERT assistance was also requested when
it was discovered that a mineral oil-PCB
mixture disposed of by a small firm had
eventually flowed into a storm sewer and
flushed out in a swampy wooded area.
The Team's main task was to determine
the extent of contamination and charac-
terize the horizontal and vertical migration
pattern of the substance in the sandy
loam soil. The Team also had to do a
complete soil sampling survey, using
auger and coring apparatus, to determine
the possible incorporation of PCB into
plants growing in the affected area. Sur-
face concentrations of the contaminant
were mapped along with depth profiles to
give a three dimensional picture of
surface/subsurface migration patterns.
Although chemicals in soils are subject to
extremely stringent environmental
criteria, the ERT recognized its limitations
in applying these criteria to spill situa-
tions. The Team devised and recom-
mended intermediate safe concentrations
of PCBs in the swamp. The Team also
presented alternatives for immobilizing
PCBs at the site.
Technical assistance was requested in the
cleanup of a former manufacturing site
involving hazardous substances. The
Team helped throughout the cleanup by:
J!***^
14
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assessing the immediate hazard to the
public; writing a site safety plan and
establishing levels of worker protection;
preparing a scope of work for various
phases of the cleanup and modifying it as
more information was gathered; estab-
lishing a protocol for on-site analysis to
determine the compatibility of the mate-
rials present; and providing operational
support to the OSC.
Activated to provide technical expertise to
the OSC at another hazardous site, the
ERT helped devise and operate a system
for air monitoring, and reviewed analyt-
ical and safety protocols. The initial air
monitoring survey by the ERT revealed
ambient concentrations of organic pollut-
ants ranging from two parts per million
(ppm) to 10 ppm above background,
depending upon distance from particular
wastes. In addition to instituting the air
monitoring program and supervising the
off-site analysis, the ERT trained contrac-
tor personnel to collect air samples and
perform field analysis for total pollutant
concentrations. The ERT also interpreted
air data to assist the OSC in evaluating the
extent of hazards and effectiveness of the
cleanup.
When assistance was requested at an
abandoned metals reclaiming facility, the
ERT arranged for analysis and disposal of
the hazardous wastes and developed a
safety plan which was used to assess site
conditions. The Team also was instru-
mental in developing an operational plan
for completion of the project and in direct-
ing cleanup operations during the initial,
intense stages of the action.
15
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How the ERT is activated
The ERT maintains a 24-hour response
capability. Once an EPA On-Scene Coor-
dinator (OSC) determines that ERT assist-
ance is required for an effective response,
he may telephone these officials:
• During working hours, Kenneth Big-
lane, Director of the Hazardous Re-
sponse Support Division
(FTS 245-3048).
• During nonworking hours, Steve Dorr-
ler, the ERT leader (or his designee) at
the 24-hour response telephone
(201-321-6660) or FTS (340-6660).
The authority to activate the ERT rests
with the Director of Hazardous Response
Support Division or his designee. Upon
activation, appropriate ERT personnel and
resources are dispatched to operate
under the direct operational control of the
OSC.
In incidents involving an OSC from other
Federal or State agencies, requests for the
ERT should go to the EPA Regional
Emergency Response Coordinator who,
in turn, will contact the appropriate
officials.
In non-emergency situations, such as
providing assistance at hazardous waste
sites, the Director of Hazardous Response
Support Division approves use of the ERT
16
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4 Region V, Library
South Dearborn Street
. 'Chicago, Illinois 60604
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