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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, DC 20460
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Science and Research at the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPA Progress Report 2011
Office of Research and Development
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:d Stales Environmental Protection Agency
Tweets
US EPA Research
EPAresearch
Office of Research & Development is the scientific
research arm oj the (.'S ETA.
11 states + DC • http://www.epa.gov/research
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Happy 2011 everyone! Anyone made any science-related new year's
resolutions?
Follow our blog, "It All Starts with Science" at: blog.epa.gov/science'
Public utilities + researchers + innovative businesses, Cincinnati's Water
Techn Innovation Cluster protects health http://bit.ly/gWm30t
Can Highways Contribute to Asthma? EPA scientists & partners team up
to examine the link: http://bit.lv/fi5Z2A
nttp:/7Bit.lv/epL)Ag
EPA's Dr Jackson gives sneak peak into collaborative prjt on value that
natures provides us- our life support system #scioll
EPA ecologist Betsy Smith sharing how scientists are helping provide
tools /models for proactive #green #eco decision making #scloll
Popping in to see senior analytical chemist John Turlington's lab on EPA
#scioll tour
Now learning abt homeland security research for decontamination on
EPA#scioll tour http://bit.lv/hdsJsj
EPA's Lemieux shares structure of the decon testing chamber, we use a
proxy for spores, that behave the same, but not dangerous #scioll
RT (SHrnascientist Looking at how to decontaminate after biological
attack. There's a cool test chamber w airlock and everything! #scioll
#EPA
EPA's Dr. Shah explains to #scioll tour that in virtual liver project they
are looking at liver cancer as it changes proteins in cells
EPA's #scioll tour has ended, but have your own virtual tour of EPA's
Research Triangle Park Campus http://bit.lv/eWNF4e
RT @lisapjackson Today I visited EPA labs in Cincinnati w/SBA Admin-
istrator Mills to announce a collaboration to clean up our water http://
budurl.com/dsqa
Scientists for Review http://bit.lv/dKiBBL
EPA's NexGen program holding public meeting in DC nxt week to
discuss latest advances in risk assessment http://bit.lv/dMO10c
Valentine's Day & air pollution (both can take ur breath away - the 2nd
not in a good way) EPA's air research: http://bit.ly/94f2Ct
Shout out to everyone attending 2011 International Public Science
Events Conference & #AAASmtg in DC. We'll be there! http://bit.lv/
fOOOTR
Protecting Genetically-Modified Corn Crops w/ Proactive, High-Tech
Monitoring in EPA's Science Matters http ://bit.ly/gT2gur
Measuring #climate change & land use impacts on water i|ualily eco-
systems. Read/give input on EPA's draft report http://bit.lv/icwMxw
Bolster the science of oil spills, apply for EPA research grant environ-
mental impact & mitigation of oil spills http://bit.ly/gqsc9P
A Family's Support Goes Far for a Passionate Woman Scientist today's
#sciwed blog celebrating women's history month http://bit.ly/elUPoG
In DC? Check out the Science Advisory Board meeting tomorrow &
Friday - topics include EPA's 2012 research budget http://bit.lv/hGZKu2
At #SOT2011 ? Join EPA's Dr Hal Zenick 10-11 am at EPA's booth 1341
talking about effects of contaminants & environmental stressors.
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x>EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
About this Report
No other research organization in the world
has the depth and breadth of science and
engineering expertise represented by EPA's
workforce.
Agency research is conduct-
staff scientists and engineers in
and research facilities at 13 location
the country. They are joined by a network
of collaborators and partners from across
the scientific community, including grantees
and fellows supported by EPA's Science
to Achieve Results (STAR) extramural
research program. In addition, EPA is one
of 11 federal agencies that participate in the
Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR)
program, enacted in 19^2 to strengthen the
role of small businesses in federal research
and development, create jobs, and promote
technological innovation.
This report is designed to provide highlights
of the results and impacts of that collective
tat were accomplished in 2011.
recontributed from each of the
Agency's :search centers and offices
to provide an overview of research results
and to illustrate Some of the specific impacts
that are important to partners of the
Office of Research and Development. It is
these partners who rely on EPA science to
make decisions and take action to protect
human health and the environment.
While this report is organized by research
programs tnd partnerships, it is important
to note that Agency scientists and engineers
work collaboratively to .produce an overall
research program that is highly integrated
and transdisciplinary.
Table of Contents
Science to Support Our Mission
Air, Climate, and Energy
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Human Health Risk Assessment
Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
Supporting and Building Partnerships
Homeland Security
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"Science must be the backbone for
EPA programs. The public health
and environmental laws that
Congress has enacted depend
on rigorous adherence to the
best available science."
-Lisa P. Jackson
Administrator, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency
A message from Lek Kadeli
Acting Assistant Administrator
EPA Office of Research and Development
Science to Support Our Mission
ERA'S office of
Research and
Development (ORD)
plays a central role
in the research and
engineering efforts
that are central to
the Agency. Our
integrated scientific
investigations,
conducted across
a broad spectrum
of disciplines,
provide the firm,
scientific foundation that supports the Agency's
mission to safeguard human health and protect
the environment. ORD also plays a critical role
in catalyzing innovation to provide enhanced
solutions to these same problems.
For more than 40 years, the results of that work
have provided timely, accessible, and usable tools
and information to our partners across the Agency
and throughout the nation. Our research results
and technological solutions have led to longer
life spans, safer communities, and cleaner air and
water for all Americans.
That critically important work continues today, but
in an era of increasingly complex environmental
challenges, and at a time when every federal
agency must demand itself to work as efficiently as
possible on behalf of the American people.
As exemplified by this 2011 Annual Report from
EPA's Office of Research and Development, EPA's
community of scientists and engineers have
embraced those challenges.
In 2011, to improve effectiveness and efficiency, the
Office embarked on a major effort to strategically
align its diverse research portfolio around the
central and unifying concept of sustainability.
Through six highly integrated Research Programs—
Air, Climate, and Energy; Sustainable and Healthy
Communities; Safe and Sustainable Water
Resources; Chemical Safety for Sustainability;
Human Health Risk Assessment; and Homeland
Security Research—science and engineering
solutions were delivered to protect human health
and the environment.
While laying the groundwork to strategically
align EPA's research programs in ways that
simultaneously advance sustainability and realize
efficiencies acros our organization, Agency
scientists, engineers, and their partners continued
to deliver sound, impactful research results
throughout 2011.
Just a few highlight from the many the science
achievements that are presenting in this report are:
• A final study plan to help the nation better
understand the potential impacts of the
stimulation technique known as hydraulic
fracturing on drinking water resources.
• Advancing the Community Mulitscale Air
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Quality (CMAQ) model used across
the world to better understand the
complex dynamics of air pollution in
order to protect local communities.
Leading the way to revolutionize
toxicity testing through the use of
innovative technologies such as
computational toxicology, automated,
high-throughput assays—and robots.
Supporting EPA's critically important
work to protect human health through
the completion and advancement of
Integrated Science Assessments and
the Agency's widely-used Integrated
Risk Information System.
The launch of the Water Innovation
Technology Cluster, an EPA-supported
public-private partnership designed
to bring innovative water quality
technologies to market, leading to
clean water and green jobs.
Cultivating relationships with EPA
regional and program offices to better
understand needs at the community
level, and deliver products that help
them move toward a more sustainable
future. Such efforts include a National
Atlas for Sustainability, efforts to
quantify sustainability, and a research
program measuring the "ecosystem
services" of the nation's coral reefs.
Funding the nation's top scientists,
engineers and other innovators
through EPA grant and award
programs, such as the Science to
Achieve Results Program. In 2011, EPA
funded 137 graduate fellowships, So
research grants, and 37 Small Business
Innovation Research awards.
• Leading the Bio-Response Operational
Testing and Evaluation Project, a
research partnership uniting federal
agencies in the Homeland Security
arena to better prepare the nation
to respond to and recover from the
release of biological agents such as
anthrax.
Each and every achievement outlined
in this report carries with it a story of
success and commitment made by a
team of researchers. Each team, in turn,
is made up of individual scientists and
engineers—dedicated researchers who
have devoted their careers to advancing
EPA's mission to protect human health
and the environment. Whether an Agency
scientist or engineer, or one of the nation's
top innovators supported through an
EPA grants or award, they are all part of
a continuum of science achievement that
now stretches over four decades, and
has led to a cleaner, healthier, and more
prosperous nation. It is only through their
continued commitment that we will be
able to achieve a sustainable future.
Thank you,
Lek Kartell
Acting Assistant Administrator
EPA Office of Research and Development
This report is dedicated to Paul T. Anastas for his visionary leadership serving as the Assistant
Administrator for EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) from 2009 to 2011, and to the
ORD scientists and engineers, and their partners, for turning that vision into reality.
the
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA Progress Report 2011
Office of Research and Development
Air, Climate, and Energy
American communities face serious health
and environmental challenges from air
pollution and the growing effects of
climate change, both of which are linked
intricately with current and future energy
options. Improving air quality, reducing
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and
developing adaptation strategies to
address climate change are central to the
EPA's mission to protect public health and
the environment.
The Agency's Air, Climate, and Energy
research examines the interplay between
air pollution, climate change and the
dynamic energy landscape to develop
innovative and sustainable solutions for
improving air quality and addressin^
climate change. These air pollution
research efforts support policies with far-
reaching health benefits across the nation.
This section highlights some of the top
research results EPA researchers and their
partners have achieved in 2011 in the areas
of Air, Climate, and Energy. It illustrates
specific impacts that are important
to partners of the Agency's Office of
Research and Development. The highlights
presented were contributed by EPA s
research labs, centers, and offices located
around the country, and were performed
by Agency scientists and engineers, as well
as their partners, grantees, fellows, and
collaborators from across the scientific
community.
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NASA's 117-foot, four-engine
turboprop P-3B research aircraft
takes flight to collect air. Image
courtesy of NASA.
Air, Climate, and Energy
Ready for Takeoff: Monitoring Air Pollution from the Sky
EPA scientists and partners from the
National Air and Space Administration
(NASA) took to the skies in J uly 2011 to
advance air pollution monitoring and help
protect public health in urban areas.
The flights were part of a five-year
collaborative project known as
"DISCOVER-AQ"—for Deriving Information
on Surface Conditions from COIumn and
VERtically Resolved Observations Relevant
to Air Quality.
During the study, researchers made a
series of flights aboard NASA aircraft
equipped with scientific instruments
to measure gaseous and particulate
pollution. While in flight, they took a series
of measurements that were carefully
choreographed with simultaneous efforts
from both satellites above, and ground-
based monitoring stations below the
planes.
Together, the measurements were
designed to shed light on how satellites
can be used to monitor and understand
pollutant concentrations and distributions
near the earth's surface, where the
information can inform local communities
and be used to protect public health.
During the July, 2011 DISCOVER-AQ data
collection segment, two NASA airplanes
flew in unison over urban areas and
major interstate highways between
Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD, with
additional flight time over small towns
and Chesapeake Bay. One plane, flying at
26,000 feet, employed laser technology
to detect patterns of particulate pollution,
and remote-sensing technology to sample
a column of air for key gases. The other
plane took samples at two different
altitudes, sampling air at 1,000 feet, and
then above ground-based air quality
monitors in spirals from 1,000 to 5,000
feet.
The overall purpose of the missions was
to sample pollutants in columns of air in
a "vertical profile." Later, researchers
examined the profile to determine how
the pollution measurements collected
from the ground stations compared to
the air column measurements collected in
flight.
Research results are expected to provide a
greater understanding of how the existing
air monitoring network, funded by EPA
and run by states and local agencies, could
be improved through the use of satellite
observations. With improved ability to
monitor pollution from satellites, scientists
could make better air quality forecasts,
more accurately determine sources of
pollutants in the air, and more closely
determine fluctuations in emissions levels.
EPA and NASA researchers expect to
release initial study results in early 2012.
For more information on DISCOVER-AQ,
visit http://discover-aq.larc.nasa.gov
T
Research aircraft flow over this ground-based air
monitoring station in Beltsville, Maryland.
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Breathing Easier with Newest CMAQ Model
In 2011, EPA released a new version of
the groundbreaking and widely-used
Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling
system.
Versions of the state-of-the-science
modeling system, known as "CMAQ," have
been used by the Agency and states for
more than a decade to design emission
control strategies to protect public health
from the harmful effects of air pollution. At
the state level, the CMAQ system shapes
how regulators implement solutions
to meet National Ambient Air Quality
Standards (NAAQS), which have far-
reaching human health benefits across the
nation. In addition, the National Weather
Service has been using the model for years
to produce daily U.S. forecasts for ozone
and air quality.
The release of CMAQ version 5.0 introduced
additional tools for studying air quality
and its impacts on climate change. Taking
advantage of improved computing power
EPA scientist examens data generated by the
Community Multiscale Air Quality model.
and recent developments in air chemistry
and atmospheric science, CMAQ 5.0
combines three individual modules—
meteorology, emissions, and chemical
transport. Instead of running the models
in sequence, as in previous versions, the
meteorology and air chemistry-transport
models in CMAQ 5.0 now operate together
and interact in feedback loops on the fly,
providing more accurate forecasts that
reflect interactions between pollution and
weather.
With CMAQ 5.0, scientists can model
air quality at the level of individual
towns and cities throughout the entire
Northern hemisphere. The framework
combines advances in physical, chemical,
mathematical, and computational sciences.
These new capabilities enable scientists to
study the global movement of air pollution
and how it affects air quality and climate
change.
On a hemispheric scale, scientists apply
CMAQ 5.0 to account more accurately for
"background pollution" originating from
distant locations. This upgrade allows
policymakers to understand and use the
data to balance local and national air
policy standards, and integrate them with
international solutions.
To help spread the word about CMAQ's
capabilities, EPA worked with the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to create the
Community Modeling and Analysis System
(CMAS), a model development center for
air-quality modelers and researchers around
the world. EPA uses CMAS to distribute
new versions of CMAQ, to facilitate CMAQ
training, and to cultivate collaboration.
CMAQ's impacts reach far beyond just
the United States, as it is used in more
than 50 countries and by thousands of
individuals. For example, officials in the
United Kingdom use the model to produce
daily air quality forecasts and to develop
national air quality policies. To expand
such international efforts, in 2011 EPA
experts helped train Indian researchers
about CMAQ, part of a National Science
Foundation-funded project to exchange
information and enhance the capability of
partner researchers.
Air-quality scientists and policy makers
can use CMAQ 5.0 as a modeling tool for a
wide variety of innovative and collaborative
applications. EPA air and climate scientists
now can apply CMAQ technology to
cutting-edge research questions, to support
health studies advancing the link between
air pollution and adverse health effects,
and to increase the abilities of domestic
and international regulators to create
better and more informed policies for
the protection of human health and the
environment.
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Emissions Testing for Clean Cookstoves
Emissions from the average "indoor" fire
widely used throughout the developing
world—the heating source and stove for
about half the world's population—leads
directly or indirectly to millions of cases of
respiratory illness and nearly two million
premature deaths each year, primarily
in women and young children. In a 2002
report, the World Health Organization
listed indoor smoke from solid fuels used
in such stoves, typically wood, dung, and
coal, as among the top 10 risks to human
health.
Together with the U.S. Department
of State and several other federal
government and private sector
partners, the Agency supports the U.N.
Foundation's Global Alliance for Clean
Cookstoves (GACC), a public-private
alliance that addresses the high prevalence
of toxic smoke exposures worldwide from
indoor fires and inefficient cookstoves.
In addition, EPA researchers have been
working with the Partnership for Clean
Indoor Air (PCI A) to reduce smoke
exposure resulting from household
cooking and heating practices across the
world.
In 2011, EPA researchers conducted the
most extensive round of cookstove testing
to date. Expanding on earlier work, they
tested 44 combinations of stoves, fuels,
10
and operating conditions for fuel efficiency
and for pollutant emissions, which
negatively affect human health and the
global climate.
EPA's objectives in conducting the
cookstove studies include:
• Determining if certain cookstoves are
more fuel efficient and emit fewer
pollutants compared to traditional
"three-stone fire" systems (three
stones placed around a fire to hold
up a pot); and
• Providing useful information
on cookstove performance and
emissions to PCIA partners and
others who supply stove technology
to developing countries.
Research results indicate that some stoves
currently in use (e.g., natural-draft stoves
using high-moisture fuel) offer increased
fuel efficiency and lower pollutant
emissions, as compared to traditional
cooking methods. In addition, stoves
made from lighter and less dense materials
tended to reduce cooking times, thereby
increasing fuel efficiency and lowering
emissions.
EPA and GACC partners are now evaluating
the results of the tests to identify the most
promising stoves for field trials, and to
improve testing methods.
With increasing greenhouse gas emissions,
smoke from stoves in the developing
world has escalated from a local issue to
a worldwide one. Reduction of carbon
dioxide and black carbon emissions
from cooking fires represents a fast and
inexpensive approach to mitigating global
climate change and improving health.
T
EPA engineer inspects a cookstove design.
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Emissions Testing for Clean Cookstoves
In 2012, EPA plans to conduct a more
comprehensive, solid-fuel cookstove
study; researchers will test newer stove
designs and measure a higher number of
air pollutants.
Where there's Smoke: Peat Fires and Emergency Room Visits
A June, 2008 lightning strike in rural
coastal North Carolina ignited a wildfire
that scorched over 40,000 acres of land
and a smoldering peat fire that was not
declared out until some seven months
later, in January of 2009.
The conflagration also sparked the
opportunity for EPA clean air scientists to
examine the respiratory and cardiovascular
health effects of the population living in
the rural NC counties exposed to plumes
of often low-hanging smoke typical of peat
fires.
Using satellite imagery, the investigators
identified counties most severely affected
by the smoke pollution. Researchers then
collected Emergency Room (ER) records
from the affected counties and those
nearby for comparison.
Results of the EPA study revealed, for the
first time, an association between smoke
from peat fires and an increased number
of ER visits for symptoms of heart failure.
They also show a significant increase in
respiratory effects (asthma, pneumonia
and acute chronic bronchitis) in the high-
smoke areas. In addition, the research
team discovered that certain groups of
people—older adults and those with
pre-existing lung and heart problems, for
example—were more susceptible to the
adverse affects of wildfire smoke.
The study findings could lead to further
research on weather modeling and wind
patterns for the prediction of wildfire
smoke plume locations in advance of
extreme smoke exposure. This type of
technology would allow community
officials to warn susceptible populations
of hazardous air conditions, thus limiting
exposure and decreasing adverse health
problems and ER visits. The research
provides health officials and the local
population with important information
about the local air quality in the face
of peat fires, and promises to have real
impact in helping inform actions to protect
public health.
Peat fire in rural North Carolina emits thick,
low-lying smoke. Images courtesy of U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service.
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Turning Waste into Fuel
EPA scientists took on the challenge of
identifying new uses for waste glycerol,
an abundant byproduct of the biodiesel
production industry, which is growing in
many and varied applications. For example,
more and more specially-adapted engines
in cars, trucks and tractors are relying on
biodiesel as the primary fuel source. In
addition, some restaurants use biodiesel
as a cooking resource. During the biodiesel
production process, waste glycerol results
from the transesterification of triglycerides
and is thus increasing with biodiesel
production. Glycerol is used frequently in
commercial and industrial applications and
is considered a relatively valuable product.
However, the current glycerol surplus
has caused the bottom to fall out of the
market. Alternative glycerol markets are
needed to improve both the economics of
the biodiesel production process and the
disposal and recycling processes for this
new waste stream.
EPA is researching several new
applications for waste glycerol in an effort
to make the byproduct more useable and
to reduce harmful effects associated with
current disposal practices. The researchers
evaluated glycerol using many chemical
and operational tests. They determined
that glyceroPs low energy density, high
viscosity or thickness, and high auto-
Biodiesel fuel.
ignition temperature properties make
it an unsuitable alternative for a vehicle
fuel. In addition, the composition of waste
glycerol changes dramatically depending
on the biodiesel feedstock (e.g., vegetable
oils or rendered animal fats, which must
be processed before burning in engines),
the catalyst used, and the degree of
post-reaction cleanup (i.e., the length of
time required for the chemical reaction to
occur).
To evaluate glycerol as a boiler fuel,
EPA worked with North Carolina State
University (NCSU) researchers to develop
a commercial-scale boiler system that uses
glycerol waste as fuel. To create realistic
conditions under which to conduct the
tests, the team scaled-up the system to
commercial levels. The scientists and
engineers tested environmental impacts
by measuring performance, emissions
and other process characteristics. The
team monitored nitrogen oxides, total
hydrocarbons and particulate matter (PM)
for two grades of crude glycerol. Next,
they compared their findings to data
from other common fuels used in similar
applications, such as No. 2 fuel oil and
propane.
EPA and NCSU researchers determined
that a specially designed burner known
as a "refractory" burner combusts
.
glycerol effectively, but results in high PM
emissions due to the presence of residual
catalytic material. Since EPA carefully
regulates PM emissions, these high levels
of PM emissions present an issue that
will need to be addressed before crude
glycerol can be burned routinely in boilers
at power plants and other industrial
facilities.
Although the EPA/NCSU team determined
that glycerol is not an ideal fuel source for
many boiler systems, they discovered that
the waste glycerol resulting from burning
biodiesel may be useful in certain boiler
systems. For example, systems configured
to produce steam and co-generate
electricity may be able to use the glycerol
byproduct efficiently. This solution reduces
harmful, costly and process-intensive
disposal impacts. In addition, reduces
or eliminates transportation costs and
displaces the need for some fossil fuels in
certain boiler units.
These results represent important first
steps to gaining an understanding of
how glycerol could and could not be
used as an alternative fuel. The findings
illuminate practical and appropriate
uses for waste glycerol as a boiler fuel
in specific applications. In addition, this
study examines key stages in the life
cycle of biodiesel usage and the re-use
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Turning Waste into Fuel
Air, Climate, and Energy
of waste and fuel sources. EPA places
strong emphasis on life cycle assessments
in its ongoing research endeavors. These
assessments are instrumental to key
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief
sectors (e.g., energy) for identifying
the opportunities and barriers inherent
to various environmentally-sustainable
actions.
Specifying Emissions with New
Database
EPA's unique database, SPECIATE, houses
valuable data on the array of air pollutants
emitted from manufacturing and other air
pollution sources.
State and local agencies and the air quality
modeling community use the SPECIATE
database to prepare and enhance
emission inventories and to understand
the composition of chemicals known as
total organic compounds (TOC) and PM
emissions. This ensures that air pollution
control programs target the appropriate
sources.
In 2011, Agency clean air researchers
released the enhanced SPECIATE Version
4.3, which includes an additional 405
specifically identified ("speciated")
chemical profiles, bringing the total
number to 5,592 chemicals.
Researchers designed SPECIATE 4.3 to:
(1) create speciated emission inventories
for regional haze, particulate matter
(PM), greenhouse gases and air quality
modeling;
(2) estimate toxic air pollutant emissions
from PM and organic gas primary
emissions; and
(3) verify profiles derived from ambient
measurements.
The updated version includes new profiles
for road vehicles, marine vessels, ethanol
fuel production, and several stationary
sources, including the pulp and paper
industry.
The SPECIATE Version 4.3 database
provides additional support to multiple
science centers and enables increased data
accuracy for air pollution control efforts.
13
Supporting the National Climate
Assessment
EPA is one of 13 federal partners in the
U.S. Global Change Research Program
(USGCRP), which coordinates and
integrates federal research on global
environmental changes. Every four
years, the National Climate Assessment
(NCA) is conducted under the auspices
of the USGCRP, and a synthesis report is
presented to the President and Congress
as required by the Global Change
Research Act of 1990. EPA is leading NCA
workshops, serving on the Interagency
NCA Working Group, and authoring
scientific and technical inputs for the 2013
Report.
EPA researchers led two workshops
in December 2010 and January 2011 on
monitoring changes in the physical climate
system and on evaluating the impacts of
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
climate change on ecosystems and socio-
economic systems. The first workshop
report, Ecosystem Responses to Climate
Change: Selecting Indicators and Integrating
Observational Networks, outlines a process
for selecting indicators that represent the
impacts of climate change on the nation's
ecosystems. The report also identifies
opportunities for collaboration and
coordination among existing and potential
future observational networks.
A second workshop report, Valuation
Techniques and Metrics for Climate Change
Impacts, Adaptation, and Mitigation
Options, provides a snapshot of the
capabilities, readiness, and applicability
of methods for assigning monetary value
to climate impacts and adaptation. EPA
also collaborated on a third workshop
and report titled, Uses of Vulnerability
Assessments in the National Climate
Assessment.
NEXUS: Along the Road
Can living near a highway make children
more susceptible to asthma attacks?
During 2011, EPA scientists, together with
partners from the University of Michigan,
began the second major data collection
phase of a study designed to answer that
question.
Study scientists are conducting the
Near Roadways Exposure to Urban Air
Pollutants Study ("NEXUS" for short),
a comprehensive asthma trigger study.
Using data from more than 60 children
living in Detroit who suffer from asthma,
they are looking at the mixture of
pollutants that originate from Detroit-area
highway traffic and how that pollution
affects children with asthma. Data
collected from air near major highways,
as well as in homes and schools, will shed
more light on the mixture of air pollutants
that affect asthma and overall health.
Study results will provide community
decision-makers with valuable
information on how best to design school
environments and residential areas to
protect children from the effects of
roadway-related pollution.
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Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
Air, Climate, and Energy
wr(
Supporting EPA
Research Partners
EPA awards research grants and awards
in a diversity of environmental science
and engineering disciplines—including
work in Air, Climate, and Energy research—
through its Science to Achieve Results
(STAR) program and the Small Business
Innovation Research program (SBIR).
The STAR program engages the nation's
best scientists and engineers in targeted
research that complements EPA's own
outstanding intramural research program.
Grants are awarded through a competitive
solicitation process and independent peer
review.
The Agency also periodically establishes
research centers to achieve long-term
research goals. For example, in 2010
the Agency announced more than a $31
million, five-year grant to establish four
Clean Air Research Centers (CLARC) to
focus on the health effects of exposure
to particulate matter (PM), ozone, and
other air pollutants, both singly and in
multipollutant atmospheres.
Accomplishments of EPA partners in the
areas of Air, Climate, and Energy for 2011
include the following highlights.
EPA-supported Institute
Advances Clean Air Science
With significant EPA support, the Health
Effects Institute (HEI)—a nonprofit
corporation chartered in 1980 as an
independent research organization
to provide high-quality, impartial, and
relevant science on the health effects of air
pollution—continued to tackle important
and fundamental issues for air quality
science.
Typically, HEI receives half of its core funds
from the Environmental Protection Agency
and half from the worldwide motor vehicle
industry.
Research results included a review of
ultrafine particle health and environmental
effects, a new ozone program,
international climate and air quality work,
significant findings on the health effects of
diesel particles and allergic inflammation
and neurotoxicity effects, and a new
solicitation on research assessing the
health impacts of actions taken to control
air pollution. In addition, HEI continued an
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
important collaboration on the National
Particle Component Toxicity Initiative
(NPACT), and made significant progress
on the Advanced Collaborative Emissions
Study (ACES).
HEI continued its distinguished record
of delivering reports important to EPA
efforts to protect human health from
the adverse effects of air pollution. For
example, in 2011, the Institute released
studies on: air pollution "hot spots" (high
concentration areas); concentrations of
air toxics in motor-vehicle-dominated
environments; the future of vehicle
fuels and technologies and their related
health benefits and challenges; and
links between diesel exhaust and airway
inflammation.
EPA-supported MESA Air Study
Advances Health-air Pollution Link
The EPA-supported Multi-Ethnic Study of
Atherosclerosis and Air Pollution (MESA)
is designed to examine the relationship
between air pollution exposures and the
progression of cardiovascular disease
overtime. The unprecedented, ten-year
study involves thousands of participants,
representing diverse areas across the
United States.
The central scientific hypothesis for the
study is that long-term exposure to fine
particles, or Particulate Matter (PM), in air
pollution is associated with a more rapid
progression of coronary atherosclerosis
(hardening of the arteries) and an
increased risk of coronary events, such as
heart attacks.
To test this hypothesis, a host of air
pollution and participant health measures
are being collected and analyzed. Along
with measuring particulate matter (PM)
concentrations and variability at the
neighborhood, home and individual levels,
the MESA Air Pollution Study is using
data from the national PM2.5 monitoring
system.
Study researchers are integrating such
environmental data into computer
models to estimate long-term PM
exposure for all study participants. The
cardiovascular health of each participant
is also being tracked, with a subgroup of
3600 participating in additional medical
evaluations for subclinical, asymptomatic
progression of atherosclerosis.
In 2011, MESA researchers continued
this critically important work, advancing
new methods for estimating air pollution
exposure and providing innovative
modeling techniques to fuse data
obtained from air quality monitoring at
the community level to health impacts at
the personal level.
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
STAR Climate Change
Research
The core purpose of the EPA's Global
Change Research Program is to provide
stakeholders and policymakers with
the scientific information, analysis tools
and techniques they need to effectively
respond to risks posed by global change.
One important area of study is exploring
how aquatic resources, such as wetlands
and coastal areas, will be impacted by
climate change. (For more about that
work, also see the stories below under the
"Interdisciplinary Research" heading.)
To advance those efforts, the Agency
supports top scientists through its Science
to Achieve Results (STAR) grant program.
Significant 2011 findings by EPA STAR
grantees included new understandings
of the impact of storms and flooding,
identifying likely causes of amphibian
declines, how Chinook salmon runs
in California are likely to decline, and
new modeling tools for managing
agricultural resources. Examples of those
accomplishments include:
Climate Change, Land Use, and
Declining Amphibian Populations
An EPA-supported study conducted by
a researcher at the University of South
Florida explored the link between
climate change, land use, and the
spread of pathogens in amphibians
and other "ecothermic" (commonly
known as "cold-blooded") hosts.
Findings from the research include:
pathogen introductions, coupled
with climate change, are the likely
explanation driving worldwide
extinctions of amphibians; changes
in temperature variability associated
with climate change might be just
as significant to disease emergence
as temperature changes; and, out
of 240 predictors, the presence
of the herbicide atrazine was the
best predictor for the abundance
of parasitic larval trematodes in the
declining northern leopard frog (Rana
pip/ens).
California Salmon Runs and
Climate Change
An EPA-funded researcher at the
University of California-Davis found
that more aggressive steps will be
necessary to prevent population
declines, and even extinctions,
in spring-run Chinook salmon
(Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in
California.
In the research, climate data coupled
with watershed hydrology and
salmon population dynamics models
predict increased salmon mortality
and population decline in the coming
decades.
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
Climate and Emissions Changes
Impact Water Quality
EPA-f unded researchers at the
University of Maryland worked to
understand the impacts of global
climate and air pollution emission
changes from today through 2050 on
U.S. water quality, focusing on the
nitrogen cycle.
The researchers applied state-of-the-
art, integrating modeling systems that
included a global climate-chemical
transport component with a climate-
hydrology-air quality-water quality
component for North America. The
grantees currently have a paper in
press on the hydrological budget and
crop yield predictions in the Upper
Mississippi Basin.
Coastal Habitat in the Pacific
Northwest
EPA-supported researchers at Western
Washington University created a
model and modeling technique
with the potential to help coastal
communities quantify the impacts of
sea level rise on seagrass habitat and
related ecosystem services.
The researchers created a spatially
explicit, relative elevation model for
Padila Bay, WA. A publication based
on initial results indicated that the
unique geomorphology of the Padila
Bay region made it possible for sea
level rise to create new habitat faster
than it was destroyed, and suggests
important clues for other coastal
areas faced with planning adaptation
strategies to mitigate the impacts of
global change.
Interdisciplinary Research
Exploring the links between climate
change and aquatic resources
As outlined above in STAR Climate Change
Research, the core purpose of the EPA's
Global Change Research Program is to
provide stakeholders and policymakers
with the scientific information, analysis
tools and techniques they need to
effectively respond to risks posed by
global change. One important area of that
study is exploring how aquatic resources,
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
such as wetlands and coastal areas, will be
impacted by climate change.
Highlights of EPA research advancing
what is known about climate change and
aquatic resources follow below.
Vulnerability Assessments Support
Climate Ready Estuaries Program
Estuaries are places where freshwater
from a river mixes with salt water from
the ocean. Considered "nurseries of
the sea," these unique environments
support thousands of species of wildlife
and perform valuable ecological services
such as filtering sediments and pollution
from water. Estuaries also contribute
economically to the population by
providing ideal sites for tourism, fisheries,
and recreational activities.
Estuarine ecosystems are particularly
vulnerable to climate-related changes in
precipitation, water flow, and sea level
rise.The National Estuary Program (NEP) is
a network of voluntary community-based
programs that safeguards the health of
important coastal ecosystems across the
country. As part of EPA's Climate Ready
Estuaries Program, researchers conducted
pilot assessments in collaboration with
two NEP partners, the San Francisco
Estuary Partnership (SFEP) and the
Massachusetts Bays Program (MBP)to
consider how salt marsh and mudflat
ecosystems may be affected by changes
in climate drivers such as temperature,
precipitation, and storms.
A new methodology based on an expert
elicitation exercise in a workshop setting
was used in this study. In February 2012
EPA issued a final report describing the
results of this workshop. The report,
Vulnerability Assessments in Support of the
Climate Ready Estuaries Program: A Novel
Approach Using Expert Judgment was
released in two volumes: Volume I: Results
for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership
and Volume II: Results for the Massachusetts
Bays Program.
Expert elicitations were held for both
the SFEP and MBP projects. An expert
elicitation is a process using expert
judgment to inform decision-making
when certain conditions exist. These
include situations in which uncertainties
are large, empirical data may not yet
be available, more than one conceptual
model can explain available data, and/or
technical judgments are required to assess
assumptions.
!9
Conducted during a two-day workshop,
the SFEP and MBP expert elicitations
guided the experts through a series
of questions regarding each aspect of
the salt marsh or mudflat system. The
experts developed ecosystem models
to characterize: relationships among key
physical and ecological variables that
regulate ecosystem processes; relative
sensitivities of these relationships under
current and future climate change
scenarios; degree of confidence in these
relationship predictions; and implications
for management. Conclusions then
were drawn from the data derived from
the experts' judgments about climate
change effects. This is the first time expert
elicitation has been applied to ecosystems,
and the reported results lead to valuable
implications for coastal area management.
In an era of shrinking budgets coupled
with increasingly complex decision-making
needs, managing natural resources in the
face of climate change is a challenge. In
light of this, the Climate Ready Estuary
Program's assessment method took
advantage of existing scientific expertise
to help identify reliable adaptation
strategies, weigh difficult trade-offs, and
justify management action, all in a timely
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
and efficient manner.
Based on the reported results of the
workshop, estuary managers can identify
where major shifts in the system are likely
to occur under future climate conditions
and how management strategies can be
adjusted in response. Information from
these assessments will support climate
change adaptation planning efforts by the
SFEP, the MBP, other NEPs and managers
of other climate-sensitive ecosystems.
The 20 Watersheds Project: Exploring
Stream Water and Climate Change
Recognizing that the impacts and risks
associated with climate change will vary
regionally, EPA conducts research to
identify where the greatest vulnerabilities
lie and to develop response options for a
wide range of plausible climate futures.
With a focus on water flow and nutrient
and sediment levels, EPA researchers
began an effort to fill knowledge gaps in
the sensitivity of U.S. streams to potential
climate change. The effort combines
existing tools (e.g., climate, land-use and
watershed models) and data to look at
these scientific issues.
A recent study models twenty large U.S.
watersheds looking at stream water
quality. The watersheds range across
the country and were chosen based on
regional variability in land-use practices,
climate conditions and watershed
systems, as well as to overlap with other
EPA projects and the availability of
existing data.
Scientists are exploring watershed
modeling results that cover a broad range
of sensitivity tests for a variety of climate
change scenarios. The early results of
this "20 watersheds project," display key
methods, sensitivities and uncertainties
that are part of these watershed models.
For example, scientists found that climate
models are very sensitive to changes
when taken from large-scale assessments
and "downscaled" for smaller, regional
assessments. Research is also focused on
the interaction between climate change
and other environmental factors such
as urbanization and changes in carbon
dioxide levels.
The results of this research will provide
key information about adapting to new
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
conditions. A paper describing this study
titled, Invest/gating the Sensitivity of U.S.
Streamflow and Water Quality to Climate
Change: The U.S. EPA Global Change
Research Program's "20 Watersheds"
Project, was published in July, 2011.
Climate and Watershed Assessment
Tools BASINS and WEPP
The average global temperature has
increased 1.4°F during the last century,
one of the indicators that the climate is
changing. Potential effects of climate
change include increased risk of flooding
and drought, changes in the quality and
seasonal timing of water runoff, loss of
aquatic habitat and harm to ecosystems.
Recently, EPA and its partners crafted
Climate Assessment Tools (CATs) that work
with the Agency Office of Water's Better
Assessment Science Integrating point and
Nonpoint Sources climate assessment
tool (BASINS), and USDA's Water Erosion
Prediction Project climate assessment
tool (WEPP). These tools support the
study of scenario-based assessments
where scientists examine environmental
situations as they play themselves out
into the future. Using existing modeling
systems as the platform for the CATs
enhances the usefulness and credibility of
analytic results, helping decision-makers
understand the potential effects of future
climate change on watershed systems.
A 2011 draft report, BASINS and WEPP
Climate Assessment Tools: Case Study
Guide to Applications, was released in the
fall of 2011 and presents six case studies
that use scenarios to evaluate future
climate change, land use and management.
Each case study presents a real or plausible
climate change effect in a specific location
and shows how BASINS or WEPP can
be used to better understand the local
impacts of global climate change. The
scientific approach supported by these
tools—scenario analysis—can inform
system behavior, identify vulnerabilities
and evaluate management responses.
Workshops Develop a Climate Change
Monitoring Network
In response to evidence that climate
change and related impacts are affecting
aquatic ecosystems, EPA began to monitor
the effects of climate change on streams.
The Agency organized two workshops to
formulate monitoring goals and to collect
input from state and regional officials
involved in building biomonitoring data.
The workshops were held in conjunction
with other science meetings (New England
Association of Environmental Biologists
and North American Benthological Society)
and were attended by state biologists from
New England, New York, EPA Region 1 and
the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The monitoring network will rely upon data
gathered by the states, EPA, USGS and
other organizations. The resulting datasets
will inform vulnerability assessments
of Northeastern streams. In addition,
local partners will benefit from more
information on potential indicators of
climate-related effects in these ecosystems.
Aquatic Ecosystems, Water Quality and
Global Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change defines vulnerability as: "The
degree to which a system is susceptible to,
or unable to cope with, adverse effects of
climate change, including climate variability
and extremes." In order to efficiently
manage water resources and systems
in the coming years, vulnerabilities of
such systems to climate change must be
recognized and better understood.
The EPA report Aquatic Ecosystems, Water
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
Quality, and Global Change: Challenges of
Conducting Multi-stressor Global Change
Vulnerability Assessments maps key
indicators of watershed vulnerabilities
nationwide. Released in August 2011, the
report investigates the best practices and
challenges associated with identifying
indicators of relative watershed
vulnerability to external stresses such as
climate and land-use change across the
United States.
EPA scientists mined scholarly journals
to identify and analyze more than 600
indicators of water quality and aquatic
ecosystems. Examples of indicators
include water chemical and nutrient levels,
the presence of animal and plant species,
local land use, and more. Datasets from
EPA, other federal agencies and other
organizations were also used to assess
ecosystems and human system resilience
in the face of global change and other
current stresses.
The report forms a building block for
future work on global change vulnerability
assessments. The impacts of global
change will result from often-complex
interactions between current stressors
reducing overall resilience at the same
time that broader global climate change
comes into play. The work described in
this report can contribute to connecting
the needs of water quality and aquatic
ecosystem managers to the capabilities of
global change researchers.
Climate Change Vulnerability
Assessments of Water Utilities
A new EPA report, Climate Change
Vulnerability Assessments: Four Case
Studies of Water Utility Practices, focuses
on water resource decision-making as a
complex process and concludes that the
impact of climate change on decision-
making poses challenges. The report
illustrates the types of analyses, models
and climate change information being
developed and used by selected utilities
to proactively understand and adapt to
national climate risks.
The utilities featured in this report are
East Bay Municipal Utility District (Contra
Costa and Alameda Counties, CA); New
York City Department of Environmental
Protection (New York, NY); Seattle Public
Utilities (Seattle, WA); and Spartanburg
Water (Spartanburg, SC). EPA researchers
developed case studies using published
information about each utility and
interviews with utility staff.
22
The approaches taken by each utility to
assess their vulnerability to climate change
ranged from environmental modeling and
scenario analysis to reviews of available
studies. The case studies illustrate that
different approaches reflect specific
local needs and conditions, existing
vulnerabilities, local partnerships and
available information. For example,
the New York City Department of
Environmental Protection recognizes
the risk of increased flooding and sewer
system overflows while the focus of
East Bay Municipal Utility District is on
decreasing annual precipitation and
increasing demand for water resources.
This report provides useful examples
for utility managers, resource planners,
climate scientists and others seeking
recommendations on vulnerability issues.
Helping States Assess Aquatic
Resources for a Changing Climate
In 2011, EPA researchers released for
peer review a draft report, Implications
of Climate Change for State Bioassessment
Programs and Approaches to Account
for Effects, along with the companion
Freshwater Biological Traits Database.
Together, the draft report and database
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Air, Climate, and Energy
Air, Climate, and Energy
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
present information designed to help
the Agency's Office of Water and other
partners to be better prepared to monitor
water quality and aquatic resources in the
face of a changing climate.
Because environmental agencies, tribes,
and others rely on established data
collection practices and biomonitoring
techniques to assess water quality and
aquatic resources, it is important for them
to consider how traditional assessment
practices might be affected by climate
change. The report presents science on
how biological indicators may be used
to detect climate change effects, and
encourages state bioassessment programs
to document changes at key sites.
The Freshwater Biological Traits Database
contains traits such as morphology, life
history, resource acquisition preference,
mobility and tolerance for more than
3,000 North American species. To increase
transparency, the database is accessible
online.
Assessing Climate-Relevant Decisions:
Application in Chesapeake Bay
Climate change is a global phenomenon
that is affecting natural and human
systems in all parts of the world. Some of
Chesapeake Bay.
the decisions and actions taken to manage
these systems are likely to be affected
by climate change and may likewise
affect the vulnerability of the managed
resource or ecosystem to climate change.
Maintaining or improving the health of
resources requires not only understanding
the magnitude of potential impacts, but
also understanding the effects of climate
change on specific practices and their
performance.
EPA's 2010 report, A Method to Assess
Climate-Relevant Decisions: Application
in the Chesapeake Bay (External Review
Draft), describes an approach to inventory
and analyze management decisions in
order to produce useful information
targeted toward effective adaptation
to climate change. The Chesapeake Bay
was chosen for the pilot study because
decision making occurs at several levels
(e.g., state, multi-state, EPA, other federal
agencies), management is concerned with
both water quality and aquatic ecosystem
decisions, and decisions that affect actions
implemented on the ground are readily
identifiable.
After selecting the Chesapeake Bay as an
exemplary study area, EPA researchers
(1) compiled a list of key decisions under
consideration; (2) developed criteria
for evaluating the climate-relevance of
those decisions; (3) applied the criteria to
determine decisions potentially sensitive
to climate change; (4) solicited expert
judgment regarding those selections;
and (5) tested alternative schemes for
prioritizing decisions most in need of
decision support. This study revealed
that it provides useful information on
adaptation measures for local decision
makers and direction for fruitful research
endeavors that will further improve our
provision of information.
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United States
c"vironmental Protect!
ency
EPA Progress Report 2011
office of Research and Development
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Chemical safety is a high priority for EPA.
Moving toward a safer and more sustainable
environment requires designing and
manufacturing new and existing chemicals in
cleaner, less toxic ways.
With tens of thousands of chemicals currently
in use and hundreds more introduced each
year, EPA's Chemical Safety for Sustainability
research aims to develop information,
methods and tools to make better informed,
more timely decisions about these chemicals.
Many chemicals have not been thoroughly
assessed for potential risks to human health
and the environment, and the impacts of
use over a chemical's life cycle (from design
to production to disposal) are not well
understood. EPA research is focused on
meeting these challenges using innovative
approaches, maintaining a life-cycle
perspective, and embracing the principles
of green chemistry - the design of chemical
products and processes that reduce or
eliminate the generation of hazardous
substances.
Chemical Safety for Sustainability includes
research in computational toxicology,
nanotechnology, green chemical design,
pesticides, industrial chemicals, endocrine-
disrupting chemicals and human health risks.
This section highlights some of the top
research results EPA researchers and their
partners achieved in 2011 advancing Chemical
Safety for Sustainability. It illustrates specific
impacts that are important to partners
of the Agency's Office of Research and
Development. The highlights presented were
contributed by EPA's research labs, centers,
and offices located around the country, and
were performed by Agency scientists and
engineers, as well as their partners, grantees,
fellows, and collaborators from across the
scientific community.
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Toxn: EPA and partner
researchers are using a robotic
system to test thousands of
chemicals.
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
The Future of Toxicity Testing is Now
In March 2011, EPA leaders gathered
with their colleagues from the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
of the National Institutes of Health, the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
and elsewhere to unveil a new high-speed
robot screening system that will test
10,000 different chemicals for potential
toxicity. The celebration marked the
beginning of a new phase of an ongoing
collaboration—Toxzi—that is working to
protect people's health by improving how
chemicals are tested in this country.
That's where the robots come in.
The robot system, which is located at the
National Institutes of Health Chemical
Genomics Center (NCGC) in Gaithersburg,
MD, was purchased as part of the Tox2i
collaboration established in 20o8.Tox2i
merges existing resources, including
research, funding and testing tools, to
develop ways to more effectively predict
how chemicals will affect human health
and the environment.
The mechanized, robot-driven testing
system greatly reduces the need for lab
animals in toxicity testing, working instead
with 3-by-5-inch test plates that are moved
precisely through a series of steps by
giant, and constantly moving robot arms.
Each plate contains 1,536 small wells that
can hold various living animal cells—
typically skin, liver, or brain cells of rats
or humans—and a sample of a particular
chemical to be screened. The robot uses a
pin tool to dispense a precise amount of a
chemical being tested into each well.
Researchers have developed software
that flags signs of biological activity in
the exposed cells, so they can interpret
the results and then identify chemicals
that warrant further screening or study.
Just because a chemical shows a reaction
with an isolated cell (skin, liver, etc.) does
not necessarily mean that it will have the
same effect when interacting with a living
person. To address this, a team of EPA
researchers are developing algorithms
that predict whether a person's organs
and body as a whole will react to chemical
exposure the same way their individual
cells did in the preliminary tests.
Tox2i's new robot system significantly
reduces the cost and duration of chemical
testing, which will allow EPA to better
identify potentially harmful chemicals and
serve its core mission to safeguard human
health and the environment. It also allows
the FDA to better analyze unexpected
toxicity, opening the door for better drug
development.
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Advancing the Science of Chemical Risk
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Everyday activities, actions as simple
as biting into an apple, house cleaning,
or walking across a carpet, may expose
people to a host of chemicals through a
variety of pathways. The air we breathe,
the food and water we consume, and the
surfaces we touch are all the homes of
natural and synthetic chemicals, which
enter our bodies through skin, mouth, and
lungs.
In most cases, there is not one single
source for any given chemical that may
be found in our bodies. This makes
determining how (and how much of)
certain chemicals enter our bodies a
challenge for health assessors and others.
To address this challenge, EPA scientists
are using sophisticated computer models
and methods to develop an innovative
set of tools that can be used to estimate
total exposures and risks from chemicals
people encounter in their daily lives.
EPA's Stochastic Human Exposure and
Dose Simulation (SHEDS) model can
be used to estimate the range of total
chemical exposures in a population
from different exposure pathways
(inhalation, skin contact, dietary and
non-dietary ingestion) over different time
periods. The estimates are calculated
using available data, such as dietary
consumption surveys; human activity data
drawn from EPA's Consolidated Human
Activities Database (CHAD); and observed
chemical levels in food, water, air, and on
surfaces like floors and counters. The data
on chemical concentrations and exposure
factors used as inputs for SH EDS are
based on measurements collected in
EPA field studies and published literature
values.
The story of how chemicals enter
the human body doesn't end there,
however. The exposure estimates that
SHEDS generates are now being used
as inputs for another kind of model - a
physiologically based pharmacokinetic
(or PBPK) model, which predicts how
chemicals move through and concentrate
in human tissues and body fluids.
Using PBPK models, scientists can take
the estimates of chemical exposures
27
across multiple pathways generated
by SHEDS, and examine how exposed
chemicals will distribute to internal organs
and tissues in the body, and determine
how long the chemicals will take to be
naturally processed and eliminated from
the body.
Together, these two models provide
scientists with a much more accurate
picture of the risk certain chemicals pose
to human health—a picture they've
been able to confirm by extensive
comparisons against real-world data,
such as duplicate diet and biometric data
collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in the National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
(NHANES), which collects biomarker data
from 5,000 people each year. When EPA
researchers have compared the SHEDS-
PBPK exposure and dose estimates with
the physical NHANES data, they've found
that the model's predictions line up
very closely with the observations in the
survey.
SHEDS has already been used in
developing EPA's regulatory guidance
on organophosphate and carbamate
pesticides, and chromated copper
arsenate, a chemical wood preservative
EPA scientists are developing
models to estimate total exposures
from everyday activities.
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Advancing the Science of Chemical Risk
once used on children's playground
equipment. Now, EPA researchers are
using the coupled SHEDS-PBPK models to
examine a relatively new class of chemical
pesticides called pyrethroids to determine
whether they pose any risk to human
health and the environment.
EPA scientists are continuing to refine the
SHEDS and PBPKmodels used in these
studies, adding functions and testing them
against real-world data. For policy makers,
these models will serve as invaluable tools
in making decisions meant to protect
human health and the environment from
the risk of exposure to harmful chemicals.
Thinking Small: Investigating Nanotechnology
A single nanometer is one-billionth of a
meter. Nanotechnolgy, it follows, is the
science, engineering, and technology
conducted at the nanoscale, manipulating
and using compounds from about 1 to 100
nanometers in size. Such materials often
have unique and desirable commercial
properties.
Nanoparticle use has entered the
consumer and industrial sectors and its use
is expected to increase significantly in the
near-future. But along with the promise
and potential of nanotechnology is the
need to ensure new products, processes,
and technologies are developed in ways
that don't pose risks to the environment
and human health.
EPA researchers recently examined the
manufacture and use of a range of nano-
materials that are components of other
products. These experts also studied the
effect of nanocomponents on the four
main components of the life cycle of
resulting products: (1) material selection;
(2) manufacture; (3) application; and
(4) disposal/recycling. Because some
health effects and risks associated with
components used on this small scale may
emerge only during discrete life-cycle
phases, it is important for scientists to
identify and interpret these risks.
EPA researchers are providing
new methods that can be used by
manufacturers and scientists to
characterize the size, concentration, and
chemical composition of nano-based
products. Researchers are using data
generated with these methods to develop
models for predicting how these materials
28
are released from plastic composites,
coatings, and textiles and how they react
once they are released in the air, water, or
soil. These data can be used to assess the
potential hazard of such materials.
In September 2011, EPA published Guidance
to Facilitate Decisions for Sustainable
Nanotechnology, a document providing
assistance for assessing the sustainability
of nano-scale products. The document
delivers up-to-date information about
nanoproducts to help develop a decision-
support framework, and to guide sound
risk management efforts for workers,
engineers, consumers, and the public.
Researchers will update subsequent
releases of the report to help
stakeholders and to advance sustainable
nanotechnology.
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Thinking Small: Investigating Nanotechnology
Exploring nanoparticle impacts on
vehicle emissions
One nanotechnology that a team of
EPA researchers are investigating is
the fate and effect of nanometer-sized
cerium particles used as fuel additives,
particularly as they relate to air quality. The
researchers are examining the difference
between ordinary diesel emissions and
those from diesel mixed with nano-cerium
additives to better understand how
adding nano-cerium to fuel changes the
composition of diesel exhaust.
EPA scientists are also conducting
atmospheric modeling research to
estimate how cerium-induced emissions
would change air quality if a portion, or
all, U.S. diesel vehicles used nano-cerium
fuel additives. Study results are expected
in 2012.
Effects of Nanomaterials in Natural
Environments
EPA researchers are also investigating
whether nanomaterials might have
harmful effects on ecological systems
and non-human species. One outcome
of the work is the finding that certain
types of nano-scale titanium dioxide, a
material currently used in many consumer
products, were found to become very
toxic to small aquatic organisms in the
presence of sunlight (when tested in
specific laboratory conditions).
While non-toxic in laboratory settings, the
addition of sunlight increases the toxicity
of the material by a factor of 100 to 10,000,
depending on the species tested. The
phenomenon, called "phototoxicity,"
occurs at levels of natural sunlight that
can be expected to occur under natural
settings. EPA researchers have also
developed rapid chemical assays that are
highly predictive of these effects on whole
organisms and are currently investigating
these processes in terrestrial and marine
systems.
An additional area of focus in that realm
is the toxicity and food chain transfer of
single wall carbon nanotubes (a fibrous
nanomaterial) in marine environments.
The effort has demonstrated that these
materials are relatively non-toxic to the
tested marine species, and cannot be
transferred along the marine food chain,
from prey to predator. A key additional
key outcome of this work has been the
development of methods for extracting
single wall carbon nanotubes from
sediments and organisms and for their
analysis using near-infrared technology.
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief
-f-
Determining the Cumulative Risk of
Pyrethroid Insecticides
Chrysanthemum flowers produce a natural
pesticide called pyrethrum. Pyrethroid
insecticides are a similar product but can
be found in both natural and man-made
forms. Only a handful of the more than
1,000 varieties of pyrethroid insecticides
are used in the United States. These
pyrethroids are found in products to
control insects like household sprays,
pet sprays and shampoos. Use of these
insecticides has increased throughout the
past decade, and usage of phosphate-
based pesticides—which are toxic to
humans—has been declining.
To test the danger of pyrethroid
insecticides to humans, EPA researchers
collaborated with the EPA Office
of Pesticide Programs to complete
a cumulative risk assessment. This
assessment looks at pyrethroids and
their exposures in order to sum up the
human health risks of these chemicals.
The assessment produced data for 14
pyrethroid insecticides using both test
tube experiments and living models.
Additionally, EPA researchers generated
data that showed the effects of exposure
to multiple pyrethroid insecticides
sim ultaneously, as can occur in the real
world. Multiple exposures are important
to assess because the effects of individual
chemicals can become significantly more
alarming when combined with other
chemicals.
EPA published the cumulative risk
assessment of pyrethroid insecticides in
November 2011. It indicates that many
of the current uses for these insecticides
do not pose risks for children or adults.
Additionally, the assessment concludes
that other uses of these insecticides can
be registered, since their cumulative risks
raised no red flags. This assessment is
considered highly conservative (that is,
it overestimates exposure) because it
assumes that all people will be exposed
to the highest possible levels of pesticide
residue, an event unlikely to occur in real
life. Even with this conservative exposure
methodology, the estimated risks to adults
and children are well below EPA's level of
concern.
Making Sense of Biomonitoring Data
for Understanding Human Exposures
to Chemicals
When it comes to assessing the health
of humans and the environment, more
scientific information (data) is always
welcome. This is especially true regarding
chemical exposures. However, handling
and making use of large amounts of data
can prove difficult.
In the recent past, many more government
agencies and other organizations have
been reporting human biomonitoring
data. Human biomonitoring refers to
the process of studying the outcomes of
chemical exposures on small amounts
of biological samples like human tissues.
Once data are received, the next hurdle is
how to handle this increased amount of
scientific information.
The National Research Council (NRC)
of the National Academy of Sciences
identified gaps and uncertainties in
EPA's ability to use and analyze these
human biomonitoring data in EPA risk
assessments and management decisions.
To remedy this situation, the NRC
concluded that peer-reviewed approaches
are necessary.
In response, EPA researchers have
created a biomonitoring framework to
guide future human exposure research
by developing tools and methods that
help interpret the abundance of data.
'SO
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
The framework describes novel tools,
emerging technologies and biomonitoring
advances to ultimately improve research
and decision making. Additionally, the
framework provides information about
the types and quality of available data
to support EPA decisions. This will assist
public health surveillance efforts and
EPA's ability to focus on areas of particular
concern.
This framework has been published
and used by EPA's Chemical Safety for
Sustainability research program. The
knowledge gained from developing and
using this framework will help fill the
gaps that the NRC noted, support EPA
assessments and educate the public about
the accumulation of chemicals in their
bodies.
Leveraging Modern Methods: EPA's
ToxCast Program
Many new chemicals are introduced
into the market each year, adding to the
thousands already in production and use.
Testing the potential toxicity of each new
chemical that people may be exposed to
presents challenges. To help, EPA launched
the ToxCast™ program in 2007.
EPA's ToxCast™ is a multi-year effort to
develop a timely, cost-effective approach
for prioritizing the thousands of chemicals
that may need further toxicity testing.
Through the program, Agency researchers
are developing and using advanced science
tools to better understand how processes
within the human body are impacted by
exposure to chemicals, and working to
determine which exposures are most likely
to lead to adverse health effects.
ToxCast™ is testing more than 2,000
chemicals under various classifications,
including active pesticide ingredients,
inert pesticide ingredients, consumer
products (such as chemicals in food,
cosmetics, sunscreens and sweeteners),
Pharmaceuticals, antimicrobial agents,
and "green," environmentally-friendly
chemicals.
During 2011, EPA scientists completed
Phase I of ToxCast's new medium-
throughput test methods for
developmental neurotoxicity. These
same chemicals were also used to test for
developmental toxicity in a novel zebra
fish assay.
Through the work of EPA researchers, 13
peer-reviewed scientific articles presenting
ToxCast research results were published in
2011, including PLoS ONE, Chemical Research
in Toxicology, and Toxicological Sciences.
Perchlorate Exposure Associated
With Indirect Indicators of Thyroid
Problems
Perchlorate is a chemical that occurs both
naturally and through manufacturing.
Manufacturers use it to make rocket fuel,
fireworks, flares and explosives, and it
can also be present in bleach and in some
fertilizers.
Scientists have found low levels of
perchlorate in drinking and groundwater
in most states. This contaminant may have
harmful effects on the thyroid gland, a part
of the body essential to the production of
hormones needed for normal growth and
development. A recent EPA study looked
at the association between perchlorate
in urine samples and biological signs of
thyroid hormone disruption.
To do this, Agency scientists used 2001 and
2002 data from the National Health and
Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
NHANES assesses the health and
nutritional status of adults and children in
the United States by combining interviews
and physical examinations of 5,000
residents every year.
31
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2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
This study presents an innovative
approach to using biological signs of
thyroid dysfunction among both men and
women to test for low-level, significant
exposure to perchlorate. EPA researchers
linked certain biological signs of thyroid
function to findings of perchorlate in
urine. The results of this study were
published in December, 2011 in a paper
titled, Association Between Perchlorate and
Indirect Indicators of Thyroid Dysfunction
in NHANES 2001-2002, a Cross-Sectional,
Hypothesis-Generating Study.
Improving Access to Analysis with
ExpoCastDB
In 2011, EPA scientists released a database
of chemical exposure studies known as
ExpoCast DB. ExpoCastDB consolidates
human exposure data from studies
that have included the collection of
chemical measurements from homes
and childcare centers. Data include the
amounts of chemicals found in food,
drinking water, air, dust, indoor surfaces
and urine. ExpoCastDB users can obtain
summary statistics of exposure data and
download datasets. EPA scientists will
continue to add internal and external
chemical exposure data and advanced user
interface features to ExpoCastDB.
The tool is available to both researchers
and the public and can be found online
at: http://actor.epa.gov/actor/faces/
ExpoCastDB/Home.jsp.
Characterizing Aquatic Exposures to
Real-world Chemical Mixtures
EPA scientists have developed and
applied innovative methods for rapidly
characterizing the impact of real-world
exposures to mixtures of endocrine
disrupting chemicals, pesticides, and other
emerging chemicals of concern for aquatic
species (fish).
The methods developed can be used as a
biomonitoring tool for identifying chemical
exposures from potentially contaminated
waters, and to demonstrate the
effectiveness of actions taken to reduce
such exposures. The validated methods
will provide partners and stakeholders,
including EPA Regions, the National
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Enforcement Investigations Center, the
Great Lakes National Program and EPA's
Office of Water, with a way to rapidly
identify source waters that may result in
unsafe exposures for both aquatic species
and people.
Leadership in Life Cycle Assessments
and Data Availability
EPA plays a leading role in government-
wide discussions on the adoption
of life cycle assessments (LCAs). An
LCA examines the total potential
environmental impacts associated with a
product from its creation to its disposal.
This process of studying a product's
complete life cycle requires an
examination of the raw materials used
and the way materials are produced.
Factors such as the product's use, reuse
and maintenance are also incorporated
into an LCA. The LCA process is data
intensive, expensive and time-consuming.
Thus, EPA researchers have tried to make
completed LCA data more readily available
to industries and the public.
On a national level, EPA supports
advancement of the Life Cycle Inventory
Database, an LCA database for products
within the United States. On an
international level, EPA works with the
United Nations Environment Programme
and the Society of Environmental
Toxicology and Chemistry to improve
the way information is shared across
databases around the world. Other
EPA international work increases the
credibility of existing LCA data, generates
additional data, enhances data accessibility
and complements other data-related
initiatives.
Additionally, EPA scientists are
participating in a multi-agency effort to
create a data "commons" platform for
easy public access to federal LCA data.
This effort includes collaboration with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, National
Institute of Standards and Technology and
the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
One important objective is the creation
of a "digital commons" to link federal
LCA data with that of the private sector.
Such connections could have a significant
impact on the resources available to
promote sustainable products.
Life Cycle Analysis of Lithium-ion
Batteries
The primary goal of many of EPA's
LCA studies is to help companies make
environmentally-friendly choices about
which materials they use and how they
manufacture products. These studies can
also identify areas that might benefit from
better energy efficiency. One such study
involves the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery
system used today in many hybrid cars.
The automobile industry's production of
alternative vehicles (for example, electric,
hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric)
has grown substantially in recent years.
Growth in this sector supports the Obama
Administration's goal of reducing U.S.
dependence on oil.
Lead is the primary metal used for
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Charging
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
batteries found in conventional cars and
trucks. Most hybrid car batteries, on the
other hand, are made of either nickel-
metal hydride or lithium-ion (Li-ion),
both of which are more environmentally
friendly than lead-based batteries. Li-ion
is generally considered the least toxic
of the battery options; however, the
environmental impacts of the production,
usage and disposal of Li-ion batteries are
largely unknown.
In conjunction with EPA's Office of
Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention,
EPA researchers conducted a study on
the life cycle of the Li-ion battery energy
system in vehicles. The study estimates the
environmental impact of the Li-ion battery
by examining each step of its "life,"
from the collection of the raw materials
to the production of the battery to its
final disposal. Researchers are currently
preparing a report on the Li-ion battery
study.
Greening the Government and
Advancing Sustainability
EPA scientists are leading the way in
federal efforts to "go green." Going green
will allow the government to run more
efficiently while supporting environmental
goals.
-..
Working towards a green goal, EPA
scientists support the Agency's Sustainable
Products Network (SPN) effort. The SPN
promotes EPA's leadership in green and
sustainable product development and
procurement for use by other agencies.
EPA encourages the adoption of SPN's set
of environmental standards for certain
products and services.
Additionally, EPA researchers continue
to work with the General Services
Administration (GSA) on purchasing
environmentally-friendly products. This
partnership also helps calculate the
environmental impacts related to federal
spending. On "America Recycles Day,"
34
EPA and GSA worked together to highlight
the benefits of recycling electronics, or
"e-Cycling," and promote Sustainability
and green solutions.
For sustainable and green solutions
to make an impact, the Sustainability
claims of commercial products must be
consistent. EPA scientists and engineers
are working with the Office of Resource
Conservation and Recovery to ensure
accurate claims about the sustainable
life cycle of "green" products, including
claims about a product's carbon footprint.
EPA researchers from the Sustainable
Technologies Division co-led a study on the
rules for such claims.
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2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Telcvi'ion ReM
Don't Dump
Donate Drop-off
Characterizing Perfluorinated
Chemicals in Water
EPA scientists have developed and applied
analytical methods for characterizing the
concentration of perfluorinated chemicals
in surface and well water samples.
Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) are
manmade chemicals used in a wide range
of commercial and consumer products
(e.g., textiles, electronics, stain-protective
coatings). EPA analytical methods have
been used in a series of field studies to
generate high quality environmental data.
EPA's Office of Water considered
the results when establishing the
provisional health advisory guidelines
for drinking water for two common
PFCs (perfluorooctane sulfonate and
perfluorooctanoic acid). The methods
are being used by EPA Regional Offices
to monitor surface and drinking water
supplies to ensure exposures to these
PFCs from public drinking water supplies
are safe.
Cell Culture-based Tests Open Up New
Field of 'Metabolomics'
Testing the effect of chemicals on the
metabolic processes of living cells can be
time-consuming and expensive. This is
especially true when multiple chemicals
are evaluated at the same time. EPA
scientists have sidestepped these issues
by developing a more efficient method for
assessing chemical risks. This innovative
method is a novel type of cell culture-
based research called metabolomics.
Chemical processes that occur within
cells leave behind unique chemical
"fingerprints." Metabolomics is the study
of these metabolic fingerprints and the
cellular processes that produce them. The
fingerprints can be studied to understand
changes that are occurring within cells that
have been exposed to a specific chemical.
To test chemical toxicity, cells are grown
in a well-controlled environment. Highly
automated processing reduces costs, the
use of animals and time.
Following the exposure of cells to a
chemical, researchers perform nuclear
magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR)
and mass spectrometry (MS) on the
biofluids from the cell cultures. NMR and
MS will indicate any changes to the normal
composition of cellular metabolites. EPA
scientists have reduced the time for these
processing steps by more than 10-fold
compared to traditional methods. The
changes in cellular metabolites caused
by chemical(s) exposure can now be
obtained rapidly. Further analysis can
provide knowledge about the exact nature
of the toxicity produced by chemical(s)
exposures.
EPA researcher shown here with nuclear
magnetic resonance equipment used in
metabolomics research.
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief
Computerized System for Pesticides
EPA scientists have developed a
computerized system to support the
rapid evaluation of pesticide applications
submitted to the Agency for registration
or re-registration. The system includes a
search engine and associated database of
chemical metabolic maps and supporting
data for a large number of currently
registered pesticides.
When a pesticide application is submitted,
Agency risk assessors can efficiently
evaluate the chemical against other similar
registered compounds and efficiently
determine the potential for the new
chemical, its metabolites, and remnants
left after its degradation, to result in
harm to humans or the environment. The
system provides risk assessors with data
and knowledge for the rapid, inexpensive,
and reliable prioritization of chemicals
and supports EPA's efforts to reduce the
requirements for expensive animal testing.
Supporting EPA Research
Partners
EPA awards research grants and awards in
a diversity of environmental science and
engineering disciplines—including work
in Chemical Safety for Sustainability—
through its Science to Achieve Results
(STAR) program. The Agency is also one of
11 federal agencies that participate in the
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Program established by the Small Business
Innovation Development Act of 1982.
Together, these programs engage the
nation's best scientists, engineers, and
innovative small businesses in targeted
research that complements EPA's own
outstanding intramural research program.
Accomplishments of EPA partners in the
areas of Chemical Safety for Sustainability
for 2011 include the following highlights.
Cutting-Edge Science on Human Liver
Response to Toxic Chemicals
The human liver is like a waste treatment
plant for the body, playing a key role in
removing harmful chemicals. However,
if a chemical is toxic to the liver, it can
affect how the body responds to other
chemicals.
To advance innovative research in the
area of chemical toxicity testing and
the human liver, EPA awarded nearly $3
million to researchers from four academic
institutions: Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University (VATech), The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
36
(UNC), Indiana University Bloomington
(IU), and The Hamner Institutes for Health
Sciences based in North Carolina.
Every year, manufacturers introduce
hundreds of new chemicals into the
marketplace, adding to the tens of
thousands that are already in use.
Understanding how chemicals might
be toxic to the liver is critical to public
health. Traditionally, chemical toxicity
studies are conducted using animal testing
which is expensive, time-consuming, and
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
controversial. To ease the burden of animal
testing, scientists at the four institutions
are working to create new methods and
tools to expand current understanding
of the effects of certain chemicals on the
liver.
Researchers at VA Tech hope to engineer
a 3-dimensional tissue that will mimic liver
behavior. By exposing this liver model
to known toxicants, scientists will use
genetic work and computational modeling
to understand the biological effects
on the liver due to each chemical and
combinations of chemicals.
The Hamner Institutes will create a
multicellular model of a human liver
lobe to study the effects of a highly
toxic environmental contaminant,
2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin.
IU researchers propose to craft tools
and standards to help researchers
share information about liver model
characteristics and toxicology.
Scientists from UNC will gather and
organize a biological and chemical
information database that relates to liver
toxicity. With this information, they plan
to develop predictive models for chemical
impacts on the liver.
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Prenatal Exposure to Pesticides
Linked to IQ Deficits
Three independent investigations
supported by the EPA-funded Children's
Environmental Health Research Centers
reached similar conclusions associating
prenatal exposure to organophosphate
(OP) pesticides with IQ deficits in school-
age children.
All three investigations found some
evidence of an association between OP
exposures in utero and negative impacts
on intelligence and mental development
at around seven years of age, including
memory, processing speed, verbal
comprehension, perceptual reasoning, and
full scale IQ.
The three studies were conducted at the
University of California, Berkeley, School
of Public Health; the Mailman School of
Public Health at Columbia University;
and Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
All involved cohorts of women enrolled
during pregnancy.
The Berkeley and Mount Sinai
investigators measured OP pesticide
metabolites in the pregnant women's
urine, while the Columbia investigators
measured the OP pesticide chlorpyrifos
in umbilical cord blood. Intelligence tests
were administered to children of these
mothers between ages 6 and 9 years at
Mount Sinai and at age 7 years at Berkeley
and Columbia.
Although the study findings are
not directly comparable, all three
investigations found evidence linking
prenatal OP pesticide exposures with
adverse effects on cognitive function that
continued into early childhood.
Organophosphate pesticides have been
associated with brain and nervous system
damage in animal and human studies. In
2010 the U.S. EPA registered more than
30 organophosphate pesticides, including
several for home garden use. Chlorpyrifos,
which figures prominently in two of
the three EHP studies, is widely used in
agriculture as well as in household ant and
understai
might be toxic to the human liver.
37
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
roach baits in child-resistant packaging,
although all other home uses of this
pesticide were phased out after 2000
due to concerns about neurotoxicity in
humans.
(Also see Children's Environmental Health
and Disease Prevention Research Centers,
page 62.)
Study Improves Understanding of
Arsenic in Food
A study advancing the understanding of
the dietary sources of human exposure
to arsenic has just been published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences (PNAS) by a team of
scientists from the EPA/NIEHS Children's
Environmental Health and Disease
Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth
College (Dartmouth Children's Center).
The study measured the arsenic levels
in the urine from about 230 pregnant
women living in New Hampshire, and
found that the level was significantly
higher for women who had eaten rice
within 2 days of the testing than those
that had not eaten rice. The level of
naturally occurring arsenic in well water
in the area where the study is being
conducted is higher than in many other
parts of the U.S. Although EPA standards
set limits for arsenic levels in drinking
water, concerns about arsenic exposure
are now extending beyond water to foods
such as the rice plant, which can take up
arsenic from the environment where it
is grown. Researchers are investigating
whether the combined level of arsenic
from both water and food could affect the
health of the developing fetus and young
children.
The authors note that their findings
highlight the potential need to monitor
arsenic content in food and reinforce the
concern that some private well water in
some areas of New Hampshire may be
a potential source of arsenic exposure.
While this study reveals the potential for
exposure to arsenic from rice, additional
research is needed to determine if there
are actual health impacts from this type of
exposure and ultimately any health risks,
if found, would then need to be weighed
against the nutritional benefits of rice
consumption.
This study confirms research conducted
by EPA scientists in 2009 that found that
some fruits, fruit juices, rice, beer, flour,
corn and wheat can be dietary sources of
arsenic. The 2009 study used computer
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
models to develop population-level
estimates of exposure to arsenic from
food. The study found estimated arsenic
exposures from diet to be approximately
one-fifth the level set by EPA to protect
consumers from the effects of long-term
exposure to arsenic in tap water.
The Dartmouth Children's Center is
jointly funded by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and the National
Institute for Environmental Health
Sciences. The goal of the Children's Center
is to better understand the combined
impact of arsenic both in drinking water
and food on children's health and to
support community and public awareness
to minimize those health risks and reduce
environmental threats to children's health.
(Also see Children's Environmental Health
and Disease Prevention Research Centers,
page 62.)
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA Progress Report 2011
Office of Research and Development
Human Health Risk Assessment
Every day, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) must make
decisions about environmental pollutants
that impact human health and the
environment. There are currently more
than 80,000 chemicals in commerce, and
more are introduced each year. Only a
small fraction of these chemicals have
been adequately assessed for potential
risk, often because of limits in existing
data, tools, and resources.
EPA's Human Health Risk Assessment
research helps address this problem by
providing state-of-the-science products
in support of risk assessment, such as
independently peer reviewed human
health assessments for individual
chemicals and chemical mixtures;
integrated science assessments for criteria
air pollutants; rapid risk assessments and
technical support to meet partner and
stakeholder needs; and tools to modernize
human health risk assessment.
The products of this research are used
by local, state, national and international
authorities to guide waste site cleanups,
protect the air, set exposure limits
for drinking water, and determine the
potential risk to public health from
exposures to multiple environmental
contaminants. EPA and its partners help
drive the evolution of the science of risk
assessment through original research,
consultation with experts and by accepting
new challenges. These include developing
community risk assessment tools and
tailoring risk assessments to support key
decisions.
This section presents highlights of EPA
research activities and achievements
in 2011 in the area of human health risk
assessment.
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Human Health Risk Assessment
Truck Loads of Science? Gathering the Best Air Science
Years ago a member of EPA's Science
Advisory Board was asked in a
Congressional hearing if EPA could provide
Congress with the data it relied on in its
recent plan to regulate particulate matter
in air. He answered that this was possible,
but you would have to back an 18 wheel
truck up to the Longworth House Office
Building to do it.
EPA evaluates and integrates evidence,
often many thousands of studies, from
across scientific disciplines—atmospheric
sciences, dosimetry, exposure, toxicology,
controlled human exposure, epidemiology
and ecology—to provide the scientific
basis for decisions to retain or revise the
National Ambient Air Quality Standards
(NAAQS) for "criteria" air pollutants. EPA
calls them "criteria" pollutants because
the Agency uses criteria based on human
health and environmental effects to set
acceptable levels.
There are six criteria air pollutants:
1. Ozone,
2. Particulate matter,
3. Carbon monoxide,
4. Sulfur dioxide,
5. Nitrogen oxides, and
6. Lead
Numerous and diverse industrial,
commercial, residential and traffic sources
release these pollutants into the air.
They are considered harmful to public
health and the environment when their
concentration exceeds an acceptable
level, referred to as the standard level. It
is EPA's job to re-evaluate the standards
for these pollutants every five years. EPA
then works with the states to take steps
to comply with the standards to protect
public health.
In the past, EPA's scientific reviews for
each criteria pollutant ran to thousands
of pages. Today, the Agency summarizes
and synthesizes the most policy-relevant
science in Integrated Science Assessments
(ISAs) for the criteria pollutants. All
ISA documents are vetted through a
rigorous peer review process. This process
includes two reviews by the Clean Air
Scientific Advisory Council (CASAC) and
an opportunity for public review and
comment.
During the past year the Agency made
significant progress in generating and
reviewing ISAs. The Agency released
the first draft of the ISA for Lead (Pb) in
May 2011, and it was reviewed at a CASAC
peer review meeting in July. The Agency
also released the first draft of the ISA
for Ozone in March 2011, and it was peer
reviewed at a meeting of the CASAC in
May 2011. For both pollutants, second
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Human Health Risk Assessment
Truck Loads of Science? Gathering the Best Air Science
draft ISAs were prepared for release in
2012, incorporating revisions to respond to
public and peer review comments.
Because people are not exposed to
only one pollutant at a time, but rather
a complex mixture of pollutants, the
scientific and regulatory communities
are studying how to evaluate the
health and environmental impacts of
exposure to mixtures of air pollutants.
This is a challenging problem. In 2011,
EPA convened a multipollutant science
and risk analysis workshop to explore
this topic, and to identify challenges
and opportunities in developing a
Multipollutant Science Assessment
(MSA). EPA is now working to develop
a framework for an MSA as a companion
assessment to the ISAs whereby the
health effects of exposure to a mixture
of pollutants, principally the criteria
air pollutants, may be systematically
evaluated.
Setting air quality standards for the
Integrated Science Assessments (ISAs)
criteria pollutants has far-reaching
health and economic benefits across the
nation. By setting scientifically sound
standards, EPA hopes to reduce mortality,
hospitalizations, missed workdays,
asthma episodes and other serious health
effects. Across the federal government,
economists and other experts consistently
have found that EPA's air quality standards
have resulted in the greatest benefit to
public health of any policies developed by
any government agency.
Criteria Pollutant (Human Health and Ecological Effects) Status of ISA
Lead (neurodevelopmental effects; effects on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems)
Ozone (respiratory effects; reduced plant growth and visible foliar injury)
Carbon Monoxide (cardiovascular effects)
Underway - 1st draft May 2011; second
draft February 2012
Underway - 1st draft March
draft September 2011
2011; second
Completed in January 2010.
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Human Health Risk Assessment
A Global Resource Improves: The IRIS Process and Assessments
EPA plays an important role in providing
timely, high-quality and accessible human
health risk information on environmental
contaminants that may endanger the
health of the American public. Central
to this aspect of EPA's mission is the
Integrated Risk Information System,
commonly called the IRIS Program.
This program provides health effects
information on chemicals to which the
public may be exposed from releases
to air, water, and land and through
the use and disposal of products. IRIS
assessments provide a critical part of the
scientific foundation for EPA decisions
to protect public health across EPA's
programs and regions under an array of
environmental laws. These documents
provide federal, state, local and other
policy makers with the latest scientific
information to make decisions about
cleanup and other actions to protect
people's health. IRIS assessments provide
information on a chemical's potential
for causing adverse health effects along
with information about the relationship
between the dose of the substance and
the biological response. Government
and private entities combine IRIS values
with information about exposure to
characterize the public health risks of
chemical substances. EPA and others
use this information, along with relevant
considerations such as statutory and
legal requirements, economic and social
factors, risk management options, and
public health and cost/benefit information
to make decisions about chemicals in the
environment. Therefore, IRIS assessments
provide a critical part of the science to
support risk management decisions to
protect public health, but they are not a
complete risk assessment or a regulatory
level.
IRIS contains information on more than
560 chemicals, and the program continues
to grow. Over the past few years, EPA has
taken several actions to improve the IRIS
Program. For example, in May 2009, EPA
announced a new IRIS process designed to
streamline and strengthen the assessment
development process while ensuring the
highest level of scientific quality, integrity,
transparency, and timeliness. This new
process reduced the number of steps in
the assessment development process
from 14 to 7 and improved transparency
by clearly documenting and explaining
changes in EPA's scientific judgments
during the assessment development
process and making comments from other
federal agencies and White House offices
publicly available. Since the new process
was instituted and as of the writing of
this report, EPA has completed 24 IRIS
assessments.
In April 2011, the National Research Council
(NRC) made suggestions to improve the
development of draft IRIS assessments.
EPA welcomes those suggestions and
is fully implementing them consistent
with the NRC's Roadmap for Revision,
which viewed the full implementation
of their recommendations as a multi-
year process. Consistent with the NRC
recommendations, draft assessments
released in fiscal year 2012 will be shorter
and more concise, clear, systematic, and
visual. In addition, these assessments will
use a new document structure, including
an executive summary presenting major
conclusions, a preamble describing
methods used to develop the assessment,
distinct sections on hazard identification
and dose response, and more tables and
figures to present data.
In 2011, EPA released four final IRIS
assessments, including the long-awaited
assessment for trichloroethylene (TCE).
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A Global Resource Improves: The IRIS Process and Assessments
TCE is a widely used industrial solvent
commonly found at Superfund sites
across the country. In the assessment,
EPA concluded that TCE causes cancer
in humans and also poses a non-cancer
health hazard to the central nervous
system, kidney, liver, immune system, male
reproductive organs and the developing
fetus' cardiac system.
In 2011, EPA also made tremendous
progress toward completing its
assessment of dioxin, receiving a favorable
review by the Agency's Science Advisory
Board in August 2011 and advancing the
noncancer portion of the assessment
to the final steps of the assessment
development process. Dioxins refer to
a family of toxic chemicals that share a
similar chemical structure and induce harm
through a similar mechanism. One specific
dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin
(TCDD), is best known for being the active
ingredient in Agent Orange, a widely
used herbicide in the Vietnam War. TCDD
has long been associated with a range
of adverse developmental and cancer-
causing health effects in humans, including
disruption of the hormone system and
multiple tumors. While the manufacture
of TCDD stopped in the 19705, dioxins
remain in the environment due to their
longevity and the ongoing contributions
as a by-product of incineration processes.
The levels of dioxins in the environment
have been falling over time thanks to a
number of federal and state regulations
and cleanup actions.
EPA strives to continually improve the IRIS
Program while developing scientifically
rigorous chemical health assessments.
IRIS assessments are held to the highest
Agency standards, and the process for
developing an IRIS assessment includes
rigorous independent external peer
review, internal review by EPA scientists,
public review and comment, and
opportunities for review by other federal
agencies. These standards are among the
best in the federal government and the
scientific community.
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Human Health Risk Assessment
EPA Human Health Risk Assessments
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief
EPA Improves Exposure Factors
Handbook for Broader Use
A thorough assessment of a person's
exposure to toxic chemicals is important
to determine how to limit or avoid
exposures to dangerous pollutants.
Exposure factors are estimates that are
related to human behavior patterns and
characteristics that help determine the
level of a person's contact with a chemical.
In 2011, EPA released a revision of the 1997
Exposure Factors Handbook reference tool
and also released a companion highlights
document.
The purpose of the handbook is to: (1)
summarize data on human behaviors
and physiology that affect exposure
to environmental pollutants; and (2)
recommend values to use for these
factors. To complete that goal, the
handbook gives information and reviews
statistical data on various physiological
and behavioral factors that are often used
in assessing exposure to environmental
chemicals. Recommended values are
given for the general population and for
various parts of the population who may
have characteristics different from the
general population, such as children and
the elderly.
The main audience for the handbook is
exposure and risk assessors who need
data on standard factors to determine
people's exposure to toxic chemicals.
Steps for doing an exposure assessment
include: (1) figuring out the source of the
environmental contamination and the
media (air, water, etc.) that moves the
pollutant; (2) determining the contaminant
concentration; (3) determining the ways
people can be exposed to the toxicant;
(4) determining the things people do
that change their amount of exposure,
such as time, frequency and duration
of exposure; and (5) identifying the
people exposed. Exposure factors to
assess include: drinking water intake; soil
intake; rates from breathing; skin factors,
including skin area and soil attachment
and penetration factors; intake of specific
food groups (e.g., fruits and vegetables,
fish, meats, dairy products, grain products
and homegrown foods); total food intake;
breast milk intake; human activity factors;
consumer product use; and residential
characteristics.
The data presented in the Exposure Factors
Handbook have been combined from
various sources, including government
reports and information presented in
46
scientific journals. Studies included in
the handbook were chosen because
they were seen as useful and fitting for
estimating exposure factors based on the
following considerations: (1) soundness
(adequacy of approach and a small
or defined bias); (2) applicability and
usefulness (focus on the exposure factor
of interest, representativeness of the
population, currency of the information
and adequacy of the data collection
time span); (3) clarity and completeness
(accessibility, reproducibility and quality
assurance); (4) variability and uncertainty
(variability in people and uncertainty
in the results); and (5) evaluation and
review (level of peer review and number
and agreement of studies). EPA assigns
confidence ratings of low, medium or
high to each recommended value based
on those considerations. The ratings are
not supposed to be uncertainty analyses;
rather, they should be seen as suggestions
that EPA programs or individual exposure
and risk assessors can think about and
change as needed based on their own
evaluation of a given risk assessment
situation. The Exposure Factors Handbook
is the Agency's main source of exposure
factor information, and is used by
exposure and risk assessors within and
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Human Health Risk Assessment
outside the Agency as a reference tool.
EPA strives to include in the Handbook
full discussions of the issues that
assessors should think about in deciding
how to use the exposure factors and
recommendations.
Health and Environmental Research
Online (HERO) Database
If you have ever wondered what science
EPA uses in its assessments, then the
Health and Environmental Research Online
(HERO) database is the place for you. EPA
is dramatically increasing the transparency
of and public accessibility to scientific
information identified, evaluated and
used in EPA assessments. Introduced in
2009, the HERO database is used by EPA
to develop rigorous and transparent risk
assessments and to share information with
the public.
What is HERO? HERO is a database of
the scientific studies considered and
used in EPA assessments. It represents
a transformational approach in using
the world's scientific literature in the
risk assessment process. HERO is a
comprehensive system to identify,
compile, characterize, analyze, synthesize
and prioritize scientific studies used in
health assessments. HERO is an evergreen
database, meaning that new studies are
added continuously so that scientists
can always keep up with new research.
References, including peer-reviewed
papers, technical bulletins, conference
proceedings and other sources, are sorted,
classified and made available through
HERO.
HERO includes more than 300,000
scientific papers from peer-reviewed
work used by a variety of EPA and
outside experts in creating Integrated
Science Assessments (ISAs), Integrated
Risk Information System assessments,
and other research and assessment
documents. For example, in the ISAs for
Lead and Ozone currently in development,
there are hyperlinks to bibliographic
information in HERO for each reference
cited. Also, HERO web pages for the
pollutants provide information on the
references considered and included in the
assessments.
In addition to supporting Agency
researchers, HERO gives the public an
easy way to search and analyze the
scientific literature underlying health and
environmental risk assessments that are
used to support EPA decision making. The
47
HERO website provides tools and data to
help the public and other stakeholders
identify important research. Every
American has the right to know what data
underly key regulatory decisions and, as
such, HERO is an important contribution to
open government directives.
Improvements and Innovations in
Dose Response Assessment
Chemical health assessments are a key
component of the science underlying
environmental decisions at EPA, and it is
critical that they are based on the best
available science. In 2011, EPA made
several improvements to three tools used
to develop chemical health assessments,
such as Integrated Risk Information
System (IRIS)assessments. These
innovations will improve the scientific
foundation of the Agency's chemical
health assessments.
Multistage We/bull T/me-to-Tumor Model:
This model estimates the time it takes
for tumors to form after a person is
exposed to different doses of a cancer-
causing chemical. The tool is an important
component of chemical risk assessment
for cancer causing agents since scientists
know that there is a latency period for
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EPA Human Health Risk Assessments
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
developing cancer that varies according to
the size of the chemical dose and potency
of the chemical. The model predicts two
types of results from exposure to cancer-
causing agents: death from cancer and the
development of cancerous lesions (which
applies to non-lethal types of cancer).
CatReg: CatReg is an important statistical
tool that helps scientists use data
from multiple studies when estimating
doses associated with extra risk. EPA
researchers can use CatReg to analyze
toxicity data after they are assigned to
severity categories for effects (e.g., no
effect, adverse effect, severe effect).
CatReg calculates the probabilities of the
different severity categories over different
exposure conditions. CatReg can be used
to analyze data from multiple endpoints
within a single study or a combination of
similar studies. This important tool helps
EPA make better use of a wide range of
toxicity data in IRIS and other chemical
health assessments.
Updates to Benchmark Dose Software:
When investigators test the
carcinogenicity of a chemical in animal
experiments, it often causes more than
one type of cancer. The National Research
Council suggested that EPA develop a
model that accounts for these results.
The model would assume that even
though more than one type of cancer
could develop from exposure, the risk
of developing one type of cancer is
independent from all the others. More
than a decade ago, EPA released its first
version of Benchmark Dose Software
(BMDS). A benchmark dose (BMD) is an
estimate of the dose or concentration
that can be expected to produce a
change in the rate at which a chemical
causes harm. An example is how much
chemical exposure it would take to cause
a 10 percent increase in a particular type
of cancer compared to unexposed test
animals. The 2011 update to the BMDS
calculates composite risk values for
multiple tumor types, allowing EPA to
evaluate the health risks from exposure to
carcinogens in a more realistic way.
Provisional Peer Reviewed Toxicity
Values Help Protect Health
There are currently more than a thousand
hazardous waste sites in the United States.
Often, these sites are contaminated with
multiple chemicals. EPA's Superfund
program conducts risk assessments to
determine how threatening a hazardous
waste site is to human health and the
environment. Risk assessors seek to
determine a safe level for each potentially
dangerous contaminant present. For
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Human Health Risk Assessment
humans, this is a level at which adverse
health effects are unlikely and the
probability of cancer is very small. In
order to conduct a robust human health
risk assessment at a hazardous waste site,
EPA needs information on the hazard and
dose-response of the chemicals present, as
well as other scientific information like the
nature and extent of human exposure to
the chemicals.
Provisional Peer Reviewed Toxicity Values,
or PPRTVs, are toxicity values derived for
use in EPA's Superfund program when a
value is not available in the IRIS database.
They provide important information
on the hazard and dose-response of
chemicals. This information is then used
by the Superfund program and regional
decision makers to conduct site-specific
risk assessments and make site-specific
clean-up decisions.
PPRTVs are derived following a review of
relevant scientific literature using the same
methods, sources of data and guidance
used by the IRIS Program to derive values.
All PPRTVs receive internal review by a
panel of EPA scientists and external peer
review by independent scientific experts
and are publicly available. PPRTVs provide
hazard and dose-response information
pertaining to chronic and subchronic
exposures to substances of concern;
present the major conclusions reached in
the hazard identification and derivation
of the PPRTVs; and characterize the
overall confidence in these conclusions
and toxicity values. References in PPRTV
documents are linked to the HERO
database to provide transparency and
allow the user to access the literature on
which the PPRTVs are based. Currently,
the PPRTV database contains assessments
for more than 300 chemicals.
The toxicity values developed through
the PPRTV program are used by EPA and
others to develop risk assessments that
guide risk management decisions. These
decisions affect the soil, air and water
quality across the country. Through its
PPRTV development efforts, EPA increases
its capacity to protect public health and
clean up contaminated communities.
New Respiratory Science Shapes
Reference Concentration Methods
EPA has released an update of a 1994
document on the health effects of
breathing harmful chemicals. The
original document was entitled Methods
for Derivation of Inhalation Reference
Concentrations and Applications of
Inhalation Dosimetry (sometimes referred
to as RfC Methods). The 1994 RfC Methods
outlined how to interpret the levels and
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Human Health Risk Assessment
EPA Human Health Risk Assessments
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
impacts of airborne gases. It explained the
components of inhalation and airflow to
specific areas of the lung.
Since the release of RfC Methods nearly 20
years ago, new scientific developments
and advancements have occurred.
Scientists now understand inhalation
processes better and have improved ways
to measure doses of gases. One example
of scientific progress is the ability to use
computational fluid dynamic models to
estimate flow for different regions of the
respiratory tract more accurately.
In September 2011, EPA released
a summary report on advances in
inhalation and gas dose measures for the
regions of the lower respiratory tract. It
emphasized new data on animal-to-human
comparisons and children's inhalation
patterns. EPA intends to use the report to
support future revisions to the Agency's
RfC Methods document. The summary
report will help EPA use science-based
inhalation and dose findings to conduct
human health risk assessments.
Training and Education on State-of-
the-Art Risk Assessment Practices
Sound environmental decision-making
must be based on strong science. Risk
assessment is a critical scientific tool
used by EPA and others to inform
decisions across the United States related
to cleaning up the environment and
protecting public health.
One of the challenges that the risk
assessment community faces is having
sufficient, up-to-date information and
training on state-of-the-art principles and
practices for human health, exposure,
and risk assessment. EPA and state
environmental agency staff members
need comprehensive guidance on how to
understand and conduct risk assessments.
This is especially true today, when
resources are scarce and knowledge about
risk assessment is continuously evolving.
Well trained risk assessment professionals
help ensure that federal, state and local
governments are able to effectively and
efficiently implement their duties to
protect the environment and public health.
In response to these needs, EPA is
developing the Risk Assessment Training
Experience (RATE) program. Partnering
with the Interstate Technology and
Regulatory Council (ITRC), affiliated with
the Environmental Council of States, EPA
will develop cutting-edge risk assessment
training that can be used by federal,
state and local governments to learn the
50
principles and practices of sound human
health risk assessment.
RATE is a comprehensive risk assessment
guidance and training program that
includes information about the
fundamentals of risk assessment; hazard
identification; dose-response and exposure
assessment; and risk characterization,
communication and management.
The program will provide instruction
through traditional classroom settings,
but it will also use Web-based platforms
so the courses will be accessible to a
geographically dispersed audience.
This innovative program will help ensure
that state-of-the-art methods are
incorporated into risk assessment practice
as they become available. It will also train
the next generation of risk assessors and
environmental leaders, helping to ensure
that environmental decisions across
the country are based on sound science
and the most current risk assessment
practices.
Body Weight and Oral Dose
References
Chemical risk assessors frequently rely
on animal models when considering
the evaluatingtoxicity. Historically,
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EPA Human Health Risk Assessments
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
when chemical-specific information
for extrapolation to equivalent human
oral exposures is unavailable, EPA risk
assessors have used direct, that is ratios
of 1 to 1, body weight (BW) for noncancer
endpoints, and an uncertainty factor, while
either BW 3/4 or BW 2/3 has been used for
cancer endpoints.
An updated guidance released by EPA in
2011 recommends the use of BW 3/4 for
both noncancer and cancer endpoints
resulting from oral exposure, providing a
hierarchy of approaches for interspecies
scaling and laying out a rationale for the
selection of 3/4 body weight.
By adopting BW 3/4 as the default for
interspecies scaling, EPA takes another
step toward harmonizing risk assessment
for cancer and noncancer effects. As
with many EPA guidance and guideline
documents, Recommended Use of Body
Weight 3/4 as the Default Method in
Derivation of the Oral Reference Dose
provides rationale and guidance for
federal, state, municipal and international
organizations, and has already been
adopted by the California EPA as their
default method for allometric scaling in
their risk assessments.
The guidance document is available at
http://www.epa.gov/raf/publications/pdfs/
recommended-use-of-bw34.pdf.
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GH
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA Progress Report 2011
Office of Research and Development
Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Meeting the current needs of America's
communities without compromising those
of future generations is a major priority of
the EPA and its researchers. The Agency's
Sustainable and Healthy Communities
research aims to help community leaders
make decisions that meet their needs in
ways that preserve the environment and
enhance human health and well-being.
In response to the needs expressed by
community stakeholders, EPA researchers
use a holistic approach that reflects the
three pillars of sustainability: economy,
society and environment. This work
provides the decision-support tools and
information that communities need to
develop proactive, strategic solutions for
a prosperous, environmentally sustainable
future.
This section provides highlights of some of
the top research results EPA researchers
and their partners have achieved in
2011 advancing Sustainable and Health
Communities. It illustrates some of the
specific impacts that are important to
partners of the Agency's Office of Research
and Development. The highlights presented
were contributed by EPA's research
labs, centers, and offices located around
the country, and were performed by
Agency scientists and engineers, as well
as their partners, grantees, fellows, and
collaborators from across the scientific
community.
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Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Toward Sustainability: Understanding Ecosystem Services
How can researchers identify and evaluate
the benefits of a productive ecosystem?
EPA and its partners are doing just that
in Tampa Bay, Florida. Through a major
study of the Tampa Bay estuary and its
surrounding wetlands, scientists are
demonstrating the critical importance of
ecosystem services.
Wetlands protect communities from
floods, and rivers and lakes provide
food and water. Forests and beaches
offer opportunities for recreation and
relaxation. Bees pollinate crops. It is
difficult to measure the economic value
of these types of ecosystem goods and
services. Due to this lack of scientific and
socioeconomic knowledge about the
benefits of nature's services, they have not
been considered fully by policy makers and
planners.
Working with the Tampa Bay Estuary
Program, Tampa Bay Regional Planning
Council, local governments, other research
entities, and citizen and business groups,
EPA's Tampa Bay Ecosystem Services
research project aims to fill this knowledge
gap-
Tampa Bay is Florida's largest open-water
estuary. It supports one of the world's
most productive natural systems and it is
home to a large and growing urban center.
Because residents' use of the ecosystem
depends on its quality, it is vital that
planners consider the value of ecosystem
goods and services in land-use decisions.
The Tampa Bay study seeks to quantify the
value of the goods and services currently
provided by the Tampa Bay ecosystem.
Scientists are working with ecological
economists to measure their monetary
and non-monetary values for human
well-being. The scientists will model the
relationships between stressors (i.e.,
factors that damage the ecosystem),
ecosystem structure and function, and
ecosystem services. They also will assess
the likely change in environmental
stressors and land-use patterns through
2050, and use a Web-based tool to
characterize the effects on ecosystem
services and human well-being.
The Tampa Bay project will ultimately
enable decision makers to value nature's
benefits more accurately, promoting
sustainable development and improving
environmental planning.
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Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Ecosystem Services of Coral Reefs
Among the most biologically diverse
ecosystems on earth and the largest living
structures, tropical coral reefs are portals
for exploration. They supply food in the
form of habitat for important fishery
species, protect shorelines, improve water
quality, and provide opportunities for
sport fishing, education and recreation.
Unfortunately, coral reefs are also one of
the most threatened marine ecosystems.
Coral reefs are sensitive because of
their highly specific requirements for
temperature, salinity, oxygen, light, and
nutrients. Pollution, disease, climate
change, physical contact, habitat
destruction, and sediment buildup can all
threaten these fragile ecosystems.
In 2011, Agency researchers completed
analyses of coral reef surveys conducted
in collaboration with partners from the
U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Natural
Resources in the waters around the
U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). The surveys
provided a regional characterization of the
number, species, sizes and condition of
reef-building corals in the study area.
Measurements made during the survey
provided a baseline of coral reef condition,
and the information can be used by USVI
to generate water quality criteria for coral
reef ecosystems under the Clean Water
Act. Additionally, the data can be used
to estimate quantities of the ecosystem
services, or benefits, they provide
for the people of the USVI, including
fishing, recreation and tourism, shoreline
protection, and potential sources for new
Pharmaceuticals.
Developing methods that better
characterize the benefits coral reef
ecosystems provide will help stakeholders
consider reef condition when making
decisions in the coastal zone and in the
watershed. Methods to estimate coral reef
ecosystem services are currently under
consideration for compensatory mitigation
assessment of anticipated coral reef
losses in Guam. Assessment of ecosystem
services, instead of simple acreage
replacement, may set an important
precedent for future coral reef mitigation
decisions by addressing human benefits
and losses.
In addition, EPA research on Caribbean
near-shore coral reefs found strong
correlations between landscape
development intensity (LDI) in the
watershed and coral reef health, as
measured by coral colony density,
species richness, colony size, and the
three-dimensional total area of coral
reef cover. The LDI index that the
researchers used proved to be a robust
and effective indicator of human impact
on the reefs, and further refinement of
this tool will help with land-use planning
and prioritization of conservation efforts.
Results of the work were presented in the
Marine Ecology Progress Series (April, 2011).
Developing methods to accurately
quantify the ecosystem services provided
by the coral reefs of the U.S. Virgin Islands
and elsewhere will be a critical step in
sustaining those benefits for current and
future generations. Protection of coral
reefs through water quality standards and
the Clean Water Act will sustain the living
organisms that provide those benefits.
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Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Mapping Nature's Benefits: A National Atlas for Sustainability
Fresh air, clean water, safe food—these
are important parts of daily life, but where
exactly do they come from, and what
factors limit or increase our access to
them? The nation's ecosystems provide
a vast array of what scientists refer to
as "ecosystem services," ranging from
clean and abundant water to recreational
opportunities. However, these benefits
are often taken for granted and not fully
considered in environmental decision-
making, at least partly because they are
not well understood or characterized.
EPA researchers are collaborating with the
USDA Forest Service and Natural Resource
Conservation Service, US Geological
Survey, National Geographic, NatureServ,
and other partners to assemble the first
ever National Atlas for Sustainability, a
web-based mapping application that
will show how environmental assets are
distributed across the country. The easy-
to-use tool will allow resource managers
to display the types of services provided
by nature in their selected area, examine
factors that affect their condition and
distribution, and evaluate current and
future societal demand. Using this tool,
the true value of ecosystem services may
be considered for management decisions.
The categories of ecosystem services
included in the Atlas are:
• Clean water for drinking
• Clean water for recreation and
aquatic habitat
• Adequate water supply
• Food, fuel and fiber
• Recreational, cultural and aesthetic
amenities
• Climate regulation
• Protection from hazardous weather
• Habitat and the maintenance of
biodiversity
• Clean air
Using the best available scientific data, the
National Atlas makes it simple and intuitive
for anyone to learn about these resources.
The Atlas will also feature more detailed
data for 50 to 250 cities and towns across
the country. The "Urban Atlas," as this
part of the tool is called, will include
high-resolution maps and interpretive
information on community characteristics
such as: proximity to parks; demand for
drinking water; the estimated health
benefits of urban tree cover; walkability
measures, and; "heat stress" due to
the built environment. Using this tool,
communities will be able to identify the
areas in their environments that provide
needed benefit, and develop strategies
to preserve, restore, and expand them.
The "Urban Atlas" is featured in the
Administrator's PLAN EJ 2014 for its ability
to illustrate how and where community
green infrastructure can benefit
highly vulnerable, under-served, and
disproportionately-burdened populations.
Future Atlas efforts will incorporate
additional aspects of Sustainability in
the areas of housing, transportation and
other urban infrastructure, and waste
management, in collaboration with EPA's
Office of Sustainable Communities and
other EPA Program Offices, and EPA
Regional Offices.
56
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Measuring Sustainability
Sustainability is a simple but powerful
principle that recognizes that the
natural environment is the foundation
for human survival and well-being.
Achieving Sustainability means creating
and maintaining the conditions with
which people and nature can coexist in
productive harmony—conditions that
provide present and future generations
with food and resources, as well as
social, economic and other human needs.
Developing the science and engineering
needed to inform progress in that
direction is the "true north" of EPA's
collective research and development
efforts.
How do we know whether the
environmental health of a region is
declining or improving? EPA scientists
piloted ways to measure and monitor
prosperity and environmental quality by
studying a large area of south-central
Colorado, the San Luis Basin. For this, a
multidisciplinary team of EPA scientists
examined how fundamental components
of the local environmental system relate to
key aspects of human well-being, including
social and economic factors. The research
team set out to develop a straightforward,
affordable method to measure and
monitor important Sustainability
conditions for the area. To do so,
researchers set three primary objectives:
(1) determine if existing historical data sets
could be used to estimate Sustainability
at a regional scale; (2) calculate these
Sustainability metrics through time (1980-
2005); and (3) compare and contrast the
results they found to determine if the
region is moving toward or away from
Sustainability.
The team used available environmental,
economic, and social data to calculate
Sustainability across four different metrics
(standards of measurement), with each
providing the following select insights:
• the "ecological footprint" metric
linked the total area of biologically-
productive land available with
measurements of human
consumption and waste generation;
• the "Green Net Regional Product"
57
metric displayed how much "natural
capital" is being used or conserved;
• the "Emergy" metric explored
energy flows and inputs; and
• the "Fisher Information and Order"
metric indicated the overall stability
and order of natural systems.
Together, the four metrics provide
information to answer some basic
questions central to determining
Sustainability: How well can a region
cope with change? How healthy is it
economically? Is its energy use self-
sufficient? Is its human population causing
ecological damage?
A study on the fate of snowpack in the
high mountains surrounding the San
Luis Valley demonstrated how these
Sustainability metrics can be used to
illuminate threats to a region's long-term
Sustainability. Water is "stored" at high
elevations in the form of the snowpack; as
it melts, it recharges the groundwater and
maintains unique geological and ecological
features of the valley, like the Great Sand
Dunes and wetlands. One policy-relevant
consequence of this fact is that the natural
and agricultural systems of the region are
vulnerable to climate changes that affect
the snowpack.
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2011 Accomplishments - In Brief
Tradeoffs in Pursuit of Sustainability:
Ecosystem Services and Biofuels
Mandates to produce biofuels from
corn feedstock under the Energy and
Independence Act of 2007 could lead to
changes in land use and other factors.
EPA's Future Midwestern Landscapes
(FML) study, a place-based ecosystem
services study covering a 12-state region
of the upper Midwest, has completed
development of a base-year landscape (ca.
2002) and a future (ca. 2020) projection of
potential land use changes.
EPA researchers combined landuse/
landcover satellite imagery with digital
cropland data from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture to characterize agricultural
management practices, including the
use of chemical inputs, such as fertilizers
and pesticides. This allowed them to
assess impacts expected to occur as
farmers increase the acreage of crops
put in continuous corn rotation (year
round) instead of rotating between corn
and other crops, such as soybeans. This
change in agricultural management is
significant because continuous corn
rotations require much higher levels
of chemical inputs to maintain crop
productivity.
The FML study also developed an
improved water quality model that allows
both estimates of runoff into surface
water at a regional scale (important to
estimate inputs to the Gulf of Mexico)
and at a watershed scale (important to
understand where best management
practices would be most effective in
reducing runoff). The model is simpler to
use than existing regional and watershed
scale models, requiring fewer data inputs,
and showing improved predictability.
A prototype interactive Webtool is
available to collaborators and clients (e.g.
Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of
Engineers, Farm Service Agency) that
projects the implications of agricultural
management changes on a suite of
ecosystem services, including water
quality, habitat for migratory bird species,
recreational opportunities, and more.
Additional analyses are underway to
characterize how agricultural management
impacts air quality and associated human
health outcomes.
Research Applied to Community
Clean up
EPA researchers spent years developing
a method to sequester lead in place by
58
adding phosphate to contaminated soil.
Lead, which is easily absorbed by children
and leads to developmental deficits, can
come from industrial waste, paints, and
residues from old automotive fuel. Adding
phosphate to the soil converts the lead
to a less harmful form, thereby reducing
children's risk without expensive and
disruptive excavation projects.
In 2011, an On-Scene Coordinator in
EPA's Region 9 (Pacific Southwest)
worked collaboratively with the regional
toxicologist and scientists from two EPA
laboratories to successfully pilot this
methodology. They applied the phosphate
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Sustainable and Healthy Communities
treatment and other sustainability-
minded practices to clean up yards in a
poor neighborhood in Oakland, California
known for occurrences of lead poisoning.
The treatment, using a phosphate-rich
fish bone waste product, was combined
with mechanical isolation. Using a local
business and labor center provided jobs in
the community while investing residents in
improving their health and environment.
Costs for this innovative cleanup were 40%
lower than conventional excavation and
backfilling.
Measuring and Communicating
Sustainability
A critical task for advancing research
to support sustainable and healthy
communities is the development of
an inventory of existing sustainability
indicators. To that end, a cross-
organizational workgroup of EPA
researchers and others reviewed indicators
at various scales (national, regional, etc.),
and developed a searchable database with
linkages to EPA programs.
Nearly 1630 indicators were organized and
classified, providing a "lay of the land" of
existing indicators of varying scale, scope
and topic. (Remaining indicators will be
synthesized, classified and incorporated
during subsequent annual updates.)
Future enhancement of the database will
create an interactive, searchable web-
based tool accessible to communities,
allowing users to develop a "customized"
list of suggested indicators and indices
to support sustainability activities, such
as cost-benefit analysis, monitoring and
assessment, and community outreach.
As part of this work, EPA researchers
are currently developing a measure that
estimates overall environmental quality at
the county level across the U.S. spanning
the years 2000 - 2005. A prototype version
of this Environmental Quality Index (EQI)
has been developed, taking into account
five domains that influence exposure
and health: air, water, land, built, and
sociodemographic environments.
In addition, EPA researchers have
developed indicators and indices
descriptive of human well-being that
can be used in predictive models for
evaluating the sustainability of alternative
decisions influencing economic, social and
environmental sectors. They have selected
candidate metrics and indicators to
develop a Human Well-being Index (HWBI)
for the U.S. Current work is underway
to modify and apply the index at various
scales, as well as for different community
typologies, including tribal communities
specifically, that will be identified in other
SHC research.
Community and Tribal-Focused Tools
for Environmental Health Issues
In 2011, EPA scientists continued their
development work on two easy-to-use,
science-based geospatial tools designed
to help communities and tribes prioritize
environmental issues and identify ways to
help reduce environmental risks, the:
1) Community-Focused Exposure and Risk
Screening Tool (C-FERST), and
2) Tribal-Focused Environmental Risk and
Sustainability Tool (Tribal-FERST).
During the year, EPA researchers
conducted initial C-FERST pilot studies in
collaboration with the EPA Community
Action for Renewed Environment (CARE)
program. Based on feedback from CARE
community partners in Springfield, MA
and Portland, ME, and EPA's Region
i(New England), C-FERST was enhanced
for community issue identification and
prioritization applications.
Researchers also initiated a Tribal-FERST
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Sustainable and Healthy Communities
2010 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
pilot study with the Pleasant Point
Passamaquoddy Tribe in Maine, and
have partnered with the United South
and Eastern Tribes (USET) to develop a
tribally-focused guidance document and
to connect USET's water quality exchange
database and data transfer network with
Tribal-FERST.
(For more information on C-FERST,
see http://www.epa.gov/heasd/c-ferst;
for more information on Tribal-FERST,
see Tribal Science on page 98 of this
document).
Update of the Electronic Report on
the Environment
EPA's annual Report on the Environment
(ROE) summarizes measurements that
portray environmental conditions across
the nation. The information in the ROE
helps community leaders make good
decisions about environmental education,
training, policy and implementation. The
indicators in the ROE describe conditions
and trends associated with air, water, land,
human health, and ecological systems
at the national and regional level. EPA
determines values for the indicators from
actual measurements gathered for specific
Satellite image showing algal bloom
in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo courtesy
of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Stuidio.
areas at specific times. Cancer incidence,
air toxic emissions and pesticide residues
in food are some examples.
Successful ROE indicator developments
and updates depend on data generated
from monitoring by multiple federal
agencies. Each agency follows an
independent schedule for collecting
new data and releasing it to the public.
Advances in measurement technology,
sample design, quality assurance and
topics covered have made it possible to
create a more complete environmental
snapshot.
The ROE is available in electronic form
on EPA's website. EPA updates the ROE
indicators every three months in March,
June, September and December, www.
epa.gov/roe/
Help for Hypoxia
Excessive amounts of nutrient pollution—
nitrogen and phosphorus—reaching the
northern Gulf of Mexico have sparked
cycles of algae growth and decay that
have, in turn, led to an area of low
dissolved oxygen. This "hypoxic zone"
causes serious problems for aquatic
organisms, threatening the ecological and
economic health of one of the nation's
largest and most productive fisheries.
The highest levels of nitrogen and
phosphorus delivered to the Gulf come
from watersheds in the central and eastern
portions of the Mississippi River Basin that
are drained by large, fast flowing rivers
where little nitrogen and phosphorus are
removed by natural processes.
Recently, EPA researchers have provided
a new and more detailed understanding
of the ecological processes that impact
development of hypoxia in the area. The
results significantly increase the data
available for the region. They show that
sediment oxygen consumption is a small
component of total oxygen consumption
for the system, relative to that of drifting
organisms, including animals, plants, or
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Sustainable and Healthy Communities
2010 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
bacteria that live in open waters. The
results contradict earlier well-cited studies,
and are being used to support the water-
quality simulation models that provide
important information for managing the
impact of nutrients from the Mississippi/
Atchafalaya River Basin on the northern
Gulf ecosystem.
Supporting Grizzly Bear Decision
In 1975, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(FWS) added grizzly bears to a list of
threatened species in the contiguous
United States (the lower 48 states
discounting Alaska and Hawaii). Protected
by the Endangered Species Act, the grizzly
bear population has slowly increased.
However, a beetle infestation killing
whitebark pine trees, a staple food source
in grizzly bear country, suggests that the
grizzly population is not yet in the clear.
EPA research recently helped settle a
dispute over the status of these grizzly
bears. In 2007, FWS removed grizzly bears
from the threatened species list. This
action prompted a court case that lasted
four years. On November 2, 2011, the gth
District Court of Appeals upheld a lower
court ruling keeping the grizzly bear on the
threatened species list.
Support for this ruling came in the form
of a scientific paper by EPA and partners
that demonstrates the importance of
whitebark pine nuts in Yellowstone
grizzly bear diets. The court quoted the
researchers' conclusion that "Grizzly
bear survival in the Greater Yellowstone
Ecosystem is strongly linked to variation
in pine-nut availability." In light of the
ongoing decline of whitebark pine, the
court decided the grizzly population
should remain under Endangered Species
Act protection.
As described in the paper, scientists
utilized the IsoSource model developed at
EPA to estimate the importance of various
foods in grizzly bear diets based on the
stable isotope composition of the foods
and grizzly bear tissue. This isotopic mixing
model has been used widely throughout
the world for such food web studies,
as well as for other applications such as
determining the proportions of various
pollutant sources in air and water pollution
studies.
Supporting EPA Research
Partners for Sustainable and
Healthy Communities
EPA supports the nation's leading
scientists and engineers to facilitate
the pursuit of high-quality research to
build a strong scientific foundation for
Agency actions and decisions. In addition,
EPA researchers cultivate and maintain
partnerships with colleagues at colleges,
universities, research centers, sister
federal and state agencies and other
institutions to collaborate and advance
sustainable and healthy communities.
The Agency awards research grants and
awards in a diversity of environmental
science and engineering disciplines—
including work in Sustainable and Healthy
Communities—through its Science
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Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Sustainable and Healthy Communities
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief
to Achieve Results (STAR) program.
Accomplishments of EPA partners in
the areas of Sustainable and Healthy
Communities for 2011 include the
following.
Mold and Childhood Asthma
Research conducted as part of the
Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air
Pollution study found that infants exposed
to "high concentrations" of mold in
homes are four times more likely to
develop asthma by age seven. The study,
conducted by EPA scientists, Cincinnati
Children's Hospital physicians, and the
Department of Environmental Health at
the University of Cincinnati, is the first of
its kind to show this statistical relationship.
The team's physicians concluded that this
study "provides impetus to reduce the
mold burden in infants' homes..."
The Cincinnati team followed the health
of a cohort of infants and monitored
their environment over seven years.
They showed that the exposure to high
"moldiness" conditions at home during
the first year of life was critical to later
development of physician-diagnosed
asthma. No other exposure monitored
was predictive of asthma development.
The Cincinnati team published the study,
entitled High Environmental Relative
Mold/ness Index During Infancy as a
Predictor of Asthma at 7 Years of Age,
in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and
Immunology.
Researchers defined the level of
"moldiness" in homes using the
Environmental Relative Moldiness
Index (ERMI) scale. The ERMI scale was
developed by EPA scientists as a result
of a DMA-based analysis of 36 indicator
molds and a random sampling and analysis
of U.S. homes (performed in conjunction
with HUD). The ERMI metric research tool
is now being used in other epidemiological
studies of mold exposure and health
outcomes.
Children's Environmental Health
and Disease Prevention Research
Centers
EPA has partnered with the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
(NIEHS) to jointly support research
centers devoted exclusively to children's
environmental health and disease
prevention.
The Centers utilize the expertise and
resources of top universities and medical
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Sustainable and Healthy Communities
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief, Cont'd.
centers to focus on the important role
that environmental toxicants play in the
development of many childhood illnesses.
Through a multidisciplinary research
approach including basic, applied, and
community-based participatory research,
the Centers translate and communicate
their findings to clinical and public health
professionals and policy makers to help
protect children from environmentally-
induced diseases.
Examples of research results in 2011 are
highlighted below.
EPA Science Supports Environmental
Justice
Fourteen EPA-commissioned scientific
reviews and one summary overview
examining the science of environmental
justice were completed in 2011. The papers
help explain why certain populations—
minority, low income, and Native
American—experience disproportionate
environmental health risks.
The papers were published in the American
Journal of Public Health, and were released
during an EPA-hosted special session at
the 139th annual meeting of the American
Public Health Association.
In addition, EPA developed the report,
An Update on Ongoing and Future EPA
Activities to Empower Communities, and
Advance the Integration of Environmental
Justice in Decision Making and Research.
The report highlights ongoing and future
Agency actions in response to needs
raised at Strengthening Environmental
Justice Research and Decision Making:
A Symposium on the Science of
Disproportionate Environmental Health
Impacts, a scientific symposium co-
sponsored by the Agency in 2010.
Also, EPA researchers are working to
provide user-friendly, accessible tools that
enable communities to define problems
associated with disproportionate
environmental exposures and health
impacts. One such tool currently in
development is the prototype Community
Cumulative Assessment Tool, or CCAT,
which guides users through the various
steps of a cumulative risk-environmental
justice assessment.
With CCAT, users can define objectives,
create a partnership database, define the
geographic and technical scope of the
assessment, develop conceptual models,
gather information, rank risks, and explore
risk mitigation options. With this kind of
information available, communities can
better locate the source of problems and
improve conditions for everyone.
Advancing the Understanding of
Arsenic and Diet
A study by a team of scientists from
the Children's Environmental Health
and Disease Prevention Research
Center at Dartmouth College advanced
the understanding of the dietary
sources of human exposure to arsenic.
The study measured the arsenic levels
in urine samples from 229 pregnant
women living in New Hampshire, and
found that the level was significantly
higher for women who had eaten
rice within two days of the testing.
Researchers are investigating whether
the combined level of arsenic from
both water and food could affect the
health of the developing fetus and
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Sustainable and Healthy Communities
2011 Accomplishments - In Brief
young children.
Results were published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences. [Diane Gilbert-Diamond,
Kathryn L. Cottingham, Joann F.
Gruber, Tracy Punshon, Vicki Sayarath,
A. Jay Gandolfi, Emily R. Baker, Brian P.
Jackson, Carol L. Folt, and Margaret R.
Karagas. Rice consumption contributes
to arsenic exposure in US women PNAS
2011 1110912710871-201109127.]
(For more information, see Prenatal
Exposure to Pesticides Linked to IQ
Deficits on page 38.)
Prenatal Exposure to
Organophosphate Pesticides and
IQ Deficits
Three independent investigations
on prenatal exposures to
organophosphate (OP) pesticides,
from three Children's Environmental
Health Research Centers, were
published in 2011 in the peer-reviewed
journal Environmental Health
Perspectives (EHP).
All three studies reached similar
conclusions associating prenatal
exposure to OP pesticides with IQ
deficits in school-age children. All three
found some evidence of an association
between OP exposures in utero and
negative impacts on intelligence
and mental development at around
seven years of age, including working
memory, processing speed, verbal
comprehension, perceptual reasoning,
and full scale IQ.
The three studies were conducted at
the University of California, Berkeley,
School of Public Health; the Mailman
School of Public Health at Columbia
University; and Mount Sinai School of
Medicine. All three involved cohorts of
women enrolled during pregnancy.
(Also see Study Improves
Understanding of Arsenic in Food, page
39-)
Citations for the three papers:
Engel SM, Wetmur J, Chen J, Zhu C,
Barr DB, et al. 2011 Prenatal Exposure to
Organophosphates, Paraoxonase 1, and
Cognitive Development in Childhood.
Environ Health Perspect 119(8): doi:io.i289/
ehp.1003183
Bouchard MF, Chevrier J, Harley KG, Kogut
K, Vedar M, et al. 2011 Prenatal Exposure
to Organophosphate Pesticides and IQ in
^-Year-Old Children. Environ Health Perspect
119(8): doi:io.i289/ehp.iOQ3i8s
Rauh V, Arunajadai S, Morton M, Perera
F, Hoepner L, et al. 2011 Seven-Year
Neurodevelopmental Scores and Prenatal
Exposure to Chlorpyrifos, a Common
Agriculture) Pesticide. Environ Health
Perspect 119(8): doi:io.i289/ehp.iOQ3i6o
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&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA Progress Report 2011
Office of Research and Development
Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
Increasing demands are being placed on
the nation's finite water resources that
supply drinking water, provide water for
other societal needs (including energy,
agriculture and industry), and support
healthy aquatic ecosystems.
EPA's Safe and Sustainable Water
Resources research provides the science
and innovative technologies that the
Agency—and the nation—need to
maintain drinking water sources and
systems, as well as to protect the
chemical, physical and biological integrity
of our waters. Scientists and engineers
are addressing 21 st century water
infrastructure and supply challenges
by integrating research on social,
environmental and economic factors to
provide lasting, sustainable solutions.
This section features 2011 research
achievements that are advancing safe and
sustainable water resources.
This section provides highlights of some of
the top research results EPA researchers
and their partners have achieved in
2011 advancing Safe and Sustainable
Water Resources. It illustrates some of
the specific impacts that are important
to partners of the Agency's Office of
Research and Development. The highlights
presented were contributed by EPA's
research labs, centers, and offices located
around the country, and were performed
by Agency scientists and engineers, as well
as their partners, grantees, fellows, and
collaborators from across the scientific
community.
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Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
EPA Releases Final Research Plan on Hydraulic Fracturing
In November 2011, EPA announced the release
of its final research plan to provide the key
pieces of research needed to answer questions
about the potential impacts of hydraulic
fracturing on drinking water resources.
The U.S. Congress identified the need for a
focused scientific study to determine potential
impacts, if any, of hydraulic fracturing (H F)
on drinking water. The stimulation technique
known as hydraulic fracturing is used to
release natural gas and oil from underground
reservoirs. In March 2010, it requested that EPA
conduct such a study.
To fulfill this request, EPA researchers began
to develop a study plan, providing extensive
opportunities for input from across the
scientific community, industry, stakeholders
and partners, and other interested parties and
individuals. A draft study plan, incorporating
such input, was reviewed by the Science
Advisory Board (SAB), an independent panel of
scientists. SAB found the study approach to be
both appropriate and comprehensive.
The final plan to study the potential impacts
of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water
resources, calls for EPA researchers to look at
the full cycle of water as it is used in hydraulic
fracturing, from acquisition, to the addition
of chemicals and other substances, to the
actual fracturing of subterranean rock, and
through the post-fracturing stage, including the
treatment and disposal of water used during
the processes. This work includes examining
the potential impacts of large volume water
withdrawals from groundwater and surface
water resources; determining the potential
1. Water
Acquisition
2. Chemical
Mixing
4. Flowback and
Produced Water
3. Well (Wastewaters)
5. Wastewater
Treatment and
Waste Disposal
effects of surface spills of HE fluids and
chemicals; identifying potential impacts of the
injection and fracturing process; and looking
at the adequacy of wastewater treatment and
disposal.
The research will involve laboratory studies,
scenario evaluations, reviews of existing data,
toxicity assessments and case studies. Case
studies are located in DeSoto Parish, LA, and
Washington County, PA, Kildeer and Dunn
Counties, ND, Wise and Denton Counties, TX,
Bradford and Susquehanna Counties, PA, and
Las Animas County, CO.
To promote transparency, an EPA website
provides information about the study, including
the study plan and background (http://
www.epa.gov/hfstudy). EPA has a more
comprehensive hydraulic fracturing website
that includes detailed hydraulic fracturing
information, descriptions of hydraulic fracturing
processes, and information on the regulations
surrounding hydraulic fracturing (http://www.
epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing/).
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Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
Untapping Innovation: Water Technology Innovation Cluster
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson (at podium) and Karen Mills, Administrator for the U.S. Small
Business Administration (seated), at the Water Technology Innovation Cluster announcement.
On January 18, 2011, EPA Administrator
Lisa P. Jackson joined Karen Mills,
Administrator for the U.S. Small Business
Administration (SBA), to announce the
formation of the Water Technology
Innovation Cluster (WTIC).
A regional technology cluster such as WTIC
is a geographic concentration of firms and
supporting institutions that are committed
to building a vibrant, technology-driven
economy with a particular focus area. The
Cincinnati region was selected for WTIC
because it contains key ingredients for
a successful cluster focused on water,
including EPA's internationally recognized
water research laboratory, and many
proactive water utilities, such as the
Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW).
The new cluster will bring innovative
water quality technologies to market and
create jobs. During her opening remarks,
Administrator Jackson pointed out that
innovation is the 'sweet spot' where
economic and environmental interests
meet.
WTIC includes venture capitalists,
commercial developers, technology firms,
water utilities, economic development
forums, academia, and local governments
from Southwestern Ohio, Northern
Kentucky, and Southeastern Indiana. It
brings together a critical mass of public
utilities, research partners, and innovative
businesses in the name of strengthening
health protections for millions of
Americans and promoting investments in
cutting-edge water technology.
One illustrative project conducted at
WTIC is a collaboration between EPA and
Cincinnati's GCWW to explore the effects
of distribution infrastructures on water
quality. For example, water might test
"safe" when leaving a water treatment
plant, but what happens to its quality as
it flows through many miles of old pipe
before splashing into someone's water
glass is not always known. To provide
answers, EPA and GCWW partners have
established one of the first real-time,
system-wide monitoring systems to assess
water as it makes it journey away from the
treatment plant. Cincinnati serves as the
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Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
Untapping Innovation: Water Technology Innovation Cluster,
first test site, and the technology has now
been extended to three other cities.
WTIC's initial focus is on drinking water,
with $5 million in EPA Science to Achieve
Results (STAR) grants dedicated to clean
drinking water research and the formation
of the National Center for Innovative
Drinking Water Treatment Technology.
The cluster also will support the
development of green infrastructure
projects, including two currently underway
in the Cincinnati area: rain gardens at
Shepherd Creek, and a collaboration with
the Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewer District
to redirect stormwater to create a new
above-ground stream in the Lick Run
Watershed.
Many small businesses in the regional
area are engaged in water science and
technology development, and $1.5 million
will be available to these companies
through grants from EPA's Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) program to
develop innovative technologies with
water applications. EPA's SBIR program
provides incentive funding to small
businesses to translate their inventive
ideas into commercial products that
address environmental problems.
EPA Issues Draft National Coastal Condition Report IV
Millions of people flock to the coast every
year for rest, rejuvenation, and recreation.
And beyond a day at the beach, the
sandy shores, mangroves, bays, estuaries
and other coastal habitats that offer so
much enjoyment also provide a host of
other important benefits: habitat for a
diversity of wildlife and birds; spawning
and "nursery grounds" for many of the
fish and shellfish that make up the bulk of
the nation's 4.5-billion-dollar domestic sea
food industry; and natural flood protection
and water filtration, for example.
Understanding the condition of coastal
waters and identifying areas that are
in need of improvement are critical for
maintaining the health and sustainability
of coastal ecosystems, and priorities
for scientists at the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. Their work was a
major contributor to the production of the
Agency's National Coastal Condition Report
IV, the fourth in a series of environmental
assessments of U.S. coastal waters and the
Great Lakes.
The report presents an assessment of
coastal water conditions based on data
collected from 2003 to 2006, and includes
assessments of all the nation's estuaries
in the contiguous 48 states and Puerto
Rico, southeastern Alaska, Hawaii, and—
for the first time—the U.S. Virgin Islands,
Guam, and American Samoa. Changes over
time from 1990 to 2006 are presented
nationally and regionally.
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EPA Issues Draft National Coastal Condition Report IV,
Although the overall condition of U.S.
coastal waters is rated as fair in all four
reports, a comparison of the condition
scores shows that the overall condition of
U.S. coastal waters has improved slightly
since the 19905.
The National Coastal Condition Report IV
(NCCR IV) relies on coastal monitoring data
from EPA's National Coastal Assessment
(NCA) to assess coastal conditions, and
presents four main types of data obtained
from nationally consistent monitoring
surveys collected at more than 3,100 sites:
1) coastal monitoring data; 2) coastal
ocean/offshore monitoring data; 3)
offshore fisheries data; and 4) assessment
and advisory data—new to NCCR IV.
The data are the result of collaborations
between EPA, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, and coastal state
agencies to assess the condition of the
nation's coastal resources. Collaborating
agencies strive to provide a detailed
picture of the nation's coastal resources
and to communicate these findings to
the public, coastal managers, scientists,
Members of Congress, and other elected
officials.
The report concludes that the overall
condition of the nation's coastal waters is
fair. Five key indices of coastal conditions
were: 1) water quality index; 2) sediment
quality index (including sediment toxicity,
sediment contaminants, and sediment
total organic carbon (TOC); 3) benthic
index; 4) coastal habitat index; and 5) fish
tissue contaminants index.
For each of these five key indicators, a
score of good, fair or poor was assigned to
each coastal region of the United States.
These ratings were averaged to create
the overall regional and national scores.
Component indicators for the water
quality index, including dissolved oxygen,
inorganic nitrogen, inorganic phosphorus,
chlorophyll a, and water clarity, also were
assessed.
The coastal habitat, sediment quality,
and benthic indices show the poorest
conditions throughout the United
States. The indicators that show the best
conditions are the individual components
of water quality: dissolved oxygen,
dissolved inorganic nitrogen, and sediment
TOC. Water quality analyses indicated
that 56 percent of assessed resources
are in good condition, 35 percent are in
fair condition, and 6 percent are in poor
condition. Fourteen percent of estuarine
waters are impaired based on the water
clarity data presented in this report.
Thirteen percent of estuarine waters are
not suited for fishing, based on risk-based
non-cancer guidelines for moderate
consumption.
The report provides clear, accessible
information to support informed decisions
concerning protection of the nation's
coastal environments, and its impacts will
include increased public awareness and, it
is hoped, actions to sustain and improve
coastal conditions.
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Soaking it In: Green Infrastructure for
Stormwater Management
In many U.S. cities, rainwater flows over
impervious, man-made surfaces such as
roofs and paved roads instead of more
naturalistic areas such as forests or
grasslands. The resulting runoff flows
through traditional drainage pipes into
what is called a combined sewer system.
Consequently, when large rainstorms
dump massive amounts of water, these
sewer systems become susceptible
to overflows and backups. Combined
sewer overflows cause great risks to
environmental and human health, flooding
basements and contaminating water
resources with human and industrial
waste.
EPA researchers are investigating ways
to use green infrastructure to efficiently
and effectively curb combined sewer
overflow occurances. Green infrastructure
refers to wet weather management that is
sustainable and environmentally friendly.
An ongoing study in the Shepherd Creek
watershed of Cincinnati used an economic
Rain barrel installation collects water
and reduces runoff, part of EPA's "green
infrastructure" study in the Shepherd
Creek watershed of Ohio.
incentive to encourage residents to adopt
individual stormwater management
practices of rain gardens and rain barrels.
Rain barrels catch and store rainwater
runoff from house roofs, and rain gardens
help detain runoff on the ground.
Researchers monitored the effectiveness
of these installations in reducing overall
stormwater runoff, measuring a small but
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significant change in water levels. Models
predict a resulting 5-20 percent decrease
in stormwater outflow due to the use of
these green infrastructure practices. A
final report on this study is currently in
review and is planned for release in 2012.
EPA researchers are also partnering with
municipalities to plan and implement
stormwater management strategies
including green infrastructure practices.
For example, in Cleveland, OH, Agency
scientists worked on a team to propose
best stormwater management practices
in response to a combined sewer overflow
consent decree for the city. The proposal,
currently in review, addresses stormwater
management concerns with a variety of
techniques such as measures to control
the sources of runoff and thoughtful
landscape planning of old and abandoned
city sites.
Ideally, these projects will yield results that
can be generalized to fit other systems and
help lead the way to green stormwater
management practices being adopted on
a much larger scale throughout the United
States and abroad.
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EPA Advances Scientific
Understanding of Mountaintop
Mining
Mountaintop mining is a form of surface
coal mining in which miners remove
plant life and the upper sections of soil
with heavy equipment. They then use
explosives to expose coal for extraction
and dump the waste earth and rock
in nearby valleys in a process called
"valleyfill." As a result, mining waste
buries the streams in these valleys. To
date, mountaintop mining has buried an
estimated 2,000 miles of small, upper-level
Appalachian streams.
In April 2010, EPA announced that it would
take action to clarify the environmental
permit requirements for Appalachian
mountaintop removal and other surface
coal mining projects. These permit
requirements protect Appalachian
ecosystems in accordance with the
Clean Water Act. One year later, in May
2011, EPA released two final reports that
provide the best available science on the
environmental impacts of mountaintop
mining.
The first report, The Effects of Mountaintop
Mines and Valley Fills on Aquatic Ecosystems
of the Central Appalachian Coalfields,
provides a state-of-the-science assessment
on the ecological impacts of mountaintop
mining and valleyfill operations. The
report describes how mountaintop mining
causes the permanent loss of springs,
intermittent streams and small perennial
streams. The chemical effects include
persistent increases in major chemical ion
concentrations downstream, decreases
in water quality to levels acutely lethal to
standard laboratory test organisms and
elevation of selenium concentrations to
levels often toxic to fish and birds. As
a result, mountaintop mining produces
consistent and significant degradation of
small aquatic animal and fish communities.
The second report, A Field-Based Aquatic
Life Benchmark for Conductivity in Central
Appalachian Streams, describes the science
behind the water quality benchmarks.
These benchmarks are designed to
protect the aquatic organisms that live in
Appalachian surface waters. They were
developed by adapting the standard
U.S. EPA methodology for deriving
ambient water quality criteria to develop
a protective benchmark for a mixture of
salts in freshwater. The benchmark was
derived for Central Appalachian streams
using data from West Virginia; data from
Kentucky were used to validate it.
EPA and Army Join Forces for
Sustainability
The EPA has agreed to provide innovative
research and technology to support
the U.S. Army's Net Zero initiative for
sustainability.
On November 28, 2011 EPA and the Army
signed a memorandum of understanding
to become partners in an Army initiative
to achieve sustainable practices in military
bases. This initiative, known as Net Zero,
focuses on reducing the water and energy
demands of military facilities as well as
reducing waste produced by the facilities.
The term "net zero" refers to the ultimate
goal of this initiative: transforming
army installations into self-sufficient
communities where the amount of water
and energy and produced is equal to the
amount consumed by the facility. The
result would be a community whose
overall impact on natural water and energy
resources would balance out to zero
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Tents and other temporary
structures topped with solar
panels are part of the Net Zero
program.
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Net Zero: EPA Assistant Administrator Paul Anastas (Office of Research and
Development) and Katherine Hammack, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Installations,
Energy & Environment) sign a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a
partnership to support sustainability.
impact. The concept of net zero also
includes waste reduction to the point
where all physical wastes of a facility
would be reduced or recycled.
Net Zero's water focus will limit the
amount of freshwater drawn from natural
resources and will ensure that water
leaving these army bases is returned to the
natural watershed to feed into those same
resources. Also, EPA's research and input
will help the Army incorporate cutting-
edge methods of recycling waste water
and retrieving useful nutrients from waste
waters.
Although each military base has unique
resource demands, both EPA and the Army
expect that the introduction of sustainable
features will be applicable outside of
military instillations and will serve as
an example for the greening of other
communities.
Sustainable Watersheds:
Characterization and Mitigation of
Fecal Pollution
At EPA's Experimental Stream Facility
(ESF) in Milford, OH, scientists are studying
various impacts on wadeable streams.
Researchers used watershed sampling,
rainfall information and high-resolution
geographic information system (CIS) data
to identify the origin of human waste
(fecal) pollution in a watershed. These
different data sources allowed watershed
managers to understand the variety of
sources of human fecal pollution in the
East Fork Watershed of Southwestern
Ohio, leading to more efficient, cost-
effective and focused cleanup actions.
Small stream ecosystems comprise
over 72% of the river miles in the United
States; yet, the role they play in managing
watershed-level water quality remains
uncertain. The ESF is one of very few U.S.
research facilities designed to conduct
small stream research. ESF studies are
designed to collect information on both
watershed management and the impact
of contaminants. Researchers can study
how pollutant loads combine with
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characteristics of the stream habitat that
may or may not change as a result of man-
made stress.
With eight stream areas under study,
the facility can provide a balanced
perspective between the benefits of
controlled laboratory study and field
study. Researchers can observe and
measure changes to stream ecosystems
at the facility in ways that are not possible
in traditional laboratory studies. Well-
designed and controlled experimental
stream studies are an important tool for
providing the understanding necessary
to move basic research and development
from the laboratory to the field.
Healthy Watershed Integrated
Assessment Workshop Report
EPA developed The Healthy Watersheds
Initiative (HWI) in 2009 to combat the
decline in the health of the nation's aquatic
ecosystems. The initiative focuses on
maintaining healthy waters and meeting
Clean Water Act goals using an integrated
approach to maintain water quality and
ecological integrity on a geographic, or
watershed, basis.
In support of HWI, EPA released the
Healthy Watersheds Integrated Assessments
Workshop report in March, 2011 to reflect
the outcomes of an experts workshop held
the preceding winter. The report presents
input from EPA programs and regions,
other federal, state and local agencies,
other organizations, national experts and
practitioners to advance the state-of-the-
science on integrated assessments of
healthy watersheds.
Workshop participants explored how to
use assessment results to guide strategic
healthy watershed protection programs
such as Virginia's Interactive Stream
Assessment Resource (INSTAR) and
Maryland's Green/Blue Infrastructure
Assessment.
The workshop proceedings report explains
that healthy watersheds can be sustained
by diverting development pressures
toward heavily degraded watersheds
through smart growth, preserving open
spaces and limiting new development
in healthy watershed areas. Ongoing
monitoring of the watershed's natural
condition and the use of tools proven
in the field are important for detecting
threats to a watershed's health; these
practices also make it possible to set
minimum stream flow standards that are
protective of watershed health. Education
and outreach to all stakeholders, including
the general public and policymakers, is also
recommended for sustaining watershed
health.
Research needs and data gaps were
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identified in the workshop report to guide
the direction of future healthy watershed
research. Some examples include studying
climate-related effects on systems and
indicators, determining how ecosystems
recover and adapt to disturbances, and
crafting guidance on how to maintain
and protect the components of healthy
watersheds.
Risk of Illness Increases When Beach-
Goers Contact Sand
For most people, plans for a sunny day
at the beach do not usually include
recovery from stomach illness after
playing in contaminated sand. However,
past research has shown that beach
sand can be home to organisms such as
bacteria, viruses and fungi known as fecal
indicators. Fecal indicator organisms are
a sign of the possible existence of fecal
pathogens from human or animal waste.
EPA recently concluded a study on the
risk of intestinal illness linked to sand
contact and the density of fecal indicator
organisms in the sand. Researchers asked
visitors to two recreational beaches with
nearby waste treatment plant discharges
about their sand contact that day. Ten to
12 days later, researchers questioned the
same beach visitors about their health
symptoms.
Using thousands of interviews and more
than 100 sand samples, researchers found
that fecal contamination in the sand
was associated with intestinal illness
among visitors who dug in the sand, most
especially those who were buried in the
sand.
A paper describing this study and its
results, Fecal Indicators in Sand, Sand
Contact, and Risk of Enteric Illness Among
Beachgoers, was expected to be published
in early 2012. This information will help
regulators set recreational water criteria
to better balance beach usage with public
health protection.
Evaluating Water Quality from the Sky
EPA researchers are exploring how to
use satellite technology to monitor water
conditions and help the Agency develop
water quality criteria that protect the
nation's water resources.
A study conducted in 2011 focused on
using such technology for Florida's coastal
waters. The purpose of the study was to
evaluate the use of satellite measurements
as a way to analyze water quality and to
help regulators set standards for nutrient
pollution.
Nutrient pollution, excess nitrogen and
phosphorous carried in runoff and other
sources from land sparks excessive algal
growth in many water bodies, and could
also occur in coastal waters. Researchers
used the SeaWiFS satellite to measure
the amount of chlorophyll-a, a pigment
present in algae, as a way of monitoring
nutrient pollution in coastal water.
Researchers compared thirteen year's
worth of data from the SeaWiFS satellite
to measurements from field studies to see
if the satellite's readings could be used to
measure water quality.
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Researchers concluded that this unique
application of satellite data for monitoring
water quality is effective and could be
applied to other satellites and other
coastal waters. A paper, An Approach to
Developing Numeric Water Quality Criteria
for Coastal Waters Using the SeaWiFS
Satellite Data Record, describing the study
and its results was published online in
December, 2011 by Environmental Science
and Technology.
Advancement of Wastewater Analysis
Studies
Protecting the environment and human
health is the mission of EPA scientists
and engineers. EPA's ability to analyze
wastewater to protect infrastructure and
promote cost-effective treatment is critical
to this mission. EPA continually strives to
improve the analytical techniques it uses
for wastewater analysis.
As part of its research efforts, EPA
recently opened a new hub for studies
on wastewater and pipe surfaces. The
Advanced Materials and Solids Analysis
Research Core (AMSARC) is located in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
AMSARC scientists investigate the
properties of materials ranging from
bacteria and DMA to ceramics and man-
made membranes. One of the state-of-
the-art tools at this facility is a confocal
microscope, which produces three-
dimensional images. AMSARC also has a
solids carbon analyzer. It measures the
inorganic and organic carbon content of
solid material.
The high-tech equipment at AMSARC
benefits not only EPA researchers, but
also other scientists across the nation.
EPA scientists at AMSARC have formed
partnerships with colleagues over a wide
range of scientific fields and industry
sectors. They will help EPA find new
ways to improve water treatment and
conveyance.
The AMSARC tools promote the flexibility
and breadth of research at EPA by
supporting water quality research,
corrosion control and the characterization
of bacteria. The EPA scientists at the
research core are creating new analytical
techniques for wastewater solids. In
addition, they hone their skills to maintain
proficiency in current state-of-the-art
techniques.
AMSARC scientists are devoted to the
idea of "green chemistry." This concept
promotes the design of chemical products
and processes that reduce or eliminate
the use or generation of hazardous
substances. AMSARC also supports an
innovative and collegial community of
researchers doing cutting-edge research.
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This will promote continued progress
towards global sustainability, materials
management, pollution prevention and
the protection of public health.
Investigating and Preventing Pinhole
Leaks
Imagine a tiny, pin-sized hole in one of the
copper water pipes behind your kitchen or
bathroom wall. Water slowly drips, drips,
drips until the sheetrock, studs, and any
insulation become a breeding ground for
mold and mildew that can go undetected
for months, leading to major damage, and
even sickness.
Pinhole leaks in copper water lines are a
major concern to both homeowners and
drinking water due to the expense of
repairs, health implications, and loss of
water from undetected leaks in service
lines.
EPA scientists are working to identify what
waters are problematic in causing the
corrosion of copper pipes, and to improve
the understanding of how drinking water
quality is related to the localized corrosion
of copper pipes. They are focusing their
efforts on the prevention of pinhole leaks
and how to reverse corrosion once it has
already occurred.
Researchers collected water and pipe
samples from communities experiencing
pinhole leak problems and from nearby
communities without such problems.
Using the data collected, as well as the
documentation of full-scale case studies,
they have compiled a database of
corrosion distribution information and the
associated water quality.
In addition to compiling this database and
comparing water chemistries, Agency
researchers designed and utilized a pipe-
loop system to test water for its tendency
to initiate pitting corrosion by continuously
running water through a series of copper
pipes. A small-scale, preliminary study
using this pipe-loop system showed
researchers that evidence of localized
corrosion could be found after only 72 days
of flowing water through the system. A
tool like this pipe-loop system could prove
very useful for water utilities.
The EPA-designed pipe-loop testing system
offers the potential to provide a solution,
giving water companies a low-cost early
warning system for identifying water
likely to lead to pinhole corrosion, and
preventing homeowners from facing the
damage and health risks that come from
leaking pipes. Such pipe-loop testing
systems could also help water companies
to identify potential solutions for existing
problems.
This on-going project is expected to
provide assistance and guidance for
identifying what water chemistries are
problematic, and help utilities select and
apply the most appropriate treatment to
extend life of pipes.
A Water Partnership with Australia
In an effort to expand cooperation
between the United States and Australia
on integrated water management
strategies and sustainable infrastructure,
long-term adaptation to climate change,
including water reuse and the efficient use
of water resources that reduce energy
and water consumption, EPA's Safe and
Sustainable Water Resources program will
work together with peers in Australia to
explore new ways of ensuring long-term
sustainability of water resources.
Over the last year, scientists and engineers
from both countries have had technical
exchanges using video and webinars to
share best practices looking at storm water
reuse, water recycling and recovery. In
addition, they have exchanged lists of
projects that explore answering similar
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questions to help evaluate policy decisions
and select more specific projects to
collaborate on in more detail.
Over the upcoming year, EPA scientists
and engineers will share information
on chemical and microbial risk and the
Australians will specifically share their
water technology best practices.
This collaboration will build capacity and
strengthen systems so they can deliver
high-quality water and sanitation services
to low- and middle-income countries.
In addition to improving drinking water
quality and health, the effort will help
empower communities to implement cost-
effective changes to water systems.
Evaluation of Arsenic Removal
Technology
Municipal drinking water systems and
private wells that tap groundwater
sometimes have higher levels of arsenic
than do those that rely on surface water
bodies such as lakes and streams, the
result of source water coming into
contact with natural occurring arsenic in
subterranean rock formations.
In response to this challenge and to help
municipal water systems, EPA conducted
the Arsenic Demonstration Program
from 2001 to 2011. During that time,
EPA researchers tested the reliability of
small-scale arsenic treatment technology
systems. Researchers evaluated the ease
of operation, maintenance requirements
and cost-effectiveness of the systems. In
addition, they characterized treatment
byproducts.
The program's three rounds of projects
resulted in the construction of 50 small,
full-scale arsenic removal systems across
26 states. These systems were funded by
Cooperative Research and Development
Agreements (CRADAs), which are
partnerships between EPA and private
companies to work together on research
and development.
The information and data provided
through the demonstration program
will enable water utilities, state agencies
and consulting firms to make informed
decisions on the selection, design and
operation of arsenic removal systems. The
new technologies and the information the
research provides are expected to help
Small-scale arsenic removal
technology filter system, part
of EPA's Arsenic Demonstration
Program
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increase the number of water systems
that are able to comply with EPA's revised
arsenic drinking water standard.
Identifying PFCs in Surface and Well
Water
EPA scientists have developed and applied
analytical methods for characterizing the
concentration of perfluorinated chemicals
(PFCs) in surface and well water samples.
PFCs are synthetic chemicals used in a
wide range of commercial and consumer
products such as textiles, electronics, and
stain-protective coatings. The scientists
conducted a series of field studies to
generate high quality environmental data.
EPA's Office of Water considered the
results of the work when establishing
the provisional health advisory guidelines
for drinking water for two common
PFCs (perfluorooctane sulfonate and
perfluorooctanoic acid). In addition,
EPA Regional offices are now using the
methods to monitor surface and drinking
water supplies to ensure exposures to
these two PFCs from public drinking water
supplies are safe.
Supporting EPA Research
Partners for Safe and Sustainable
Water Resources
EPA supports the Nation's leading
scientists and engineers to facilitate the
pursuit of high-quality research to build
a strong scientific foundation for Agency
actions. In addition, EPA researchers
cultivate and maintain partnerships
with colleagues at colleges, universities,
research centers, sister federal and
state agencies and other institutions
to collaborate and advance safe and
sustainable water resources.
The Agency awards research grants
through its Science to Achieve Results
(STAR) program. (See more about the
Agency's STAR program in the Supporting
and Building Partnerships section of this
report.)
Accomplishments of EPA partners in
the areas of Safe and Sustainable Water
Resources for 2011 include the following.
Innovative Drinking Water Treatment
Technologies in Small Systems
Over the past three decades, more
than 80,000 chemicals entered the U.S.
marketplace, posing potential risks to
public health through drinking water
systems. To manage public health risks
posed by water contaminants and to
advance sustainable drinking water
protection, new technologies and
approaches are needed that can remove
chemical contaminants from drinking
water sources without introducing
unintended risks.
In July of 2011, EPA's Science to Achieve
Results (STAR) grant program requested
proposals to develop new technologies
aimed at removing contaminants found
in drinking water. EPA is particularly
interested in technologies that address
mixtures of contaminants and on
approaches designed for small and
disadvantaged systems. These are often
the least able to afford or sustain water
treatment technologies but are subject to
the same regulations as larger systems.
Eight of the proposed research projects
were awarded grants in December of 2011.
Grantee projects are based in different
locations across the county, some focusing
on local water contamination while
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.1"
others focus on general water treatment
techniques. For example, grantees from
Lincoln University and the University of
Missouri, Columbia are working to improve
drinking water quality for small rural
communities in Missouri while grantees
from the University of California, Riverside
and the University of Iowa are researching
the use of nanofiber filters for small-scale
water treatment systems.
Public Health Protection through
Water Infrastructure Sustainability
With an estimated 240,000 water main
breaks per year in the United States, the
country is in need of new approaches to
identify, characterize, repair and manage
pipeline failures and other areas key of
weaknesses of water distribution systems.
Sustained public health protection relies
upon an intact water infrastructure
system, which includes drinking water
and wastewater conveyance systems and
related treatment facilities.
In 2009, EPA's Science to Achieve
Results (STAR) grant program asked
for proposals for applied research that
would increase understanding of the links
between water infrastructure and public
health protection, as well as suggest
practical solutions for more sustainable
infrastructure.
Eight targeted research awards were
granted in January 2011. Ongoing work
includes:
• quantifying the extent of leaks from
urban sanitary sewers and potential
effects on drinking water sources;
• evaluating pipeline coating
technologies as substitutes for lead
and copper pipe replacement;
• comparing water distribution
rehabilitation scenarios and the
effects on animal cells and genetic
material exposed to the water;
• developing self-powered sensors to
monitor water supply networks;
• identifying how biofilms attach and
detach from pipes;
• using "forward osmosis" techniques
to design and construct membranes
for wastewater treatment;
• developing efficient pipeline
inspections based on genetic
markers from bacteria; and
• studying rural water supplies and
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improving water treatment in these
systems.
These two to six year research grants will
contribute to the sustainability of drinking
water and wastewater systems and help
ensure the protection of public health.
STAR Grantee Accomplishment in
Water Research
Research results from EPA STAR grantees
in 2011 also include:
• Researchers at University of
Washington developed a high-
throughput method to generate
novel antibody-like "probes" for
pathogen detection in water. The
researchers filed a patent for the
ratiometric pre-rRNA method
(International Patent Number PCT/
USog/67565 titled RATIOMETRIC
PRE-RNA analysis).
• Researchers from the University
of Cincinnati successfully isolated
and purified a commonly found
microcystin, microcystin-LR (MC-
LR), from a large bloom of blue
green algae in South Florida.
Research results will provide a better
understanding of the occurrence and
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interactions of selected cyanotoxins
in freshwater estuaries, as well as
the role of novel TiO2-based catalytic
materials to destroy cyanotoxins in
water as an approach to develop
engineering technologies utilizing
solar radiation.
• Researchers at Middle State
Tennessee University successfully
isolated 17 novel legionella-like
amoeba-resistant bacteria (ARB)
from water samples. Those
responsible for ensuring safe and
clean water will have an expanded
list of potential pathogens to look
for when sampling for respiratory
infectious agents.
• Researchers at the Lamont Doherty
Earth Observatory and Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution developed
a quantitative polymerase chain
reaction-based method to assay
zooplankton predation rates on
harmful algae. These results may
lead to improved representation of
phytoplankton mortality in predictive
models of bloom formation, thereby
aiding the forecasting and mitigation
of Alexandrium blooms by coastal
managers.
• Researchers at the University
of Delaware investigated the
population dynamics of toxic and
non-toxic cyanobacteria in the
upper reaches of Chesapeake
Bay. Researchers were able
to demonstrate that natural
mesozooplankton were better
grazers of both toxic and non-
toxic strains of Microcystis than
their cultured counterparts,
microzooplankton. Researchers
summarized that the ability to
synthesize microcystin does not
seem to offer toxic Microcystis
populations a significant defense
against grazing by co-occurring
zooplankton communities.
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United States
Environmental Protectio
ency
EPA Progress Report 2011
Office of Research and Development
Supporting and Building Partnerships
EPA supports the nation's leading scientists
and engineers to facilitate the pursuit and
dissemination of high-quality research to
build a strong scientific foundation for
Agency actions and decisions. Additionally,
EPA researchers cultivate and maintain
partnerships with research colleagues at
colleges and universities across the world,
at partner federal and state agencies, and
other entities throughout the scientific
community.
The Agency's extramural research program
funds research grants, graduate and
undergraduate fellowships, and large
research centers through a competitive
solicitation process and independent peer
review. These programs engage the nation's
best scientists and engineers in targeted
research that complements EPA's own
outstanding intramural research.
EPA is also one of 11 federal agencies that
participate in the Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) program, enacted in 1982
to strengthen the role of small business in
federal research and development, create
jobs, and promote technical innovation.
EPA's SBIR program awards funds to
innovative small businesses that have novel
concepts for products and technologies
that will help spur economic growth while
advancing a more sustainable future.
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-,
Supporting and Building Partnerships
EPA Research Grants and Awards
EPA Extramural Research Grants and
Fellowships for 2011
EPA funds research grants and graduate
fellowships in numerous environmental
science and engineering disciplines
through its Science to Achieve Results
(STAR) program.
EPA issued 137 Graduate Fellowships,
So grants, 37 Small Business Innovation
Research (SBIR) awards, and numerous
Greater Research Opportunities
undergraduate fellowships to support
environmental research conducted in 2011.
Highlights are included below.
The STAR program engages the nation's
best scientists and engineers in targeted
research that complements EPA's own
intramural research program, and helps
the Agency support partners in other
federal agencies.
Grants are awarded through competitive
solicitation processes followed by
independent peer review. Supported
research includes work on drinking water,
water quality, global change, ecosystem
EPA Greater Research Opportunities
(GRO) Fellow Ciarra Greene is a chemistry
major at Northern Arizona State
University.
assessment and restoration, human health
risk assessment, endocrine disrupting
chemicals, pollution prevention and new
technologies, children's health, and the
health effects of particulate matter.
In addition, through this same competitive
process, EPA periodically establishes
large research centers in specific areas
of national concern. Currently, centers
focus on children's environmental health,
hazardous substances, clean air, and_
estuarine and coastal monitoring.
STAR Graduate Fellowships
The STAR Graduate Fellowship
Program supports masters and
doctoral candidates working
towards advanced degrees and
careers in environmental science and
engineering.
137 STAR Graduate Fellows were
awarded to support graduate work
in human health and environmental
research in 2011 (This includes funds
awarded in Fiscal Year 2011, or in late
2010)
Greater Research Opportunities
(GRO) Fellowships
The Greater Research Opportunities
(GRO) fellowships support
undergraduate students in
environmental fields of study. The
goals of the program are to bolster
the environmental generation of
tomorrow, inspire and train diverse
communities, and boost excellent
research and development that
advances the protection of human
health and the environment through
education.
Eligible students receive support
for their junior and senior years of
undergraduate study and for an
internship at an EPA facility during
the summer between their junior and
senior years. The fellowship provides
up to $19,700 per academic year of
support and up to $9,500 of support
for a three-month summer internship.
The Agency awards approximately 40
new fellowships each year.
82
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EPA Research Grants and Awards,
Supporting and Building Partnerships
STAR Grants to Support Air
Pollution Health Effects Research
Five projects received grant funding
totaling nearly $1.5 million to explore
air pollution health effects by taking
advantage of previous investments in
health and exposure data collection.
Research explores new health and
exposure questions by emphasizing
the use of existing data from health
studies to analyze health outcomes
for which the link to air pollution is not
well established, or to identify at-risk
populations.
ecipientf
NYU School of Medicine
Hunter College
New York University
University of Pittsburgh
Colorado State University
University of Colorado
Harvard School of Public Health
Harvard School of Public Health
Brigham Young University
Imperial College
Johns Hopkins University
Brigham Young University
Intra-Urban Variation of Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Health
Effects
Exploring New Questions of Multiple Air Pollutants, Sources and
Health in Denver
Are Diabetics and the Neurologically Impaired at Increased Risk
from Air Pollutant Exposures?
The Effect of Air Pollution Control on Life Expectancy in
the United States: A Population-Based Analysis of Major
Metropolitan Areas
Associations of Short-Term Pollution Exposures with Childhood
Autoimmune Disease
lint Awarded ($)
$299,998
$298,362
$299,903
$300,000
$298,857
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
EPA Research Grants and Awards,
STAR Grants to Support Black Carbon
Research
EPA awarded nine grants totaling
$6,669,863 for research on the climate and
air quality impacts of the pollutant black
carbon. Research is intended to reduce
uncertainty about black carbon effects and
to improve the tools and understanding
of black carbon in the face of global
climate change. These projects will provide
answers to science questions regarding
this pollutant and will help policy-makers
mitigate the emission of black carbon and
related pollutants.
University of California - Riverside
University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
University of California - Irvine
University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
Argonne National Laboratory
NESCAUM
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin -
Madison
Georgia Institute of Technology
Rutgers University
Understanding the Hygroscopic Properties of Black Carbon/
Organic Carbon Mixing States: Connecting Climate and Health
Impacts of Anthropogenic Aerosol
Particle-Resolved Simulations for Quantifying Black Carbon
Climate Impact and Model Uncertainty
Characterization Of Emissions From Small, Variable Solid Fuel
Combustion Sources For Determining Global Emissions And
Climate Impact
Linking Regional Aerosol Emission Changes with Multiple
Impact Measures through Direct and Cloud-Related Forcing
Estimates
BC and Other Light-Absorbing Impurities in North American
Great Plains Snow: Sources, Impacts, and a Comparison with
North China Snow
Development of a Quantitative Accounting Framework for
Black Carbon and Brown Carbon from Emissions Inventory to
Impacts
Improved Prediction of the Vertical Profile of Atmospheric Black
Carbon: Development and Evaluation of WRF-CMAQ
$449,925
$449,902
$900,000
$899,773
$825,315
$899,600
$449,916
84
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
EPA Research Grants and Awards,
Recipients)
University of Iowa
National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
University of Colorado at Boulder
Carnegie Mellon University
Constraining Urban-To-Global Scale Estimates of Black Carbon
Distributions, Sources, Regional Climate Impacts, and Co-
Benefit Metrics with Advanced Coupled Dynamic - Chemical
Transport - Adjoint Models
Black Carbon, Air Quality and Climate: From the Local to the
Global Scale
nt Awarded ($)
$895,432
$900,000
STAR Grants to Support
Computational Toxicology
Four grants totaling nearly $3 million
were awarded to advance the science
of computational toxicology with a
focus on biologically-based multi-scale
modeling. The research produced
will help scientists better understand
and measure the effects of chemical
exposure on the human body.
The Hamner Institutes
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
Indiana University- Bloomington
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University
A Multi-scale Dose-response Model of AHRToxicity Pathway
Activation in the Human Liver
Predictive QSAR Models of Hepatotoxicity
Ontologies for Data & Models for Liver Toxicology
Model of Toxicant Response in Engineered Liver
^^^^^^^^^^^^^M
$750,000
$750,000
$749,705
$750,000
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
EPA Research Grants and Awards,
Grants to Support Nanomaterials
Research
In partnership with the National Science
Foundation and the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, EPA awarded five grants
totaling nearly $3 million to support
fundamental and applied research related
to engineered nanomaterials. Two focal
areas of research include:
1. Evaluation of potential exposures to
engineered nanomaterials including
an exploration of environmental
and biological fate, transport, and
transformation of these materials
throughout their lifetimes; and
2. Increasing the scientific understanding
of engineered nanoscale additives and
ingredients intentionally introduced
into food matrices for delivery
of important micronutrients and
modification of sensory attributes.
Recipients)
University of Michigan - Ann
Arbor
Michigan State University
University of Kentucky
University of Delaware
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and
State University
Purdue University
Johns Hopkins University
Environmental Transformation And Biological Fate Of Fresh And
Aged Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles
Environmental Behavior And Bioavailability Of Ag And Ceo2
Nanoparticles: The Role Of Surface Functionalization and
its Interaction with Natural Organic Substances and Iron
Oxohydroxides
Uptake of Specific Engineered Nanoparticles (ENP) by Sludge
Particulates as Affected by the Presence of Dissolved Organic
Matters (DOM)
Transformation and Fate of Nanomaterials During Wastewater
Treatment and Incineration
Photochemical and Fungal Transformations of Carbon
Nanotubes in the Environment
Amount Awarded ($)
$600,000
$599,840
$599,678
$599,859
$600,000
86
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EPA Research Grants and Awards,
Supporting and Building Partnerships
Recruiting the Best: EPA Grant
Solicitations
RFAs announced to support research in
2011 are outlined below.
Developing the Next Generation
of Air Quality Measurement
Technology To support research
into the development, improvement,
and demonstration of air pollution
monitoring and measurement
technologies.
Extreme Event Impacts on Air Quality
and Water Quality with a Changing
Global Climate To support the
development of assessments, tools,
techniques, and the demonstration of
innovative technologies that provide
information and the capacity to
prepare for climate-induced changes
in extreme events.
Dynamic Air Quality Management To
support research laying the scientific
foundation for improving the air
quality management system, including
by increasing the rate at which
new information is incorporated
into regional and local air quality
management activities.
Developing High-Throughput Assays for
Predictive Modeling of Reproductive
and Developmental Toxicity Modulated
Through the Endocrine System or
Pertinent Pathways in Humans and
Species Relevant to Ecological Risk
Assessment To support research on
the development of high-throughput
assays for use in analyzing chemicals,
or mixtures of chemicals, to explain
how exposure can be causally related
to adverse, apical outcomes related to
development and reproduction.
Source Attribution of Radiative Forcing
in Chemical Transport Models To
support the development of advanced
modeling capabilities that account for
the dynamics of chemical transport,
short-term climate changes ("radiative
forcers"), and air quality.
Environmental Impact and Mitigation
of Oil Spills To support a research
program for the development of
innovative technologies for use
decreasing the impact of oil spills
impacts, as well as incorporating
an effective community outreach
program.
Sustainable Chesapeake: A
Collaborative Approach to Urban
Stormwater Management To
advance the scientific and practical
understandings of how to promote
and sustain effective, community-
based stormwater management
for reducing water-borne pollution
entering Chesapeake Bay. EPA is
specifically interested in funding
research projects that engage the
lay public and scientific experts
in the co-development, trial, and
objective assessment of innovative,
local solutions to shared stormwater
problems. (For more about this
program, see Sustainable Chesapeake
in the "Safe and Sustainable Water
Resources" section of this report.)
Research and Demonstration of
Innovative Drinking Water Treatment
Technologies in Small Systems To
support the development of new, or
innovative modifications of existing
87
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.r
W^a
Supporting and Building Partnerships
Highlights From 2010 EPA Regional Science Partnerships,
treatment technologies that can
perform significantly better than
current technologies. (For more about
this program, see Innovative Drinking
Water Technologies in the "Safe and
Sustainable Water Resources" section
of this report.)
To receive e-mail notices about future
EPA STAR grant and other funding
opportunities, please visit: http://epa.gov/
ncer/listserv/.
Stoking the Economic Engine: EPA's Small Business Innovation Research Awards
There are approximately 25 million small
businesses in the U.S. today. As the leading
source of employment growth, these
firms have generated 60 to So percent of
new jobs over the past decade and are
responsible for developing most of the
country's new technologies.
Today, EPA is helping to tap the economic
engine and creative energy of small
businesses to help meet environmental
challenges while they help lead an
economic recovery.
EPA's Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) program was established to ensure
that new technologies are developed to
solve priority environmental problems.
In 2011 EPA awarded nearly $4.4 million
to 37 small companies to support the
development of new technologies for
protecting the environment and public
health.
Twenty-seven small businesses received
"proof of concept" awards up to $80,000
(phase I recipients). Ten companies that
received similar awards in 2010 were
awarded additional 2011 funding up to
$225,000 to move their technologies
towards commercialization and
implementation (phase II recipients).
Phase II winners include small businesses
in California, Colorado, Florida,
Massachusetts, Michigan, and New
Mexico. Their projects include reducing
toxic chemicals from landfills, producing
an environmentally friendly adhesive,
reducing methane emissions by converting
dilute methane waste gas streams into
useful fuel, and designing a real-time
environmental water monitoring sensor.
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Stoking the Economic Engine: EPA's Small Business Innovation
Research Awards,
^^^^^^^^^^^M
ACTA Technology Inc.
Adherent Technologies Inc.
Advanced Diamond Technologies Inc.
Algal Scientific Corporation
Cool Energy Inc.
EcoChem Analytics
Eltron Research & Development Inc.
Faraday Technology Inc.
FBS Inc.
FuelCell Energy Inc.
General Systems Research LLC
H.I.P. Hot-ln-Place Paving LLC
Los Gatos Research
Lynntech Inc.
Membrane Technology and Research
Inc.
Greener and More Energy Efficient Renewable Energy Resource -
Geothermal Heat Pumps
Emission Suppression System for Outdoor Wood Boilers
Development of a Scalable, Low-Cost, Ultrananocrystalline Diamond
Electrochemical Process for the Destruction of Contaminants of Emerging
Concern (CECs)
Anaerobic Pre-Treatment for an Algae-Based Wastewater Treatment System
Low Temperature Stirling Engine for Waste Heat Recovery from Distributed
Power Sources
A Real-Time, Sensitive and Affordable Fast-Response Elemental Carbon
Monitor
A Solvent-Free, Nanopowder Production Method
Functional Chrome Coatings on Hard to Access, Internal Surfaces of
Industrial Parts from an Environmentally Benign Trivalent Chromium Bath
In-Situ Imaging of Water Pipelines Using Ultrasonic Guided Waves
Industrial Flue Gas Cleanup Using DFC Technology
Cost- Effective Algae Biomass Production for Oil integrated with Wastewater
Treatment and Valued By-Product
Evaluation of the 100% Recyclability of Superpave Hot Mix Asphalt
Compact, Cost-Effective Nitrogen Dioxide Analyzer for NAAQS Compliance
Monitoring
Microelectrochemical Capillary System for Environmental Analytical Lab on
a Chip
Novel Membranes for Natural Gas Dehydration
^^^^^B
$80,000
$80,000
$79,995
$79,278
$79,096
$79,022
$80,000
$80,000
$79,956
$79,936
$80,000
$80,000
$79,965
$70,000
$80,000
89
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Stoking the Economic Engine: EPA's Small Business Innovation
Research Awards,
p
Micro-Tracers Inc.
OmniLane Inc.
Operational Technologies Corporation
OPTRA Inc.
Reactive Innovations, LLC
SkySight Technologies LLC
Sustainable Innovations LLC
TDA Research Inc.
TDA Research Inc.
TDA Research Inc.
Trillium FiberFuels Inc.
Viresco Energy LLC
mnj^m
Combination of Chlorine-Free Electrolytic and Photochemical Methods for
Sterilization of Contaminated Waters
L-(+) Lactic Acid Production from Biodiesel Waste Using Pelletized Fungal
Fermentation
Handheld FRET-Aptamer Sensor for Chem-Bio Threats
Fourier Transform Infrared Phase Shift Cavity Ring Down Spectrometer
Advanced Contaminant Inactivation System for Drinking Water
Full Scale Anemometer
Recycling of Greenhouse Gases to Fuels & Chemicals
A New Renewable Polymer from Bio-Oil
New Sorbents to Control CO2 and Multi-Contaminant Emissions
Pipeline-Quality Methane from Anaerobic Digestion Systems
Development of a Fermentation Compatible Xylose Isomerase
Low Oxygenate Bio-Oil Through Two Stage Hydro-Pyrolysis
KUHjJNU^
P^^BBBJa
$73,433
$79,996
$79,984
$79,638
$79,994
$80,000
$79,980
$80,000
$80,000
$80,000
$79,885
$79,825
Total:
$2,139,983
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Stoking the Economic Engine: EPA's Small Business Innovation
Research Awards,
Phase,, Recipient
Aspen Products Group, Inc.
Defiant Technologies, Inc.
Eltron Research & Development Inc
Instrumental Polymer Technologies, LLC
Intelligent Optical Systems Inc.
Lao K, LLC
Membrane Technology and Research Inc.
Mobius Technologies, Inc.
Smart Polymers Research Corporation
Technova Corporation
Reduction of Hazardous Air Pollutant Emissions from
Commercial Kitchens
Handheld Detection System forTCEand PCE
Low-Cost Retrofit Emissions Control in Off-Road Sources
Silane-Terminated Aliphatic Polycarbonate Dendrimer
Solutions for Environmentally Green Coatings
Distributed Optical Fiber Sensor for Long-term Monitoring
of Groundwater Trichloroethylene Levels
Mill Trials of a Novel Formaldehyde-Free Soy-Based Wood
Adhesive for Making Plywood
Novel Membrane Process to Utilize Dilute Methane Streams
Development of Micronized Polyurethane as a
Comprehensive, 100 Percent Recycled Resin for Green
Building Materials and Systems
Quantum Dot/Aptamer Real-Time Flow Sensor
Value-Added Use of Milled Mixed-Color Waste Glass as a
Supplementary Cementitious Material in Environmentally
Friendly and Energy-Efficient Concrete Building
Construction
Total:
•imount
arded ($)
$225,000
$225,000
$224,998
$225,000
$224,996
$224,000
$225,000
$225,000
$225,000
$225,000
$2,248,994
EPA-Supported Small Businesses
Recognized for Innovation, Jobs,
Impact
Past EPA, SBIR awardees continued to
show how investments in innovative
small businesses as they work to
bring sustainable technologies to the
marketplace serve as catalysts for a
growing and vibrant economy. Examples
include:
NanoMech, the developer of
an innovative, environmentally-
friendly nanostructured coating
for the automotive and aerospace
industries, was honored with a visit
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Stoking the Economic Engine: EPA's Small Business Innovation
Research Awards, contu
from Secretary of the U.S. Treasury
Timothy Geithner, in March, 2011,
who showcased the company to
demonstrate how businesses that
engage in innovative research can
spur economic growth and lead to
high-wage jobs.
Ecovative Design was named a 2011
Technology Pioneer by the World
Economic Forum in recognition of the
company's efforts to use technology
to change and improve the way
businesses operate. The company
has developed two materials
(MycoBond™, and Greensulate™)
produced with a technology that
begins by growing white rot fungus
on agricultural byproducts, reducing
waster as it produces marketable
products.
The Operational Technologies
Corporation (OpTech) received
the Tibbetts Award from the Small
Business Administration in 2011 for
their success in driving innovation
and creating new jobs. OpTech
research helped develop small chains
of synthetic DMA that can detect
bacteria and other contaminants in
food samples, including bioterrorism
agents and foodborne pathogens.
Advanced Technology Materials,
Inc. (ATMI), also a recipient of a
2011 Tibbets Award, was inducted
as an inaugural member of SBIR
Hall of Fame for its development
of the Novapure Dry Scrubber
System, which uses an innovative
solid scrubber material designed
specifically to reduce toxic air
emissions from the semiconductor
industry.
EPA scientists Win Presidential Science Award
Two EPA scientists were named recipients
of the Presidential Early Career Award
for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)—
the highest honor bestowed by the U.S.
government on outstanding science and
engineering professionals in the early
stages of their independent research
careers. The award recognizes excellent
research and leadership in sciences.
The recipients were Dr. Gayle Hagler and
Dr. David Reif.
Dr. Hagler was nominated for leading
research in the development and use of
new technologies, such as electric vehicles
and GPS, to measure and map air pollutant
emissions near roadside locations. She also
researched roadside landscaping to reduce
the effects of harmful air pollutants. Dr.
Reif was nominated for developing tools
for prioritizing and profiling chemicals
for potential toxicity to human health
and the environment, as well as studying
the various subsets of childhood asthma
92
in order to develop more personalized
diagnoses, management, and treatment of
the disease.
The award noted that both recipients
have demonstrated a strong commitment
to community service through their
leadership in various outreach activities
such as presenting at workshops,
participating as science career panelists for
visiting student groups and by using their
research to mentor and teach others.
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
EPA scientists Win Presidential Science Award,
To read more about the awardees
experience during the award
ceremonies—including meeting
President Obama—visit: www.epa.gov/
sciencematters/december20ii/meeting-
the-president.htm
President Obama addresses PECASE
honorees at the White House.
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Everybody Wins: EPA's P3 Competition for Sustainable Design
From beeswax to bikes and beets to
bacteria, EPA's 2011 P3—named for
People, Prosperity and the Planet—Award
Competition fostered an outstanding
range of environmental innovation. From
the 55 teams that competed, the Agency
announced ten P3 Award winners who
received another grant to implement their
projects.
EPA's P3 competition offers students the
opportunity to identify an environmental
problem and design a solution. Working
in teams, students work to solve
environmental challenges in ways that
benefit people, promotes prosperity and
protects the planet—all at the same time.
Since its launch in 2003, some 2000
students have been involved in the
program, representing 400 teams from
almost every state.
The competition has two phases. For
the first phase, teams are awarded seed
money based on proposals submitted to
design and develop prototypes for their
sustainable solutions. Teams then bring
their projects to showcase at the National
Sustainable Design Expo in Washington
D.C. in the Spring to meet the judges
and compete for the P3 Award, and for a
second grant (phase II) to further develop
and implement their designs.
For 2011, winning teams provided impact in
four important areas:
1. Education - Stanford University
designed teaching units for local
schools using principles of renewable
energy to fulfill Standards of Learning
requirements.
2. Campus & Community - Duke University
designed a learning lab where students
and local professionals develop stream
restoration, wetland mitigation and
storm water management measures for
the regional water basin.
3. Small-Scale Development - University
of l/linois-Urbana Champaign designed
a low-cost system that uses bone char
for removing arsenic and uranium
from groundwater of the Pine Ridge
Reservation in South Dakota; Purdue
University designed a hydropower
system for rural communities that
provides low-cost electricity from
local materials; and the University of
Georgia designed a milk cooling system
powered by renewable energy that will
increase the amount of milk that can be
sold by small rural dairy farmers.
4. Business of Sustainability - University
of l/linois-Urbana Champaign designed
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Everybody Wins: EPA's P3 Competition for Sustainable Design,
a system and business for a solar-
powered automatic watering system
for container planters; Drexel University
designed a lightweight green room
system that can be installed with
minimal structural reinforcement;
University of Massachusetts-Lowell
developed an environmentally-safe
flame retardant; Oklahoma State
University designed a process that
uses bacteria to convert hydrogen
and CO2 from renewable and waste
sources to make ethanol; University
of Delaware developed a process for
making material from plant oils and
chicken feathers and then designed
and produced clothes and shoes using
these new materials.
In addition to this year's winning teams,
winners from past years continued to
show how the seeds sown by EPA's P3
Award lead to lasting results. For example:
• A team representing Harvard
University, MIT, and two Chinese
universities founded the nonprofit
One Earth Design (OED) that now
employs 29 people in 2011. Their
design for a solar-powered device
that cooks, provides heat, and
generates electricity has been
recognized by the Dutch Postcode
Lottery Green Challenge, St.
Andrews Prize for the Environment,
MIT $iook Competition, Clinton
Global Initiative, Lemelson
Foundation, Legatum Center for
Development and Entrepreneurship,
and Yunus Innovation Challenge.
A 2010 P3 winner from Duke
University leveraged their grant with
support from the Lord Foundation
and a sponsorship from DukeEngage
to construct two stormwater
enhancement areas, one completed
in collaboration with the Eno River
Association, and the other built
through a collaboration with East
Carteret High School.
A 2009 team from the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) that designed a
solar power generator that produces
electricity using heat rather than
photovoltaic cells was featured in
Discover Magazine and won several
awards, including the ASME IShow,
National Collegiate Inventors &
Innovators Alliance Award, and the
MIT 100K 20 Year Award. The team
has now established the nonprofit
organization STG International.
University of California Davis
teammates from a 2008 P3 winning
project launched the company
Micromidas a year after winning,
and have since raised $3.6 million in
venture capital funding. Micromidas
expanded to 22 employees in 2011.
A 2007 winning team from Western
Washington University, recognized
for their work developing a process
to tap methane from dairy cow
manure as a car fuel, is now working
with the local transportation district
to convert biodiesel buses so they
run on methane.
The Learning Barge, designed as
part of a 2007 winning P3 project
out of the University of Virginia, is
now owned and operated by the
Elizabeth River Project. The Learning
Barge educated more than 13,000
visitors in its first few years of
operation, and in 2011 created seven
new jobs.
Founders of a 2005 P3 team
representing Oberlin College that
05
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Everybody Wins: EPA's P3 Competition for Sustainable Design,
developed a data monitoring display
system that shows real-time energy
and water use in dormitories and
other large commercial buildings
are now the principles for Lucid
Design Group, a software company
specializing in environmental
monitoring and visualization
technologies. The company grew to
18 employees in 2011.
EPA's P3 competition is open to students in
all areas of study and from any accredited
U.S. two- or four-year college or university.
EPA Partnerships
Supporting Human Health and Environmental Science
in EPA Regions and Indian Country
EPA has ten regional offices across the
country, each of which is responsible for
meeting the Agency's mission to protect
human health and the environment in the
states and territories within its region. To
support those efforts, Agency scientists
and engineers form partnerships to
effectively respond to the high-priority,
near-term research and technical support
needs of regional offices.
In addition, Agency scientists work closely
with the National EPA-Tribal Science
Council to help integrate Agency and
tribal interests, specifically with respect
to environmental science issues in Indian
Country.
Annually, the Agency supports targeted
collaborative research and technical
support activities that are designed to:
(1) provide the regions and communities
across the nation with near-term research
on high-priority localized needs; (2)
improve collaboration between regions
and Agency laboratories and research
centers; (3) build the foundation for
ongoing and future scientific interactions;
and (4) develop useful tools for state,
local, and tribal governments to address
96
near-term and emerging environmental
challenges.
Agency Science Partnerships Tackle
Water Quality Issues
There are over 3.5 million miles of rivers
and streams and 39.9 million acres of
lakes and reservoirs in the U.S., covering
an enormous and diverse landscape.
Not surprisingly, the condition of our
nation's waters varies widely. Cities
and town, farmlands, mines, factories,
sewage treatment facilities, dams, and
many human activities on the land have
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Supporting Human Health and Environmental Science
in EPA Regions and Indian Country,
Supporting and Building Partnerships
significant impacts on the quality of our
waters. Freshwater and tidal ecosystems
support complex and important food web
interactions and provide habitat needed
to support numerous threatened and
endangered species.
Understanding the condition of these
waters is critical if we are to develop
effective plans to maintain, manage,
and restore them. The following EPA
partnerships were designed to advance
that goal:
Dissolved Oxygen in the
Chesapeake Bay
Fluctuations in the level of
dissolved oxygen (DO) are a
major environmental stressor in
the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal
tributaries. Elevated nutrient levels
have resulted in significant decreases
in DO, leading to fish kills and other
impacts on the ecosystem.
EPA partnered with the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) and the
Maryland Department of Natural
Resources to deploy, operate, and
analyze the results of a vertical
profiler, a monitoring technology
that is able to measure DO, salinity,
and temperature hourly at 1-meter
intervals in a column of water. This
technology has the potential to
provide scientists and decision makers
with information on the variability of
DO that has not been available in the
past.
Research results, combined with
data from several similar concurrent
projects, suggest the need to
revisit the monitoring approaches
now being used in the Chesapeake
Watershed. The results have potential
implications for the approach used by
the Chesapeake Bay Program and the
states for monitoring and assessing
the instantaneous minimum criteria
for their impaired waters listing
assessments, and for implementation
of Total Maximum Daily Loads of
pollutants impacting DO levels.
Results also point out the need for
further development and validation of
the technology available to monitor
short term, deep water DO levels.
Because of this research, researchers
have made improvements to the
vertical profiler and NOAA intends
to continue deployment of this
technology.
97
Idaho Pebblesnail is Key to
Developing New Ammonia Criteria
Ammonia is one of the most important
pollutants in the aquatic environment.
It is highly toxic and waste fluids,
such as municipal wastewater or
runoff from concentrated animal
feeding operations, must be
treated extensively to lower the
concentrations of ammonia in surface
waters.
Currently, there are separate ammonia
criteria for freshwater depending on
whether salmonids or mussels are
present. Salmonid fish include salmon,
trout and whitefish. When conducting
research in lakes, streams and rivers
using the current criteria, scientists
first have to determine if these fish or
mussels are present. Scientists also
suspect that the current criterion is
not protective of freshwater snails.
EPA collaborated with the U.S.
Geological Survey to develop a
method to breed and raise Idaho
pebblesnails (Fluminicola sp.) and
test their sensitivity to ammonia. The
Idaho pebblesnail is a freshwater
snail common in the western U.S.
Toxicity data from the lab-controlled
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Supporting Human Health and Environmental science
in EPA regions and Indian Country, contu
studies showed that it is among the
most sensitive species evaluated for
developing the ammonia criteria.
The data also prompted a significant
change in the way the ammonia
criterion is stated. The criterion will
now apply nationwide to all aquatic
species. Permit writers will no longer
have to determine if salmonid fish or
mussels are present in a given water
body. This will make it much easier
to be consistently protective of all
aquatic life, including threatened or
endangered freshwater snails. EPA
is revising the 2011 National Aquatic
Life Ambient Water Quality Criteria for
Freshwater Ammonia to reflect this
change.
Getting the Word Out: The Possible Hazards of Fish Consumption
Fish are important in a healthy diet.
They are a lean, low-calorie source of
protein. However, some fish may contain
methylmercury or other harmful chemicals.
. Even though these chemicals may be
present in the water at low levels, because
of bioaccumulation, organisms living in
the water contain these toxic chemicals at
much higher concentrations. These toxic
chemicals are further concentrated in the
fish at higher levels of the food chain.
Federal, state, Tribal, and local
governments monitor local waters and
issue fish consumption advisories when
the fish are unsafe to eat. The advisories
may recommend that people avoid eating
certain kinds or certain amounts of fish.
Some advisories apply to specific water
types. Some may focus on specific groups
of people. Advisories may apply to locally
caught fish and fish purchased in stores
and restaurants.
EPA collaborative research aimed
at getting the word out about fish
consumption include:
Regional Tool Identifies
Populations with Increased
Mercury Levels
A 2004 New York State study found
that blood mercury concentrations in
adult New York City residents were
three times the national estimate,
with one in four New Yorkers, and
98
almost half of New York City's Asian
population, exhibiting elevated blood
mercury levels.
In response, EPA conducted a
geographic analysis to identify
areas and populations to target for
outreach, education, and other efforts
aimed at reducing risks associated
with eating some species of fish and
shellfish. Agency scientists collected
and analyzed existing data on age
groups; birth rates; socio-economic
status; ethnicity; restaurant, market,
and grocery store fish sales; fish tissue
contaminants; and other indicators.
The resulting work, completed for
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Getting the Word Out: The Possible Hazards of Fish Consumption,
New York State and being finalized
for New Jersey, identifies areas and
populations most in need of outreach
based on their exposure to certain
fish and shellfish. The program will
be piloted in 2012, in partnership with
the pediatric environmental health
unit at Mt. Sinai. Results will be shared
with pediatricians and ob/gyns in
affected areas to help them target their
outreach efforts with women of child-
bearing age and children.
Reducing Exposure to Mercury on
the Cheyenne River Reservation
As part of a collaborative study
with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe
(CRST) Department of Environmental
Protection, scientists collected three
years of field data to simulate the
environmental fate of mercury and the
dynamics of bioaccumulation within
tribal livestock ponds. Researchers
found elevated levels of mercury in
fish tissues and released a fish advisory
based on these findings. The advisory
recommended reducing consumption
of fish, especially for sensitive
individuals, such as the pregnant and
elderly.
Field and laboratory procedures have
been transferred to the CRST and have
resulted in capacity building with Tribal
personnel. CRST livestock ponds were
one of the five model ecosystems
used in the Benefits Assessment for
EPA's Clean Air Mercury Rule to better
understand processes driving mercury
cycling in aquatic systems.
Water treatment facility.
Increasing Efficiency at Local Wastewater Facilities
Wastewater utilities across the country
are facing challenges to improve their
efficiency while keeping rates affordable
for the communities they serve. These
challenges include high municipal
wastewater volumes, increased treatment
costs, and rising energy costs. In the U.S.
alone, over 16,000 operational wastewater
facilities treat approximately 34 billion
gallons of municipal wastewater daily. With
this high volume, the total nationwide cost
for wastewater treatment and collection
is estimated to be $189.2 billion annually.
Additionally, energy costs from wastewater
and water services often represent 30%
or more of a municipality's total energy
costs. These rising energy costs represent a
major challenge for water and wastewater
utilities that are also facing the challenges
of increasing demands due to population
growth, more stringent regulations, and
aging infrastructure.
EPA research partnerships in support of
increasing efficiency at local wastewater
facilities include:
Missouri Water Utilities Become
More Energy Efficient
Agency scientists believe that
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Increasing Efficiency at Local Wastewater Facilities,
increasing energy efficiency is one
of the most effective ways to reduce
costs and improve environmental
performance. EPA and the Missouri
University of Science and Technology
entered into a collaborative
effort with the eight communities
participating in the Missouri Water
Utilities Partnership to increase
energy efficiency at community
wastewater facilities. The objective
of the project was to help these
communities, and others like them,
to reduce utility costs and pollution
while improving reliability and
performance. Researchers assisted
the communities in assessing their
energy efficiency and effectiveness,
provided recommendations regarding
wastewater treatment and use,
and presented the results of their
changes to a broader community
audience through outreach and the
development of written cases studies.
Because of this research, many of
the communities that participated
in this project gained more than a
20% reduction in energy use. The
case studies are helping other
communities analyze their own
situation by providing ideas for energy
efficiency and effectiveness. Finally,
the data collected from this effort are
informing the research community
on the condition and specifications
of these utilities to better aid
technological development needed
for wastewater treatment.
Revised EPA Wastewater
Stabilization Ponds Design Manual
One particular technology that
helps to reduce energy needs at
wastewater facilities is stabilization
ponds. Wastewater pond systems
provide energy efficient, reliable, low
cost, and relatively low maintenance
treatment for municipal and industrial
wastewater discharges. Wastewater
stabilization ponds can be 3 to 10
times more energy efficient when
compared with digesters and aerators.
This provides a more sustainable
alternative for wastewater treatment.
In 2011, Agency scientists collaborated
to revise the EPA Wastewater
Stabilization Ponds Design Manual,
originally published in 1983. This
revised manual provides updated
information and guidance for the
design and operation of over 8,000
wastewater treatment ponds,
which is more than 50 percent of
the wastewater treatment facilities
currently operating in the U.S. Using
this guidance for proper design and
operation, these ponds are capable
of meeting strict environmental
standards with minimal biosolids
management requirements and very
reasonable energy costs, helping to
protect the environment and reduce
energy needs.
Conversion of Wastewater
Facilities into Biorefineries
Reclaiming wastewater to generate
biof uels is one strategy that Agency
scientists hope will ease the
environmental impacts and treatment
costs of wastewater streams. EPA
collaborated with Mississippi State
University to investigate the potential
for using municipal wastewater
in the production of biofuels.
Using wastewater obtained from
a Tuscaloosa, Alabama municipal
wastewater treatment plant
and working at laboratory-scale,
researchers demonstrated that
ozone disinfection is a robust and
effective disinfectant for wastewater.
Further, the studies showed that
100
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Increasing Efficiency at Local Wastewater Facilities,
Supporting and Building Partnerships
microorganisms capable of producing
large quantities of oil can be grown in
ozonated wastewater.
The results of this project provided
valuable input for current pilot-
scale testing at the Mississippi
State University Energy Institute.
Wastewater from various
municipalities and industries will
be tested for oil accumulation to
ultimately produce biofuels from the
oils.
Mississippi river and
surrounding area.
New Technologies Used to Detect Emissions
EPA scientists are developing new
technologies to better identify sources
and to quantify emissions of gases or
vapors. These emissions come from a
variety of sources including vehicles,
boats, industrial equipment, and oil and
gas exploration activities. Emissions due
to equipment leaks in the natural gas
industry alone are estimated to be 146.9
billion standard cubic feet.
Identifying and controlling these
emissions is an enormous challenge
nationwide. EPA partnerships working to
meet that challenge include:
Detecting Emissions from Oil and
Gas Operations Using Remote
Sensing
Emissions of volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) and greenhouse
gases from oil and gas exploration
and production activities contribute
to increased ozone levels in the
ambient air, and pose a threat to air
quality in and around communities in
the Rocky Mountains. Furthermore,
our ability to estimate the emissions
from these activities is limited. EPA
has collaborated with the states of
Colorado and Wyoming to conduct
field studies using a highly sensitive
instrument mounted on a mobile
platform to detect and quantify oil
and gas emissions. The mobile unit is
equipped with a fast-response cavity
ringdown spectrometer, a device
that can obtain rapid measurements
downwind of potential sources, and
a precise global positioning system
to map air pollution patterns in areas
around sources. Data collected with
this remote method have improved
knowledge of air pollutant emissions
from production and storage
equipment.
101
As a result of these field studies, the
project team has improved the overall
performance of the mobile detection
and quantification method, which can
now produce emission flux estimates
of methane and VOCs from individual
sources. When the mobile method is
fully developed, this technology can
be passed on to state and local health
departments to monitor air quality
in communities near oil and gas
exploration and production activities.
Infrared Cameras Find Emissions
Leaks along the Mississippi River
Leaking organic vapors from barges
and railcars along the Mississippi River
industrial corridor affect air quality
in nearby cities. In the past, the use
of infrared technology to discover
hydrocarbon leaks has been used
along pipeline routes throughout
the country. EPA partnered
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New Technologies Used to Detect Emissions,
with the Louisiana Department of
Environmental Quality (LDEQ) to test
the ability of infrared cameras to "see"
hydrocarbon emissions invisible to the
human eye along the Mississippi River.
With the use of the HAWK® surveying
instrumentation from a helicopter
flying low over the pipelines, barges
and railcars, and entering that
information into LDEQ's existing CIS
databases, EPA was able to identify the
leakers and have them repaired.
Prototype cameras are now
making inspections safer and more
effective. This information will
also help determine if the existing
regulations are sufficient to protect
the environment and the public from
unauthorized releases of hazardous
chemicals.
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Green Infrastructure Research Shaping Community Projects
Communities are increasingly seeking
to implement green infrastructure
practices, such as rain gardens,
bioswales, and permeable pavements,
to help manage urban and suburban
stormwater volume and quality and
to help control sewer overflows.
Green infrastructure can be a cost-
effective approach, compared to using
strictly "gray infrastructure" (below-
ground pipes, sewer inlets, high-rate
treatment plants, etc.), and can
provide significant community benefits.
Green infrastructure projects can help
to keep stormwater out of combined
sewers, leaving more capacity in these
systems and decreasing the chance of
overflows. Overflows of septic sewage
are a threat to public health, impair
our valuable water resources such as
rivers and streams, and pollute the land
surrounding these surface waters.
EPA has developed a portfolio of green
infrastructure research. The results of
this research are now informing EPA
permitting and enforcement actions, and
providing new options for communities
to meet regulatory standards. Scientists
have recently completed a study that
demonstrated the value of the use
of rain barrels and rain gardens in a
suburban neighborhood to decrease
stormwater volume to sewer systems and
receiving waters. EPA is also evaluating
the effects of green infrastructure
implementation in Cincinnati, Cleveland,
and other midwestern urban areas, where
researchers have conducted extensive
studies of the condition of urban soils and
the suitability of the soils for infiltration
practices.
This research has produced valuable
information that is being used in
community planning decisions and
enforcement actions. For example, the
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District
has negotiated a green infrastructure pilot
program under their consent orders, and
will undertake this program to set practical
standards for performance and cost
that will complement and build on other
"gray" improvements to the combined
system. It is anticipated that the green
infrastructure investments will not only
keep stormwater volume out of smaller
combined sewer systems, but also increase
the amount of green space in urban core
areas, and provide more and higher-quality
ecosystem services. These investments can
help to stabilize and revitalize distressed
neighborhoods and protect Lake Erie from
the numerous beach closures caused by
combined sewer discharges. EPA has taken
the lead in working with other communities
to understand how to share and manage
risk with communities and get them on the
right track to effective management and
compliance with the Clean Water Act.
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Controlling Lyme Disease in the Northeast
In the northeastern U.S., Lyme disease
(LD) infection rates continue to increase
and have reached epidemic levels in
many communities. LD is the second
most frequently reported disease in
New England states. It is also the most
common of all vector borne diseases
reported in the U.S. The black-legged tick,
Ixodes scapularis, is the primary vector of
the LD pathogen, Borre/ia burgdorferi.
New research shows links between
land use, biological diversity, and LD
transmission. In 2006, EPA developed
a research initiative to improve the
understanding of these links. Agency
scientists have been collaborating on
research, management and control
of black-legged tick populations in
Massachusetts and have tested the
efficacy of four poster deer stations
(passive deer feeding stations that force
deer to rub against pesticide-impregnated
application rollers) for reducing tick
populations and LD risk. The outreach
tools that are being developed support
the Agency's Landscape, Biodiversity and
Human Health Community of Practice
(CoP), which is intended to foster
closer collaboration between diverse
communities, including public health
practitioners, land use planners, ecologists
and the public. This work will allow the
State of Massachusetts to more effectively
provide guidance on LD and help the
Agency implement sustainable solutions.
EPA plays an important role in developing
and implementing sustainable,
environmentally sound approaches under
integrated pest management to improve
control and management of vector-borne
diseases on a landscape scale while
reducing exposures to toxic chemicals.
EPA is now building new partnerships
with public health practitioners, land use
planners, ecologists and the public to
produce new knowledge and sustainable
tools to reduce the risk of disease
and minimize adverse impacts to the
environment.
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Supporting and Building Partnerships
Tribal Science
Working with tribal nations to promote
clean, healthy environments is a critical
part of fulfilling EPA's mission. EPA
is committed to building strong and
sustaining partnerships with American
Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages for
the protection of the environment and
human health.
The National EPA Tribal Science Council
(TSC), composed of a single tribal
representative from each of the nine
EPA Regions, provides a platform for
interaction between Tribal and EPA
scientists to work collaboratively on
environmental science issues. The TSC
serves to inform EPA about significant
tribal environmental issues and to lay
the groundwork for addressing these
challenges in conjunction with tribal
partners.
2011 Tribal science partnership projects
include:
National Tribal Science Priorities
In June 2011, the TSC concluded its
collaborative stakeholder-driven
process to identify national tribal
science priority issues. The six-month
selection process promoted broad
engagement of tribes to identify
two tribal priorities: (1) Climate
Change; and (2) Integration of
Traditional Ecological Knowledge in
Environmental Science, Policy and
Decision-Making.
Implementation of the priorities will
strengthen EPA and tribes' ability to
improve human and environmental
health in Indian Country.
The TSC is currently working to
integrate activities that support the
priorities into tribal programs and
operations on the national, regional,
and local levels.
Decision Support Tool for Tribes
In collaboration with tribes and other
partners throughout the country,
EPA is developing the Tribal-Focused
Environmental Risk and Sustainability
Tool(Tribal-FERST), a web-based
decision support tool designed
to empower tribes with the best
available human health and ecological
science. Tribal-focused tools are
often not readily available to help
tribes prioritize environmental issues
and understand unique exposure
pathways. Tribal-FERST is a user-
friendly, science-based tool that
will contribute to sustainable, cost-
effective solutions to improve public
health and the environment on tribal
lands.
Tribes may use the tool to:
• Create a data table to identify and
prioritize local environmental issues
• Follow guidance on developing
strategies for conducting tribal
assessments
• Download information about
environmental health and wellness
• Access traditional ecological
knowledge as data sets or fact
sheets
• Map exposures and risks
• Explore potential solutions to
environmental problems
• Link to other tools relevant to tribal-
focused assessments
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Tribal Science,
In November, EPA's Sustainable
and Healthy Communities Research
Program launched a pilot study with the
Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point
in Maine. The Passamaquoddy Tribe will
use the tool to inform environmental and
economic decisions about solid waste,
community sustainability and other issues
of concern, while providing suggestions
for making Tribal-FERST a more robust and
user-friendly tool.
Providing Technical Support for Hazardous Waste Sites
In 2011, EPA provided technical support to
hazardous waste sites nationwide through
the Superfund and Technology Liaison
program and specialized EPA technical
support centers. A number of targeted
research projects and publications resulted
from these technical support activities.
These research projects focused on timely
and relevant research to answer specific
hazardous waste related questions.
The research projects were community-
focused and included alternate water
supply evaluations; watershed cleanup
approaches; heavy metals contaminated
soils, leaching, and bioavailability
research; research involving preservatives
for groundwater samples with binary
mixtures of in situ chemical oxidants
and chlorinated solvent contaminants;
polychlorinated biphenyl sampling and
remediation research; and an evaluation
of the potential societal impacts of
remediation of heavy metals in a large
urban community.
The results of these projects will assist
in reducing community exposure to
contaminants in both urban and rural
areas. Communities across the country will
benefit from effective and efficient cleanup
remedies and assistance with promotion
of overall community and environmental
health.
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA Progress Report 2011
Office of Research and Development
Homeland Security
Strengthening Community
Resilience to Home/and
Security Threats
EPA's Homeland Security Research supports
the Agency's role as the lead federal
agency for protecting water systems and
all decontamination following incidents
involving chemical, biological, or radiological
contaminants. The research strengthens the
resiliency of communities to prepare for and
respond to such incidents by providing water
utility managers, laboratory technicians,
on-scene coordinators, risk assessors, risk
communicators and emergency responders
with the scientific expertise, tools and
technology to detect, prepare, respond to
and recover from terrorist attacks and other
disasters.
This section provides highlights of some of
the top research results EPA researchers
and their partners have achieved in 2011
advancing Homeland Security. It illustrates
some of the specific impacts that are
important to partners of the Agency's Office
of Research and Development. The highlights
presented were contributed by EPA's
research labs, centers, and offices located
around the country, and were performed
by Agency scientists and engineers, as well
as their partners, grantees, fellows, and
collaborators from across the scientific
community.
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Homeland Security
Strengthening Community Resilience to Homeland Security Threats
EPA has and will continue to have
responsibilities in response to disasters.
According to a recent assessment, rare,
extreme weather events are becoming
more common. Over the past decade,
between 40 and So disasters have
occurred each year. These included
Hurricane Katrina, the historic flooding
of the Mississippi River, and devastating
tornados throughout the Midwest and
Southeast. In 2001, an intentional release
of anthrax spores killed five people
and injured several more. The spores
contaminated at least 17 buildings and
required an immense site investigation and
Examples of Major EPA Responses
Three Mile Island (1979)
U.S. Impacts from Chernobyl (1986)
Midwest Floods (1993)
Los Alamos and Hanford Fires (2000)
9/11 Terrorist Attacks (2001)
Capitol Hill Anthrax (2001)
Columbia Shuttle Disaster (2003)
Gulf Coast Hurricanes (2005)
Deep Water Horizon (2010)
Japan Nuclear Power Plant Emergency
(2011)
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cleanup effort by EPA and partner agencies applied research and provide technical
and departments. The estimated total
cost was $1 billion.
The Homeland Security Research Program
(HSRP) was established to conduct
108
support that increases the capability of
EPA to carry out its homeland security
responsibilities. The HSRP helps build
systems-based approaches to addressing
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Homeland Security
Strengthening Community Resilience to Homeland Security Threats,
these environmental problems by
working with Agency partners to plan,
implement and deliver useful science and
technology products. HSRP maintains
robust coordination efforts with other
federal agencies including the Department
of Homeland Security, the Department
of Defense, and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, among others.
HSRP's research is conducted and science
products are constructed to address "all
hazards," filling science gaps associated
with chemical, biological and radiological
contamination intentionally released by
terrorists or caused by natural disasters or
accidents.
The program is organized into three
themes:
• Securing and Sustaining Water
Systems;
• Characterizing Contamination and
Determining Risk;
• Remediating Indoor and Outdoor
Environments.
Natural and man-made disasters cause
population loss, economic instability and
property damage. A resilient community
needs to be able to prepare for these
kinds of challenges, respond to them,
and recover from them. Strengthening
communities so that they can withstand
natural and manmade disasters is a major
EPA goal. It is also an essential part of the
Agency's commitment to sustainability.
Scientific and technological questions
around large biological, chemical and
radiological events remain. Emerging
chemical and biological threats, as well as
cyber threats, present unique challenges
to our level of preparedness and response
capabilities. Incidents such as anthrax
clean-ups in New England and the
domestic impacts of the Japanese nuclear
plant meltdown at Fukushima affirm the
importance of maintaining our scientific
expertise (i.e., retaining, adapting and
adding to the Agency's cadre of scientific
and engineering subject matter experts)
so that EPA can address the scientific
uncertainties and technical unknowns
encountered in major responses.
If a terrorist released millions of lethal
microbes into a building or mass transit
system, how would first responders
address these dangers and how would
biohazard teams clean them up?
Researchers in the homeland security
area have made many great advances in
developing decontamination techniques,
but to date, the work has mostly been on a
small scale in research laboratories.
To approach this problem, EPA is leading a
research project called the Bio-Response
Operational Testing and Evaluation
(BOTE).The BOTE field demonstration
tests followed several years of research
and collaboration with the Department of
Homeland Security, the Defense Threat
Reduction Agency, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and Department
of Energy. The information and data from
BOTE will help agencies make decisions
about homeland security threats such as a
biological attack with anthrax.
The purpose of this project is to
conduct and evaluate field-level facility,
biological remediation studies of various
decontamination technologies and to
exercise biological incident response from
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*^k»*.
Homeland Security
Responding to Anthrax Attacks: the Bio-Response Operational Testing and
Evaluation (BOTE) Project
initial health/law enforcement response
through to environmental response and
remediation. Field tests started with an
intentional release of a surrogate organism
named Bacillus atrophaeus.
In Phase I of BOTE, scientists evaluated
three decontamination methods: spraying
with pH-adjusted bleach, fumigation
with vaporized hydrogen peroxide, and
fumigation with chlorine dioxide. The
HSRP team compared the effectiveness
and ease of using the three treatments.
They also weighed costs, damage to the
facility, types and quantities of generated
waste, and potential recontamination
risks. In addition, the scientists examined
the potential for spores released
indoors to escape from the building and
contaminate soil outside. The researchers
also measured how likely it was for the
spores to be resuspended in the air after
they had settled. The project managers
will use the data from these tests to
develop and recommend ways to protect
future residents in actual incidents, from
exposure to spores after returning to a
decontaminated building.
Phase II of BOTE involved mimicking
a potential real-life scenario in which
government officials were informed of
an intentional anthrax-like, building-
wide release. In this scenario, a covert
release contaminated several buildings.
The exercise tested the preparedness
and response capabilities of health and
• -
law enforcement officials and on-scene
environmental response teams.
Thus far, the BOTE project has shown that
various remediation technologies and
operational practices can be effective for
the full-scale decontamination of anthrax
in buildings. BOTE sample analyses data
interpretation and reporting are currently
underway.
^
Microscopic enlargement of anthrax
bacteria (Bacillus onthroc/s).
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Homeland Security
Improving Laboratory Capacity and Capability
Determining the type and extent of
contamination in the aftermath of a
terrorist incident or other disaster is
essential for emergency response, recovery
and remediation operations. Fast, accurate
laboratory analysis often is critical.
EPA formed the Environmental Response
Laboratory Network (ERLN) to respond
to chemical, biological and radiological
threats on a nation-wide scale. The ERLN
is a national network of selected, existing
public and private sector laboratories. Its
goal is to provide consistent analytical
tools and high-quality data. EPA scientists
have developed reliable sampling and
analytical methods for ERLN personnel.
One of these methods is a cutting-
edge technique called Rapid Viability
Polymerase Chain reaction (RV-PCR).
This method provides a faster and more
accurate way for laboratories to analyze
samples suspected to contain anthrax
than traditional culture methods. It allows
laboratories not only to detect anthrax but
also to determine if the detected bacteria
are capable of causing human infection.
By using this improved method, scientists
were able to decrease the total time to
analyze 24 samples from 24 hours to 15
hours. In addition, it only takes 3-4 more
hours to analyze subsequent batches of
samples. This technique will allow scientists
to analyze many more samples per day.
Sample preparation, however, is the
slowest step in detecting pathogens.
Before analysis, the microorganism of
interest must be removed from the
material being analyzed (e.g., soil, water or
wipes). Extracting target microorganisms
from soil is particularly difficult because
of the high number and variety of other
naturally occurring microorganisms. Non-
target organisms often mask the presence
of target organisms. It is critical to isolate
only the organism of interest and to do so
at a high concentration.
EPA developed the Automated
Immunomagnetic Separation (AIMS)
method to improve anthrax spore
extraction from soil. Compared to other
methods, AIMS extracts a greater number
of anthrax spores from several types
of soil. By capturing more spores from
the sample, laboratories can detect and
quantify the amount of anthrax in soil
more accurately.
It is also critical to be able to detect
pathogens in the air. During 2011, EPA
tested an air sampler device that was
able to separate captured particles by
size better than by previous methods.
This is important because particles affect
the human respiratory system differently
depending on their size. Therefore, particle
size data is needed to predict the effects
of air contamination on human health.
The new sampler can gather test materials
from an entire area. It also can be used as
a personal sampler when worn on clothing
near the face. Its design eliminates sample
loss and minimizes sample contamination.
By developing these new methods,
EPA is moving closer to fulfilling its
homeland security mission and its overall
mission to protect human health and the
environment.
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Homeland Security
Responding to the Detonation of a Radiological Dispersion Device
A radiological dispersion device (ROD)
or, "dirty bomb," is a combination of
chemical explosives and radioactive
material. Such an explosion could spread
radioactive material over a wide area. A
ROD explosion is especially problematic
in a heavily populated, urban area. RDDs
lead to surface contamination dispersed
unevenly by wind, weather, and vehicular
and pedestrian traffic.
The Department of Homeland Security
published the National Response
Framework (NRF) to guide response to
disasters and emergencies in a unified and
coordinated way. These potential disasters
range from small, local incidents to large
catastrophes. The explosion of an ROD
would be one such disaster.
The NRF assigned EPA the task of leading
the decontamination of buildings,
equipment and outdoor areas following
a large-scale radiation contamination
incident. The Agency held a series of
workshops to study waste disposal
problems that might result from an ROD.
Lessons learned will be applied in future
research activities.
EPA has also studied alternative
approaches and techniques for cleaning-up
radioactive contamination from an ROD.
In one study, HSRP scientists investigated
Cesium-137 (Cs-137) contamination -, one
of the radioactive isotopes most likely to
be used to make an ROD. Researchers
applied €5-137 to samples of unpainted
concrete. They then decontaminated each
sample using a chemical or mechanical
treatment. The techniques included
spraying-on liquid removed by vacuum, a
strippable coating, surface grinding and
ablation. The results for Cs-137 removal
using the different techniques ranged from
36 to 96 percent effective.
Scientists prepared several peer-reviewed
reports that described the findings from
these studies. They wrote the reports
for federal, state and local emergency
management authorities, response
planners and support personnel. The
reports will help these officials choose the
best technologies for specific clean-up
operations.
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Homeland Security
Helping Water Utilities Detect and Respond to Contamination
Many intentional and accidental incidents
have the potential to threaten the security
of public drinking water supplies. EPA is
developing automated contamination
warning systems (CWSs) to detect
contamination events in public water
distribution systems. EPA's CWSs are
actually combinations of several different
types of warning systems. They use remote
technology to monitor water quality and
the physical security of water systems.
CWSs also integrate public health reports
of disease outbreaks and customer
complaints about water quality. The goal
of using CWSs is to catch problems early
and so reduce their impact on public health
and clean up costs. Since 2006, EPA has
been collaborating with several drinking
water utilities to test CWSs in Cincinnati,
Philadelphia, New York City, Dallas, San
Francisco, Los Angeles and Singapore.
More than 30 utilities around the country
are exploring using these tools.
EPA has developed modeling software to
help water distribution operators design
sensor networks for their systems and to
respond to contamination. Researchers
continue to update and improving them.
To determine which improvements to
focus on in 2011, EPA researchers engaged
participants in the Office of Water's Water
Security Initiative and other users.
EPANET comprises several computer
models used by water utilities and
homeland security researchers to
understand contamination threats to water
distribution systems. EPANET estimates the
flow and quality of water in specific water
utility distribution systems. Early versions
of EPANET were only able to predict the
spread of one contaminant at a time. Since
2007, however, EPA has expanded the
capabilities of the models. EPANET now
models the movements and interactions of
multiple chemicals and/or pathogens. This
new software, EPANET-MSX, was updated
in 2011 to better support homeland security
applications.
Along with other updates in 2011,
researchers added multiple-contaminant
capability to EPA's sensor placement
modeling tool, the Threat Ensemble
Vulnerability Assessment and Sensor
Placement Optimization Toolkit (TEVA-
SPOT). TEVA-SPOT helps operators
decide where to place sensors in
water distribution systems to protect
against both intentional and accidental
contamination.
The EPA's event detection software called
CANARY—after the proverbial "canary
in the coal mine"—interprets continuous
monitoring data. It can discriminate
between normal changes in water quality
and contamination events. CANARY, most
recently updated in 2011, can detect both
intentional contamination and routine
problems.
Also in 2011, EPA, in partnership with
the American Water Works Association
convened workshops to explore what
to do if local public water supplies were
destroyed, damaged or contaminated.
More than sixty technical experts attended
the five workshops. Experts reviewed
ways of providing emergency drinking
water supplies. EPA's report, Planning
for an Emergency Drinking Water Supply,
summarizes workshop recommendations.
The report also helps public water
utilities create emergency response and
contingency plans.
Water utility experts recommended that
community planners prepare for drinking
113
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frisntinrp 'i •' ; t; ; r,:\ 1.1:
issaia: I jii: iii
Homeland Security
Helping Water Utilities Detect and Respond to Contamination
water supply emergencies. Local officials
are encouraged to work with utilities and
state agencies to stockpile emergency
water supplies. In local disaster response
exercises, agencies also should include
the possibility of water service being lost
or disrupted. Planners are encouraged to
look for gaps between projected needs
for emergency water supplies and local,
state, federal and nonprofit organization
resources. In addition, citizens are to be
reminded of steps that they can take to
prepare for a water emergency, including
storing a 3- to 5-day supply of potable
water. More than 3500 water utilities
have participated in AWWA's webinars
describing EPA's report and planning
guidance.
114
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Join EPA's Dr. Bill Sanders l-2pm at EPA booth 1341 to discuss STAR &
P3 grants, fellowships & SBIR awards #SOT2011
Dir of EPA's Clean Air Research, Dan Costa "We need to do more than
look at just one pollutant. We need a multipollutant approach."
At SOT2011? EPA's Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe gives today's
keynote on EPA Vision 8- 9am (ET)
"Good science allows us to articulate what we must do" (for env. protec-
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Stay connected to EPA science throughout the year!
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JoiTTEPAlTDr Jennifer Urnie-/aveleta, 11am (d, EPA booth U41 to talk
about clean, adequate & equitable water supply #SOT2011
"Green alternatives should be less toxic man current chemicals" EPA's
Dr Richard Judson shows tools used 2 test 4 toxicity risk @ #SOT2011
Celebrating #IntemationalWomensDay & all women scientists & engi-
neers who protect our planet & health - here's one: http://bit.ly/fmX7Ts
EPA hosts Tribal Science Webinar (new process to ID science priorities
in Indian Country) Mar 9 llam-12:30pm ET http://bit.ly/h9MolT
At #SOT2011? Join EPA's Dr Robert Kavlock 9:30am @ EPA booth
1341 to discuss sustainable development of chemicals
Join EPA's Dr Dan Costa at 11am at EPAbooth 1341 to discuss EPA's air
quality research #SOT2011 http://bit.lv/ieOr5o
Dr Teichman reviews EPA's 40th anniv highlights including: removing
acid from rain and lead from gasoline (and air) #SOT2011
Dr Teichman: more highlights of EPA's 40 years: clearing second hand
smoke, improving vehicle efficiency and emissions controls #SOT2011
Teichman: "EPA does research! Office of Research & Development
provides the foundation 4 everything EPA does" http://bit.lv/6sz4uY
#SOT2011
Example of important EPA research on air polllution: http://twitgoo.
com/20no7t from Dr Teichman's talk (3> #SOT2011
Prioritization Communities of Practice stakeholder group #SOT2011
Thxto work of #SOT2011 better equipped to make strong scientific case
to take comprehensive actions thru innovative solutions -Perciasepe
EPA Reaching Out To Empower Women Around The World today's
blog in our Women in Science series: http://bit.ly/go2RFm
"Learning the Science to Protect the Planet" http://bit.Iy/h7jynk part of
EPA's Women In Science blog series
Chemistry Teacher? U have to watch EPA's Dr Peavey "Moving schools
to sustainable, green chemistry"http://bit.ly/dI4ReO VIA@beyondbe-
nign
Interested in EPA's clean air research? http://www.epa.gov/airscience/
RU a small business with big ideas about #eco green technologies? Ap-
ply NOW for EPAfunding $ http://l.usa.gov/fmdatP (pis RT!)
RT @EPAgov Our updated £ japan Eradiation site makes it easier to
get monitoring data: http://epa.gov/japan2011 | More improvements
coming.
From Tide Pools to Children's Health - One Scientist's Journey http://
bit.lv/epjUR7 (part of EPA's women in science blog series)
RT @HealthyLegacy Great interview with Paul Anastas last night on
Marketplace—take a listen! #greenchemistry #mngreenchem http://
ow.lv/41wOM
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