EPA 601/K-15/004 | September 2015 www.epa.gov/research
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Safe and Sustainable
Water Resources
STRATEGIC RESEARCH ACTION PLAN
2016-2019
Office of Research and Development
Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
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EPA 601/K-15/004
Safe and Sustainable
Water Resources
Strategic Research Action Plan 2016 - 2019
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
September 2015
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Table of Contents
List of Acronyms ii
Executive Summary 1
Introduction 2
National Research Programs 2
Environmental Problems and Program Purpose 3
SSWR Research Program 5
Program Design 6
Building on the 2012-2016 Research Program 6
EPA Partner and Stakeholder Involvement 6
Integration across Research Programs 7
Research Supports EPA Strategic Plan 9
Statutory and Policy Context 10
Research Program Objectives 11
Research Topics 13
Watershed Sustainability 18
Nutrients 23
Green Infrastructure (Gl) 26
Water Systems 29
Anticipated Research Accomplishments and Projected Impacts 31
Conclusions 33
References 34
Appendix A: Table of Proposed Outputs, Safe and Sustainable Water Resources Research
Program 2016-2019 36
Appendix B: Partners and Stakeholders for Safe and Sustainable Water Resources Research 38
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List of Acronyms
ACE Air, Climate, and Energy
AOPs Adverse Outcome Pathways
AWQC Ambient Water Quality Criteria
BMP Best Management Practices
CCL Contaminant Candidate List
CECs Contaminants of Emerging Concern
CERCLA Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act - "Superfund"
CSO Combined Sewer Overflow
CSS Chemical Safety for Sustainability
CWA Clean Water Act
DoD Department of Defense
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
Gl Green Infrastructure
HABs Harmful Algal Blooms
HAWQS Hydrologic and Water Quality System
HHRA Human Health Risk Assessment
HSPF Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN
HSRP Homeland Security Research Program
NEPA National Environmental Policy Act
ORD Office of Research and Development
PIPs Pathfinder Innovation Projects
RARE Regional Applied Research Effort
RCRA Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
SDWA Safe Drinking Water Act
SHC Sustainable and Healthy Communities
SSWR Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
SSWR StRAP 2016-2019 SSWR Strategic Research Action Plan
STAR Science To Achieve Results
SWAT Soil Water Assessment Tool
SWMM EPA's Stormwater Management Model
UCMR Unregulated Contaminants Monitoring Rule
LIST Underground Storage Tanks
VELMA Visualizing Ecosystems for Land Management Assessments
WMOST Watershed Management Optimization and Support Tool
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Executive Summary
Water is one of our Nation's most precious resources—we depend upon it for our lives and our
livelihoods, for healthy ecosystems and a robust economy. About 400 billion gallons of water are
used each day in the United States. Yet a host of challenges threaten the safety and sustainability
of our water resources, including biological and chemical contaminants; aging water-system
infrastructure; demands from the energy, agriculture and manufacturing sectors; population
change; climate change; extreme events (e.g., hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves, drought, wildfire);
and homeland security events. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research
and Development (ORD) has a dedicated research program focused on addressing these challenges.
ORD's Safe and Sustainable Water Resources (SSWR) research program is using an integrated systems
approach to develop scientific and technological solutions to protect human health, and to protect
and restore watersheds and aquatic ecosystems. This work is being done in partnership with other
EPA programs, federal and state agencies, academia, nongovernmental agencies, public and private
stakeholders, and the global scientific community. This cross-cutting approach maximizes efficiency,
interdisciplinary insights and integration of results. The SSWR research program's activities are
guided by four objectives:
• Address current and long-term water resource challenges for complex chemical and microbial
pollutants. This objective involves strengthening the science for drinking water and water-quality
standards and guidance for new and emerging contaminants that threaten human health and
aquatic ecosystems. It also covers developing new methods for detecting, quantifying, monitoring
and treating those contaminants.
• Transform the concept of'waste' to'resource'. Through innovative water treatment technologies,
green infrastructure, and improved management approaches, stormwater, municipal wastewater,
and other 'post-use' waters will be valued as a resource for fit-for-purpose water reuse, energy,
nutrients, metals, and other valuable substances.
• Quantify benefits of water quality. Clean water and healthy ecosystems provide many services
that are currently undervalued. By developing models and tools to estimate the economic benefits
of water-quality improvements, this research will aid in the protection or restoration of water
quality.
• Translate research into real-world solutions. SSWR aims to move its results out of the lab and into
the hands of end users, who can use these data and tools to sustainably manage water resources
and infrastructure.
To achieve these overarching objectives and address their respective scientific challenges, SSWR
research projects are organized into four interrelated topics: Watershed Sustainability, Nutrients,
Green Infrastructure, and Water Systems. Each topic carries specific near- and long-term aims
designed to yield practical tools and solutions for ensuring sustainable water resources. This SSWR
Strategic Research Action Plan, 2016-2019 (SSWR StRAP 2016-2019), outlines these topics and
the overall structure and purpose of the SSWR research program. SSWR's scientific results and
innovative technologies will support EPA's mandate to protect the chemical, physical, and biological
integrity of the Nation's waters and to ensure safe drinking water and water systems.
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Introduction
Water is essential for human health and well-
being, and for all types of ecosystems and
a robust economy. The production of many
goods and services, such as agriculture, en-
ergy, manufacturing, transportation, fishing,
tourism and others, depends on the availabil-
ity and quality of water. Humans and many
animals and plants depend on available sourc-
es of freshwater, which are surprisingly min-
iscule — 0.007% — compared with the total
amount of Earth's water. These sources are
continually in flux, changing biologically, chemi-
cally, and geologically. As the movement of wa-
ter through the hydrologic cycle is continually
dynamic, so too are the changing spatial and
temporal demands on water quantity and qual-
ity for various uses.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
scientists and engineers and their partners
are addressing 21st century water resource
challenges by integrating research on
environmental, economic, and social factors
to provide lasting, sustainable solutions that
advance the goals and cross-Agency priorities
identified in the FY 2014-2018 EPA Strategic
Plan (EPA Strategic Plan) in support of the
Agency's mission to protect human health and
the environment.
To assist the Agency in meeting its mission
and priorities, the Safe and Sustainable Water
Resources (SSWR) research program within
EPA's Office of Research and Development
(ORD), the science arm of the Agency, developed
this Strategic Research Action Plan, 2016-2019
(StRAP 2016-2019).
The SSWR StRAP is one of six research plans, one
for each of EPA's national research programs in
ORD. The six research programs are:
• Air, Climate, and Energy (ACE)
• Chemical Safety for Sustainability (CSS)
• Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP)
• Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA)
• Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
(SSWR)
• Sustainable and Healthy Communities (SHC)
EPA's six strategic research action plans are
designed to guide a comprehensive research
portfolio that delivers the science and
engineering solutions the Agency needs to meet
its goals and objectives, while also cultivating
a new paradigm for efficient, innovative, and
responsive environmental and human health
research.
The SSWR StRAP 2016-2019 outlines the
approach designed to achieve EPA's goal to
protect America's waters. It highlights how
the SSWR research program integrates efforts
with other research programs across ORD
to provide a seamless and efficient overall
research portfolio aligned around the central
and unifying concept of sustainability. No other
research organization in the world matches
the diversity and breadth represented by the
collective scientific and engineering staff of
ORD, their grantees and other partners. They
are called upon to conduct research to meet
the most pressing environmental and related
human health challenges facing the nation and
the world.
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Environmental
Problems and Program
Purpose
Impairment of water quality and diminished
water availability are concerns for human
and ecosystem health, economic prosperity,
and social well-being. Some of the pressing
challenges facing our water resources are
described below.
Watersheds
Across the Nation's watersheds, excess levels
of nutrients and sediment remain the largest
impediment to water quality. The rate at which
water bodies are added to the water-quality
impairment list exceeds the pace that restored
waters are removed from this list. Harmful
cyanobacteria and other harmful algal blooms
that pose health risks to humans, animals,
and ecosystems are largely driven by excess
nutrients. EPA and the states do not have the
capacity or the tools to assess each water body
individually for chemicals and pathogens.
Wetlands
The Nation's wetlands provide numerous
ecosystem benefits, such as water-quality
improvement, groundwater recharge, erosion
and flooding protection, and habitats for
commercially and recreationally valuable or
imperiled species. Wetlands are continuing to
decline, and the rate may accelerate as acreage,
even in conservation, is being converted to serve
evolving trends in energy and food production.
Groundwater
Increasingly, groundwater is becoming an im-
portant water source. Sustainability of ground-
water with regard to drawdown, recharge, and
increasing potential of contamination is a grow-
ing concern.
Undervalued water resources
Inadequate knowledge of the value of water
underlies the daunting challenge to fund the
repair and replacement of existing infrastructure
with new and innovative technologies that are
more resilient and energy-efficient, while also
ensuring protection of underground sources
of drinking water. People tend not to fund or
conserve what they do not sufficiently value.
Although estimates exist for the cost to deliver
safe drinking water to taps—less than $3.75 for
every 1,000 gallons (AWWA, 2012)—we lack a
more comprehensive evaluation of the benefits
of water quality that includes human and
environmental health and ecosystem services.
Stormwater
For many cities, stormwater management
remains one of the greatest challenges to
meet water-quality standards. When surges
in stormwater overwhelm combined sewer
systems (systems that convey both sewage
and stormwater together), untreated human,
commercial, and industrial waste is often
discharged directly into surface waters.
Aging infrastructure
The Nation's water treatment and delivery
systems pose increasingly greater challenges
for delivering adequate supplies of safe
drinking water. Leaking pipes and water main
breaks are responsible for a loss of up to 40
percent of treated drinking water. Additionally,
compromised infrastructure can contaminate
treated drinking water, surface water, and
groundwater. To restore and expand the
Nation's deteriorating, buried drinking water
pipe system to accommodate a changing
population will cost more than $1.7 trillion by
2050 (AWWA, 2012). This estimate does not
include other critical infrastructure investment
needs, including water treatment plants and
storage tanks, nor investments in post-use water
(Box 1) and stormwater management. Small
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systems that serve fewer than 3,300 persons
and account for 95 percent of the Nation's
156,000 public water systems face even greater
technical, financial, and operational challenges
to develop and maintain the capacity to comply
with new and existing standards.
Climate
In addition to the challenges described above,
there are other water-resource stressors, such
as climate change and variability, which must be
taken into account. Climate models project that
there will be distinctive regional differences in
climate impacts affecting the hydrologic cycle.
Examples of hydrologic impacts include warmer
water temperatures, changes in precipitation
patterns and intensity, more frequent and
intense flooding and droughts, increased
evaporation, changes in soil moisture, and
earlier snowpack melt with lower flows in late
summer (Melillo et al. 2014). These changes
may affect human health, especially vulnerable
and sensitive sub-populations, for example
by increased incidence of waterborne disease
related to heavy rain events. These changes may
also affect ecosystems, for example by resulting
in lower stream flows, warmer temperatures
and lower dissolved oxygen. Human, animal,
and ecosystem health may also be affected by
varying sensitivities of algal and cyanobacteria
species to the interaction between warmer
temperatures and nutrients.
Box 1. Food-Energy-Water Nexus Research in SSWR
Drinking water treatment and transport and post-use water collection and treatment
consume approximately 4% of the Nation's electricity (EPRI, 2002). Electricity costs
represent roughly 25-40% of a municipal wastewater treatment plant's total operating
budget. Electricity can account for 80% of a drinking water treatment plant's treatment
and distribution costs (EPA, 2013a). The SSWR research program plans to provide results
for assessing transformative system approaches for lowering energy consumption for water
treatment systems. For drinking water treatment, we will continue to seek approaches for
lowering energy consumption through innovative treatment methods and approaches for
plants of all scales, but particularly for small systems. For post-use water treatment and
water reuse systems, the initial goal focuses on systems and approaches to achieve neutral
energy consumption and ultimately to become net energy producers. In some cases, green
infrastructure may play a role in decreasing the overall volume of post-use water and,
therefore, the energy needed for treatment.
Research on water reuse systems emphasizes the treatment and water-quality standards
for fit-for-purpose potable and non-potable end uses. This may allow reduced energy
consumption by minimizing treatment steps depending on the targeted end-use water
quality, for example agriculture that benefits from nutrient-rich water. The reuse of various,
and in some cases nontraditional, sources of water (e.g., treated post-use municipal water,
saline or brackish waters, produced waters from energy production, and agricultural return
flows) will help to mitigate the critical need for available freshwater that is expected to
intensify over time. Recovering biogas from post-use water may achieve energy neutral or
positive goals, while recovering and recycling other valuable commodities (e.g., nutrients
and metals) may reduce the energy needed to otherwise generate novel sources. Research
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Amplifying stressors
Water quality and quantity challenges will be
amplified by other stressors, such as extreme
events (e.g., hurricanes, tornadoes, heat waves,
drought, wildfire). Some of these extreme
events may be exacerbated by climate change,
land-use change, energy and food production,
accidental or purposeful contamination, and
population change. Many of these stressors
will be more pronounced in areas that are
least resilient to climate impacts. For example,
population growth is projected to continue
increasing in U.S. shoreline counties that are
vulnerable to sea level rise and more frequent
and extreme storms, and where 39% of the U.S.
population is already concentrated and another
52% live in counties that drain to coastal
watersheds (NOAA State of Coast Report
2013). In the Southwestern U.S., increased
temperatures and changes to precipitation and
snowpack are expected to impact the region's
critical agriculture sector, affecting one of the
Nation's fastest growing populations - now at
56 million and expected to increase 68% to 94
million by 2050 (Hoerling et al., 2013). Water
resources in many areas are already strained
and will be further stressed by severe and
sustained drought and over-utilization, resulting
in increasing competition among domestic
water supplies, agriculture, energy production,
and ecosystems (Garfin et al., 2014).
These water resource challenges also offer
opportunities for innovation, economic
development, and improvements in watershed
sustainability and human health. For example,
post-use water treatment innovations can
transform the concept of 'waste' to 'resource'
by recapturing and reusing commercially
valuable post-use constituents (e.g., nutrients,
energy, metals). Additional benefits of these
newer technologies include improved energy
efficiency from both treatment operations
and reduced de novo production of resources
from their original sources in the environment.
Green infrastructure can help mitigate
stormwater runoff and potentially reduce gray
infrastructure investment costs and energy
use, improve property values, create wildlife
habitat, and recharge groundwater.
SSWR Research Program
The SSWR StRAP 2016-2019 outlines the
approach designed to achieve EPA's goal to
protect America's waters. It highlights how
the SSWR research program integrates efforts
with the other five national research programs,
other Agency partners, and external partners
to provide a seamless and efficient overall
research portfolio aligned around the central
and unifying concept of sustainability.
The SSWR research program uses an integrated,
systems approach to mission-driven, state-
of-the-art research. The goal is to support
innovative scientific and technological solutions
that ensure clean, adequate and equitable
supplies of water to protect human health, and
to protect and restore watersheds and aquatic
ecosystems. Future SSWR research will focus
on high-priority, current and long-term water
resource challenges identified in partnership
with EPA programs and regional offices and
others to inform the Agency's decisions,
implementation needs, and translation of
research findings to support communities,
states, and tribal partners. The overarching
watershed approach to SSWR drinking water,
post-use water, stormwater, and ecosystems
research recognizes the dynamic 'one water'
hydrologic cycle. Integrated throughout
the program are the goals of a sustainable
environment, economy and society; and the
overarching drivers of a changing climate,
extreme events, population change and
evolving trends in land use, energy, agriculture,
and manufacturing.
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The following Problem Statement and Program
Vision guide the research program:
Problem Statement
Together, the interrelated challenges of im-
paired water quality, diminished water availabil-
ity, the Nation's aging water infrastructure, and
inadequate knowledge of the value of water-
quality benefits threaten safe and sustainable
water resources. These challenges are further
amplified by a host of current and emerg-
ing environmental stressors, including climate
change and variability, extreme events, popu-
lation change, and evolving trends in land
use energy, agriculture and manufacturing.
Program Vision
The SSWR research program uses an integrated,
systems approach to support innovative
scientific and technological solutions that
ensure clean, adequate, and equitable supplies
of waterto protect human health and to protect
and restore watersheds and aquatic ecosystems.
Program Design
The SSWR StRAP 2016-2019 provides both a vi-
sion and an actionable blueprint for advancing
water research in ways that meet the priorities
and legislative mandates of EPA, while address-
ing the most critical needs of Agency partners
and stakeholders.
Building on the 2012-2016
Research Program
This StRAP builds upon the successful research
outlined in the previously developed SSWR
StRAP 2012-2016 and like that work, it will con-
tinue advancing science and technology solu-
tions for the Nation's high- priority, current, and
emerging water resource and human health
challenges. In the SSWR StRAP 2016-2019,
there is now a greater emphasis on harmful
cyanobacteria and algal blooms, groundwater
quality, resilience to climate change and ex-
treme events, quantifying the benefits of water
quality, and community support tools. In addi-
tion, SSWR is partnering with other federal and
state agencies, private and public organizations,
and communities to contribute EPA's unique
expertise in water quality and green infrastruc-
ture to the rapidly growing area of the "Food-
Energy-Water' nexus (Box 1).
The updated plan presented here consolidates
research into four interrelated research topics:
1. Watershed sustainability
2. Nutrients
3. Green Infrastructure
4. Water Systems (drinking water and post-
use water systems)
The four topics and their related research chal-
lenges and priorities are described in detail in
the Research Topics section.
Various ORD programs and grants continue to
be integrated into SSWR by the topic(s) each
supports. Extramural research examples include
the Water Technology Innovation Center, EPA
Science to Achieve Results (STAR) grants, and
the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
program. ORD research programs also include
opportunities to compete for funding within
EPA such as the Regional Applied Research Ef-
fort (RARE) program, which funds partnerships
between regional and ORD scientists to con-
duct research, and the Pathfinder Innovation
Projects (PIPs), which provide seed funding for
potentially high-risk, high-reward research con-
cepts.
EPA Partner and Stakeholder
Involvement
The SSWR StRAP 2016-2019 guides ORD re-
search to address the high priority needs of the
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Agency and its partners and stakeholders. Ac-
cordingly, it was developed with considerable
input and support from EPA's ORD labs and cen-
ters; Office of Water, Office of Policy, and other
program offices; regional offices; and external
advisory committees. Research priorities were
identified through numerous venues, including
two meetings with EPA Science Advisory Board
and the Board of Scientific Counselors during
the 2012-2015 planning period, annual SSWR
research conference, annual SSWR program
update, annual meeting of the ORD and Office
of Water Assistant Administrators and Regional
Administrator, quarterly meetings with Office
of Water senior staff, visits to regional offices,
in-person 'Chautauquas' with researchers and
policy staff and regular communications with
the ORD lab and centers, Office of Water and
regional offices. These efforts produced a pri-
oritized list of research needs for the Office of
Water and regional offices that has served as
the foundation for the SSWR StRAP 2016-2019
research goals.
Research planned for the SSWR StRAP 2016-
2019 also was informed by external partners.
The SSWR staff and researchers serve on
several task groups and are actively engaged
on projects with numerous U.S. federal
agencies and other domestic and international
organizations (see Appendix B). The SSWR
National Program Director is the co-chair for
the Subcommittee on Water Availability and
Quality that advises and assists the White
House National Science and Technology
Council and the Committee on Environment,
Natural Resources, and Sustainability on
matters related to the availability and quality of
water resources. The Subcommittee on Water
Availability and Quality is comprised of over
a dozen federal agencies that meet monthly,
facilitating effective outcomes of coordinated
multi-agency water-related activities. The
SSWR Director also serves on the Global Water
Research Coalition, which meets biannually
and aims to leverage expertise amongst
the participating international research
organizations, coordinate research strategies,
and actively manage a centralized approach to
global issues. SSWR interacts with academia
through scientific conferences, informal
professional relationships, and formal grants
and cooperative agreements. These venues
afford the opportunity to not only leverage
expertise and funding, but also the ability to
identify unique niche areas to which SSWR can
make the greatest scientific contributions.
Integration across Research
Programs
EPA's six research programs work together to
address science challenges that are important
for more than one program. Coordination
efforts can range from formal integration
actions across the programs at a high level to
collaborative research among EPA scientists
working on related issues.
To integrate research on significant cross-
cutting issues, EPA developed several "Research
Roadmaps" that identify both ongoing relevant
research and also important science gaps that
need to be filled. These Roadmaps serve to
coordinate research efforts and to provide
input that helps shape the future research in
each of the six programs. Roadmaps have been
developed for the following areas:
• Nitrogen and Co-Pollutants
• Children's Environmental Health
• Climate Change
• Environmental Justice
SSWR is the lead national program for EPA's
Nitrogen and Co-Pollutants Cross-Cutting
Research Roadmap (Nitrogen and Co-Pollutant
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Roadmap), and SSWR provides the foundation
for research on nutrients (see Nutrients topic
section). Overarching research on impacts of
climate variability and change will be integrated
with the Air, Climate, and Energy (ACE) research
program through the Climate Roadmap. SSWR
is also identifying opportunities to integrate
with the Children's Environmental Health and
the Environmental Justice Research Roadmaps.
Efforts to ensure integration across the research
programs are described in more detail in each of
the Research Topic sections. The SSWR program
also informs critical research areas identified in
the ORD cross-cutting Research Roadmaps, as
illustrated in Table 1.
Table 1. Safe and Sustainable Water Resources (SSWR) research program contributions
to critical needs identified by ORD Roadmaps. Multiple checkmarks indicate a larger
contribution of SSWR activities and interest in the identified science gaps of the Roadmaps
than a single checkmark; a blank indicates no substantive role.
ORD Roadmap
Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Children's Health
Nitrogen & Co-Pollutants
SSWR Topic Area
Watershed
Sustainability
S
SS
Nutrients
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SSWR Research Supports EPA
Strategic Plan
EPA's Strategic Planl identifies five goals and
four cross-agency strategies to support its mis-
sion to protect human health and the envi-
ronment (Box 2). The SSWR research program
supports the Strategic Plan's second goal, "Pro-
tecting America's Waters/' and its aims to pro-
tect and restore waters to ensure that drinking
water is safe and sustainably managed; and
that aquatic ecosystems sustain fish, plants,
wildlife and other biota, as well as economic,
recreational and subsistence activities. EPA's
objectives for Protecting America's Waters are
twofold:
1. Protect Human Health
Achieve and maintan standards
and guidelines protective of human health
in drinking water supplies, fish, shellfish
and recreational waters, and protect
and sustainably manage drinking
water resources.
2. Protect and Restore Watersheds and
Aquatic Ecosystems.
Protect, restore, and sustain the quality
of rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands on
a watershed basis, and sustainably manage
and protect coastal and ocean resources
and ecosystems.
The SSWR research program supports EPA
Goal 2 and its objectives, and the cross-
agency strategies, by efficiently integrating
and translating environmental, economic, and
social research into visible and sustainable
solutions for local, state and tribal communities.
Innovative solutions will be key to meeting the
Agency's strategic goal of protecting America's
waters. EPA has committed to innovation
for solving sustainability challenges in two
recent documents: Technology Innovation
For Environmental and Economic Progress:
An EPA Roadmap (2012) (http://www2.epa.
gov/envi refinance/innovation) and Promoting
Technology Innovation for Clean and Safe
Water: Water Technology Innovation Blueprint
- Version 2 (2014) (http://www2.epa.gov/
innovation/water-innovation-and-technology).
BOX 2. FY 2014-2018 EPA
Strategic Plan:
Goals, and Cross-Agency Strategies
EPA Strategic Goals
Goal 1: Addressing Climate Change and
Improving Air Quality
Goal 2: Protecting America's Waters
Goal 3: Cleaning Up Communities and
Advancing Sustainable Development
Goal 4: Ensuring the Safety of Chemicals
and Preventing Pollution
Goal 5: Protecting Human Health and
the Environment by Enforcing Laws and
Assuring Compliance
Cross-Agency Strategies
• Working toward a Sustainable Future
• Working to Make a Visible Difference in
Communities
• Launching a New Era of State, Tribal,
Local, and International Partnerships
• Embracing EPA as a High-Performing
Organization
'EPA Strategic Plan FY 2014-2018 (http://www2.epa.gov/planandbudget/strategicplanl
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Statutory and Policy Context
EPA is responsible for protecting the Nation's
water resources under the Clean Water Act
(CWA), which establishes the basic structure
for (1) restoring and maintaining the chemical,
physical and biological integrity of the Nation's
waters by preventing point and nonpoint
pollution sources; (2) providing assistance
to publicly owned treatment works for the
improvement of post-use water treatment,
and (3) maintaining the integrity of wetlands
(U.S. EPA, 2013b). The CWA provides for
the protection of above ground sources of
drinking water as determined by each state.
Groundwater protection provisions are
included in the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA),
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and
the Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation and Liability Act ("Superfund").
The SDWA directs EPA to set national safety
standards for drinking water delivered to
consumers by public water systems. It also
authorizes other regulatory programs (e.g.,
Underground Injection Control, Wellhead
Protection), as well as funding, training, public
information, and source water assessment
programs, to foster the protection of many
sources of drinking water.
EPA created the Office of Underground Storage
Tanks (UST) to carry out a congressional
mandate to develop and implement a regulatory
program for underground storage tank systems.
The greatest potential threat from a leaking UST
is contamination of groundwater, the source of
drinking water for nearly half of all Americans.
EPA, states, and tribes work together to protect
the environment and human health from
potential UST releases.
EPA's Office of Water, which has primary
responsibility for implementing the provisions
of the CWA and the SDWA, is a key partner
for the SSWR research program. For more
information on EPA responsibilities under these
statutes, see the links provided in Table 2.
Table 2. Statutory and policy drivers for SSWR research
Legislation
Clean Water Act
Safe Drinking Water Act
Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act
Comprehensive
Environmental Response,
Compensation and
Liability Act ("Superfund")
Federal Underground
Storage Tank Regulations
(Revised 2015)
National Environmental
Policy Act
Acronym
CWA
SDWA
RCRA
CERCLA
USTs
NEPA
Website
http://www2.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summarv-clean-
water-act
http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/index.cfm
http://www2.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summarv-
resource-conservation-and-recoverv-act
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/policv/cercla.htm
http://www.epa.gov/oust/fedlaws/
http://www2.epa.gov/nepa
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Research Program
Objectives
The SSWR program addresses four broad
research objectives that support EPA's goals
and cross-Agency strategies noted above and
are critical to meeting the needs of the Agency,
its partners, and other stakeholders. Together,
these research objectives provide a platform for
protecting the quality and supply of America's
waters from headwaters to streams, rivers and
lakes, and coastal waters.
Objective 1: Address Current and Long-Term
Water Resource Challenges for Complex
Chemical and Microbial Pollutants
Water resources in the U.S. face many
challenges from known and emerging chemical
and microbial pollutants. SSWR research on
chemical and microbial contaminants including
nutrients, aims to strengthen water systems'
resiliency and compliance with drinking water
and water-quality standards. In addition, SSWR
research helps protect America's source waters
and supports new or revised drinking water
standards to address known and emerging
contaminants that endanger human health and
aquatic ecosystems. Through partnerships with
program and regional offices, states, tribes, and
local communities, SSWR will work toward a
more sustainable future, while making a visible
difference in local communities.
ORD researchers will continue to provide timely
support for regulatory and guidance decisions
for water resources. Additionally, water systems
researchers will strive to develop new and
innovative methods for detecting, quantifying,
monitoring, and treating microbial and
chemical contaminants. The SSWR StRAP 2016-
2019 emphasizes addressing contaminants as
groups, as well as individually, when developing
novel methods for quantifying human exposure
and assessing human health risks. Water
systems researchers will also explore ways to
effectively treat water and post-use water for
chemicals and pathogens with technologies and
approaches that reduce energy consumption
and provide the ability to reuse and recover
resources as described below. SSWR will
continue its focus on affordable, simple, and
effective water treatment solutions for small
systems.
Objective 2: Transform the Concept of 'Waste'
to 'Resource'
Combined sewer overflow (CSO) events contin-
ue to vex many U.S. communities, particularly
in the Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific North-
west. Combined sewer systems that collect
stormwater and municipal post-use water are
often overwhelmed during storm events, re-
sulting in the direct discharge of overflow into
waterways. While SSWR research will continue
to address CSO events by implementing green
infrastructure (Gl) to capture stormwater flow,
new research efforts will investigate the use of
Gl to recharge groundwater and the capture
and storage of stormwater to augment water
supplies in arid and semi-arid parts of the Unit-
ed States.
SSWR's drinking water and post-use water
systems research will focus on transformative
approaches for water reuse and resource
recovery. Communities in dry climates need
guidance at the federal level on water reuse
treatment for fit-for-purpose water for direct
potable, indirect potable, and non-potable
reuse. Fit-for-purpose treatment can reduce
energy costs by tailoring treatment schemes
and approaches for a targeted end-use water
quality. In addition to water reuse, SSWR
research will partner with others within and
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outside of the Agency on recovering and
reusing energy, nutrients, and possibly, metals
and other valuable substances to advance
the transformation of 'waste' to 'resource'.
Increased energy recovery in post-use water
systems can potentially lead to net-zero energy
consumption for the systems and, in some
cases, make the post-use water system a net
producer of energy. Life-cycle analyses of water
systems for small communities will lead to new
approaches for transforming water systems.
This research strives to develop a framework for
local communities to make informed decisions
on treatment and conveyance systems that
include water reuse and resource recovery for
a more sustainable future.
Objective 3: Quantify Benefits of Water Quality
Degradation of water quality due to chemical
and microbial contaminants, including
nutrients that drive harmful cyanobacteria
and algal blooms, continues to outpace water-
quality improvements from regulatory and
non-regulatory, incentive-based actions. The
challenges of protecting good water quality or
restoring impaired water quality are hampered
by inadequate knowledge of the value of
improved water quality and its wide-ranging
benefits, which span human and environmental
health and ecosystem services.
Through partnerships with EPA's Office of
Policy and Office of Water, and external grants
funded by SSWR, successful efforts will develop
the models and tools needed to estimate
the economic benefits of water-quality
improvements. The research aims to advance
national water quality cost-benefit analysis
and modeling tools for surface waters, from
headwater streams to downstream estuarine
and coastal waters. The modeling tools will
build the capacity for estimating economic
benefits of water-quality improvements
through revealed preference (i.e., human use)
studies that identify market and non-market
values associated with water quality, as well as
stated preference (i.e., non-use) studies that
will capture the broader ranges of non-market
values. The research will identify the optimal
choice of water-quality indicators—those
metrics most useful for linking water-quality
models to economic valuation.
Objective 4: Translate Research into Real-
World Solutions
The translation and application of research
results through practical tools has historically
been a challenge to scientists and engineers.
ORD aims to move our research results out of
the lab and into the hands of end users who
depend on these data and tools.
Watershed sustainability research builds the
capacity to assess and map the integrity and
resiliency of water resources and watersheds
at national and regional scales, and provides
modeling tools and applications for integrated
watershed management. Research on chemical
and microbial contaminants will strengthen
methods to prioritize, derive, and implement
ambient water-quality criteria to protect human
health and aquatic life from the expanding
numbers, combinations, and novel features of
contaminants in groundwater, drinking water
and surface water. Research tools that assess
and predict effects and cumulative impacts
of energy and mineral extraction processes
on groundwater and surface water quality
and aquatic life will inform and empower
communities to protect water, while developing
the Nation's future energy and mineral resource
portfolio. Translating and communicating
the results of the economic benefits of CWA
regulations will strengthen efforts and support
for developing and implementing regulatory
actions to improve water quality across the
Nation.
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Nutrient enrichment of the Nation's water
bodies continues to be a significant risk to
human health and ecosystems. Research in
this area will advance the science needed to
inform decisions to prioritize watersheds and
nutrient sources for nutrient management
and define appropriate nutrient levels for the
Nation's waters. Novel field and laboratory-
based studies, state-of-the-art modeling, and
other research syntheses will make significant
progress toward important and challenging
areas of scientific uncertainty related to
nutrient management.
Multimedia approaches will reduce the
unintended consequences and capture the
cumulative benefits of actions, which can be
equally as important as direct benefits. New
scientific information, analytical approaches,
and science communication that advance
the science and increase the accessibility of
this science will become available to decision
makers.
The SSWR program plans to implement place-
based Gl studies and water system pilot
projects in communities throughout the Nation.
Collaborative efforts between the Department
of Defense (DoD) and EPA will focus on water
reuse and resource recovery projects at DoD
installations. Results from these projects can
be translated to communities for informed
decisions on the placement and effectiveness of
resource recovery technologies. Gl place-based
studies will help to make a visible difference
in underserved communities by helping to
capture stormwater runoff for mitigating CSO
events and, in some communities, augment
existing water supplies. SSWR researchers will
continue to develop user-friendly models and
tools for Gl placement and implementation to
help communities solve water management
challenges. SSWR will also partner with other
EPA program offices and the external research
community to develop tools that address life-
cycle costs (i.e., including planning, design,
installation, operation and maintenance, and
replacement), performance, and resiliency
of gray and green infrastructure and hybrid
systems to provide a more complete basis for
decision making at the local and watershed
levels.
Communication plays a large role in our
plans for real world solutions. The SSWR
communications team conducts several
monthly public webinars on its research and
will explore other opportunities to have an
open dialogue with state and community
stakeholders. SSWR hosts, in collaboration
with the Association of State Drinking Water
Administrators, an annual workshop for small
systems professionals for the release of cutting
edge research results. A monthly small systems
webinar, which offers continuing education
credits to water managers, is also co-hosted by
SSWR and EPA's Office of Water.
Research Topics
In SSWR, research is organized by four
interrelated topics (Figure 1). Each topic has
near-term and long-term goals designed to help
SSWR accomplish its overarching objectives
(Table 3). These projects involve significant
integration and collaboration with other EPA
research programs, federal agencies, and
external partners, as described below.
1. Watershed Sustainability
Gathering, synthesizing, and mapping
the necessary environmental, economic,
and social (human health and well-being)
information on watersheds, from local to
national scales, to determine the condition
and integrity, future prospects, and recovery
potential of the Nation's watersheds.
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2. Nutrients
Conducting EPA nitrogen and co-pollutants
research efforts for multiple types of
water bodies and coordinating across
media (water, land and air) and various
temporal and spatial scales, including
support for developing numeric nutrient
criteria, decision support tools, and
cost-effective approaches to
nutrient reduction.
3. Green Infrastructure
Developing innovative tools, technologies,
and strategies for managing water
resources (including stormwater) today
and for the long-term.
4. Water Systems
Developing tools and technologies for
the sustainable treatment of water and
post-use water and promoting the
economic recovery of water,
energy and nutrient, and other
resources through innovative municipal
water services and whole system
assessment tools. This area focuses
on small water systems and can be scaled
up to larger systems.
The four research topics of the SSWR StRAP
2016-2019 align with EPA's Strategic Plan to
help ensure that natural and engineered water
systems have the capacity and resiliency to meet
current and future water needs for the wide
range of human and ecological requirements.
Research aims, in turn, are advanced by
research projects to meet articulated science
challenges. Examples of research projects
are provided for each research topic and are
described in more detail later in this section.
Research outputs synthesize and translate
scientific and technological accomplishments,
and will be communicated to a broad audience
who rely on EPA research for knowledge and
decision making. Examples of possible outputs
are provided in Appendix A.
Sustainability: Social (human health and wellbeing) & Economics
Stressors: Climate Change StVariability, Extreme & Homeland Security Events, Population Change, Land Use. Energy.Agriculture & Manufacturing
Watershed Sustainability
• Ambient Water Quality Criteria - Human
Health and Aquatic Life
• Energy and mineral resources
• Scalable tools and methods for integrated
assessment and watershed management
• National water quality benefits
Nutrients
• Thresholds and targets for appropriate
nutrient levels
• Management tools and practices
• Metrics - Benefits, accountability, and
communication
• Harmful algal blooms
Water Systems
• Current systems
• Emerging contaminants in drinking water
and sources
• Technology advances
• Transformative systems
Green Infrastructure
• Models and tools application
• Community benefits
• Linkage to aquifer storage and recovery
Figure 1. SSWR Research Topics and Projects.
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Table 3. SSWR Research Topics: Near- and long-term aims
Research Topic
What We Do
Near-Term Aim
Long-Term Aim
Watershed
Sustainability
Gathering, synthesizing,
and providing
the necessary
environmental,
economic, and social
information on
watersheds—from local
to national scales—to
determine condition,
future prospects, and
recovery potential
of the Nation's
watersheds.
Develop the methods
to assess watershed
integrity nationally
and the tools
necessary to maintain
the sustainability
and resilience of
watersheds; develop
understanding and
tools to address energy
and mineral resources;
identify causes of
watershed impairment
and attributes that
promote integrity
and resilience; and
develop approaches to
watershed sustainability
that integrate ecological
condition, economic
benefits, and human
well-being.
National and scalable
mapping assessments of
watershed sustainability
using indicators of
ecological condition,
economic benefits,
and human well-being;
and develop and
demonstrate the tools
for achieving sustainable
and resilient watersheds
and water resources.
Nutrients
Conducting nutrient
research for multiple
water-body types with
coordination across
media (water, land,
and air) and various
temporal spatial scales,
including support for
developing numeric
nutrient criteria,
decision-support tools,
and cost-effective
approaches to nutrient
reduction.
Improve the science
needed to define
appropriate nutrient
levels and develop
technologies and
management practices
to monitor and attain
appropriate nutrient
loadings. Research will
examine the occurrence
and effects of harmful
algal blooms.
Assess ecosystem
and human health
and the societal
benefits resulting from
management actions
to achieve appropriate
and sustainable nutrient
levels in the Nation's
waters.
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Research Topic
What We Do
Near-Term Aim
Long-Term Aim
Green
Infrastructure
Developing innovative
tools, information,
and guidance for
communities to
manage water
resources, including
stormwater, with
green infrastructure
to move toward more
natural hydrology and
increased resilience to
future changes, such
as climate and extreme
events.
Assist decision
makers, planners,
and developers in
understanding how to
incorporate effective
green infrastructure
opportunities into
their stormwater
management plans at
the property level and
community scales.
Develop and
demonstrate tools and
provide information
and guidance for
communities to assess
the effectiveness and
benefits of green
infrastructure as part
of their approach for
managing water volume
and improving water
quality.
Water Systems
Develop, test, and
evaluate innovative
tools, technologies, and
strategies for managing
water resources and
protecting human
health and the
environment as climate
and other conditions
change; and support
the economic recovery
of resources through
innovative water
services and whole-
system assessment
tools. Particular
attention will be given
to small systems
because of their limited
resources.
Support drinking
water and wastewater
regulations, guidance
and implementation
of programs at all
levels; develop, test,
and promote the
adoption of drinking
water, stormwater,
and wastewater
technologies that will
protect human health
and the environment,
while maximizing
resource conservation
and recovery;
and closely align
contaminant research
with other Topics to
ensure that common
tools and models are
effectively employed
across the water cycle.
Conduct integrated
sustainability
assessments, develop
novel approaches, and
prioritize risks to provide
a framework for decision
making related to
alternative approaches
to existing water systems
to meet the goals of
public health protection
and resource recovery.
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Natural and engineered water systems are
inextricably linked through the hydrologic cycle;
therefore, the four research topics are also
interrelated. Current water services are mostly
achieved through separate engineering systems
to provide distinct functions, including safe
drinking water, sewage treatment, stormwater
control, and watershed management. Multiple
stressors and more stringent water quality
goals threaten the future effectiveness and
affordability of this 'siloed' approach to water
resource management. A systems-level view
of integrated water services is necessary to
develop optimal solutions. Focusing on one
part of the system, even when using system
analysis tools, such as life-cycle assessment,
may shift problems to other sectors. While this
document defines four separate topic areas for
clarity of presentation, the program emphasizes
this systems-level view.
Overarching goals for all four topics are envi-
ronmental, economic, and social sustainability.
All four topics also include multiple stressors
affecting water quality and quantity, including
climate change and variability, extreme events
(e.g., flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, earth-
quakes, heat waves, drought, wildfire—many
of which may be amplified by climate), land-
use change, energy, agriculture, manufactur-
ing, accidental or purposeful contamination,
aging infrastructure, and population change.
Broad linkages among topic areas (e.g., the in-
teraction of complex chemical and microbial
contaminants between built infrastructure and
watersheds) are identified as specific projects
are planned and implemented. Relationships
across the SSWR topic areas and among the
other five research programs are illustrated in
Figure 2. Topic areas will have differing levels
of integration with the other five ORD research
programs. Figure 2 illustrates that while the
Watershed Sustainability and Water Systems
topic areas have direct and implied linkages
with all five programs, the Nutrients and Green
Infrastructure currently link to three and two of
the programs, respectively. These linkages are
briefly described in the "Integration and Collab-
oration" sections included in each of the Proj-
ect discussions under the Topic headings.
ORD Research Program
SSWR Research Program Topic
Watershed Sustainability
Nutrients
Green Infrastructure
Water Systems
Air, Climate & Energy (ACE)
Climate, energy efficient water systems and water reuse,
life cycle assessment
Chemical Safety for Sustainability (CSS)
Individual/groups of contaminants, effects-based monitoring tools, life
cycle assessment
Sustainable & Healthy Communities (SHC)
EnviroAtlas, green infrastructure, water reuse, groundwater,
community resilience to climate change/natural disasters
Homeland Security (HS)
Infrastructure resilience to climate change/natural disasters,
water-quality sensors
Figure 2. SSWR Cross-Research Program Integration.
Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA)
Integrated risk assessments,
integrated risk information system
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Watershed Sustainability
Advancing the sustainable management of the
Nation's water resources to ensure sufficient
water quality and quantity to support current
and future environmental, socio-economic,
and public health requirements is a national
priority. To achieve the National Environmental
Policy Act goal of sustainability, conditions of
adequate and accessible supplies of clean water
for health (human and ecological), economic
and social requirements need to be created
and maintained from headwater catchments to
great river basins to coastal systems. However,
adverse impacts on watersheds and water
resources associated with the overarching
stressors already described continue to be
major drivers of changes in aquatic ecosystems
and the global hydrologic cycle.
SSWR's watershed sustainability research aims
to advance integrated water resource and wa-
tershed management approaches, models, and
decision making tools to ensure sustainable
water resources. Topic project areas described
below focus on national-scale assessments of
aquatic resource conditions; watershed integ-
rity and resilience; new or revised ambient wa-
ter-quality criteria to protect human health and
aquatic life from chemical and microbial con-
taminants, including nutrients and pathogens
and chemicals of emerging concern; protection
of water resources while developing energy
and mineral resources; and the creation of a na-
tional water-quality benefits model framework.
Topic Highlights
Tools for systems-based approach to
watershed management under variable
climate regimes.
Economic benefits of improved water
quality for national regulatory actions.
Project 1: Assess, Map and Predict the
Integrity, Resilience, and Recovery Potential
of the Nation's Water Resources
Advancing EPA's ability to estimate and map
the ecological condition and integrity of
water resources in freshwater, estuarine, and
nearshore coastal ecosystems is the focus of
this project research area. The project research
will improve capabilities for determining the
integrity of watersheds and aquatic systems
therein and their future sustainability (i.e., the
sustained provision of ecosystem services and
beneficial uses). Ultimately, the research will
enhance EPA's ability to set sound water policy
for the protection of aquatic life and human
health applicable to the Nation's flowing waters,
lakes and reservoirs, wetlands, estuaries, and
coastal waters, and provide tools to estimate
the expected improvement in aquatic condition,
integrity, and resiliency resulting from any
proposed policy and/or management decision.
The primary legislative driver for this project
area is the CWA requirement to assess and
report on the condition and integrity of
the Nation's water resources. The scale of
the research creates the greatest scientific
challenge-providing the scientific basis and
tools for integrated assessment of watersheds
and water bodies, from headwaters to coastal
systems at local, regional and national scales, as
well as at yearly and decadal time scales. The
project research will include the following:
• Research to support and advance national
and regional monitoring and assessment needs,
including direct technical support for EPA Office
of Water's National Aquatic Resource Survey
program on survey design and analyses, indica-
tor development, and the technical transfer of
tools.
• Research to explore, synthesize, and advance
the modification or application of existing
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models and diagnostic systems for integrated
watershed management at multiple scales for
multiple waterbody types.
• Research to assess and evaluate ecological
factors that underpin watershed resiliency and
recovery potential.
• Research to advance the science underpinning
watershed-waterbody connectivity including
developing connectivity indicators, quantifying
temporal-spatial variations in connectivity,
relating connectivity to ecosystem functions/
processes and integrating connectivity
approaches into watershed integrity.
The project research will strengthen EPA's ability
to estimate and map the condition and integrity
of the Nation's water resources, and develop
improved capabilities to determine the integrity
of any watershed in the Nation. Additionally,
ORD research will evaluate and strengthen
the watershed integrity approach and quantify
the attributes of watershed resiliency and
connectivity at multiple spatial and temporal
scales. Understanding the resiliency and
recovery potential of water resources and
watersheds to stressors, including climate
change, will be important to future policy and
management decisions by stakeholders at
national, regional, state, and local scales.
The project research will advance diagnostic
bioassessment capabilities for invasive species
early detection through development and
application of metagenomic technologies.
These tools will assist the Great Lakes National
Program Office and support the Great Lakes
Water Quality Agreement. New areas of SSWR
research will investigate the potential impacts
of drought and wildfires on water quality and
impacts of climate-induced changes in extreme
events on air and water quality. Lastly, project
research will enable EPA's Office of Water
and regional offices to estimate the expected
improvement in aquatic condition, integrity,
and resiliency resulting from any proposed
policy and/or management actions.
Integration and Collaboration
The project continues the long-standing
collaborative partnership with EPA's Office of
Water, regional offices, and states, as well as
with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, U.S. Geological Survey and the
Fish and Wildlife Service, on the assessment and
mapping of the condition of aquatic resources
across the Nation. Watershed integrity,
resiliency, and connectivity research involves
collaborative partnerships across research
conducted under the Watershed Sustainability,
Nutrients and Green Infrastructure topics; as
well as with ORD's Air, Climate, and Energy's
(ACE) research topic on Climate Impacts,
Vulnerability and Adaptation in developing
information, methods and tools to improve
understanding of the location, extent and type of
vulnerabilities to populations, ecosystems and
the built environment; and ORD's Sustainable
and Healthy Communities (SHC) research
program, in particular the EnviroAtlas. The
collaboration with SHC will support integrated
modeling for local, state, and regional partners
that links watershed sustainability to the
provisioning of ecosystem goods and services.
Project 2: Science to Support New or Revised
Water-Quality Criteria to Protect Human
Health and Aquatic Life
Research in this project area focuses on the
scientific information and tools to strengthen
existing ambient water-quality criteria or
advance new methods for prioritizing, deriving
and implementing these criteria. The aim
is to address the challenges presented by
the expanding numbers, combinations, and
novel features of chemical and biological
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contaminants including microbial pathogens in
drinking water, groundwater, and surface water.
The primary legislative drivers for this project
are the CWA and SDWA. This project addresses
several science challenges. One such challenge
is presented by the rapidly expanding range
and characteristics of contaminants considered
Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs).
These include chemicalsthat were not previously
thought of as environmental pollutants (e.g.,
Pharmaceuticals), chemicals whose presence
in the environment was largely unnoticed but
has been "discovered" more recently (e.g.,
through advancing analytical capabilities), and
chemicals that may not necessarily be new, but
whose potential for risk to human health or
the environment was not widely recognized.
Project 2 research will provide EPA's Office
of Water, region offices, states, tribes, and
other stakeholders with the science and tools
to support the implementation of ambient
water-quality criteria to protect human health
and aquatic life. This research includes the
following:
• Addressing human health risks associated
with chemical and microbial Ambient Water
Quality Criteria (AWQC).
• Advancing research methods for identifying
chemical contaminant exposure routes
and chemical family models; in addition to
bioactivity-based criteria as an alternative to
chemical detection; as well as, screeningtoolsto
determine when multi-route exposures should
be considered for chemical contaminants in
water. This research supports source water and
drinking water exposure needs.
• Addressing human health risks associated
with microbial contaminants -AWQC. Microbial
research advances methods to identify and
quantify levels of microbial contaminants and
includes fecal source tracking approaches,
evaluation of viral indicators, statistical and
process models for predicting levels of microbial
contamination, and assessment of human
health exposure and effects from pathogens.
• Advancing AWQC to protect aquatic life.
This area focuses on toxicity testing, data
analysis, and method development to support
improvements in AWQC derivation procedures.
Likely issues include chemical group-based
extrapolations to address limited data; changes
in data requirements appropriate to chemicals
of emerging concern; improved descriptors of
effects on assemblages of species; consideration
of multiple routes of exposures; and uncertainty
characterization.
• Advancing tools and technology applications.
Research in this area will support developing
methods and techniques for measuring the
concentrations and distributions of select, high-
priority CECs in water; understanding ecotoxicity
of selected CECs to marine organisms; linking
aquatic life and human health adverse outcome
pathways (AOPs) that are sensitive to CECs via
targeted, functional genomic, and molecular
endpoints; supporting EPA's Office of Water
in identifying a list of candidate CECs for
future human health and aquatic life criteria
development and derivation; and supporting
the Contaminant Candidate List (CCL) and
Unregulated Contaminants Monitoring Rule
(UCMR) programs.
Project research on the occurrence, exposure,
and health effects of waterborne pathogens
and relationships to microbial indicators will
serve to inform regulatory and policy decisions
that will improve microbial water quality in
watersheds and reduce health impacts. Project
results will also lead to new or revised human
health and aquatic life criteria for chemicals.
The research will assist EPA's Office of Water's
efforts to identify and quantify drinking
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water contaminants (including precursors
for contaminants potentially formed during
water treatment) along with other monitoring
requirements under the SDWA for the
protection of source water.
Integration and Collaboration
Research on AWQC for human health will
integrate with and benefit from linkages to:
other projects in the Watershed Sustainability
topic and research in the Water Systems
topic to improve post-use water treatment
and develop new indicators of treatment
effectiveness; research in the Nutrients topic on
development of methods to detect cyanotoxins
in surface waters; and ORD's Chemical Safety
and Sustainability (CSS) research on rapid
screening tools for chemical contaminants or
groups of contaminants. Project 2 research on
AWQC for aquatic life will integrate with and
benefit from CSS research regarding chemical
screening methods, AOP identification, and
population modeling. Effects of exposure
will be addressed through aquatic toxicity
tests conducted in coordination with the CSS
Toxicity Translators research. Other linkages
include methods used for measuring the
concentrations and distributions of CECs in
fresh and marine environments, which may
include similar approaches as those used in
the Green Infrastructure and Water Systems
topics and SHC's passive sampling procedures.
Further, this research will be linked to CSS as
functional, genomic, and molecular endpoints
are similar in both research programs.
Project 3: Protecting Water while Developing
Energy and Mineral Resources
Increasing demands for energy and mineral
resources, the desire to supply a greater
fraction of energy and mineral resources
domestically, increasing competition for clean
freshwater, and the need to mitigate the
production and release of greenhouse gases all
point to the necessity for greater diversification
of both energy and mineral production. The
Nation's current and future energy portfolio
may span such diverse activities as enhanced
recovery of conventional and unconventional
fossil fuels; geothermal, wind, wave and solar
energy; biofuels; and possibly nuclear energy,
all of which exert differing pressures on water
resources. In addition, mineral mining in the
U.S. may increase with green energy technology
development, which requires a variety of
metals, including rare earth elements used
for wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, and
other products.
The primary legislative drivers for this project
are the provisions for groundwater protection
within the SDWA, RCRA and the Superfund Act,
and sections 402 and 404 permitting provisions
of the CWA. Energy and mineral production
impacts surface and subsurface water
resources directly through discharges of post-
use waters and indirectly through accelerated
rates of geochemical weathering that alter the
ionic composition and conductivity of receiving
waters. These processes are likely to exacerbate
impacts in the future. Research to understand
impacts on aquatic resources over the entire
life-cycle (e.g., from extraction, production,
transportation, use, storage, disposal, and
residuals) of conventional and unconventional
energy sources, metals, and minerals is the
focus of this project area. The project research
areas include the following:
• Assessing and predicting the toxicological,
biological, and ecological effects of post-
use waters (e.g., altered ionic composition)
associated with energy and mineral extraction
activities.
• Assessing challenges to sustainable water
resource management from underground
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injection practices, including assessment of
the benefits and risks of using aquifers to store
water for future use, and to sequester polluted
waters.
• Evaluating cumulative impacts of energy and
mineral extraction activities on aquatic life from
changes in land use, water quantity and quality,
and habitat availability.
• Assessing risks to groundwater and surface
water from current, transitioning, and emerging
technologies/practices for the life-cycle of
conventional and unconventional energy,
minerals, metals, and other materials.
The research will advance the assessment and
prediction of effects and cumulative impacts
of energy and mineral extraction processes,
including post-use water, on groundwater and
surface water quality and aquatic life. The
project aims to understand and describe the
implications of different energy production and
mineral extraction technologies relative to the
short- and long-term availability and quality of
groundwater and surface water in order to:
• optimize environmental and public health
safeguards for energy and mineral resources
development, using approaches and
technologies that provide long-term protection
of groundwater and surface water resources;
• identify technologies that increase water
reuse and/or improve the quality of water
discharged post-use; and
• inform stakeholders of evolving understanding
and new technologies that might influence
decisions regarding development of energy and
mineral resources and their alternatives.
Project 3 research will enable better protection
of the Nation's groundwater and surface water
resources in areas of energy and mineral
resource development; empower communities
to protect environmental and economic health;
and support EPA program and regional offices
in carrying out their immediate, intermediate-
term and longer-term needs with respect to
water and resource extraction. The project will
synthesize and integrate information on the
role of water in energy production and mineral
extraction to inform planning, evaluation, and
decision making among community, private,
and public stakeholders. This research will
support aquifer exemption decisions and the
review of coal mining proposals made by EPA's
Office of Water and regional offices.
Integration and Collaboration
The research in this project will be integrated
with other Watershed Sustainability projects
evaluating water resource condition and
integrity and ambient water-quality criteria.
Aquifer storage and recovery and aquifer
exemption research will involve collaboration
with offices within EPA's Office of Water, regional
offices, and other partners. Aquifer exemption
research ties in with mining related groundwater
remediation efforts in ORD's Sustainable and
Healthy Communities (SHC) national program.
Project 3 research will integrate with and
benefit from Sustainable Energy and Mitigation
research in ORD's Air, Climate, and Energy (ACE)
research program, which aims to examine how
changes in resources, fuels, and technologies for
energy production and use affect air emissions,
air quality and water demand, and the risks or
benefits to the environment and human health.
Project 4: National Water-Quality Benefits
EPA's ORD, Office of Policy, and Office of
Water have formed a collaborative team of
economists, ecologists, and water-quality
modelers to develop a national water-quality
benefits modeling framework to support greatly
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improved quantification and monetization of
the economic benefits of EPA regulations (e.g.,
improvements to human health, recreation
or other environmental services). This project
area focuses on ORD's contribution to the
three-office effort. While EPA's Office of Air
and Radiation has the modeling capability for
quantifying air-quality benefits to support
most Clean Air Act regulatory programs (i.e.,
Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis
Program-Community Edition or BenMAP-CE),
the Office of Water does not currently have a
similar off-the-shelf modeling capability, and
this is reflected in its benefit analyses of CWA
regulations to date. EPA aims to add to the
body of existing valuation research as well as
to improve upon methodologies for translating
regulatory decisions and the resulting
estimates of water-quality improvements
into environmental services and ultimately
monetized benefits. Such an effort may require
economic valuation of changes in water quality,
quantity, stream condition, and/or related
ecosystem services.
This high priority research aims to advance
national water-quality cost-benefit analysis
and modeling tools for surface waters, from
headwater streams to downstream estuarine
and coastal waters. The modeling tools will
build the capacity for estimating economic
benefits of water-quality improvements
through revealed-preference (i.e., human-use)
studies that identify market and non-market
values associated with water quality, as well as
stated preference (i.e., non-use) studies that
will capture the broader ranges of non-market
values. The research will identify the optimal
choice of water-quality indicators—those
metrics most useful for linking water-quality
models to economic valuation.
The three-office effort aims to develop a broad-
based benefits estimation model framework
that incorporates modules focusing on five
main water body types (the Great Lakes,
estuaries, freshwater lakes and rivers, coastal
waters, and small streams) that may benefit
from EPA regulatory actions. Additionally, the
research will evaluate the potential causal
relationships between metrics of watershed
integrity and stream condition and measures
of human health outcomes and well-being. The
three offices are using extramural (EPA STAR
grants) and intramural staff resources in parallel
to complete necessary models and research to
improve our ability to estimate benefits from
national regulations.
Integration and Collaboration
In addition to collaborating with EPA's Office
of Water and Office of Policy, this project will
be integrated with several other Watershed
Sustainability topic projects. It will also be
integrated with research under the Nutrients
topic on economic values associated with HABs
or changes in water quality due to reductions
in nutrients, and Green Infrastructure topic
research focused on mechanistic techniques
for simulating green infrastructure scenarios
at multiple scales for the evaluation of
water-quality benefits. This project also will
coordinate with ORD's ACE and SHC research
programs to help address important cross-
agency Nitrogen and Co-Pollutant Roadmap
research recommendations, and utilize
existing collaborative research involving EPA,
U.S. Department of Agriculture and academic
partners in the development and application
of the Hydrologic and Water Quality System
[HAWQS] modeling platform where appropriate.
Nutrients
Nutrient pollution (i.e., nitrogen and
phosphorus) remains one of the most significant
environmental and human health issues in the
United States, having a considerable impact
on local and regional economies. Progress has
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been made to reduce the nitrogen and co-
pollutant (e.g., phosphorus, sulfur, sediments)
loadings that can cause adverse environmental
impacts, such as acid rain, harmful algal
blooms, and degradation of drinking-source
waters; however, nutrients are still released
and discharged at concentrations that have
significant adverse impacts on human health and
ecosystems. A critical question is how to achieve
the beneficial level of nutrients that provides
multiple services, such as food production,
while protecting human and ecosystem health
(U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board, 2011). The
pressures of climate change, extreme events,
land-use change, and the resource needs of
an expanding human population are likely to
exacerbate the significant adverse impacts of
excessive nutrients in coming years (MA, 2005).
Topic Highlights
Multi-media modeling to inform nutrient
and hypoxia management in the
Mississippi River Basin and the northern
Gulf of Mexico,
Improved quantification and prediction of
nutrient enhanced coastal acidification
and hypoxia.
Project 1: Reducing Impacts of Harmful Algal
Blooms
Though harmful algal blooms (HABs) may
occur naturally, ecosystem alterations from
human activities appear to be increasing the
frequency of some HABs, resulting in a variety
of ecological, economic, and human health and
animal impacts. The primary legislative driver
for this project is the Harmful Algal Bloom and
Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act
of 2014 (Pub. L No. 113-124, 2014). This project
will provide stakeholders and decision makers
with improved scientific information and tools
to assess, predict, and manage the risk of HABs,
associated toxicity events and the ensuing
ecological, economic, and health impacts. The
project directly addresses legislative mandates,
Agency research needs, Agency program Office
initiatives, needs and community and other
stakeholder needs by doing the following:
• Improving the science of HAB and toxin
detection by developing HAB-specific analytical
methods and sampling strategies.
• Assisting EPA's Office of Water in developing
new HAB indicators, sampling designs, and
protocols for use in national scale assessments.
• Developing improved approaches to under-
standing the interactive effects of increasing
water temperatures and nutrient loads on HAB
development and toxin production.
• Developing improved models to project risk
of HABs under warming climate scenarios.
• Improving understanding of the human
health and ecosystem effects resulting from
toxin exposure.
• Providing drinking water treatment system
operators with improved methods for detecting
and treating toxins to limit or prevent human
exposures.
Integration and Collaboration
This project will be focused on four intertwined
research areas that span across other Nutrients
topic projects and other ORD research
programs, including ACE, SHC, CSS, and the
modeling and sensor applications of ORD's
Homeland Security Research Program, as well
as ORD's Innovation program.
Project 2: Science to Inform the Development
of Nutrient Thresholds and Targeting Actions
Two key policy challenges associated with nu-
trient management are (1) prioritizing wa-
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tershedsand nutrient sources for nutrient
management actions and (2) setting quanti-
tative thresholds for management, such as load
reduction goals, secondary air-quality stan-
dards, total maximum daily loads, nutrient or
other water-quality criteria, and quantitative
goals for biological indicators of aquatic life use.
This project will provide science that supports
the efforts of the Office of Water and the Na-
tional Ambient Air Quality Standards Program.
It will address key research areas drawn from
EPA's Nitrogen and Co-Pollutant Roadmap and
the Nancy K. Stoner memo (U.S. EPA, 2011b)
and stakeholders. The research areas include
the following:
• Identification of nutrient-sensitive human and
aquatic life uses of water resources and useful
quantitative indicators of status or condition.
• Quantitative relationships between nutrient
loading and quantitative effects on water
quality and nutrient sensitive uses in aquatic
ecosystems across a range of temporal and
spatial scales.
• Quantification of sources, transport and fate
of nutrients in watersheds, groundwater, and
airsheds.
Progress in these key research areas will
address a variety of policy-related research
needs and advance the state-of-the-science
using new tools, technologies, and models.
Research will involve quantifying the status
of aquatic life uses and overall condition of
aquatic ecosystems; predicting downstream
water-quality impacts associated with nutrient
management decisions in watersheds and
airsheds; characterizing aquatic life responses
to temporally varying nutrient loading
and water quality; and understanding and
predicting responses to nutrients in the context
of other drivers (e.g., climate warming, coastal
acidification, hydrologic changes).
Integration and Collaboration
The research in this project will be leveraged
with other Nutrients topic projects and
for watershed-scale work and developing
criteria, threshold, and targeting outputs and
approaches incorporated in the Watershed
Sustainability topic.
Project 3: Science to Improve Nutrient
Management Practices, Metrics of Benefits,
Accountability and Communication
To increase the adoption rate of innovative
management practices at larger scales, research
is needed to support a broad selection of policy
options (regulatory and voluntary); for example,
market-based approaches, incentive programs,
and watershed education and outreach. This
project complements research underway with
the USDA, states, and other stakeholder groups
that is designed to inform programs, policies,
and management decisions to reduce nutrient
loadings. The questions from the programs,
regional offices, and states driving the scope of
this research area are:
1) How do we use regulatory and voluntary
approaches to promote more innovative
and effective management practices to
reduce nutrient pollution ?
2) How do we verify, value, and communicate
the effectiveness of nutrient reduction
policy and management?
This project has four major areas of focus:
1) Tools for the application of innovative
management practices.
2) Modeling approaches for consideration
of market-based policy options, economic
evaluations, and ecosystem services.
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3) Monitoring and modeling approaches
for verification of nutrient reductions
associated with management practices,
including cost effectiveness, adoption rate,
cumulative benefits, and unintended
consequences.
linkages to ecosystem health and services, and
broad nitrogen budget research are developed
under SHC tasks. Other integrative efforts
include SHC's work on integrated nitrogen
management, ecosystem goods and services,
and EnviroAtlas.
4) Science enabling effective communication. Green Infrastructure
This project produces the applied science that
will allow for better management of nutrient
loads to the Nation's waters, thereby making
advancements toward the full restoration of
designated uses and adequate protection, and
meeting future demands for sustainable clean
sources of water.
Integration and Collaboration
This research builds upon the collaboration
already underway with other federal and state
agencies. This work addresses the Science
Challenges focused on Best Management
Practices Effectiveness, and Assessing and
Reporting on Effectiveness, identified in EPA's
Nitrogen and Co-Pollutant Roadmap. Close
collaboration with EPA's Office of Air and
Radiation (on abatement of NOx and NH3
atmospheric deposition) and Office of Water
(on surface water, groundwater, and drinking
water aspects) is fundamental. In addition,
this project will link with SSWR projects in the
Watershed Sustainability, Green Infrastructure,
and Water Systems Topics. An example of a
nitrogen topic that integrates contributions
from ACE, SHC, and SSWR research programs
is eutrophication stemming from nitrogen
loading delivered from the Mississippi River
Basin to the Gulf of Mexico. In this example, the
one-environment model, nitrogen deposition
and model linkages are developed under ACE,
nitrogen and phosphorus loadings to the edge
of field, aggregation to the Mississippi River
Basin (cross-scale) and response to climate
change are developed under SSWR, and
Across the U.S., more than 700 cities rely
on combined sewer systems to collect and
convey sanitary sewage and stormwater to
post-use water treatment facilities. Most of
these communities are older cities in the
Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest.
When wet weather flows exceed the
capacity of the combined sewer systems and
treatment facilities, stormwater, untreated
human, commercial and industrial waste,
toxic materials, and debris are diverted to
combined sewer overflow (CSO) outfalls and
discharged directly into surface waters. These
CSOs carry microbial pathogens, suspended
solids, floatables and other pollutants, and can
lead to beach closures, shellfish bed closures,
contamination of drinking water supplies, and
otherenvironmental and human health impacts.
For many cities with combined sewer systems,
CSOs remain one of the greatest challenges
to meeting water-quality standards. Climate
change could further amplify investments
required to mitigate CSOs as the frequency and
severity of CSO events are largely determined
by climatic factors, including the form, quantity,
and intensity of precipitation.
Research on green infrastructure (Gl) contains
two projects focusing on: (1)GI Models and Tools
and (2) Gl Information and Guidance Based on
Community Partnerships. The Gl projects aim
to capture Gl research at multiple scales; from
localized (e.g., permeable pavement in parking
lots) to watershed (e.g., application of Gl
models to optimize best management practices)
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scales. The research will also explore the use of
Gl to control stormwater runoff to minimize
impacts on leaking underground storage tanks
through stormwater diversion and capture. Gl
research can also play an important role in the
revitalization of brownfields and abandoned
properties in U.S. cities facing urban blight.
Topic Highlights
Report on the role of green infrastructure
in sustainable stormwater management
in a wide range of communities in varying
geographic and climatic regions across the
United States.
Addition of a cost benefits component to the
National Stormwater Calculator.
Project 1: Green Infrastructure Models and
Tools
The Models and Tools research strives to
advance appropriate support of decision
making, planning, and implementation of
effective Gl for
• stormwater control in urban settings and
sewersheds;
• post-use water management;
• long-term control plans for CSOs;
• pollutant load reduction and Total Maximum
Daily Loads studies;
• agricultural runoff management;
• climate change adaptation and hazards
resilience; and
• enhancement of other ecosystem services.
Examples of specific research in Gl modeling
and tools include the incorporation of water-
quality issues (e.g., nutrients) in existing models
such as the Gl module in EPA's Stormwater
Management Model (SWMM), and increasing
the interoperability of existing Gl-related
models including, but not limited to: Visualizing
Ecosystems for Land Management Assessments
(VELMA), Hydrologic Simulation Program
FORTRAN (HSPF), Watershed Management
Optimization and Support Tool (WMOST), and
the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). This
project aims to optimize existing Gl-related
models and tools through information gap
analyses, and development and evaluation
of improved models and tools for estimating
Gl costs and benefits. Project researchers will
also participate in model technical support,
data management, and coding improvements.
Through EPA's Science to Achieve Results
extramural grants program, SSWR will support
a center for sustainable water infrastructure
modeling research that facilitates technology
transfer of open source water infrastructure
models and green infrastructure tools. A
crucial component of the project area includes
technical outreach and training for stakeholders
(e.g., states, municipalities, utilities).
Two broad outputs comprise the anticipated
research accomplishments for the Gl Models
and Tools efforts: (1) Performance information,
guidance, and planningtoolsfor program offices
and community partners to facilitate increased
adoption of Gl (planned for FY2016), and (2)
Demonstrations of modeling tool approaches
(for program offices and community partners)
to assess Gl effectiveness for managing both
runoff volume and water quality at multiple
watershed scales (planned for FY2019).
Results from the Gl-modeling research will
provide greater capacity for decision makers
to (1) understand the benefits and tradeoffs
of including Gl in urban, suburban, and rural
development; (2) access and apply the data,
tools, and models that they need to select and
implement the most appropriate Gl across
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landscape types in mixed-use systems; and (3)
make significant advances toward maintaining
ecological and human health and water-quality
protection, sustainability, and resiliency in the
long-term.
Project 2: Support Increased Adoption
of Green Infrastructure into Community
Stormwater Management Plans and
Watershed Sustainability Goals: Information
and Guidance through Community
Partnerships
Community Gl research builds on existing
place-based field studies that examine the
efficacy of Gl in stormwater control plans. A
recent project in Kansas City quantified the
sewershed response after the installation of Gl
practices for CSO control. Sewershed flow data
was collected before and after Gl installation,
and ORD performed evaluations of land use,
soil infiltration, drainage areas, and individual
bioretention unit performance. Kansas City has
used the results to adapt Gl approaches in the
service area. EPA is communicating the results
and lessons learned to other municipalities.
ORD plans to collaborate with Camden County
Metropolitan Utilities Authority in New
Jersey to monitor cisterns and bioinfiltration/
biofiltration practices to gain knowledge on Gl
placement and effectiveness.
Another current collaboration with the City
of Birmingham (Alabama) will adapt ORD's
Stormwater Calculator to include green and
gray infrastructure costs for land development
in the Birmingham area. Future Gl community
research plans include the application of Gl
models and tools to existing and future place-
based research sites, implementation of Gl in
drought-prone areas for water collection and
aquifer storage, and increased collaboration
with underserved communities through EPA
Administrator's initiative on making a visible
difference in communities. Research supporting
the Gl place-based project consists of providing
classification frameworks for prioritizing
selection of and extrapolating results from place-
based studies, pre-implementation planning,
Gl implementation and monitoring, assessing
groundwater impacts, and implementation of
natural green infrastructure for improved water
management.
The main Gl place-based research project
output will consist of guidance and examples
demonstrating the effectiveness, costs,
benefits, and risks/constraints on the use
of green infrastructure to treat stormwater
and post-use water and recharge aquifers at
multiple scales.
Anticipated impacts from Gl place-based
research results include:
• a better understanding of socio-economic
drivers for Gl implementation;
• transferring results and conclusions from
place-based studies to other communities
challenged by CSO or water supply issues so as
to inform their water management decisions;
• increasing the overall resiliency of water
systems in the United States;
• augmenting the use of Gl for water capture
and aquifer recharge; and
• increasing our understanding of the role
of natural Gl in wastewater and stormwater
management efforts.
Integration and Collaboration
The Gl research will integrate with ORD's SHC
research projects that involve community plan-
ning and development, groundwater research,
and with ORD's ACE research on resilience to
climate change and extreme events. The pro-
posed research links with EPA's Nitrogen and
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Co-Pollutant Roadmap, particularly in the area
of water-quality modeling for Gl installations.
For example, systematic studies on the use of
Gl for nitrogen and co-pollutant removal from
stormwater runoff can inform communities on
specific Gl practices that may supply the added
benefit of pollutant removal. The place-based
Gl research strives toward helping underserved
communities challenged by CSO or water-sup-
ply issues and aligns with EPA's Environmental
Justice Cross-Cutting Research Roadmap and
EPA Administrator's initiative on making a vis-
ible difference in communities.
EPA researchers anticipate continued collab-
orations with other federal agencies such as the
U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers. Place-based Gl projects currently
work closely with local governments and utili-
ties (e.g., the Greater Metropolitan Sewer Dis-
trict of Cincinnati) and will continue to do so.
Water Systems
ORD provides critical support to EPA's Office of
Water, regional offices, and water utilities to
help current water systems provide safe drink-
ing water and properly treated post-use waters.
ORD also contributes essential information
to the Office of Water on human health risks
posed by contaminants (including microbial,
chemical, and radiological) associated with wa-
ter systems. In addition to this critical support
to program and regional offices, ORD recogniz-
es the need for addressing near-term and long-
term challenges to water systems. The Water
Systems topic research aims to push forward
the next generation of technological, engineer-
ing, and process advances to maintain safe and
sustainable water resources for humans and
the environment, while also augmenting and
improving water resources.
Research in the Water Systems topic will hope-
fully support future community projects funded
through the Water Infrastructure Finance and
Innovation Act, and the Clean Water and Drink-
ing Water State Revolving Funds through iden-
tifying and promoting treatment processes and
technologies that enhance energy efficiency
and, for drinking water, make use of alterna-
tive sources of water (e.g., post-use water or
brackish source water). The Water Systems
topic research will also develop approaches
and evaluate technologies to help evolve wa-
ter systems toward a more sustainable future.
The three project areas in the Water Systems
research topic complement each other and fo-
cus on continuous, integrated research among
the separate projects. The integrated themes
for the projects include the following:
• Integrated assessment tool to define optimal
resource recovery-based water systems, includ-
ing recovering water fit for purpose at various
scales.
• Advanced monitoring and analytical tools
(i.e., multiple parameters) for effective inte-
grated water system management to minimize
human and ecological risk.
• Development and demonstration of indi-
vidual technologies and integrated systems to
improve the collection, treatment, and distribu-
tion of water (drinking water and post-use wa-
ter) and the recovery of resources.
• Advancement of technologies for measur-
ing health risks in current and future systems.
Topic Highlights
Updated analytical methods for contaminants
of emerging concern in water, including
improved analysis, detection and treatment
of HABs and algal toxins from watersheds to
drinking water facilities.
Rapid toxicity screening of water contaminants
of emerging concern and disinfection
byproducts for effects on human health.
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Project 1: Current Systems and Regulatory
Support
Project 1 covers the development and evaluation
of data, approaches, and technologies that will
support the promulgation and implementation
of federal water regulations and guidance
while also addressing regional, state, and
community concerns. Project 1's specific
objectives are to (1) supply research results to
support federal regulations and guidance; (2)
provide strategies to regional offices, states,
and communities for improved regulatory
compliance; and (3) provide rapid and effective
emergency response when appropriate (e.g.,
water system shut-down due to source water
contamination). These objectives include
research on contaminants that undergo periodic
Congressional mandated regulatory cycles of
review, such as the Microbial Disinfection By-
Product Rules, and chemicals and pathogens
on the Contaminant Candidate List and the
Unregulated Contaminants Monitoring Rule
List, as well as other contaminants of concern
(including groups of contaminants). Other
objectives include optimizing treatment,
monitoring, and analytical processes; exposure/
risk assessments for compliance with post-use
water treatment regulations; and improved
pathogen control.
Project 2: Next Steps — Technology
Advances
Although the approaches in this project may
support current and near-future regulatory
processes, or may be transformative in nature,
they are reasonably well developed, but not
yet ready for routine or regulatory use. Project
2 will expedite the development of these
approaches to promote wider acceptance and
implementation by program offices, regional
offices, states, communities and others within
the time frame of the current project period
(2016-2019). The project includes advances
in a number of areas such as resource
recovery, treatment, monitoring and analytical
measurements, collection and distribution
systems, methods and approaches to predict
or monitor human health outcomes and risk
assessment. It will also focus on new ways of
assessing risks from chemical and microbial
contaminants, provide data on currently
unregulated contaminants, and develop new
analytical methods based on identified future
needs.
Project 3: Transformative Approaches and
Technologies for Water Systems
This project will develop approaches and
evaluate technologies that will help transform
water systems toward a more sustainable
future. Water systems challenged by issues such
as shrinking resources, aging infrastructure,
shifting demographics, and climate change
need transformative approaches that meet
public health and environmental goals, while
optimizing water treatment and maximizing
resource recovery and system resiliency.
Project 3 involves four main efforts
coresponding to the integrated themes
described above. The first effort develops an
integrated sustainability assessment framework
based on linkages among drinking water, post-
use water, stormwater, and natural infrastructure
contained within a watershed. The framework
will integrate various complementary system-
based tools, such as life-cycle assessments,
life-cycle costs, advanced water footprinting
approaches, energy analyses and resiliency
to climate-induced events to quantitatively
evaluate alternative, innovative water system
approaches. The second effort focuses on
the development of real-time (or near-real-
time) measurements for monitoring potential
chemical and microbiological risks from recycled
water and other alternative sources. The third
focus area emphasizes the demonstration and
evaluation of alternative systems to generate
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performance data. Market adoption factors
will be considered, including public acceptance,
regulatory and policy drivers/barriers and
business and economic development potential.
The final area involves the development of
transformative approaches to waterborne
human health risk measurements, including
high-throughput sequencing to identify novel
indicators/surrogates to assess the efficacy of
water reuse systems.
Integration and Collaboration
The Water Systems research links with the
other ORD research programs. Particularly,
the energy footprint reduction connects with
ORD's ACE. The work to increase resiliency
and preparedness for extreme weather events
links with ORD's Homeland Security research
program. The monitoring protocols and health-
risk assessment research relate to ORD's
CSS. Human health risk data development
will also link with research in ORD's Human
Health Risk Assessment program. Finally,
the demonstrations and acceptance at the
community level, along with testbed research,
will interact with ORD's SHC.
The Water Systems topic research will provide
input to EPA's Nitrogen and Co-Pollutant
Roadmap, particularly in the area of water
quality nutrient and co-pollutant removal from
post-use water in reuse and post-use water
treatment. Pilot-scale research on monitoring
and treatment systems will help underserved
communities challenged by water treatment
issues and aligns with EPA's Environmental
Justice Cross-Cutting Research Roadmap
and EPA Administrator's initiative on making
a visible difference in communities. The
research projects align with EPA's Children's
Environmental Health Roadmap through
research on health risks from exposure to
contaminants in drinking water (e.g., cell-based
bioassays). Additionally, this research links
with EPA's Climate Change Research Roadmap
through research on energy reducing or energy
producing treatment processes and broad life-
cycle assessments for maximizing water system
efficiency.
ORD researchers enjoy a long history of
collaboration with EPA's programs and regional
offices. In addition to EPA partners, researchers
working under the Water Systems topic expect
to continue collaborations with municipalities,
utilities, and state officials and organizations
(e.g., the Association of State Drinking Water
Administrators and the Environmental Research
Institute of the States). Collaborations will also
continue with the Water Research Foundation,
Water Environment Research Foundation,
and the Water Reuse Research Foundation
and academia on research involving water
treatment and reuse.
Anticipated Research
Accomplishments and
Projected Impacts
SSWR research is using an integrated, systems
approach to develop scientific and technological
solutions to protect human health and to
protect and restore watersheds and aquatic
ecosystems. This research will have the greatest
impact when products are developed and
delivered in ways most useful to SSWR partners
and stakeholders. ORD products specifically
designed to be useful in the hands of partners
are termed "outputs." The proposed SSWR
outputs for FY16 to FY19 are listed in Appendix
A. Examples of anticipated accomplishments
for each research topic are summarized below.
Watershed Sustainability
Research on watershed sustainability will
produce integrated water resource and
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watershed management approaches,
models, and decision making tools to ensure
sustainable water resources. The anticipated
accomplishments include innovative tools
for multi-scale assessment, mapping and
prediction of multimedia effects on the
condition, integrity, and sustainability of the
Nation's waters and cost-benefit analysis and
modeling tools for estimating the economic
benefits of water-quality improvements for
surface waters, from headwater streams to
downstream lakes, estuaries, and coastal
ecosystems. In addition, anticipated research
accomplishments will advance the science
and provide approaches and modeling tools
to strengthen ambient water-quality criteria
for chemical and microbial contaminants to
protect human health and aquatic life, as well
as for assessing risks to watershed integrity
and sustainability over the entire life-cycle of
conventional and unconventional energy and
mineral extraction technologies and practices.
The research will advance the sustainable
management of the Nation's water resources
to ensure sufficient water quality and quantity
to support environmental, socio-economic, and
public health needs now and into the future.
Nutrients
Anticipated accomplishments will improve
our ability to analyze and detect harmful algal
blooms, better understand the interactive
effects of temperature and nutrient loadings on
harmful algal bloom development, and provide
drinking water treatment system operators with
improved methods for detecting and treating
toxins on site. Research will also target where
the greatest improvements can be achieved
by reducing point-source and nonpoint-source
nutrient loading. Specifically, this work will
support the development of numeric nutrient
criteria and improved technologies, as well
as best management practices, inspection
and maintenance practices to cost-effectively
monitor and reduce nutrient loading using
current regulatory, voluntary, and green-
infrastructure approaches. In addition, a
multimedia approach to evaluate management
practices from a multi-sector, multi-scale
systems perspective will improve management
of nutrient loadings in the Nation's water bodies
toward the full restoration of designated uses,
while meeting future demands for sustainable
clean sources of water.
Green Infrastructure
Anticipated accomplishments for this research
include the development and implementation
of innovative models, tools, technologies and
strategies for managing stormwater runoff and
other flooding events, using natural and built
green infrastructure in combination with gray
infrastructure over the long-term. This will be
especially valuable when existing infrastructure
will require repairs or replacement and improved
resiliency is needed for climate change,
extreme events, and security threats. Another
accomplishment will be to verify reliability and
explore with partners the ability to quantify
the comparative costs and benefits of gray
and green infrastructure for managing water
volume and improving water quality and other
benefits (groundwater recharge, rainwater
harvesting for irrigation, improving human
health by reducing ground-level ozone and
particulate matter and providing opportunities
for recreation, reducing urban heat islands,
creating habitat, improving property values,
creating new jobs, etc.). This work also aims
to anticipate any unintended consequences
related to increased water permeation into
soil and groundwater. We expect that research
results from this topic will increase the ability
for community planners to make well-informed
decisions concerning implementation of green
infrastructure.
Water Systems
This research will continue the high level of
public health protection and research supportto
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the program and regional offices with a focus on
sustainable treatment technologies to address
existing and emerging chemical and microbial
contaminants, both as individuals and groups.
Anticipated impacts include increasing water
reuse (and public acceptance of its use). Water
reuse research will include efforts to maximize
the recovery of other resources embedded in
post-use waters, such as nutrients, energy,
and materials (e.g., metals, chemicals), using
resilient and energy-efficient technologies.
Our aim is for the resource recovery studies to
increase energy efficiencies and reduce costs for
post-use water treatment. Water Systems topic
research will advance cost-effective treatment
technologies, operations, and maintenance for
small water systems by providing evaluations
of novel treatment processes and assessing
sustainable approaches including effective
decentralized systems. Using resilient
approaches for all systems will make them
more prepared for extreme events, climate
change, and security threats, resulting in better
protection of water quality and availability,
human and environmental health, and capital
investments.
Conclusions
Water knows no borders. From the highest
headwaters to the farthest oceans and back
again as water vapor, it flows in a highly
interrelated cycle. Consequently, threats to
our water resources, such as contaminants,
increased use, aging infrastructure, climate
change, and extreme events, affect not just one
river, reservoir or estuary, but instead ripple
through the whole system.
Our Nation's response to these challenges
must be equally dynamic. The SSWR research
program takes an integrated approach that
looks at the entire cycle to develop long-term,
real-world solutions. This Strategic Research
Action Plan maps out the targeted steps that
will be taken in the next four years. It was
developed in collaboration with other EPA
research programs, federal agencies, private
and public stakeholders, and colleagues in
the scientific community. Such cross-cutting
communication and all-level partnerships are
key to seamless, effective responses. Progress
made in one area can cascade through different
scales—local, state, regional, and national.
This research is guided by overarching objectives
that change the water-management paradigm:
"wastewater" becomes a valuable commodity;
undervalued water becomes a resource with
quantified benefits; and isolated quick fixes
become system-wide solutions. This work will
yield the innovative tools and information
needed to protect the quality, supply and
resiliency of America's waters, sustaining them
so that they, in turn, can sustain our Nation.
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(2014). Ch. 20: Southwest. Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate
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Assistant Administrator to Regional Administrators. March 16, 2011. (http://www2.epa.gov/sites/
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Appendix A
Table of Proposed Outputs, Safe and Sustainable Water Resources research program
FY 2016-2019
The following table lists the expected outputs from the Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
research program, organized by topic. Note that outputs may change as new scientific findings
emerge. Outputs are also contingent on budget appropriations.
Project Area
Area-Specific Outputs
Watershed Sustainability
Sustainable Water
Water-Quality Criteria
Minerals and Energy
Water-Quality Benefits
FY2018 - Guidance to characterize and predict the condition and
integrity of aquatic systems and their watersheds at multiple scales.
FY2019 - Scientific tools for multi-scale assessments of multi-media
effects on the condition, integrity and sustainability of the Nation's
waters.
FY2019 - Scientific basis and tools for expanded water-quality criteria
capability to protect human health and aquatic life.
FY2017 - Synthesis of the science on groundwater quality impacts
around uranium in situ recovery sites.
FY2019 - Proactive approaches to assessing risks to watershed integrity
and sustainability associated with current, transitioning or emerging
technologies and practices, including water use, for the life cycle of
conventional and unconventional energy, minerals and other materials.
FY2019 - Provide economic analyses, water-quality models and
knowledge to program offices, to support the economic valuation
of changes in water quality, water availability and related ecosystem
services, at appropriate scales for the Nation's main water body types.
Nutrients
Harmful Algal Blooms
Nutrient Threshold
Targets and Nutrient
Management
FY2019 - Science and tools that advance the ability of stakeholders to
more effectively, and economically, characterize and manage (prevent,
control and mitigate) risks posed by harmful algal blooms.
FY2019 - Methods, tools, data and scientific analyses to inform
prioritization of watersheds for management of nutrients and
set nutrient specific water quality and aquatic life thresholds;
and demonstrate and communicate new metrics, management
approaches, and use of monitoring data to verify the expected benefits
from applying nutrient reduction management practices.
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Green Infrastructure
Gl Models and Tools
FY2016 - Provide performance information, guidance and planning
tools for program offices and community partners to facilitate
increased adoption of Gl.
FY2019 - Demonstrate modeling tool approaches for program
offices and community partners to assess green infrastructure (Gl)
effectiveness for managing both runoff volume and water quality at
multiple watershed scales.
Gl Community
FY2019 - Advance the ability of communities and watershed
organizations to make informed decisions on whether and how to
implement Gl for stormwater and post-use water treatment, water
capture and aquifer recharge.
Water Systems
Water Systems -
Regulatory Support
FY2017 - Advanced monitoring and analytical tools (multiple
parameters) for effective integrated water system management to
minimize human and ecological risk.
FY2019 - Develop and demonstrate individual technologies and
integrated systems to optimize the collection, treatment and
distribution of water (drinking water and wastewater) and the recovery
of resources.
FY2019 - Communication of technological advancements for
measuring health risks in current and future systems.
Next Generation Water
Systems
FY2018 - Advanced monitoring and analytical tools (multiple
parameters) for effective integrated water system management to
minimize human and ecological risk.
FY2019 - Develop and demonstrate individual technologies and
integrated systems to optimize the collection, treatment and
distribution of water (drinking water and wastewater) and the recovery
of resources.
FY2019 - Communication of technological advancements for
measuring health risks in current and future systems.
Water System
Approaches
FY2017 - Integrated assessment tool to define optimal resource
recovery-based water systems including water fit for purpose at
various scales.
FY2018 - Advanced monitoring and analytical tools (multiple
parameters) for effective integrated water system management to
minimize human and ecological risk.
FY2019 - Develop and demonstrate individual technologies and
integrated systems to optimize the collection, treatment and
distribution of water (drinking water and wastewater) and the recovery
of resources.
FY2019 - Communication of technological advancements for
measuring health risks in current and future systems.
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Appendix B
Partners and Stakeholders for Safe and Sustainable Water Resources Research
Note: SSWR works with many partner and stakeholder organizations and new partnerships are
continually forming; therefore, this list is not comprehensive.
Federal Agencies
Department of Agriculture
U.S. Forest Service
Department of Commerce
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Department of Defense
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Department of Energy
Department of Interior
U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Science Foundation
State/Local Organizations
Environmental Council of the States/ Environmental Research Institute of the States
National Association of Clean Water Agencies
Association of State Drinking Water Administrators
Non-governmental Organizations
Water Research Foundation
Water Environment Research Foundation
Water Reuse Foundation
The Nature Conservancy
International Organizations
Global Water Research Coalition
Environment Canada
United Nations Environment Programme
Project on International Nitrogen Management System
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
PRESORTED STANDARD
POSTAGES FEES PAID
EPA
PERMIT NO. G-35
Office of Research and Development (8101R)
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
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