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INNOVATIVE RESEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

EPA SUSTAINABLE AND HEALTHY COMMUNITIES RESEARCH PROGRAM
Project 3.62 Environmental Releases of Oils and Fuels

Summary

EPA is responsible for assessing
environmental releases of oil from
multiple sources and fuel from
leaking underground storage tanks
(LUST). Releases occur in
communities throughout the country,
affecting water quality, drinking
water, and aquatic life, as well as
human health through exposure to
toxins.

Problem and Key Questions

Effective management of oil and
fuel spills is needed via improved
protocols and guidelines for
establishing new regulations to
protect communities from exposures
to enviromnental releases of oils and
fuels. Key science questions include
the following:

What response products and actions
are most effective on likely oil spills
in a wide range of enviromnental
settings to minimize enviromnental
and human consequences and to help
the affected community and
economy recover?

What management, assessment,
and/or remediation approaches are
needed for minimizing
enviromnental damage and human
and ecological exposures from
underground tank leakage?

Goals

The project's three overarching
goals are to:

(1)	Develop decision-support tools
(e.g., models) for determining risk to
communities from fuel and oil spills
and leaking storage tanks;

(2)	Establish methods and protocols
for testing remediation agents listed
on the National Contingency Plan
(NCP) Product Schedule; and

(3)	Develop new approaches and
tools for evaluating exposure to
populations and ecosystems and
subsequent impact to communities.

The research is designed to deliver
results and products that can be used
by the Sustainable and Healthy
Communities Research program,
EPA Program and Regional Offices,
and community stakeholders to
address and provide sustainable
solutions during enviromnental
releases of fuels and oils.

Behavior, Fate, and Effects of
Oil and Spill Agents

Advancing oil spill preparation by
developing product testing protocols
and spill response options, including
considerations of sustainabilitv
dimensions.

The work will develop:

•	a better understanding of the
impacts of oil spills' and
dispersants' application on the
enviromnent;

•	a better understanding of the
shoreline, coastal, and inland
enviromnental impacts of oil

spills, including non-petroleum
oils; and
• innovative, sustainable
technologies to mitigate the
impact of oil spills.

Protocol Development for the
NCP Product Schedule

Synthesis of new or revised
protocols for efficacy testing of
product categories of the NCP
Product Schedule, such as
dispersants, surface washing agents,
and solidifiers.

The ability to assess the efficacy of
spill products improves the
effectiveness and timeliness of oil
spill response and cleanup activities.
Assessment of spill remediation
product effectiveness under varying
enviromnental conditions assists in
triaging sites for cleanup and the
development of tools and
approaches to protect community
public health and to reduce impacts
to community resources.

The work will: (1) advance
community sustainability, by
protecting and restoring water
resources and ecosystems that have
been impacted or contaminated by
oils or fuels; and (2) improve our
understanding of the transport,
behavior, fate, and effects of spilled
oils. The effort will build on
previous work with protocol
development, with attention given to
product performance using the new
proposed EPA reference oils to be
selected in FY 17 by the Office of

1

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Research and Development

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Land and Emergency Management
Program Office that maintains the
Product Schedule.

Research to Support LUST
Program Planning and Backlog
Reduction

Understanding, modeling, and
remediating contaminant plumes
resulting from leaks from leaking
underground storage tanks (LUST),
and their impacts on buildings and
water supplies.

The research will develop:

•	improved conceptual models for
petroleum plume formation and
migration from lab, field, and
modeling studies;

•	a better understanding of fuel
behavior at the water table and
impacts to water supply wells
from water table fluctuation
caused by cycles of drought or
climate change; and

•	the capacity to identify areas
with high density of private
wells, potentially leaking tanks,
redevelopment sites, and their
proximities to water supplies.

Public Health and Ecosystems

Oil spills and LUST sites can impact
community public health through
contamination of surface and ground
waters. These releases add to
stressors to communities.

The work will integrate models with
mapping enviromnents to provide
the spatial context needed for
community decision-making. It will
integrate site-specific data into
mapping enviromnents to assess
impacts from actual releases.

The product will also incorporate
ecosystem goods and services in
evaluating the impact of ecosystem
function and its relationship to
public health as well as valuation of
affected resources.

The product will contibute to
assessing remediation and recovery
activities and their effectiveness in
achieiving revitalization within
communities.

Key Outputs and Impacts

Output: Tools for improved
characterization, response, and
remediation of oil and fuel releases
to improve emergency response and
other cleanup activities.

This output will provide new
conceptual and predictive tools to
characterize and remediate
contamination by fuel releases. It
will also provide biological and
chemical treatment approaches to
improve the effectiveness and
timeliness of oil spill response and
cleanup activities.

Impact: Improved protocol and
guidelines to improve regulations
and response efforts to protect
communities from exposure to
enviromnental releases of oils and
fuels. More efficient and effective
management of oil and fuel spills.

Output: Tools for evaluating
temporal and spatial impacts of
fuels/oils site cleanup on public
health and the enviromnent, for use
in oil spill response and in site
remediation, restoration, and
revitalization.

This output will provide tools to
support identifying and addressing
those impacts through prevention
measures and improved response
technologies to minimize impacts to
their resources.

Impact: More efficient and effective
management of oil and fuel spills.

Collaborations

Work conducted through this project
is supported through collaboration
with the following:

Federal Agencies: National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration
U.S. Coast Guard, Department of
Interior's Bureau of Safety and
Enviromnental Enforcement, and
U.S. Geological Survey.

EPA (outside of ORD): Office of
Land and Emergency Management's
Office of Emergency Management
and Office of Underground Storage
Tanks, Office of Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance, Office of
Water, Regions One through Ten.

Regional, State or Other
Organizations: State Underground
Storage Tank Regulatory Agencies,
Association of State and Territorial
Solid Waste Management Officials,
Interstate Technology Regulatory
Commission and Tribes.

Updated October, 2016

2

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Research and Development

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