Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response OSWER Perspective

1
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
(OSWER)Perspective

• Elizabeth Lee Hofmann, PhD, DABT
• Senior Science Advisor
• Office Solid Waster Emergency Response
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

2
Overview

• OSWER Program Offices
• Importance of Partnerships
• Program specific projects
• Risk assessment support
• Regulatory and guidance support
• Risk management support

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OSWER Organization
Immediate Office of Assistant Administrator
FFRO
Office of Brownfield Cleanup Redevelopment
Revitalization
Office of Emergency Management
Oil program
Office of Solid Waste
Office of Superfund Remediation Technology
Innovation
Office of Underground Storage Tanks
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OSWER ORD Partnerships

• OSWER is frequently confronted with complex
  issues that require input from a wide range of
  technical and scientific expertise
• OSWER and ORD have collaborated to address a
  number of challenging topics including
• Contaminated sediments
• Groundwater contamination
• Multimedia contamination
• Oil spills
• Resource conservation/materials management

5
Office of Solid Waste (OSW)

• Past emphasis on regulatory approach
• Recent shift in emphasis to
• Recycling - Resource conservation challenge (RCC)
  
• Life cycle approach
• Voluntary programs

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ORD Support for OSW

• Short-Term Needs
• Consultations (e.g. vetting new biotransfer
  factor method)
• Current short-term research pilot
• Combustion Technical Assistance Center (CTAC)
• Long-Term Needs
• Multi-media model development (3MRA)
• Landfill Liner/Cap design and performance
• Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS)

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ORD support for OEM Emergency Response

• Support on Katrina Rita Hurricane
• Debris burning air curtain destructors
• Compiling lessons learned
• Creation of Red Team technical experts for
  emergency response
• Systemic studies of decontamination systems
• Development of rapid detection systems

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ORD support for OEM Technical Support

• Support of National Decontamination Team
  exercises
• Participation in Foreign Animal Disease working
  group
• Sampling method development
• Providing web-based guidance on safe disposal of
  decontaminated wastes

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ORD support for Oil Program and OUST

• EPAs Research Object Oriented Oil Spill (ERO3S)
  model fate and transport
• Protocol development for testing and screening of
  remediation products (e.g., Baffled Flask Test)
• models and techniques for UST site closures
• MtBE adsorption/oxidation
• Biomass concentrator reactor
• Retrospective performance evaluation of in-situ
  technologies

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Support for Brownfields

• Sustainable Management Approaches and
  Revitalization Tools electronic (SMARTe) a
  web-based decision support tool
• Valuing market based incentives
• Predictive modeling of metal transport for use at
  abandon landfill sites

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Examples of Risk Assessment Support from ORD

• Superfund Technical Support Center
  toxicological assessments (PPRTVs)
• Ecological Risk Assessment Support Center (ERASC)
  
• Modeling efforts 3MRA
• IRIS Assessments Asbestos, others
• Vapor intrusion - J E model evaluation

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Support for Health Risk Assessment Guidance

• Inhalation exposure
• Exposure factors update
• Dermal absorption estimates
• Statistical approaches for background
  characterization

13
ORD support for Regulations

• ORD contributes to all regulatory workgroups to
  ensure
• consistency with Agency Action Development
  Process
• sound science is reflected in all rulemakings
• Example regulatory incentives to promote
  recycling heavy metals in electroplating sludge
  (F006)

14
Guidance Document Support

• Cancer Guidelines
• Probabilistic Risk Assessment
• Vapor Intrusion
• Human Health Risk Assessment Protocol for
  Hazardous Waste Combustion Facilities (HHRAP)

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Risk Management Support

• Groundwater technical support center
• Engineering technical support center
• Sediment remediation and capping techniques
• DNAPL remediation
• Permeable reactive barriers
• Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE)
  program

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Short-term Research Projects

• Additional funds (220K) used to support 11
  projects
• Address needs of Brownfields, OEM, OSRTI, OSW,
  OUST
• Diverse topics
• - analysis of the toxic constituents of ewaste
• - optimization of nutrient applications for oil
  remediation

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Summary

• ORDs support is invaluable in
• - providing technical assistance to our various
  program offices
• - maintaining core technical expertise
• Toxicity assessment and risk assessment support
• Modeling Support
• Assistance with regulatory and guidance document
  development

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Thank you