Overview of US EPA#s Office of Research and Development (ORD)
Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta
Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science
Region 5 and Neighboring States" Visit to US EPA Cincinnati February 2, 2018
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00001
ORD At A Glance
Our Mission
Provide the science, technical support, technology and tools to inform US EPA's mission to protect public health and the environment.
ewport, OR
[
t Corvallis, OR
!svgsTNV^
""""
1
Narragansett rT]
II
; Cincinnati, OH
Ada, OK i [ chape| Hm
J | Edison, NJ ) ^ Washington, DC j || RTP, NC
1,704 full time equivalents $498 million budget
$28 million extramural research grant program (STAR)
13 research facilities
(FY 2017 Enacted Budget)
C Gulf Breeze, FL
y Athens, GA ~~|
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00002
ORD Organizational Chart
of the Assistant Administrator
National Research Program s
Office of the Science Advisor
Office of Science Information Management Office of Program Accountability and Rsout ce
Office of Administration and Research Support
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00003
Research Authorization
US EPA's research provides science that is authorized by nearly 50 environmental laws including:
m Toxic Substances Control Act: "conduct such research, development, and monitoring as is necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act. The Administrator may enter into contracts and may make grants for research, development, and monitoring under this subsection."
TM Safe Drinking Water Act: "conduct research, studies, and demonstrations relating to the causes, diagnosis, treatment, control, and prevention of physical and mental diseases and other impairments of man resulting directly or indirectly from contaminants in water, or to the provision of a dependably safe supply of drinking water."
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act: "shall assure the initiation of a program of research designed to determine the health effects (and techniques for development of methods to determine such health effects) of such substance...and in combination with other substances with which it is commonly found."
Clean Air Act: "shall establish a national research and development program for the prevention and control of air pollution."
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
4
ED 002061 00176089-00004
ORD Research
ORD provides the scientific foundation for US EPA to execute its mandate to protect human health and the environment.
1, Longer Term Research: Conducts innovative and anticipatory research applied to a range of US EPA program and regional needs to solve longer term environmental challenges and provide the basis of future environmental protection.
2, Research on Specific Environmental Challenges: Experts provide research support to US EPA program and regional offices, as well as states, tribes and communities, to help them respond to contemporary environmental challenges.
3, Technical and Emergency Support: Because of our expertise, local, state and national officials come to us for technical support to respond to environmental crises and needs, large and small.
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
5
ED 002061 00176089-00005
Research Program
A ir and Energy
Air pollution A ir quality modeling Decision support tools
Sustainable & Healthy
Comm unities
J Ecosystem services Human health Sustainable materials management
Homeland Security
Water system security Resilience and
rem ediating wide areas
Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Com putational toxicology and exposure
Evaluation o f risk across life cycle of m anufactured chemical:-, materials and product
Hum an H ealth Risk Assessment
Risk assessm ents fo r | specific chem icals
I Risk assessm ent m ethods
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
Safe & Sustainable
W a te r Resources
Water treatm ent and |
infrastructure
I
Watersheds and
|
aquatic ecosystems
I
Source/recreational |
water protection
|
6 ED 002061 00176089-00006
US EPA Cincinnati
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
7
ED 002061 00176089-00007
Research at US EPA's Cincinnati Laboratory
ORD research conducted at US EPA Cincinnati has broad impacts at local, regional and national levels.
US EPA Cincinnati facilities:
- More than 630,000 square feet of labs, offices and field facilities -- US EPA Cincinnati facilities are home to 910 employees: 508 feds and 402 non-feds
Wide range of research activities, including the following signature
research capabilities to address science challenges:
-- Safe and reliable drinking water: treatment, disinfection and protection
-- Homeland security research to help detect, respond to and become more resilient to natural and man-made disasters
-- Watershed management and water quality protection
-- Development of analytical methods and decision support tools
-- Technical support and human health risk assessments for Superfund sites
-- Contaminated site monitoring and remediation
8
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00008
Water Research
Water Treatment and Infrastructure
Drinking Water
# Premise plumbing and distribution systems, including biofilm, lead service line corrosion, and pipe scale studies
# Contaminant removal (e.g., PFAS, pathogens, nitrate, algal toxins, etc.)
# Disinfection residual and disinfection byproducts
# Development and evaluation of novel and cost-effective treatment l
technologies and approaches, including pilot- and full-scale testing
1
# Tools and methods to support cleanup of water systems following
|
chemical, biological and radiological contamination incidents
jj
Stormwater-Wastewater-Water Reuse
# Evaluate green/gray infrastructure practices for stormwater management
# Provide support to communities to characterize and cost-effectively resolve stormwater runoff and combined sewer overflow issues
# Decentralized wastewater treatment
# Non-potable water reuse for small systems
# Safety of reuse water of the potential issues associated with water reuse
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00009
Water Research
Source and Recreational Waters
Watersheds # Watershed integrity and resiliency to protect water quality # Support for effective recreational water quality criteria
' Microbial source tracking to determine source -- Methods to assess microbial risk in recreational water -- Develop water quality benchmarks and criteria -- Predict stream nutrient concentrations and conductivity
# Ecosystems
Nutrients and Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) * Best management practices for nutrient runoff reductions * Research and tools to characterize and measure algal toxins * Monitoring of HAB event and analytical methods development * Management and mitigation of HABs * Methods development for measuring cyanotoxins
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00010
Water Research
Development of Models and Tools
Supports environmental decision making
Drinking Water * EPANET (distribution system) * Treatability Database * SmartWater System * Breakpoint Chlorination Simulator * Chloramine Formation and Decay Simulator * CANARY (water security)
Stormwater * Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) * National Stormwater Calculator * Green Infrastructure Modeling Toolkit
Watersheds/Ecosystems * CADDIS stream diagnostics tool
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
Homeland Security Research
Improve water utilities"abilities to prepare for and respond to incidents
Contaminant fate and transport in drinking and wastewater systems Approaches for on-line monitoring of contaminants in drinking water systems MM Decontamination methods for water infrastructure including premise plumbing
i; /> 9
Advance capabilities to clean-up wide-area incidents
* Sampling and analysis methods * Decontamination approaches for wide areas, transit systems * Strategies for staging, storing and treating waste
Example Projects
* Built improved water distribution model to understand operations within drinking water system (Flint, Ml)
* Deployed developed decontamination methods to cleanup MCHM in the water systems (Charleston, WV)
* Provided guidance on how to deal with Ebola contaminated PPE, solid, and liquid wastes (New York, NY)
* Supported Ricin sample analysis, decontamination methods, and waste handling (PA, Wl, CO, MS, OK, TN, VT and Washington, DC)
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00012
Human Health Risk Assessment
Provisional Peer-Reviewed Toxicity Values (PPRTV) support US EPA's Superfund program; target of 12 assessments per year
* Use the same Agency guidance as Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessments, external peer review
* Including assessments of data-poor chemicals using new approach methods
* Publicly available at http://hhpprtv.ornl.gov
Superfund Health Risk Technical Support Center provides scientific and technical support to US EPA, regional and state partners
* Superfund hotline responds to ~50 requests/year * Requests include rapid response and emergency actions (e.g., Elk
River MCHM spill, Lower Passaic River, etc.)
Support with use of published PPRTVs, evaluation of published health values from US EPA and other agencies (e.g., ATS DR MRLs) for use by partners
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00013
Chemical Safety and Exposure Science
Ecological modeling and adverse outcome pathways
# Characterize mixture risk # Develop gene expression fingerprints for chemical mode of action in fathead
minnow to identify exposures to pesticides, industrial and methodologically challenging chemicals
Methods to assess co-occurrence of imperiled species and environmental contaminants for ecological risk assessment
# Environmental DNA (eDNA) methodology to determine occupancy and distribution of imperiled aquatic species
# Bayesian modeling framework for evaluating and mapping chemical stressors and ecological receptors
TSCA Support
# Physical property models that have been incorporated into US EPA's Chemistry Dashboard, which directly supports implementation of the new TSCA
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
# Develop method to automate the LCA process, near field human exposure models, and Consumer Product Life Cycle Analyzer to conduct automated life cycle risk assessments
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
*
14 ED 002061 00176089-00014
Contaminated Site Research
Technical Support to Superfund and Communities
ORD's Technical Support Centers (TCSs) Specialized scientific and engineering support to US EPA and state
decision makers for Superfund (CERCLA and SARA) and Brownfields (RCRA) Three TSCs headquartered in Cincinnati (Engineering, Superfund Human Health Risk, and Ecological Risk Assessment) respond to approximately 400 requests annually for support from all 10 US EPA regions
Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
Developing and validating methods in non-drinking water media (wastewater, biosolids, soils)
Studies to understand occurrence, fate and treatment technologies
Oil Spill Remediation
Mitigate effects of past and future oil spills by developing lab protocols and study the behavior, fate and effects of oil and spill agents (e.g., dispersants)
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
15
ED 002061 00176089-00015
Community-Focused Research
Materials and Waste Management
* Landfill performance data and landfill fire management * Technical support to hazardous waste sites nearing the end of the RCRA
30-year post closure care requirements
Indoor Air Research
* Quantifying environmental exposures (e.gv mold contamination) related to asthma; testing interventions to reduce impact, especially on children and disadvantaged groups
Community Public Health Research
* Support to stakeholders in conducting Health Impact Assessments (HIAs); recommendations on monitoring and managing the effects
* Use of human biomarkers to investigate community health and well-being as it relates to built infrastructure
Ecosystems Research
* Conducting research to understand how ecosystem services are impacted by changes that humans make to the built and natural environment
* EcoService Models Library (ESML) to make ecological model descriptions more available and informative
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
16
ED 002061 00176089-00016
AK - PFAS ID Modeling for agriculture, energy, water and air .systems interactions O R-W ater nitrate contamination; Tools to help communities identify environmental issues; Ocean acid ificatlon research; .Reducing methyl mereury levels. Advanced monitoring technologies WA - Managing nutrients in riparian ecosystems; Habitat suitability models
J0 .
CA - Evaluating chemicals; Population and land use projections; Synthetic turf field safety; !>ecomaminaitng subway railcars; irris i n support tools to advance communities' priority projects; Risk assessment training; Advanced monitoring technologies N - Groundwater characterisation and remediation
0
CO-Simulating conditions in dranking water utilities; Advanced monitoring taehnotogies MT - SRiSassessment for Lihby Amphihole Asbestns; Asbestos exposure following forest fires UT~ fine particle air pollution; Emissions measurement methods
0
A - High ammonia levels in drinking water ICS- Prairie rangeiond burn ing; Communtty air quality monitoring MO - Models and tools to reduce sewer overflows
US EPA Research Supports States
Some Recent Examples
0 ________
Cl- Cornniunitymonlturing.;
C, MA, ME HHf R VI - :i m iii mt'- (. <:t: network; Panning for energiy ond sir om inous C l 'f NH A.".mi * :. : d'1'M i ' f t'lt' ! ^E-^Tribn risk &ss&tfnorit(ss,dmerit sud wats
'V >iVi
VT***impervions covor for wstot&hods
iiliiillipv`Ci^*$*V'! ! i* ^
............................... ....
NJand NY-Stream monitoring network; Planning for energy and air emissions NJ-PFAS NY - Management of bio-hazardous wastes; Planning for biological incident; Simulating conditions in drinking water utilities
. i i Ai\>rfV8i: (WS
/"o & )
QE, MD. PA, VA WV
an. m- n : n u r ,
M i> - Managing stormwater treatment systems;
Advanced monitoring technologies; Reducing harmful
air pollutants; Management of bio-hazardous wastes
MD. PAancIVA ." " i.m : n - h m pi,': i :i .
PA - CASJDiScausal assessment; Community air monitoring
0
LA - Cancer risk assessments OK and TX --Community air quality monitoring OK -Chemical composition analysis; Evaluating water interactions at Superfund sire TX - Chemical contamination risks
Ml - Lead contamination technical support; Simufating conditions in drinking water utilities MN - Suffote standard development support; Modeling hioaccurnuiation of PCRsand mercury in fish OH -- Harmful algal blooms limiting drinking water; Managing algal toxins; Small drinking water systems; Simulating conditions in drinking water utilities Wi - Predicting water quality at beaches
C iC . rw 1 .! - m .......r an - -'v.-i :F
Ft, GA, KY, NC,SC, TN ; - <i i. : -'irli-, ...h .!
background ieivete for contaminated site cleanup ieveis
HL, KV - -.h>i- i.B-
.:m n - . m s u l l - . , - : i.i-i >.:ilC(.
GA-Grean infi-estruefurein Atlanta's Prtscfor Creek
KY~Advaned fM itoring technologies MS - Reca bacteria! and virai indicators
N ~ community air quality monitoring; stem
iB illllll llll
K ~ Food t e reduction
https://www.epa.gov/research/us-epa-office-research-and-development-and-environmental-council-states-partners-meeting 17
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00017
For More Information
US EPA research web page www.epa.gov/research
- US EPA Science Matters newsletter https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters
- States and ORD: Partners to Meet State Research Needs https://www.epa.gov/research/states-and-ord-partners-meet-state-research-needs
- US EPA Tools and Resources webinar series https://www.epa.gov/research/epa-tools-and-resources-webinar-series
- US EPA Strategic Research Action Plans http://www.epa.gov/research/strategic-research-action-plans
- ORD list of models, methods, tools and databases https://www.epa.gov/research/methods-models-tools-and-databases
Join more than 100,000 followers on Twitter (@EPAresearch) https://twitter.com/EPAresearch
Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA
Tier 10
ED 002061 00176089-00018