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An intentional and nefarious attack or unintentional release of a chemical warfare agent (CWA) is expected to trigger a significant effort to clean up a contaminated area. Such effort becomes more complex when considering the permeability of common indoor building materials to so...

Bacillus anthracis and other environmentally persistent pathogens pose a significant threat to human and environmental health. If contamination is spread over a wide area (e.g., resulting from a bioterrorism or biowarfare incident), readily deployable and scalable sample collecti...

This paper compared simulation results from different model constructions of a Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) after radiological contamination from a hypothetical dirty bomb scenario. The model constructions included a utility-provided combined sewer stormwater model, a high...

This study examined the washoff of Bacillus globigii (Bg) spores from concrete, asphalt, and grass surfaces by stormwater.  Bg is a nonpathogenic surrogate for Bacillus anthracis, which is a biological select agent. Areas (2.74 m x 7.62 m) of concrete, grass, and asphalt were ino...

Drinking water storage tanks serve several important functions, which include but are not limited to providing an adequate water supply in the case of firefighting emergencies, power outages, water main breaks, or other system failures. The water level elevation in storage tanks ...

EPA’s Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) within the Office of Research and Development conducts research to aid in the response and recovery from radiological disasters. EPA is leading stormwater modeling studies that investigate how to simulate transport of radiolog...

To assist in emergency preparedness for a biological agent terrorist attack or accidental pathogen release, potential contaminant levels and migration pathways of spores spread by urban stormwater were evaluated using a Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) of U.S. Coast Guard Base ...

Large-scale disasters have the potential to generate a significant amount of varying types of waste. For example, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 resulted in 64.3 million cubic yards of debris in Louisiana, and Mississippi managed an estimated 46 million cubic yards of debris...

Under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP), research is being conducted necessary for identification of methods and technologies that can be used during hazardous materials remediation and cleanup efforts. The th...

This technical brief is a summary of US EPA research publications providing input to solving the technical challenges involved with remediating a large urban area following a contamination incident involving spores of B. anthracis, the causative biological agent for anthrax disea...

This report addresses options to improve on the decontamination of permeable materials that are contaminated with a toxic chemical that has transferred into such material. Here, two surrogates of chemical warfare agents are considered to investigate the degree of transport, mater...

Although SARS-CoV-2 is primarily an airborne risk, the COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the need for self-disinfection surfaces that could withstand the demand of high occupant densities characteristic of public transportation systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ...

Recovery following a large-scale chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear incident requires a holistic approach and clear understanding of the intricate and interconnected processes associated with characterizing hazards, decontaminating affected sites, and managing resulta...

The spread of radiological contamination from rainfall events is well documented from both the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters. However, the inclusion of stormwater modeling into local, state, and federal response planning and response is limited. The goal and purpose o...

This paper presents the process used to develop an overland flow model of radionuclide transport following an aerosol deposition from a hypothetical radiological dispersal device explosion. The process included the integration of digital elevation, building, and land cover inform...

Managing the response to urban radiological terrorism requires advanced planning and rapid response to minimize health risks to residents and mitigate long-term impacts to municipal infrastructure and the environment.  A radiologic dispersal device can result in a widespread...

Historically, visual observation is an emergency responder’s first ‘tool’ in identifying spilled oil. Optical detection has since expanded to include a myriad of signals from space, aircraft, drone, vessel and submersible platforms that can provide critical information for decisi...

This report focused on researching United States Coast Guard (USCG) stormwater systems to summarize differences in meteorological/terrain features and operations of USCG assets by location. This information was used to develop a modeling framework that identified which hydrodynam...

This document provides step-by-step instructions for the use of impingers, impacters and filters to collect samples from air potentially contaminated with pathogens. It is intended to be used in conjunction with the analytical methods listed in U.S. Environmental Protection Agenc...

This document provides step-by-step instructions for the use of vacuum filter cassettes to collect samples from surfaces potentially contaminated with pathogens. It is intended to be used in conjunction with the analytical methods listed in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency&rs...

This document provides step-by-step instructions for the use of swabs, wipes, and sponge-sticks to collect samples from surfaces potentially contaminated with microbiological agents. It is intended to be used in conjunction with the analytical methods listed in U.S. Environmental...

A location-based illustration of the use of LEAF data for deciding potential treatment or use of contaminated soil from a copper and lead smelter is provided as a complimentary paper on the methodology for conducting a screening assessment using LEAF. The results from the screeni...

Laboratory evaluation of dispersion effectiveness (DE) typically measures the total mass of oil dispersed into the aqueous phase using known oil concentrations. Studying dispersant performance using droplet size distribution methods can offer important information regarding the m...

Wastes produced daily from households and businesses contain a diverse and significant amount of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and these compounds may be transformed during transport and decomposition within landfills. Fresh vehicle leachates, from residential and co...

Management of waste from wide-area radiological incidents will be complicated by several major issues: 1) the potentially enormous quantities of solid and aqueous waste, lightly contaminated with one or more radionuclides, that will need to be properly managed; 2) the profound im...