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This technical summary report provides a review of the U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development’s (ORD) laboratory studies that evaluated the efficacy of decontamination techniques to neutralize ricin on a variety of different surfaces. The tests referenced in this summa...

This subproduct contains text and pictures for an update/extension of the EPA Emergency Response Research's Analysis for Coastal Operational Resiliency (AnCOR) webpage (https://www.epa.gov/emergency-response-research/analysis-coastal-operational-resiliency). It describes the wide...

Report on the Wide Area Demonstration (WAD) under the Analysis for Coastal Operational Resiliency (AnCOR) project. The AnCOR WAD was conducted from May 2 through May 27, 2022. The test venue was located at Fort A.P. Hill (FAPH), Bowling Green, VA. All work will was conducted at F...

This study characterized Bacillus globigii (BG) as a Bacillus anthracis Sterne (BAS) surrogate for wastewater treatment-related studies of UV inactivation, adsorption onto powdered activated carbon (PAC), and bioaerosol emission. The inactivation of BG was faster than that of BAS...

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...

This report summarizes the results of infrastructure decontamination experiments performed at the WSTB.  These experiments focused on simulating contamination of drinking water distribution pipes with a commonly available insecticide formulation containing malathion.  M...

Large-scale biological contamination incidents pose unique yet significant challenges to remediation operations. Previous incidents have demonstrated the utility of readily available commercial and municipal equipment for conducting remediation tasks. Pre-identification and evalu...

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many supply chain issues, including crippling of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) needed for high-risk occupations such as those in healthcare. As a result of these supply chain issues, unprecedented crisis capacity strategies were i...

Lack of surface sampling and analysis methods are available to identify potential toxic byproducts of Novichok agents. While Novichok agents were sampled and analyzed, there was not much information to support and/or investigate potential breakdown/byproducts from environmental F...

Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of steam heat for inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 when applied to materials common in mass transit installations. Methods and Results: SARS CoV-2 (USA-WA1/2020) was resuspended in either cell culture media or synthetic sali...

As a product of the collaborative research between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA’s) Office of Research and Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), this report evaluates options to pre...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) can be accidentally backflushed into drinking water systems during firefighting operations or at industrial facilities.  If this contaminated water enters household plumbing systems, homeowners may n...

The Water Security Test Bed (WSTB) is a full-scale representation of a drinking water distribution pipe that conveys potable water. It is the product of a partnership between Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  Currently, the syste...

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...

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised interest in using chemical air treatments as part of a strategy to reduce the risk of disease transmission, but more information is needed to characterize their efficacy at scales translatable to applied settings and to develop methods for evaluat...

Surface decontamination is a method of using wash water to decontaminated surfaces preventing transmission of biological contaminants that can pose potential health risks to responders and the public. However, the risks associated with handling used wash water are largely unknown...

The project team evaluated the device at multiple wavelengths to assess optimal performance under specific conditions for select contaminants and a suite of contaminants.  This collaboration focused on the following:  - Reactor optimization and flow scale-up,  - Mo...

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness in the spread of disease via airborne transmission. As a result, there has been increasing interest in technologies that claim to reduce concentrations of airborne pathogens in indoor environments. The efficacy of many of these emerging ...

The purpose of this research was to determine the viability of installing low-cost storm sewer retrofit devices in multiple locations within an urban watershed.  A major component of this was the necessity for designing, fabricating, and operation of such retrofits which are not ...

EPA’s Homeland Security Research Program conducts decontamination efficacy studies that identify technologies that can be used to clean surfaces, materials, or objects contaminated with chemical, biological, or radiological agents. This project consisted of an assessment of the m...

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...

Most studies of the health effects and chemical characterization of the dust resulting from the catastrophic collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, have focused on the large inorganic fraction of the particles; however, a few studies have identified mutagens an...

Ricin is a highly toxic protein that is produced from the castor bean plant.  Incidents with using ricin as a terrorist weapon have become more commonplace in recent years. This study examined a technique (Low Concentration Hydrogen Peroxide Vapor; LCHPV) to decontaminate ma...

EPA ORD was awarded a funds-in multi year CRADA with the Canadian Government.  The CRADA is entitled Oil Spill Alternative Response Measures: Toxicity and Biodegradation of Treated Petroleum Oils. This is the Final Summary Report of ORD efforts. The Canadian government requires a...