Science Inventory

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Global shifts in climatic conditions and anthropogenic disturbances are dramatically modifying the Earth’s ecosystem. Ensuring water security, availability, and quality within this context largely depends on how accurately we can map Global Surface Water Extents (GWSE). Map...

This work investigated the suitability of three non-hazardous food dyes as PFAS simulants during wastewater treatment with powdered activated carbon (PAC). Data from batch experiments with PAC revealed equilibrium constants (Log Kd) and pseudo first-order adsorption rate constant...

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...

Many aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) delivery systems in aircraft hangars and firefighting vehicles may require thorough cleaning to avoid ongoing environmental impacts from residual per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) within those systems. Though replacement AFFF formula...

Radioactive fallout could have debilitating effects on drinking water and wastewater systems. At least some drinking water system operators have plans to mitigate the effects of a contaminated water source, but most, if not all, wastewater operators have no such plans.  Both...

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...

The timely decontamination of high-density urban areas is critical in the face of a terror event involving radioactive cesium (Cs), which has a 30- year half-life with an energetic 662 keV gamma ray released during decay. This technical brief is intended for local, state and fede...

This study illustrates the usage of multi-species modeling tool to analyze water quality and evaluate water safety within drinking water distribution system.

The delivery of safe, potable water to communities is the primary objective of drinking water utilities. However, the quality of the water can deteriorate as it is transported from the treatment plant through the distribution system to the customers due to interactions with the p...

Drinking water utilities are vulnerable to both human-caused and natural disasters that can impact the system infrastructure and the delivery of potable water to consumers. Resilience analysis can help utilities identify high-risk areas in their system and understand how to bette...

This brief provides operating information based on reviewed field experience [1] and laboratory experiments [2-5]. While it discusses general safety, this technical brief does not discuss the safe operation of pressurized sprayer equipment to avoid physical hazards which are typi...

The RRLT database includes detailed information on the equipment’s everyday function, its effectiveness on different surfaces and forms of radioactive contaminants, the scale for which the equipment may be applied, the skill required of the operator, utility requirements, legal a...

Drinking water utilities are vulnerable to both human-caused and natural disasters that can impact the system infrastructure and the delivery of potable water to consumers. Resilience analysis can help utilities identify high-risk areas in their system and understand how to bette...

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 ...

This presentation provides a general overview of EPA's modeling tools and associated water quality sensor research. Tool functionality is described and how they interact or are informed by sensor research will be discussed during the presentation. Tools include EPANET, EPANET-MSX...

Resilience analysis of critical infrastructure is inherently complex and requires the integration of diverse data and disparate models in a cohesive analysis to produce meaningful decision support.  In this presentation, we discuss recent updates to the Water Network Tool for Res...

Drinking water utilities face multiple challenges, including aging infrastructure, water quality concerns, pipe breaks, natural disasters, environmental emergencies, and terrorist attacks. All of these have the potential to disrupt service to customers and damage critical infrast...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Sandia National Laboratories have developed the Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR) to quantify resilience of drinking water distribution systems. WNTR is a Python package designed to simulate disaster scenarios and analyze impact...

Wildland fires in the United States (U.S.) have increased in frequency and area burned since the mid-1980s. This trend is most pronounced in the western United States, and to a lesser extent in the nation’s southeastern region. Historic fire suppression policies have result...

Knowing where and when rivers flow is paramount to managing freshwater ecosystems. Yet stream gauging stations are distributed sparsely across rivers globally and may not capture the diversity of fluvial network properties and anthropogenic influences. Here we evaluate the placem...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Sandia National Laboratories have developed the Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR) to quantify resilience of drinking water distribution systems. WNTR is a Python package designed to simulate disaster scenarios and analyze impact...

This chapter introduces the Water Network Tool for Resilience (WNTR) and how it can be used to evaluate drinking water distribution system (WDS) resilience. At the end of this chapter, the reader will be able to install and run WNTR, set up and run various disaster scenario simul...

Many aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) delivery systems in aircraft hangars and firefighting vehicles may require thorough cleaning to avoid ongoing environmental impacts from residual per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) within those systems. Though replacement AFFF formula...

To mitigate the effects following a large-scale nuclear or radiological material release in an urban environment and to expedite recovery, the Integrated Wash-Aid Treatment Emergency Reuse System (IWATERS) was developed. IWATERS consists of three operations: washing contaminated ...

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...