Impact/Purpose:
The current focus is to 1.) develop, distribute, and support the FRAMES-3MRA modeling technology, 2) to apply the FRAMES-3MRA modeling technology for the purposes of executing national and site-specific risk assessments, 3) to complete model application case studies to explore model performance issues, such as, model validation, 5) to collaborate with other Federal Agencies in an effort to leverage expertise and resources associated with common modeling interests, and 6) to monitor ongoing developments at the Office of Solid Waste and within the environmental modeling community in an effort to identify new needs for science modules and locate or develop solutions within the FRAMES 3MRA modeling system.
Description:
Developed by ORD in collaboration with OSW, the Multimedia, Multi-pathway, Multi-receptor Risk Assessment (3MRA) national risk assessment methodology is designed to assess risks at a statistically sampled number of "actual" sites and organize the results into a national distribution of risks as a function of contaminant concentrations in waste streams. The risks are presented as a cumulative probability distribution of the probability of protection (of human and ecological receptors) vs contaminant concentration levels in waste streams. Regulators use this distribution to inform evaluations (and subsequent decisions) of the trade-offs between levels of protection and economic impacts. To apply the 3MRA methodology a supporting software-based technology (entitled FRAMES-3MRA) has been developed. The FRAMES-3MRA modeling system consists of 1) a collection of 17 science-based models that together simulate the release, fate and transport, exposure, and risk associated with land-based disposal of solid wastes (3MRA) and 2) a collection of system processors that act as a modeling infrastructure that facilitates the development and application of environmental models and assessments (FRAMES -- Framework for Risk Analysis in Multimedia Environmental Systems).
This task is designed to further develop and improve the modeling system, as well as capitalize on its modular characteristics by adding additional simulation modules and capabilities. This allows it to be applied to a number of other site-scale assessment applications.
Support for this task is provided by Task N342. The goal of N342 is to provide researchers with software components that facilitate the integration of models and data developed for applications for ORD. These include components for accessing databases, I/O specifications and implementations for data representation and interchange, components for model execution and error handling. To this end Task N342 personnel will guide the future development of the 3MRA modeling system as outlined in this task.
Keywords:
MULTIMEDIA MODELING, RISK ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY, 3MRA, OPEN ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK,
Project Information:
Progress
:The FRAMES-3MRA software system was initially developed, tested, and documented in FY2000. Efforts since then, and culminating in FY2003, have been focused on 1) updating the FRAMES-3MRA science and technology in response to public and peer review comments, 2) preparing Version 1.0 of the technology for distribution, and 3) applying the FRAMES-3MRA modeling system to simulate site-specific conditions and comparing results with both field observations and a second multimedia model (the Total Risk Integrated Methodology -- TRIM).
At the time of the writing of this task, the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) is nearing completion of the exploration of the modeling system and it is anticipated that the final report will be completed early in 2004.
Relevance
:In December 2001 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in its report entitled "Making Sense of Regulation: 2001 Report to Congress on the Costs and Benefits of Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State, Local, and Tribal Entities" described follow on work on the "mixture and derived from" rules as a high priority regulatory review issue for EPA (see Page 63 of OMB report). Science-based modeling tools, such as FRAMES 3MRA, have been specifically requested by the Office of Solid Waste to support such efforts.
A scientifically sound model like the 3MRA achieves two critical elements for realizing real environmental improvements. Probably the most important is that companies for the first time in the 25 year history of RCRA would have pollution prevention targets. They would know the concentration levels they need to meet and they could take actions to drop below those levels, greatly enhancing achievement of real environmental benefits in terms of pollution prevention and risk reduction. Secondly, but equally important from a societal point of view, wastes that are not hazardous could more efficiently be identified. In this regard not all "hazardous wastes" are truly hazardous; they are simply in the system because we have not applied the risk tools that have been developed over the last two decades. Hundreds of thousands of tons of waste could safely be managed outside of the federal hazardous waste system if we could use a model like 3MRA to develop national risk based standards for waste.
Major Clients: OSWER - Stephen Kroner, Regions
Major External Collaborators: This research and development is conducted as part of a formal partnership agreement with the Office of Solid Waste (OSW). Lead contact persons are Barnes Johnson (now with OAR) and OSW staff (Stephen Kroner, Zubair Saleem, David Cozzie) at the Economics, Methods, and Risk Analysis Division. This task also contributes heavily to cooperative work with six other agencies under the auspices of a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for multimedia modeling initiated with NRC, DoE, DoD, USGS, and USDA during FY 2001. Later, in the spring of FY2002 NOAA joined the agreement.
Clients
:OSWER/OSW Economics Modeling Risk Assessment Division, Regional Offices
Project IDs:
ID Code
:12555
Project type
:OMIS