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EPIC'S PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Citation:
Garofalo, D. EPIC'S PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. Presented at U.S. EPA On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) Readiness Training Program for 2001, Tampa, FL, April 8-12, 2002.
Impact/Purpose:
The objectives of this task are to provide site-specific information on the condition and activities occurring at hazardous waste sites at a point in time or over a historical period; document these conditions and changes; provide guides in the form of reports, maps, and photographs for assisting in the safe cleanup of hazardous waste materials; and assist in emergency response and enforcement efforts when requested by client offices. Remote sensing technical support is provided to all EPA Regional Superfund Offices and OERR, and includes: hazardous waste disposal site characterization and mapping; annotated aerial photographs; and enforcement support. Funding will support two Interagency Agreements to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to support facility/maintenance costs and access to and use of equipment and classified data by the Landscape Ecology Branch/Environmental Photographic Interpretation Center (LEB/EPIC) staff assigned to that location. Funding will also provide for the operation and maintenence of ESD's remote sensing and spatial data library/archive needed to support the various Superfund projects requested by EPA client offices during the year. Funding will also provide for a Senior Environmental Employee (SEE) to provide clerical support at the LEB/EPIC USGS location.
Extramural Superfund funding will also support R&D Superfund activities in remote sensing for ultimate use in the technical support program.
Description:
EPIC completes approximately 150 site characterizations annually using current and historical aerial photographs. This work is done in support of EPA Regional and Program
offices. Site characterization provides detailed information about a site and its history, often going back as many as 60 years in the past, and may include, depending upon the Region's request, information on: landscape characteristics including land use and land cover; sensitive habitats such as nearby wetlands and other water bodies; evidence of contamination at the site including stains, spills, breaches in lagoons; presence of barrels/drums, tanks or other potential pollutant sources; excavations and trenches; when a site became an active waste disposal site; how long the site was in operation; when waste disposal activity terminated; the current
landscape ecological status of a site (and how it changed over time); presence of outfalls.
Through the use of photogrammetry (the science of making highly accurate measurements on aerial photographs) information about areal dimensions, height and depth of features, volumes of material in mounds or the capacity of excavations, and topography can be derived for a site or an area. In addition, EPIC provides emergency response support by mobilizing aircraft to acquire current aerial photographic information on an environmental disaster, to monitor condition and changes at the disaster site/area (pre-, post-, and during the disaster), and to document the success of environmental cleanup, EPIC also provides courtroom documents in the form of enlarged aerial photographs, and expert witness testimony support through its experienced image analysts and remote sensing scientists in support of EPA litigation.