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THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY BRANCH - PROVIDING CHEMICAL ANSWERS TO ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE AND RISK PROBLEMS
Citation:
Heithmar, E M. THE ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY BRANCH - PROVIDING CHEMICAL ANSWERS TO ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE AND RISK PROBLEMS. Presented at Water-Testing and Quality Assurance Symposium, Arlington, VA, August 11-14, 2002.
Impact/Purpose:
Provide state-of-the-science sampling, analysis, separation, and detection methods to allow rapid, accurate field and laboratory analyses of contaminated soils, sediments, biota, and groundwater to support Superfund clean-up decisions. Apply state-of-the-science methods in chemical analysis and data interpretation (e.g., mass spectral interpretation) to actual problems of OSWER, the Regions, and the States, in cooperation with the Las Vegas Technical Support Center as well as by direct contacts with Regional and State employees. Provide technical advice and guidance to OSWER using the environmental chemistry expertise (e.g., mass spectrometry, analytical methods development, clean-up methodology, inorganics, organometallics, volatile organics, non-volatile organics, semi-volatile organics, separation technologies, etc.) found within the branch.
Technical research support for various projects initiated either by Regions/Program Offices or ECB scientists. While these efforts will support the Regions and Program Offices, they cannot be predicted or planned in advance, and may serve multiple duty (e.g., solve real-world problems, serve to ground-truth analytical approaches that ECB is developing, transfer new technology). Many of the activities in this task support requests involving enforcement decisions and therefore are categorized as "environmental forensics".
Description:
The Environmental Chemistry Branch (ECB) is part of the National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) within EPA's Office of Research and Development. ECB is located in NERL's Environmental Sciences Division in Las Vegas, Nevada. We are 15 Research Chemists and Environmental Scientists with a range of expertise representing the major areas of environmental analytical chemistry.
Our mission is to provide chemical answers to environmental exposure and risk problems. We strive to ensure that environmental decision makers have reliable environmental chemical measurements and studies on which to base exposure and risk assessments. Our clients comprise EPA Program Offices, including OSWER and OW; EPA Regions; States; and Tribes. We provide both short-term technical support and long-term method development and research. To maximize our impact, we focus solely on non-routine problems. We are committed to providing the most relevant and responsive environmental chemistry research anywhere. This poster describes some of our capabilities. We encourage potential clients that could use our talents to contact us.