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EPA is developing new, rapid methods for monitoring water quality at beaches to determine adequacy of water quality for swimming. The methods being developed rely upon quantitive polymerase chain reaction technology. They will permit real time decisions regarding beach closures...

This is a presentation to the Water Treatment Interagency Working Group and is a summary of EPA/ORDs water sensor research effort, focusing on drinking water applications. 

Reliable and comprehensive PFAS and PFAS-related emission measurement methods are needed for multiple purposes with some in use. Efficacy of combustion and non-combustion applications is important for all media and waste types with encouraging results and laboratory tests continu...

Water quality standards are important for protecting and restoring the condition of lakes, rivers, estuaries, and other water bodies in the United States. Given that nutrient pollution continues to be a widespread problem in aquatic systems, the development of numeric nutrient cr...

Emerging contaminants of concern (ECCs), such as flame retardants and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are frequently detected in various environmental compartments and biological matrices/species due to widespread use and release through different exposure pathways. ...

Background: Mechanistic understanding of transient exposures that lead to adverse health outcomes will enhance our ability to recognize biological signatures of disease. Here, we measured the transcriptomic and epigenomic alterations due to exposure to the metabolic reprogramming...

Excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in lakes can lead to eutrophication, hypoxia, and algal blooms that may harm aquatic life and people.  Some U.S. states have established numeric water quality criteria for nutrients to protect surface waters.  However...

The presentation prevents an overview of ORDS research on risk assessment and systems analysis of decentralized water reuse approaches to a group of graduate students in an interdisciplinary program on science, technology, engineering, and policy. The organizers are interest in p...

New chemical formulations are being tested to replace PFAS-containing fire-fighting foams in several applications, including systems designed to protect aviation fuels, weapons, chemical tankers, and large petroleum tanks. The current efforts are focused on identifying and synthe...

Following Executive Order 14072 issued in April 2022, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Office of Management and Budget, and Department of Commerce published the final National Strategy to Develop Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions (National Strategy) in J...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global crisis threatening human, animal, and environmental health. The natural environment, specifically water resources, has been recognized as a reservoir and dissemination pathway for AMR; however, urban karst aquifer systems have been overl...

Benthic invertebrates are important trophic links in aquatic food webs and serve as useful bioindicators of environmental conditions because their responses integrate the effects of both water and sediment qualities. However, long-term data sets for benthic invertebrate assemblag...

Historic droughts in western states driven by anthropogenic warming have resulted in an unprecedented increase in wildfire frequency and area burned. In the last few decades, fire acres burned in the United States have more than doubled, with concomitant increased risk to human h...

EPA Wildfire Research: Impacts on Air and Water Quality WESTAR-WRAP Spring Business Meeting 2024, Riverside, California Wildland fire smoke impacts millions of people in the United States every year. The EPA’s Office of Research and Development is addressing our increasingl...

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...

The number of gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) observed along the United States Northwest Atlantic region has been increasing for decades. These colonial animals often haul-out on beaches seasonally in numbers ranging from a few individuals to several thousands. While these larger...

Variations in stratospheric ozone and changes in the aquatic environment by climate change and human activity are modifying the exposure of aquatic ecosystems to UV radiation. These shifts in exposure have consequences for the distributions of species, biogeochemical cycles, and ...

Stream macroinvertebrate assemblages are shaped by natural and human-related factors that operate through complex hierarchical pathways. Quantifying these relationships can support stream ecological assessment. We applied a structural equation modeling framework to evaluate hypot...

An ‘organon’ is a thought instrument or system of logic that unifies a body of scientific principles. The Adaptation Organon (AO) is an interactive, web-based instrument for considering climate change and other environmental information to inform adaption and improve ...

Consideration of PFAS precursors is necessary in order to close the gap between targeted PFAS analysis and a comprehensive quantification of total PFAS. However, current understanding is limited, and there are many misconceptions and questions: where are PFAS precursors found? Ar...

Children may be exposed to environmental contaminants through incidental ingestion of soil resulting from hand-to-mouth contact. We measured soil adherence to the skin among 86 children from four kindergartens and one elementary school in Taiwan. Rinse water samples were collecte...

  The negative effects of nutrient pollution in streams, rivers, and downstream waterbodies remain widespread global problems. Understanding the cost-effectiveness of different strategies for mitigating nutrient pollution is critical to making informed decisions and definin...

Phosphorus causes nutrient pollution in lentic water systems, which act as a reservoir of phosphorus since it is stored within the sediments of these waterbodies. The effects of phosphorus pollution include harmful algal bloom events, hypoxia of waterbodies, and impairment of dri...

Extensive research in recent years has reported higher per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) concentrations in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill leachate than other municipal wastewaters, including multiple studies of leachate from MSW landfills in the United States. Becau...

Historically, communities have used gray infrastructure—systems of gutters, pipes, and tunnels—to move stormwater away from where we live to treatment plants or straight to local water bodies.  The gray infrastructure in many areas is aging, populations are increasing, and its ex...