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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) was used to evaluate the potential concentrations and migration pathways of spores spread by urban stormwater following a hypothetical biological agent terrorist attack or accidental pathogen rel...

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...

Should biosolids be contaminated with an intentional malicious release or natural outbreak of Bacillus anthracis spores, a water resource recovery facility (WRRF) may need to consider if their treatment processes can sufficiently inactivate this pathogen. Three methods commonly e...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) strives to protect human health and the environment from adverse impacts resulting from incidents involving biological outbreaks or the intentional release of threat agents. Over the last 15 years several interagency efforts have bee...

Hazardous and polluting sites have historically been disproportionately sited in low-income and underrepresented communities, placing these communities at the frontlines during contamination events. Coupled with the increasing threat of other disasters like flooding and extreme h...

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...

The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated gaps in viral disinfection data for personal protective equipment and materials typically laundered at home. In support of responders, decision makers, and the general public’s questions concerning the use of different cleaning methods, the Unite...

Legionella pneumophila (Lp) is an opportunistic drinking water pathogen that can cause infections through the inhalation of Lp-containing aerosols. Lp can occur in premise plumbing systems as these systems often have low disinfection residual, high surface area-to-volume ratios, ...

EPA has conducted prior decontamination research for traditional CWAs, but there is a scientific data gap for decontamination technologies capable of remediating sensitive equipment contaminated with a Fourth Generation Agent (FGA). The purpose of this project was to evaluate the...

The Analysis for Coastal Operational Resiliency (AnCOR) program is an interagency collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The overall purpose of this multiagency pro...

Home plumbing can be contaminated with PFAS from aqueous film forming foams (AFFF) through accidental backflow resulting from firefighting related activities, including back-siphoning during routine maintenance of equipment.  This exact incident did occur in Wyoming, OH in 2018, ...

Disaster debris removal is essential for community recovery and resilience. However, it is a lengthy, costly, and logistically challenging part of response and recovery operations. Managing waste in a disaster situation requires the coordination of multiple entities at ...

The U.S. EPA’s Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) is charged with protecting human health and the environment from accidental and intentional releases of toxic chemicals and other threat agents. Such chemical agents include Fourth Generation Agents (FGAs), which repr...

Battelle and EPA evaluated the effectiveness of UAV platforms to perform volumetric measurements of various types of debris (e.g., biomass such as fallen vegetation, stacks of building material, and other debris) using  lidar and structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry. T...

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...

Photo-induced toxicity of petroleum products and polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) is the enhanced toxicity caused by their interaction with ultraviolet radiation and occurs by two distinct mechanisms: photosensitization and photomodification. Laboratory approaches for designi...

Illicit fentanyl activities can lead to complex contamination incidents and create exposure risks to law enforcement, emergency responders, remediation contractors, and the public. The objective of this presentation is to provide an overview of conducted research to assist i...

Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of inhalation anthrax, is one of the most highly studied biological threat agents. Significant gaps remain related to the remediation of a wide area following such biological release. This extends to the remediation of critical assets owned...

This presentation will examine how serious games are being used to enhance the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA’s) emergency response mission, by improving the ability of the emergency response community to quickly and effectively respond to a range of env...

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s newly released tool, the Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB), guides practitioners through a resilience planning process that provides support for communities in the face of climate change and disasters. The ERB process is specificall...

Dispersion models, which are important tools for efficient routine releases and emergency response preparation scenarios, typically incorporate logarithmic wind speed profiles when simulating flow and downwind dispersion. This may be acceptable for regions with low surface roughn...

Tracking the subsea oil plume during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (DWH) was conducted using in situ fluorescence via vertical profilers (n=1,157) and discrete sample chemical analyses (n=7,665). During monitoring efforts, discrete samples provided a coarse picture of the ...

Management of waste from radiological incidents is complicated by the fact that decontamination decisions have a profound impact on the characteristics of resulting waste streams. Wide-area radiological incidents could produce massive quantities of waste that might need to be tre...

Photo-induced toxicity of petroleum products and polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) is the enhanced toxicity caused by their interaction with ultraviolet radiation and occurs by two distinct mechanisms: photosensitization and photomodification. Laboratory approaches for designi...