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All Hazards Waste Logistics Tool
Citation:
Boe, T., P. Lemieux, M. Rodgers, P. Dziemiela, AND C. Hayes. All Hazards Waste Logistics Tool. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/B-20/132, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
GIS-based tool for calculating logistics and estimating the resource demand associated with transporting large quantities of waste.
Description:
Large-scale disasters have the potential to generate a significant amount of waste. For example, Hurricane Katrina and the Joplin Missouri tornado resulted in 100 million and 1.5 million cubic yards of waste, respectively. Man-made chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incidents either by way of terrorism, war, or accident have the potential to generate as much waste or more, and both natural and man-made incidents are prone to generate some form of hazardous waste. Recovery is profoundly impacted by waste management issues and the strategies selected to manage them. The quantification, segregation, transportation, and storage of waste can be an arduous and costly undertaking. Furthermore, these processes are intricately linked with the decisions made throughout the recovery timeline. Therefore, the remediation, including waste management, must be holistically considered. Understanding these complex interactions can be facilitated by using models and tools that adhere to the “system-of-systems” approach. To better understand and predict waste management issues, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) is developing a suite of tools and resources for planning and recovery purposes. EPA’s All Hazards Waste Logistics Tool uses spatial information and analysis techniques to support evaluating resource demands associated with transporting large volumes of waste. The tool was developed to help decision makers better understand potential options for managing waste and to illuminate potential capacity constraints, transportation considerations, and impact of waste categorization to inform increased preparedness.