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GH11D-0529: Methodology for Assessing Community Vulnerability to Pollutant Releases from Waste Management Facilities Due to Extreme Events: Case Studies from Waterbury CT and Phoenix AZ
Citation:
Julius, S., P. Sinha, AND M. Schmeltz. GH11D-0529: Methodology for Assessing Community Vulnerability to Pollutant Releases from Waste Management Facilities Due to Extreme Events: Case Studies from Waterbury CT and Phoenix AZ. 2018 Fall American Geophysical (AGU) Meeting, Washington, District Of Columbia, December 10 - 14, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
To present conceptual framework, approach, indicators, and initial results related to evaluating the potential impacts of extreme events on waste sites and facilities and how the consequent release of contaminants could affect communities in order to inform their adaptation planning.
Description:
Excessive heat, prolonged droughts, extreme floods, and more intense wildfires will not only affect communities directly, but also indirectly through impacts to infrastructure and the surrounding landscape. Indirect consequences could include higher exposures to water- and air-borne pollutants from contaminated sites and hazardous waste facilities. A multi-disciplinary team involving the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office and Research and Development (ORD), the Office of Land and Emergency Management (OLEM), and Research Triangle Institute (RTI) are working with EPA’s Region 1 and 9, Arizona, and the cities of Phoenix AZ and Waterbury CT to conduct two case studies to develop and demonstrate a method to assess community vulnerability to potential contaminant releases from extreme events. Our method involves developing indicators for key determinants of impacts of extreme events and using spatial mapping techniques to identify vulnerable communities. Implementing this method entails gathering information on indicators of site characteristics (e.g., chemical constituents, mechanisms of release), spatial characteristics (e.g., hydrologic, topographic, weather) and community characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic, demographic), in order to map and assess implications of exposures for communities’ health and well-being. We use publicly available data that is vetted and supplemented by local stakeholders. This presentation will introduce the method we developed, and highlight results from the Waterbury, CT and Phoenix, AZ communities, as well as the process we used for selecting indicators and defining and applying adaptive capacity, and our approach to vulnerability-based mapping for these communities. This indicator-based approach provides a transparent and replicable method for other states and localities to use to assess and prevent potential exposures to contaminants. State and local decision makers can use results to develop and prioritize targeted response strategies to prepare for and prevent potential negative health and environmental outcomes from accidental contaminant releases.