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ASSESSING THE RISK ASSOCIATED WITH MERCURY: USING REVA'S WEBTOOL TO COMPARE DATA, ASSUMPTIONS, AND MODELS
Citation:
SMITH, E. R. AND M. O'CONNELL. ASSESSING THE RISK ASSOCIATED WITH MERCURY: USING REVA'S WEBTOOL TO COMPARE DATA, ASSUMPTIONS, AND MODELS. Presented at EPA National Conference on Managing Environmental Quality Systems, San Diego, CA, April 11 - 14, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
ReVA's program objectives are to:
Provide regional-scale, spatially explicit information on the extent and distribution of both stressors and sensitive resources.
Develop and evaluate techniques to integrate information on exposure and effects so that relative risk can be assessed and management actions can be prioritized.
Predict consequences of potential environmental changes under alternative future scenarios.
Effectively communicate economic and quality of life trade-offs associated with alternative environmental policies.
Develop techniques to prioritize areas for ecological restoration.
Identify information gaps and recommend actions to improve monitoring and focus research.
Description:
The problem of assessing risk from mercury across the nation is extremely complex involving integration of I) our understanding of the methylation process in ecosystems, 2) the identification and spatial distribution of sensitive populations, and 3) the spatial pattern of mercury deposition. Unfortunately, both our understanding of the processes involved, and the availability of data to make this assessment are currently imperfect, yet there are effective ways to make use of data and information that currently exist.
ORD's Regional Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA) Program was designed to develop and demonstrate methods to use existing data and models to inform environmental decision-making regarding broad-scale comparative and cumulative risks. Focusing on the integration of available spatial data and model results, ReV A has developed a web-based Environmental Decision Toolkit (EDT) that is the perfect vehicle for evaluating alternative ways of assessing the risks associated with mercury deposition from energy generating units and subsequent methylation into the more toxic methylmercury (MeHg) that accumulates in fish tissue. Given that there is no obvious "right" way to assess the risk from MeHg, a toolkit with the flexibility to consider and compare alternative data, model inputs, and assumptions, and alternative ways to combine these inputs into indices of relative risk will allow a broader understanding of where the greatest uncertainties lie and where there is agreement among data and methods.