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Overview and Demonstration of USEPA’s Risk-Informed Materials Management (RIMM) Tool System
Citation:
Babendreier, J. AND T. Taylor. Overview and Demonstration of USEPA’s Risk-Informed Materials Management (RIMM) Tool System. 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society of Risk Analysis, Arlington, Virginia, December 10 - 14, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at 2017 SRA Annual Meeting.
Description:
The Risk-Informed Materials Management (RIMM) Tool System is a data gathering and analysis platform for conducting material disposal and beneficial use assessments. Users can evaluate risks to human and ecological receptors associated with exposures to organic and inorganic chemical releases from the land-based management of industrial by-products and other materials. Single-site or multi-site studies are conducted through deterministic or probabilistic simulation of one or more chemicals released from a material managed in one or more scenarios (farm field or land application unit, pond or surface impoundment, roadway subbase, landfill, material pile, or aerated tank). A typical application is comprised of up to four steps: 1) collect site-specific information for one or more sites in the contiguous US; 2) run sets of deterministic multimedia modeling scenarios across the site(s); 3) evaluate exposure and risk results; and, if desired, 4) calculate chemical- and material-specific screening concentrations for managing a material within each scenario studied. Spatially-explicit modeling is carried-out using the Human and Ecological Exposure and Risk in Multimedia Environmental Systems (HE2RMES) modeling system. To identify site locations and gather site-specific data needed for step 1, HE2RMES is complemented by the OpenTERRAworks 2D/3D Landscape Design tool, an open-source Geographic Information System (GIS) developed by USEPA. OpenTERRAworks acquires web-served data and provides the ability to, if desired, prospectively evaluate site-specific landscape modifications. Site-level data gaps are filled using regional and national datasets. Users can address uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, as well as leverage parallel computing tools provided for conducting larger studies. We present an overview and application of the broader system’s abilities to support exposure and risk assessments across a wide range of spatial scales, spanning site-specific to national scope.
