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New RESES Project: Emergency Planning with Our States - Interactive Mapping of Flood-Induced Contaminants from Hazardous Waste Sites in EPA Regions
Citation:
Whung, P., S. Woznicki, JohnM Johnston, J. Barber, J. Essoka, AND D. Cutt. New RESES Project: Emergency Planning with Our States - Interactive Mapping of Flood-Induced Contaminants from Hazardous Waste Sites in EPA Regions. R7 Making Connection Meeting, Lenexa, KS, December 04, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This project is designed to support EPA Regions, local governments, and state and community partners’ objectives to assess hazardous waste sites in chemical fate-and-transport vulnerabilities in soil/sediments due to flooding, and to support flood emergency preparedness, response, and planning strategies/clean-up. Flood events can induce transport of contaminated sediments into surrounding areas and result in elevated levels of contaminants near hazardous waste sites (Rifai H, 2006; Brody et al., 2014). Many of these sites are within the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) 100-year floodplain and are also located in or near communities, potentially posing a risk to nearby populations. Key collaborators and partners for this project include: EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) researchers; EPA Region 2 and Region 3 Superfund and Technology Liaisons (STL), scientists, and Superfund Site Remedial Project Managers (RPM); and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Bureau of Environmental Evaluation and Risk Assessment, Site Remediation and Waste Management Program, and Office of Coastal and Land Use Planning.
Description:
Spatial and temporal distribution of contaminants in soils/sediments for 50, 100, and 500 year floods return periods • An interactive map for stakeholders that provides detailed hazardous waste site information, flood inundation, and community socio-economic characteristics • Site-level scenario analysis that will allow site managers and communities to prepare for multiple scenarios of flooding, beyond FEMA’s flood maps • Socioeconomic data layers added to regional existing Superfund site vulnerability website