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Tech Zone

For further information or questions about the Tech Zone, please contact Austin Brett, Tetra Tech, by telephone at (703) 390-0606 or by e-mail at austin.brett@tetratech.com.

The Tech Zone offers demonstrations of various technologies that OSCs use in emergency response and removal actions. ERT's Technical Services will be available to help OSCs gain access to EPA's Remote Access and Virtual Private Networking Services. The Tech Zone will be open from Monday, February 1 through Thursday, February 4, 2010.

Tech Zone Exhibitors

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Patrick Young, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Region 6

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is one of the agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and is co-located with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia.  ATSDR is the lead federal public health agency for addressing health issues arising from sites identified by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), more commonly known as Superfund.  Since 1986, part of that role has been to provide support during CERCLA emergency events.  ATSDR does this by maintaining a 24-hour response telephone line through which callers can speak with an Emergency Response Coordinator (ERC).  The ERC identifies the specialists needed to address the health issues involved in the incident and assembles a consultation team of those specialists to provide advice over the phone to the caller.  Under certain conditions, a response team can be sent to the incident to provide on-site support.  ATSDR also has staff located in the regional offices that work closely and often daily with the EPA On-Scene Coordinators (OSC).

This booth provides information on this support mechanism and the various technical resources and staff to assist others prepare for chemical events.  An information flyer describing the service with contact procedures will be available.  In addition, the Louisiana Poison Control Center Director, Mr. Mark Ryan will be available to discuss how the Poison Center provides emergency medical consultations.

ATSDR (F 62)
Emergency Response
1600 Clifton Road
Atlanta, GA   30333

770-488-7100 (24 hour) * 
770-488-3430 (business hours)

Email: atsdrer@cdc.gov (business hours)
            eocreports@cdc.gov (24/7) *

www.atsdr.cdc.gov
www.emergency.cdc.gov

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Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Mercury Health Education Materials
Sue Casteel, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Region 7

Exposure to elemental mercury from spills, improper use or clean-up can lead to central nervous system and other health effects. Clean-up and disposal costs also can be very expensive. Public health workers frequently are required to provide public health information to parents, teachers, health care providers, and response personnel. While the overall message is the same, the audiences require unique approaches to address prevention, health evaluation and mitigation measures. ATSDR will provide copies of a 30 second animated video public service announcement directed toward pre-adolescent boys as a prevention tool as well as health care provider and school parent fact sheets for post-incident distribution.

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National Selection Guide for Oil Spill Response
Bradford Benggio, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

The National Selection Guide for Oil Spill response was developed to help OSCs assess and determine what response countermeasures may be the most favorable for response given specifics of the spill.  Depending on the location, oil type, conditions and natural resource concerns, some countermeasures may be inappropriate or could significantly enhance cleanup and recovery.

Funding from the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA, has allowed for the further development and updating of this useful tool.  The new version is a web-based and easy-to-use version that brings a wealth of information to the OSC and adds utility to the National product schedule.

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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Environmental and Munitions Center of Expertise
Ric Hines, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has supported the EPA Superfund Program's CERCLA design and construction mission since 1982, through a National Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). USACE consists of military and civilian engineers, scientists, and other specialists to work as leaders in engineering and environmental matters. Approximately 32,000 civilians and 650 military men and women compose USACE's diverse workforce of biologists, engineers, geologists, hydrologists, chemists, health physicists, natural resource managers, and other professionals who provide quality responsive engineering services to the nation. The efforts of the USACE include: planning, designing, building, and operating water resources and other civil works projects (navigation, flood control, environmental protection, disaster response, and more); designing and managing the construction of military facilities for the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force; and providing design and construction management support for other defense and federal agencies such as EPA. More information about USACE is available at www.usace.army.mil, and the USACE Environmental and Munitions Center of Expertise at www.environmental.usace.army.mil/.

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U.S. Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team
Matthew Hampton, U.S. Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team

National Strike Force (NSF) specialized equipment

The National Strike Force (NSF) is a vital national Special Teams asset comprised of a unique, highly trained cadre of Coast Guard professionals who maintain and rapidly deploy with specialized equipment and incident management skills any time to any place or hazard.

The NSF is recognized worldwide as an expert authority in the preparation for and response to the effects resulting from oil discharges, hazardous substance releases, weapons of mass destruction events, and other emergencies on behalf of the American public.

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U.S. EPA Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology (ASPECT)
Mark Thomas, U.S. EPA National Decontamination Team

All first responders perform remote sensing to identify hazards as their first step in responding to any incident.  The EPA ASPECT system amplifies this philosophy by using an airborne sensor suite to provide standoff chemical and radiological detection with rapid dissemination of results to enhance the situational awareness of the first responder.  The aircraft is based near Dallas, Texas and has responded to over 102 incidents and deployments since 2001 with a documented wheels-up time of less than one hour.  ASPECT is operated by a three member flight crew and through extensive onboard automation permits the crew is able to control and manage data collection from a single integrated workstation.  The ASPECT detect-to-warn capability is approximately five minutes and as a result of this performance has been selected as a partner with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Infrastructure Protection (IP) programs, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Americans program, and is exploring an interaction with the Department of Defense (DoD) and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

ASPECT uses the physics of passive infrared (IR) energy to permit standoff chemical vapor detection.  Since most chemical compounds absorb IR energy at unique frequencies, this property permits detection and identification to be conducted at altitudes up to 4,000 feet above the incident.  ASPECT couples a wide-area IR imaging system with a high speed spectrometer to generate a data cube permitting chemical plumes to be imaged, identified and mapped.  By further interfacing this data set with traditional digital aerial photography, the data cube can be readily viewed on any standard computer system or serve as the input to more advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based systems including Google Earth® open GIS tools.  The ASPECT program recently upgraded the radiological capability of the system with the installation of two multi-detector sodium Iodide detector packs as a standard payload in the aircraft.  These systems have undergone extensive calibration and software development and were certified as operational in August of 2009.  The radiological system has recently completed a large aerial survey of abandoned uranium mines in Region 6 and a full deployment to the Rose Bowl and Bowl Championship Series (BCS) games.  

All high-order Infrared, visible, and radiological sensors generate large amounts of data that traditionally take days to process.  Time frames of this order are useless to the first responder from a tactical perspective.  The heart of the ASPECT approach consist of onboard automated detection algorithms which permit a set of 26 industrial chemicals and natural/man-made radionuclide’s  to be screened and analyzed in under 30 seconds.  Concurrent photo imaging and geospatial data is merged and compressed with spectral chemical or radiological data to form the data cube.  The cube is subsequently transmitted over a satellite-based internet link to the ASPECT Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) team, validated and rapidly forwarded to the end user.  Up to 540 additional compounds can be analyzed by the validation team.  While the ASPECT program is exceeding mission requirements, the program is currently enhancing detection capability by upgrading the detector arrays of both the infrared imaging system and the spectrometer.  Sensor enhancements are complemented by a program to increase the screened compound list from 26 to 75 chemicals by the end of 2010. 

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U.S. EPA Asbestos Sampling Tools
Eugene Lee, U.S. EPA Office of Emergency Management

The Releasable Asbestos Field Sampler (RAFS) was designed to provide an alternative to activity-based sampling (ABS) for determining likely asbestos exposure resulting from activities at a site with low contaminant levels.  This poster presents a description of the RAFS device and a comparison of asbestos levels generated by the RAFS with ABS under varying conditions of different activities, soil/environmental conditions, and geographical locations.  RAFS generated asbestos levels were highly correlated with ABS results, but tended to be several orders of magnitude higher than the ABS levels under the same conditions.

The hazard posed by asbestos contaminated soils depends on the amount of asbestos that can be suspended from the soil when it is disturbed.  U.S. EPA Region 10 is developing a method using a fluidized bed asbestos segregator (FBAS) for estimating the concentration of asbestos, expressed as asbestos structures per gram of soil.  The method is currently being tested to evaluate the FBAS performance (accuracy, sensitivity, precision) to support eventual validation of the method.

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U.S. EPA Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center
Deborah Dalton, U.S. EPA Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center

EPA's Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center can provide you with fast and effective assistance in addressing issues that are impeding your progress. If you're frustrated by such issues as:

We can help by providing professional conflict resolution specialists who have the expertise and experience in breaking through these barriers. Our contract is independently funded, fast and easy to use, and is available to all programs throughout EPA. More information about EPA's Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center can be found at http://www.epa.gov/adr/. Stop by our table in the Tech Zone to learn more about how we can reduce your stress level!

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U.S. EPA Contract Laboratory Program
John Nebelsick, U.S. EPA Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation

The Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) has been providing EPA users data of known and documented quality in support of Superfund site inspection, remediation, emergency response and enforcement activities in the United States and its territories since 1980.  During this time, the CLP has analyzed nearly 1.2 million environmental samples.  Thousands of automated data review checks are now performed on 100% of all samples analyzed.  Reviewed results are delivered in both hard copy and electronic formats tailored to each customer’s needs.  Under the CLP, a variety of laboratory services are offered to customers through a centralized scheduling and sample management office.  This organization coordinates orders, laboratory assignments, sample tracking and delivery of results, automated and manual data reviews, and many other quality assurance functions among participating contractors and EPA technical and procurement staff.  This centralized entity provides a highly cost effective model for delivering quality analytical data in support of land remediation programs.  The overall structure of the CLP, the services it currently provides, and the benefits of the CLP offer data user’s superior services in the areas of chemistry, data management, and quality assurance.  Recent innovations, including the use of electronic tools and formats, have enhanced the program’s flexibility to accommodate site-specific needs, and the rapid delivery, review, and communication of analytical results to its customers.

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U.S. EPA Diving for Emergency Response
Sean Sheldrake, U.S. EPA Region 10
Alan Humphrey, U.S. EPA Environmental Response Team

EPA Region 10 and the Environmental Response Team (ERT) dive units provide numerous services to emergency response units throughout the country, including aquatic search operations, spill assessment, and environmental sampling.  EPA-trained HazMat divers use remotely operated vehicles (ROV), sector/side scan sonar, digital video/photography, surface supplied equipment, and a variety of environmental sampling tools to evaluate oil and chemical spills and water/sediment contamination related to Superfund sites.  For more information, contact Sean Sheldrake, Unit Diving Officer at (206) 553-1220, Alan Humphrey at (732) 321-6748 or visit http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/OEA.NSF/webpage/Dive+Team.

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U.S. EPA Emergency Response Technical Group
Nancy Jones, U.S. EPA Region 6 and Emergency Response Technical Group

The mission of the Emergency Response Technical Group (ERTG) is to enhance the emergency response planning, preparedness and technical capabilities of OSCs to respond to incidents involving chemical, biological, or radiological response, including weapons of mass destruction.  A main objective of the ERTG is to ensure consistency with the National Approach to Response (NAR) by improving emergency response consistency through cross regional coordination, information sharing, standardization of procedures and the interoperability of equipment among EPA offices and regions.  ERTG has developed response tools and guidance documents including the national Emergency Response Equipment List and associated standard operating guides.  Other documents include air and water decision trees.  Also, equipment from the Emergency Response Equipment List may be on display.  Come to the ERTG booth to learn more about ERTG work products, see where you can find ERTG's work products on line, or pick up a hard copy.

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U.S. EPA’s Environmental Response Laboratory Network
Schatzi Fitz-James, U.S. EPA Office of Emergency Management

EPA’s Environmental Response Laboratory Network (ERLN), which includes the Water Laboratory Alliance, is a national network of laboratories that provides analytical capability and sufficient capacity to meet project-specific data quality objectives on an as-needed basis.  The ERLN integrates capabilities of existing public sector laboratories with accredited private sector labs to support environmental responses.

To enhance emergency preparedness, EPA has the following tools available:

Attendees obtain a basic understanding of these tools, who they are for, and how they can assist users. They also learn when and why they should use these tools and what they need to know in order to use them.

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self-contained mobile laboratory

U.S. EPA Environmental Response Team
Dennisses Valdes, U.S. EPA Environmental Response Team

Anything, Anytime, Anywhere – Overview of the emergency response air monitoring and consultation, innovative technologies, information technology services, risk evaluations, remedy consultations, site investigations, oil spill counter-measures, geo-physical surveys, fate and transport dynamics, ground water investigations, Dive Team Operations, and portable mobile laboratories' experience. 

In response to a disaster, EPA uses a self-contained mobile laboratory to monitor air quality. The mobile bus, named Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer (TAGA), is capable of real-time sampling and analysis. It can detect chemicals at very low levels. TAGA also has specialized sampling equipment to use at remote locations and to measure air quality. The TAGA aids EPA's efforts to rapidly identify and address potential environmental threats in disaster areas.

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U.S. EPA Environmental Response Team Technical Services
John Gilbert, U.S. EPA Environmental Response Team

Stop by the Environmental Response Team's (ERT) Tech Zone exhibit and learn about the variety of software tools and web-based applications ERT has available to assist OSCs and field personnel in managing and performing site-related duties. Support staff will be on-hand to provide a more in-depth review of all of the ERT desktop and on-line tools, including Scribe, Responsible Care Management System, TrainTrax, OSC Web-Sites, and WebEOC. In addition, there will be Internet access available at the ERT Tech Zone for training program participants to check e-mail and other remote access needs.

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U.S. EPA Environmental Response Training Program
JoAnn Eskelsen and Bruce Potoka, U.S. EPA Environmental Response Team

As part of EPA’s comprehensive program for protecting the public and the environment from hazardous materials, Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation’s (OSRTI) Technology Innovation and Field Services Division has developed the Environmental Response Training Program (ERTP).  The courses in this program are designed for personnel who respond to emergencies or who investigate and clean up abandoned hazardous waste sites.

The courses developed by EPA’s Environmental Response Team and presented by contract personnel range from one to five days.  These courses emphasize the practical application of lecture material through problem-solving sessions, case studies, demonstrations, and exercises using field instruments.

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U.S. EPA National Approach to Response Field Communications Group (NARFCOM)
Rick Jardine, U.S. EPA Region 4

The National Approach to Response Field Communications Group (NARCOM) provides a comprehensive, cohesive vision to coordinate emergency management of field communications across all of EPA’s regional offices, and EPA Special Teams (ERT, RERT, and NDT).  National consistency among EPA units communicating in the field is one of the primary objectives of this group.

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U.S. EPA National Counter-Terrorism Evidence Response Team (NCERT)
Andrea Abat and Kurt Grunert, U.S. EPA National Counter-terrorism Evidence Response Team

Established in 2001, EPA’s National Counter-terrorism Evidence Response Team (NCERT) provides law enforcement response personnel and support for incidents or sites that contain chemical, biological, or radiological hazards and have a link to terrorism or environmental crimes.  NCERT supports Special Agents, OSCs, and the other EPA Special Teams. Additionally, NCERT provides extensive law enforcement liaison contacts and law enforcement coordination capabilities to any incident.

While not traditional first responders, NCERT endeavors to achieve initial on-site response within 12 hours, 24/7, 365 days a year. NCERT members have extensive knowledge of investigations involving EPA programs and operations. They are specially trained to provide threat/risk assessments, downrange forensic evidence collection at high hazard crime scenes and incidents of national significance and force protection to EPA OSCs, EPA Special Teams, and other agencies.

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U.S. EPA National Decontamination Team
Sandra Whittle, U.S. EPA National Decontamination Team

The National Decontamination Team (NDT) is dedicated to providing decontamination expertise, especially related to chemical, biological, and radiological contaminants that can be used as weapons of mass destruction (WMD).  Located in Cincinnati, Ohio, the team provides scientific and technical assistance related to the decontamination of buildings, building contents, public infrastructure (including water systems, power plants, and mass transit), agriculture, and associated environmental media (air, soil, and water).  The NDT is composed of a staff of experts in the fields of industrial hygiene, health physics, emergency medicine, environmental science, structural and industrial engineering (HVAC), toxicology, analytical chemistry and biochemistry.  The team is available to support OSCs under the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP).  The 2010 NDT OSC Readiness exhibit depicts the range of scientific and technical resources available to OSCs involved in hazardous materials responses and remedial operations.  The NDT assists OSCs with decontamination plans, and interpretation of policy and research issues.  The team also promotes decontamination readiness of OSCs and the larger response community through training, exercises, and planning.  Working with EPA's other Special Teams (the Environmental Response Team (ERT), the National Counter-Terrorism Evidence Response Team (NCERT), and the Radiological Emergency Response Team (RERT)); the National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC); other agencies; and research groups, the NDT bridges research and response by identifying research needs and assisting with the implementation of newly developed methods and field tools.  At this year's 2010 OSC Readiness Training, members of NDT will provide technical support in the Tech Zone, and assistance to OSCs who are testing a database on the new internet-based EPA Emergency Response Portal.

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U.S. EPA’s National Approach to Response (NAR) Training and Exercise Program
Roberta Runge, U.S. EPA Office of Emergency Management

In accordance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8, EPA’s National Approach to Response (NAR) Training and Exercise Program was developed to identify and coordinate training priorities and capabilities as well as develop a national exercise schedule for the Agency. The EPA Training and Exercise Planning Workgroup (TEPW) was established in August 2009, to identify national training priorities, gaps and issues. Every region and numerous programs are represented on the TEPW. Each region has developed a Training and Exercise Plan (TEP), which outlines the regional training focus, and exercises; and a National Training and Exercise Plan will be developed based on the information provided by the regional TEPs.

This booth will include posters displaying the current three-year national exercise schedule and key sections of the National Training and Exercise Plan.

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U.S. EPA National Incident Management System Integration Team
Roberta Runge, U.S. EPA Office of Emergency Management

The National Incident Management System Integration Team display provides updated information on policy and guidance documents, and any available field guidance documents.

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U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, National Homeland Security Research Center
Charlena Yoder, U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, National Homeland Security Research Center

EPA’s National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) manages, coordinates, and supports a wide variety of homeland security research and technical assistance efforts.  NHSRC develops reliable, responsive scientific expertise and resources used to prevent, prepare for, and recover from public health and environmental emergencies.  Research and development efforts focus on five primary areas:  assessing the risk of human exposure to contaminants; decontamination of buildings and outdoor environments; protection of the nation's drinking water resources; tools for emergency responders and local governments; and testing and evaluation of technologies that show potential for homeland security applications.  More information can be found at www.epa.gov/nhsrc.

This year’s booth will be showcasing the Bio-Response Operational Testing and Evaluation (BOTE) Project. This is a collaborative effort between EPA, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Defense (DoD), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) designed to operationally test and evaluate biological (Anthrax) incident response from public health/law enforcement response through environmental remediation.  The project will involve coordination between On-scene Coordinators and Special Teams, EPA researchers from the NHSRC, and several EPA Program Offices to demonstrate the restoration of a facility at full-scale after the wide-area release of a biological threat agent. The project will assess the effectiveness of numerous decontamination methods within the facility and includes establishment of an Incident Command System, sampling, decontamination including waste treatment and disposal (solid and liquid), facility clearance (including risk assessment\communication), and economic analysis.  This project is currently being planned by a cross-agency/cross-government project team and testing is expected to be conducted in September 2010 at a facility located at Idaho National Laboratories.

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U.S. EPA Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation, Technology Innovation and Field Services Division
Cheryl Johnson, U.S. EPA Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation

The mission of the Technology Innovation and Field Services Division (TIFSD) is to advocate more effective, less costly approaches (such "smarter solutions") by government and industry to assess and clean up contaminated waste sites, soil, and groundwater. Working with other federal agencies, states, consulting engineering firms, responsible parties, technology developers, and the investment community, TIFSD provides robust technology and market information and works to remove policy and institutional impediments related to the deployment of these technologies. The scope of the mission extends to Superfund sites, corrective action sites under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), underground storage tank clean-ups, state voluntary clean up programs and Brownfields. Technologies of interest are for field sampling and analysis and management (treatment and containment) of contaminated soil and ground water.

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U.S. EPA Peer Support and Critical Incident Stress Management Team
Jan Shubert, U.S. EPA Office of Emergency Management

EPA recognizes the potential for exposure to highly stressful and even traumatic events as a result of emergency response work.  To assist responders, EPA provides a network of trained peer OSCs, other EPA support personnel, and mental health professionals, who understand the nature of the job and can provide stress management assistance in person or over the phone during particularly difficult responses and other high stress experiences.  Also, the Team is expanding the stress management services it provides to include animal assisted crisis response at major disasters.  Information about the team, contact information for team members, stress management information, and a dog that is used to assist in crisis response are available at the exhibit.

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U.S. EPA Portable High-Throughput Integrated Laboratory Identification System
Larry Kaelin, U.S. EPA National Decontamination Team

Portable High-Throughput Integrated Laboratory Identification Systems (PHILIS) Portable High-Throughput Integrated Laboratory Identification Systems (PHILIS)

The U.S. EPA Office of Emergency Management has set up an advanced mobile laboratory asset called the Portable High-Throughput Integrated Laboratory Identification Systems (PHILIS). The PHILIS has been set up to detect Chemical Warfare Agents (CWA) and Toxic Industrial Chemicals (TIC).  The PHILIS is designed to analyze environmental samples from various matrices that have contamination resulting from terrorist events, natural disasters or accidental chemical releases. There are currently two locations where the PHILIS system are operational; Edison, New Jersey and Castle Rock, Colorado.

Portable High-Throughput Integrated Laboratory Identification Systems (PHILIS)

The PHILIS will provide on-site mobile laboratory capabilities to support EPA’s OSC community as the mobile lab asset under EPA’s evolving Emergency Response Laboratory Network (ERLN).  As a mobile laboratory, a PHILIS system near the event would be quickly deployed to the impacted location. Highly reliable, validated analytical results would be available for OSCs and other decision-makers within just a few hours following sample collection without the need to transport large numbers of samples to an off-site laboratory location. 

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U.S. EPA Emergency Management Portal
Constance Haaser, U.S. EPA Office of Emergency Management

The U.S. EPA Emergency Management Portal (EMP) is the central piece of EPA Emergency Management Architecture.  When complete it will tie together prevention, preparedness and response information to allow EPA's Emergency Management community access to the information they need to respond to and efficiently store data from large and small sites.  The EMP will also tie together data from the removal and remedial programs in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) by allowing automated data and document transfer to other OSWER assets and by providing a central data store for all of OSWER's environmental analytical data.

The Emergency Management Portal will consist of the following core modules:

Resource Management: Resource management will be deployed as two modules. One for equipment and the other for personnel field readiness.

Technical Information including the Decontamination Portfolio: This module contains information useful to the On-Site Commander concerning procedures for decontamination and containment, health and safety, and toxicity. The Decontamination Portfolio itself focuses on Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Other resources focus on the daily activities of the responder.  OEM databases that are or will be available include CAMEO Chemicals, System for Risk Management Plans, Compendium of Environmental Testing Laboratories, and Oil Facilities.

Site and Facility Management

Reporting and Analysis: The EMP is using one EPA’s existing business intelligence tools, Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to perform reporting and analysis functions on the data housed in the EMP database.  Geospacial analysis of EMP data can be performed using Emergency Response Analyzer, OEM’s existing mapping application or by extracting the geospacial data itself.  EMP is house in an Oracle Spacial database, which makes extraction and analysis by other geographic information system tools easier and faster. 

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U.S. EPA Radiological Emergency Response Team (RERT)
Nate McMichael, U.S. EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air

RERT Sample Preparatory Laboratory

U.S. EPA's Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (ORIA) Radiological Emergency Response Team (RERT) is one of the EPA Special Teams under the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), specializing in radiological emergency response.  The RERT outdoor exhibit features RERT Sample Preparatory Laboratory and a “Deployable” airborne radiation monitor.  Along with the equipment, information on RERT’s role in radiological emergency response is available.

“Deployable” airborne radiation monitor

Along with the RERT outdoor exhibit, the indoor booth provides copies of EPA's pocket-sized guide, Communicating Radiation Risks: Crisis Communications for Emergency Responders, which was developed for responders communicating with the public and the media or advising those who do during a radiological incident.  OSCs are invited and encouraged to stop by, pick up a guide, and receive training on or a review of the equipment.

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U.S. EPA Region 5 Green Policy Implementation
Wally Nied, U.S. EPA Region 5

U.S. EPA Region 5 informs fellow OSC participants about EPA Region 5's plans to implement the nationally required GREEN POLICY.  This exhibit features the following:

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U.S. EPA Response Support Corps
Sherry Fielding, U.S. EPA Office of Emergency Management

One of the key resources available during a large-scale emergency is EPA’s Response Support Corps (RSC).  This group provides support to On-Scene Coordinators (OSC) when responding to emergency disasters.  The booth provides examples of RSC support roles in exercises, training, and other events.  Staff will be available to provide information about the RSC and to demonstrate the RSC national database.  RSC members who bring their flash drives with Lotus Notes can get assistance in updating the RSC database.  For more information about the RSC visit: http://intranet.epa.gov/rsc

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U.S. EPA’s Training Exchange and Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Training Coordination Team
Gary Turner, U.S. EPA Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation

The OSWER Training Coordination Team operates the Training Exchange (Trainex) Web site in partnership with EPA headquarters and regional offices, the Interstate Technology Remediation Council (ITRC), and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).  The Trainex site includes information and schedules for deliveries of more than 850 training courses related to hazardous waste cleanup and site and incident management for staff from EPA, other federal agencies, and states.  Approximately 15,000 visitors each month access Trainex for on-line registration, logistics information, interactive courses and Internet seminars, and for links to other EPA and non-EPA Web sites that provide information on training.

Training topics include Superfund, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), oil, emergency response, counter-terrorism, enforcement, community involvement, environmental public health, and water security. Training is provided through regional courses, workshops, and conferences; including CERCLA Education Center (CEC), Environmental Response Training Program (ERTP), and Community Involvement University (CIU) courses, and regional training opportunities.

Members of the OSWER Training Coordination Team are knowledgeable about all the offerings and can assist with scheduling and logistics for new courses.  Names and contact information are available at www.trainex.org.

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U.S. EPA Water Contamination Information Tool
Karen Milam, U.S. EPA Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water, Water Security Division

The U.S. EPA is leading efforts to develop tools to support response to drinking water contamination events.  A key tool developed by EPA is the Water Contaminant Information Tool (WCIT).  WCIT is a secure online database of information on biological, chemical, and radiological contaminants that, if accidentally or intentionally introduced into drinking water or wastewater systems, could pose a serious threat to human health or infrastructure.  WCIT is the most comprehensive database of its kind and the only resource that contains data specific to drinking water and wastewater risks.  A select group of water sector and emergency response professionals, including EPA OSCs, is eligible to apply for access to WCIT.

WCIT data include details on indicators of contamination, such as taste, odor, color changes, and environmental indicators of contaminated water sources or wastewater discharges.  WCIT also estimates the impacts of contaminants on water quality indicators such as pH, turbidity, TOC, UVA and conductivity, as well as impacts of contaminants on chlorine or chloramine residuals.  Importantly, WCIT contains details on toxicity, health effects, and other medical information.    EPA recently added profiles of nine additional contaminants to WCIT, bringing the total number of contaminants in the tool to 102.

The exhibit explains how OSCs can use WCIT for training, such as tabletop exercises for responding to incidents.  For responding to confirmed contamination, WCIT includes information on treating contaminated drinking water and wastewater, as well as contaminant-specific information on decontamination drinking water or wastewater infrastructure.

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