Basic Information

Overview

For over 30 years, EPA and its partners have made great progress toward a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people. Following the terrorist events of September 11, 2001, EPA’s mission expanded beyond safeguarding the natural environment (i.e., air, water, and land) from traditional sources of pollution. On September 24, 2002, EPA announced the formation of the National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC), which is part of the Office of Research and Development (ORD), to research answers to science questions related to homeland security.

With the nation under continuing threat from those who seek to harm it, EPA now also has the important responsibility of protecting human health and the environment from the effects of terrorist acts. EPA is the lead federal agency in charge of preparing the water sector for terrorist attacks and the lead agency for decontaminating indoor and outdoor areas following an attack. These areas include buildings, large public spaces such as airports, and wide outdoor areas such as stadiums. Terrorist acts may involve biological, chemical, and radiological agents not previously encountered as environmental pollutants. A thorough understanding of the nature of these agents and their effects on human health is needed. EPA’s expanded role is to provide the critical scientific research necessary to ensure national security in consideration of these new threats.

Research is performed by biologists, chemists, engineers, risk assessors, and numerical modelers who are dedicated to understanding the terrorist threat. Although ideally we would like to prevent all attacks, realistically we must also be able to rapidly detect and contain contamination, mitigate the impacts, and recover from such incidents. 

Guided by the roadmap set forth in EPA’s Strategic Plan for Homeland Security, research is performed on:

• Water protection to improve the nation’s capability to protect from and respond to terrorist attacks on our water and wastewater infrastructure
• Indoor and outdoor decontamination to improve the nation’s capability to respond to terrorist attacks affecting buildings and the outdoor environment

More specifically, we aspire to continually disseminate state-of-the-science products that help our customers to:

• Prevent and protect against contamination events
• Effectively detect, identify, and characterize contamination
• Rapidly contain contamination and mitigate its impacts
• Efficiently remediate and recover (decontaminate, treat, and dispose of contaminated material) after contamination events

Directives

Homeland Security Presidential Directives

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the Office of the President began issuing a series of Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPDs) that task federal departments and agencies with specific responsibilities and communicate presidential decisions concerning homeland security policy. The HSPDs, in conjunction with the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act (Bioterrorism Act), specify activities that federal departments and agencies must undertake to improve security and combat the terrorist threat. EPA’s homeland security related authorities are derived predominantly from three of these presidential directives:

HSPD 7: Critical Infrastructure Identification, Prioritization, and Protection designates EPA as the sector-specific agency for critical water infrastructure. Designation of EPA as the lead agency for these activities is consistent with the President’s National Strategy for Homeland Security (2007), which designates EPA as the lead agency for protecting U.S. water resources, from source water through use, treatment, and discharge.

HSPD 9: Defense of the United States Agriculture and Food directs EPA to develop a robust, comprehensive, and fully coordinated surveillance and monitoring program to provide early warning in the event of a terrorist attack using biological, chemical, or radiological contaminants. HSPD 9 also requires the development of a nationwide laboratory network to support the routine monitoring and response requirements of the surveillance and monitoring program.

HSPD 10: Biodefense in the 21st Century, currently a classified document, reaffirms EPA’s responsibilities under HSPD 9 while adding a clear directive regarding the Agency’s responsibilities during decontamination efforts and in developing the ability to address the risk of contamination following a bioattack.

Priorities

Multiple approaches are used to plan research and set priorities. One approach involves the analysis of threat scenarios. A threat scenario is a combination of a possible sequence of events and chemical, biological, or radiological agents that could be used in a terrorist attack. The development of a threat scenario considers a specific type of attack in a specific situation. As a result, thousands of possible combinations of environments, agents, and methods of attack are evaluated. Priority scenarios are those that are considered most probable and/or that are most likely to cause widespread or significant harm.

Once the priority scenarios are determined, a knowledge gap analysis is performed; that is, we assess our ability to protect against, detect, and respond to those scenarios. We identify hindrances to these abilities and research solutions to overcome them. Our research plans and products go through rigorous peer review to ensure consensus among our customers and scientific experts (e.g., the National Academies of Science, the Science Advisory Board) that our priorities and products are appropriate.

A second approach to setting research priorities considers the best scientific judgment of our researchers and customers. Our customers provide us with continual feedback on the value and utility of our work. We adjust or adapt our research programs on the basis of the feedback we receive. In doing so, we create lasting partnerships that advance the quality, relevance, and impact of our research.

Research Collaborations

Collaboration with other agencies and organizations, both public and private, is critical to the success of EPA’s homeland security research in order to avoid duplication, accelerate the pace of research outcomes, and build on complementary work. EPA enters into collaborative relationships to leverage resources to solve problems facing multiple organizations. More information on these agencies can be found on their sites via the Related Links section.

Facilities

Homeland security research is centrally managed in Cincinnati, Ohio, although various offices and facilities are strategically located throughout the United States: Washington, D.C.; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; and Las Vegas, Nevada. Research facilities are located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Research Triangle Park, NC
Research Triangle Park is home to one of EPA’s high-bay facilities, capable of accommodating large (i.e., multistory) equipment. The research at this location is conducted in the facility’s advanced aerosol and combustion laboratories. Much of the indoor and outdoor decontamination research is conducted at or managed from the Research Triangle Park facility.

Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati is home to the Test and Evaluation facility. The facility is a multipurpose, high-bay research facility that contains several pipe loop systems to simulate water distribution systems. A portion of water protection research on water quality sensors and distribution system decontamination is conducted at the Test and Evaluation facility.

Organization

Text Version