EPA Homeland Security Research Center

Nov 7, 2013

Gaining from Net Zero

EPA Homeland Security Research Center, Fort Riley, homeland security research, Net Zero, NetZero, sustainability 1 Comment

This week, EPA is hosting the 7th annual international conference on decontamination research and development in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

To help spread the word about the conference, which brings top experts from around the world to advance collaboration and share information on cleaning up contamination—especially chemical, biological, and radiological agents—we are posting “EPA Science Matters” newsletter feature stories.

Gaining from Net Zero
EPA scientists join forces with the U.S. Army sustainability initiative to advance decontamination technologies

EPA scientist Jeff Szabo, Ph.D. and his colleagues are using vehicle cleaning operations on the Kansas Fort Riley military base as an opportunity to advance research into decontamination techniques and technologies. Their work has grown out of a unique partnership between the Agency’s Office of Research and Development and the U.S. Army to support the Army’s Net Zero program, a sustainability initiative focused on reducing energy and water consumption, and waste on military bases.

At Fort Riley, soldiers use high pressure water cannons to clean military vehicles returning from training exercises with a thick coating of dirt, mud, and grime. The resulting wastewater running off the vehicles drains into large sedimentation basins to let large particles of dirt settle out. That’s where the research opportunity materialized.

Realizing that similar cleaning operations would be necessary following a large-scale event involving biological, radiological, or chemical contamination, EPA scientists set up a field station to explore decontamination techniques they could apply in real-world scenarios. The scientists and engineers use safe biological agents as surrogates for more dangerous ones to test advanced oxidation and disinfection technologies. They add these surrogates to both the dirty water from the vehicle cleaning operation and to equal quantities of clean water. By comparing results for removing surrogates from both dirty and clean water, the scientists learn how removal technologies will fair under conditions involving vehicles returning from emergency response and remediation operations.

“This situation mirrors a problem we conduct research on at EPA: If we have large volumes of contaminated water flushed from a drinking water system, or washed from a building or outdoor area, what treatment options are readily available and how do they perform? The vehicle wash facility at Ft. Riley generates ‘real world’ wastewater that we would encounter when washing a military vehicle, and could be used as a surrogate for dirty water washed from cars or buildings during a contamination event in a city. Not all water that becomes contaminated is the clean stuff flowing through pipes on the way to our faucets,” Szabo explained.

Furthermore, if a military vehicle is contaminated with a biological warfare agent in the field, results from this project will help advance technologies and treatment processes to decontaminate the vehicle and the wastewater produced.

After the research is complete, data on treating large volumes of real world “dirty” water will be available to cities, states, and Department of Defense facilities that may have to treat large volumes of contaminated water.

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Nov 6, 2013

Advancing Anthrax Response Capabilities

anthrax, Bacillus anthracis, Emergency Response, Environmental Response Laboratory Network (ERLN), EPA Homeland Security Research Center, homeland security 1 Comment

This week, EPA is hosting the 7th annual international conference on decontamination research and development in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

Advancing Anthrax Response Capabilities
EPA researchers developed an open-access protocol for anthrax detection and informing response activities

Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicted spores from the Sterne strain of Bacillus anthracis bacteria. Image courtesy of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During and following an anthrax attack, emergency responders and clean-up officials will depend on many different laboratories to process large quantities of various kinds of samples to determine the nature and extent of contamination. And then, after initial clean-up efforts have been completed, multiple “clearance” samples would need to be tested to evaluate whether anthrax-causing Bacillus anthracis spores were adequately reduced.

EPA researchers have combined many of the analytical procedures the Agency’s Environmental Response Laboratory Network (ERLN) would need to perform into a single, “open-access” protocol, the Protocol for Detection of B. anthracis in Environmental Samples during the Remediation Phase of an Anthrax Event (2012). “Open-access” means that laboratories across the nation have access to a consistent set of directions and to the key components of the analysis. The essential additives, developed by Agency researchers, are DNA probes for Bacillus anthracis that laboratories need to conduct rapid analysis.

The ERLN is a nationwide network of federal, state, local and commercial environmental laboratories (including sub-network for water samples, the Water Laboratory Alliance) charged with analyzing chemical, biological and radiological contamination following a terrorist attack.

“With the availability of this open access Protocol, EPA and its partners will be able to analyze a large number of environmental samples to detect Bacillus anthracis quickly and accurately during any incident. The Ba Protocol would also enable laboratory analysts to compare lab results from one to another,” explains Sanjiv Shah, Ph.D. senior EPA microbiologist.

Reducing the time it takes for labs to provide officials with the data they will need to guide clean-up efforts and advise occupants on when they can start to re-visit or re-occupy formerly contaminated facilities is another expected impact of the Protocol.

“The availability of this new EPA Protocol will improve the nation’s ability to protect our health and environment and ease the hard work of recovery following an anthrax incident,” says EPA’s Acting Associate Administrator for Homeland Security, Juan Reyes.

Nov 5, 2013

EPA Homeland Security Research

9/11, anthrax, bioterrorism, chemical contamination incident, clean up, Conference on Decontamination Research and Development, decontamination, Emergency Response, EPA Homeland Security Research Center, homeland security, radiological incident, resiliency 1 Comment

This week, EPA is hosting the 7th annual international conference on decontamination research and development in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

To help spread the word about the conference, which brings top experts from around the world to advance collaboration and share information on cleaning up contamination—especially chemical, biological, and radiological agents—we will be posting “EPA Science Matters” newsletter feature stories.

EPA Homeland Security Research

By Gregory Sayles, Ph.D.

The images that most people associate with homeland security are immediately dramatic: the flashing lights of emergency vehicles, biohazard-suit-clad decontamination teams, and the now iconic scenes that unfolded during the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

EPA homeland security researchers participate in a emergency collaborative response exercise.

EPA homeland security researchers participate in an emergency response exercise.

Since that time, EPA scientists and engineers, working collaboratively with Agency emergency response and field personnel, water utility professionals, and research partners from across the federal government and beyond, have been working vigilantly to focus our collective response on making the nation more secure, better prepared, and increasingly resilient.

Together, this great team is helping advance national security in ways that greatly enhance our capacity to detect, deter, and respond to terrorist incidents and other catastrophes. And we are doing so in ways that not only advance homeland security, but build a scientific foundation that helps local communities become more resilient in the face of disruption, be it a deliberate act or unwelcome natural occurrence.

EPA plays a critical role in protecting the nation’s drinking water and the related water distribution and treatment infrastructure, and in advancing the capability to respond to, and clean up from, large-scale incidents involving chemical, biological, or radiological contamination agents.

Such responsibilities include developing the tools, methods, and techniques needed to: determine whether an attack has happened, characterize the impacts of environmental disasters, and control contamination. In addition, EPA researchers work to develop ways to assess environmental and health risks related to these incidents and clean up operations, and to effectively communicate those risks with decision makers, affected community residents, and other stakeholders.

Much of that work will be highlighted this week as we host our partners and collaborators from across the globe at the 7th annual international conference on decontamination research and development in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. To mark the conference, we will be highlighting just a small sampling of EPA’s homeland security research here on our blog, It All Starts with Science.

I invite you to check back over the next few days to learn more about how EPA researchers and their partners are exploring ways to decontaminate buildings from the bacteria that causes anthrax, how to better support large-scale clean up and waste disposal operations following a large area contamination incident, and much, much more to support homeland security.

Those projects and others are improving the nation’s response capability and helping replace pictures once dominated by tragedy and destruction into an ongoing story of resiliency and preparedness. Learn more about EPA homeland security research on our web site: http://www.epa.gov/nhsrc/index.html.

About the Author: Gregory Sayles, Ph.D., is the national program director for EPA homeland security research.