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HOMELAND SECURITY:

HOMELAND SECURITY:. WATER SECURITY MONITORING METHODS/NEMI Herb Brass NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETING PHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002. New Project - Time is of Essence.

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HOMELAND SECURITY:

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  1. HOMELAND SECURITY: WATER SECURITY MONITORING METHODS/NEMI Herb Brass NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  2. New Project - Time is of Essence • Tetra Tech has a work assignment to coordinate and help with entering methods for target analytes of interest to Homeland Security into NEMI. • Participants include Jerry Diamond (Tetra Tech), Larry Keith and Bernie Malo (through a subcontract), Dan Sullivan and Charlie Peters (USGS), and Herb Brass (EPA). • All the above are members of MDCB and active participants in the creation of NEMI. • Steve Allgeier (EPA -- Water Protection Task Force) is providing Task Force perspective • In addition, a core group of experts with chemical and biological agents and radiochemical agents is being organized for peer review. NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  3. The Objective • To create a central system for locating, evaluating, and retrieving analytical methods for chemical, biological, and radiological warfare agents in one federally managed location. • This will enable the Water Protection Task Force to meet some of its immediate homeland security needs involving rapid response. • Advantage - since the framework for the database system is already developed and in place, using NEMI will minimize costs by leveraging on a proven framework, and simply adding Task Force elements to it. NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  4. NEMI Versus Water Protection Objectives • Traditional environmental analytical objectives seek methods that provide good accuracy and precision with measured concentrations of target analytes in support of regulatory and non-regulatory driven needs. • Finding the best methods, in response to a terrorism attack, has a different objective - to find methods that provide highly selective identification (i.e., low false positive and false negative rates) of target analytes as rapidly as possible. • Accuracy and precision of measured concentrations of target analytes are still important, but definitely less so than rapid and confident identification of the target analyte(s) so that emergency response plans can be implemented. NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  5. The Approach • First determine what additional fields need to be added to NEMI. • Answer: Rapidity of analysis and method selectivity. • These two fields have been combined in a simple relational table to produce an “Efficacy Index.” • An Efficacy Index of 1 provides a highly selective method giving results in less than 1 hour. Some field methods qualify. • An Efficacy Index of 2 (most methods) provides a less selective method giving results in less than 1 hour or a highly selective method that gives results between 1 and 24 hours. • Methods with Efficacy Indexes of 3, 4, or 5 are not recommended unless there are no other alternatives. • The method “report” table will be revised to include these fields. NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  6. The Approach - continued • Secondly, target analytes with methods already in NEMI are being updated with the rapidity, selectivity, and the Efficacy Index fields. • In addition to a “primary” method identified by the EPA task force, all other methods in NEMI, that apply to the same target analytes, are having these fields added to only those target analytes. • In a few cases these alternative methods are better than the initial primary methods and may become a primary method for a target analyte. NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  7. The Approach - continued • Thirdly, new methods not in NEMI are being abstracted and will be added to NEMI. • In all cases, the full method will be linked to the method summary. • Lastly, an expert system is being developed that will be similar to EMMA. • Purpose is to help users prioritize all considerations when searching for methods. • Also, will recommend approach when target analyte does not yet have a suspected identity. NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  8. The Environmental Monitoring and Measurement AdvisorEMMA Charlie Peters NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  9. What EMMA Does • EMMA combines decision criteria based upon EPA's Data Quality Objective (DQO) Process with a user's specific project needs and the principles of Performance Based Systems (PBS). • Meta data, available from a new National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI), is used to define specific project needs for data quality and also measurement system (i.e., analytical methods) requirements. NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  10. EMMA’s Process • EMMA leads users through complex decisions to tailor their plans to meet specific project monitoring needs. • It considers the physical and chemical characteristics of the sampling site and target analytes, desired data quality, available budget, user’s objectives, and the consequences of making wrong decisionsbased on the data users will obtain. • To do this EMMA combines decision criteria based on systematic planning (including all elements of EPA’s Data Quality Objective (DQO) process), a user’s specific project needs, and methods information from NEMI. NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  11. EMMA’s Unique Features Expert System Side Explanation Box Side NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  12. EMMA Has Modular Construction • EMMA consists of three modules, each based on a group of interactive decision criteria. It helps users to consider, and answer, all critical questions for project planning so that they will have a plan that ensures that they will get the right data on time the first time with no unpleasant surprises at the end. • The first module incorporates decisions based on what, where, when, why, and how a user plans to monitor a site (including their QA/QC requirements and budget). • The second module (Method Selection) is freely available and linked to the NEMI web site and includes considerations of accuracy, precision, sensitivity, selectivity, cost, regulatory approval, etc. • The third module helps users to calculate how many samples they need for their project requirements and matches that to their available budget and desired confidence levels in the data. NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  13. EMMA and NEMI are Complimentary EMMA - Designing Monitoring Projects Based on Objectives, Decisions & the Consequences of Missing Objectives. NEMI - Method Selection NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

  14. Live Demonstration of EMMA http://www.EMMA-ExpertSystem.com/02-4-DemoEMMA.html

  15. Expansion of EMMA’s Advice • Would an expansion of EMMA’s rules, based on input from NWQMC members to include the entire Monitoring Framework, meet NWQMC’s objectives? • Are the dual frame attributes and three planes of information (for 1. rapid advice, 2. educational uses, and 3. research) useful for a NWQMC expert system? • Would leveraging such a system provide a faster, less expensive product? • Should a CRADA be evaluated as a way to involve the NWQMC? • NWQMC Workgroups requested to provide feedback on Thursday afternoon, in a coordinated way, if possible. To evaluate the complete EMMA expert system go tohttp://www.EMMA-ExpertSystem.com/02-4-DemoEMMA.html NATIONAL WATER QUALITY MONITORING COUNCIL MEETINGPHOENIX, ARIZONA DECEMBER 9 - 13, 2002

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