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Background. What is Superfund?Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), passed in 1980Mission: Protect communities from abandoned and heavily contaminated hazardous waste sites.Federal Government must first become aware of the hazardCitizensState agenciesEPA Regional offices .
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1. Use of GIS to Evaluate Health Risks for Contaminated Water Diving in U.S. Waterways Kristen M. Stanley
MGIS Capstone Project Peer Review
July 1, 2008
2. Background What is Superfund?
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), passed in 1980
Mission: Protect communities from abandoned and heavily contaminated hazardous waste sites.
Federal Government must first become aware of the hazard
Citizens
State agencies
EPA Regional offices
3. Background What is Superfund? (continued)
Not all hazardous sites are targeted under this program
Efforts are based on initial risk assessment
What is a Superfund Site?
any land in the United States that has been contaminated by hazardous waste and identified by the EPA as a candidate for cleanup because it poses a risk to human health and/or the environment.
4. Superfund Sites March 2007
5. Background Hazard Ranking System
Guides EPA in determining which sites require the most attention
National Priorities List (NPL)
Most serious sites identified by Superfund
EPA reports as of May 8, 2008
60 proposed sites
1,255 current sites
326 deleted sites
6. Background
EPA coordinates efforts
communities, scientists, contractors, local industries, researchers, state, local, federal and tribal leaders
EPA clean up efforts include
Identify hazardous waste found at the site,
Test conditions of the site
Establish cleanup plans
Direct and manage clean up
7. Portland Harbor, OR
8. Portland Harbor, OR Chemicals found in and around harbor:
Arsenic
Carcinogenic
Used in pesticides, herbicides and insecticides
Pesticides
Runoff from agricultural chemical manufacturing and wood treatment facilities
PCBs
Polychlorinated biphenyls
Coolants, insulating liquids (e.g., electrical transformers)
Carcinogenic; Absorbed through ingestion, inhalation, and dermal exposure
PAHs
Polyaromatic hydrocarbons
a product of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels
bioaccumulate
Dioxin
Incineration of solid wastes, copper smelting
Carcinogenic
9. Critical Role of SCUBA Divers Underwater tasks:
Marine vessel and dock repairs
Search and rescue efforts
Sampling and monitoring
Underwater inspections
Potential Hazards
General SCUBA hazards
High level of contaminants
10. Current Tools for SCUBA Divers
11. Current Tools for SCUBA Divers
12. Limitations of Tools They do little to inform a diver of dangers associated with acute and chronic exposure to chemicals found in river sediments where they are diving.
In order to alleviate this problem, there is a need to develop a new tool that takes these two online mapping applications further.
Divers are in need of a user-friendly tool to give them a comprehensive list of potential chemical hazards at potential dive sites.
13. Proposed Solution Development of a GIS that will allow divers to evaluate health risks associated with diving in contaminated waters, such as Portland Harbor, through the use of a GIS that combines sediment contaminant data with health safety data in an ArcGIS environment
Benefits to divers:
Pre- and post-dive safety measures
Choice of appropriate protective equipment
Proper procedures for handling emergency situations
Certain health symptoms the diver needs to watch out for
Coordinated efforts between the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC, Vicksburg, MS) and the Portland District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
14. Data Layers and Sources The core of the project is made up of two key layers
Sample Data
Historical sediment contaminant data from the 1997 dredging of the Lower Willamette River.
Data provided by the Portland District of the USACE
Fields:
15. Data Layers and Sources Health safety data to extract from a number of different sources
CAS#
Chemical Name
Chemical Group
Oral RfD, Oral LOAEL, Oral NOAEL
Acute and/or long term exposure risks
16. Data Layers and Sources Other reference layers
Road, hwy, interstate
Satellite imagery
Oregon counties
Waterways
Boat ramps
Major cities
River miles
17. Application Description Map of Multnomah County, Oregon
Toggle layers on and off
Contaminated Water Diving Tool
Search
Get Risk Information
Pan
Zoom In, Out
Full Extent
Previous, Next Extent
18. Project Timeline June/July
Data gathering, analysis, and manipulation
Create Health Safety data table
Combine all layers and data tables into one geodatabase
July/August
Programming
Prepare for demonstration to users
August/September
Demonstration to users
Make any changes discussed in meeting
Final demonstration
Documentation
19. Potential Issues Data
Obtaining toxicity data for all chemicals
Determining the hazard indicators
Hazard ranking calculations stored in table or calculated on demand?
Application Design
Conceptual model vs. Actual model
20. Future Developments Allow for user input of data
Sample data
Chemical toxicity data
Expand to include other major contaminated waterways in the United States
Develop a web mapping application based on this concept
21. Questions and Comments
Thank you for this opportunity to present my project proposal to you.
Special thank you to my capstone advisor, Robert Crane.
If you have any questions now or in the future regarding this project, please feel free to contact me.
Kristen Stanley
Kristen.Stanley@comcast.net
Robert G. Crane, Director
Alliance for Earth Science, Engineering and Development in Africa
The Pennsylvania State UniversityRobert G. Crane, Director
Alliance for Earth Science, Engineering and Development in Africa
The Pennsylvania State University