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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. EPA Technology Innovation and Field Services Division

FRTR Presents...Heavy Metals-Mining Site Characterization and Treatment Session 1

Sponsored by: Federal Remediation Technologies Roundtable (FRTR)

Archived: Monday, July 10, 2017
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Risk Assessment for Mercury Releases to the Kuskokwim River from the BLM Red Devil Mine Site, Alaska
Doug Cox, Ph.D., BLM Risk Assessment Specialist and Angela Matz, Ph.D., US Fish and Wildlife Environmental Contaminants Specialist
This presentation describes the Red Devil Mine's risk assessment process, a "multiple lines of evidence" approach developed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to incorporate a number of site-specific risk assessment findings into site decision making. Mercury and other site contaminants from Red Devil Mine and other abandoned mines in the Kuskokwim River watershed have been measured in multiple media, leading to concerns about human and ecological risk. Of specific concern is whether mercury methylation and food chain biomagnification poses a risk to human subsistence consumers of locally caught fish. We discuss a number of data sets used to evaluate these risks, including multi-year telemetry studies to track fish movements in relation to mercury sources throughout the Kuskokwim watershed. Fish tissue concentrations of mercury were also collected from many of the tagged fish and are discussed in the context of site and regional consumption patterns.

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Presenters:

A photograph of Doug Cox, Ph.D.Doug Cox, Ph.D., U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (dcox@blm.gov or 303-236-9451)
Dr. Doug Cox is a toxicologist and environmental risk assessor for the Bureau of Land Management at the National Operations Center in Denver, Colorado. He is the senior risk assessment specialist for BLM, working primarily on Abandoned Mines Land and hazardous materials sites. He holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Kansas and has served as an adjunct professor at Colorado State University. During his career he has worked for the US Air Force, the California Department of Health Services, and several different environmental consulting companies. He has an extensive background in human health and ecological risk assessment and has directed risk assessments projects for the Air Force, other DoD and government agencies, and private clients across the US, Australia and New Zealand.


A photograph of Angela Matz, Ph.D.Angela Matz, Ph.D., U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (angela_matz@fws.gov or 907-456-0442)
Dr. Angela Matz is a wildlife toxicologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska, and Affiliate Faculty at the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks. She has studied exposure and effects of a wide range of pollutants - from PCBs to lead shot - on wildlife and fish species, and their habitats. Her work emphasizes the pathways and connections among trophic levels and contaminants, with a special focus on mercury and other metals in subsistence foods. She serves on the State of Alaska's Fish Consumption Guidelines Scientific Advisory Committee. Her work also includes cleanup of contaminated sites on USFWS National Wildlife Refuges, responding to oil spills, and coordinating with others on regulations, cleanups, and development projects to conserve fish, migratory birds, and threatened and endangered species. She received her M.S. in Environmental Toxicology from Western Washington University and her Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Maine.


Moderator:

A photograph of Jean BalentJean Balent, U.S. EPA Technology Innovation and Field Services Division (balent.jean@epa.gov or 202-566-0832)
Ms Balent is on the staff of the EPA's Technology Innovation and Field Services Division where she has worked to collect and disseminate hazardous waste remediation and characterization information since 2003. Ms Balent manages the Clean Up Information Network website and actively supports online communication and collaboration resources available to EPA. She formerly worked with the US Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Engineering Division in the Buffalo District. Ms Balent was also a member of the SUNY-Buffalo Groundwater Research Group where she constructed and tested large scale models of groundwater flow. Ms Balent has also conducted research relating to the Great Lakes, environmental remediation, and brownfields re-development. She holds a Bachelor's degree in environmental engineering from SUNY-Buffalo and a Master's degree in Information Technology from AIU.



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If you have a suggested topic or idea for a future CLU-IN internet seminar, please contact:

Jean Balent
Technology Integration and Information Branch

PH: 202-566-0832 | Email: balent.jean@epa.gov
Michael Adam
Technology Integration and Information Branch

PH: 202-566-0875 | Email: adam.michael@epa.gov