The Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Denver Post and Philadelphia Post along with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are hosting a series of webinars based on talks given at recent Design and Construction Issues at Hazardous Waste Sites (DCHWS) Symposiums. The mission of the DCHWS symposiums is to facilitate an interactive engagement between professionals from government and the private sector related to relevant and topical issues affecting applications of engineering and science associated with cleaning up hazardous waste sites. The symposiums also serve as a platform to facilitate the exchange of information, encourage dialogue, share experiences, and build and enhance communication among design and construction professionals.

This presentation will highlight work at the BICC Cables Site, a former cable manufacturing facility whose operation led to contamination of on-site soil and sediment by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), has been the subject of remediation efforts since 2005. The impacted sediment could not be efficiently and safely removed by dredging as a result of horizontal and vertical spatial limitations, safety concerns, and the heavy debris content. Therefore, an engineering control was required to contain and treat the PCB impacted sediment. In addition to the engineering challenges posed by the site conditions, the need to work within the waters of the Hudson River created an extremely complex regulatory context. The presentation will discussion a Multi-Layer Sediment Cover System (SCS) engineering control which was designed and implemented to contain and treat the PCB-impacted sediment under the 29,500-square-foot EPRI Building in the Hudson River. In addition, SCS Remote Sensing System load cells with fiber optic cables were installed to monitor long-term movement and integrity of the SCS. Proactive stakeholder engagement was necessary to navigate the project through the two-year permitting process by leading numerous design presentations and negotiation sessions with the five regulatory agencies. Routinely adjusting the installation approach and construction schedule were also necessitated by the nature of working in a dynamic water body.

Federal Facility Five-Year Review Webinar is a two-hour webinar course that provides an overview of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) five-year reviews. By taking this course, participants will achieve the following objectives:

• Understand Five-Year Review purpose and regulatory context
• Learn how to prepare and conduct a five-year review
• Identify the information and data needed to support a protectiveness statement
• Address emerging contaminants and options available to ensure that the federal agencies address these contaminants
• Identify the different scenarios when EPA makes an independent finding of the protectiveness of the remedy
• Learn about similarities and differences between federal and private site five-year reviews

The instructional methodology for this course includes lecture, case studies, and quizzes. There will also be an opportunity for participants to ask questions. The target audience for this course are federal, state, and tribal representatives who work on Federal Facility cleanups. Ideally, students should have a basic understanding the CERCLA process. This course is part of the Federal Facilities Academy training program. Please consider registering for other Federal Facility Academy courses and obtain a certificate upon completion of the entire Federal Facility Academy series (12 courses total).

Military Munitions Policy Webinar is a two-hour webinar course that provides an overview of the Department of Defense (DoD) Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP), munitions policies, and how the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) is applied to munitions sites. By taking this course, participants will achieve the following objectives:

• Learn about DoD MMRP;
• Understand the CERCLA process as applied to a munitions site;
• Understand munitions policies; and,
• Explore EPA Munitions Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

The instructional methodology for this course includes lecture, case studies, and quizzes. There will also be an opportunity for participants to ask questions. The target audience for this course are federal, state, and tribal representatives who work on Federal Facility cleanups. Ideally, students should have a basic understanding of munitions and the CERCLA process. This course is part of the Federal Facilities Academy training program. Please consider registering for other Federal Facility Academy courses and obtain a certificate upon completion of the entire Federal Facility Academy series (12 courses total).

Groundwater Policy and Federal Facilities Overview is a two-hour webinar course that provides an overview of U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) groundwater policies and guidance with emphasis on cleanups at federal facilities. By taking this course, participants will achieve the following objectives:

• Identify EPA groundwater policies;
• Understand groundwater classification and beneficial use in restoration objectives;
• Understand nature and extent considerations from groundwater contaminant plumes;
• Explore applicable or relevant and appropriate requirements (ARARs) commonly associated with groundwater remedies;
• Identify groundwater considerations for monitored natural attenuation (MNA), institutional controls, and technical impracticability waivers; and,


• Discover information on major groundwater policies from other federal agencies, such as Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Energy (DoE).

The instructional methodology for this course includes lecture and quizzes. There will also be an opportunity for participants to ask questions. The target audience for this course is federal, state, and tribal representatives who work on Federal Facility cleanups. Ideally, students should have a basic understanding the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This course is part of the Federal Facilities Academy training program. Please consider registering for other Federal Facility Academy courses and obtain a certificate upon completion of the entire Federal Facility Academy series (12 courses total).

The Spring 2020 meeting of the Federal Remediation Technologies Roundtable (FRTR) will be held as a two-part webinar on Friday, May 29 and Friday, June 5, 2020. As always, FRTR meetings are open to the public.

FRTR's objectives for this meeting are to:

1. Review the state of the practice of bioremediation: Broad overview of where it is commonly applied, where it is still experimental, and what are the challenges.


2. Discuss advances in bioremediation for organic and inorganic contaminants, including new approaches, optimization, and tools for monitoring technologies to determine successful performance.


3. Review brief case studies to demonstrate how new technologies are being applied and optimized.

Session 1: Overview and Organic Contaminants

Overview of In-Situ Bioremediation Challenges and Technology Advancements
Abstract: This presentation will cover a brief overview of common challenges to the effective implementation of in-situ bioremediation projects for organic contaminants, as well as more recent technologies available to address these challenges or improve treatment performance. Specific topics to be covered include: alternative amendments to common single carbon sources; potential causes and actions to address limited or slow degradation of 1,2-dichloroethene and vinyl chloride; and amendment delivery in lower permeability, heterogeneous geology. A couple of short case studies of specific technologies implemented at Army sites will be included, as well as useful references/weblinks.

Case Studies of Advances in Bioremediation of Organics: Part 1
Abstract: This presentation will provide information on monitoring programs including the application of advanced tools associated with in situ bioremediation. Specific examples will be provided as well as additional information on advanced delivery mechanisms. Recent advances and applications of the cometabolic treatment and natural attenuation of emerging contaminants such as 1,4-dioxane will also be presented.

Case Studies of Advances in Bioremediation of Organics: Part 2
Abstract: Several case studies will be presented that highlight advances in bioremediation approaches and performance monitoring for contaminants that include chlorinated ethenes, chlorinated benzenes, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). In the first case study, a bioremediation approach combining anaerobic and aerobic cultures, bioaugmented together on granular activated carbon in a passive reactive barrier, was developed and field tested for treatment of chlorinated benzenes at aerobic-anaerobic interfaces. The next two case studies focus on bioremediation of chlorinated ethenes in fractured rock and include (1) using microbial community analyses to track the effects of bioaugmentation and cause of DCE/VC stall in permeable units and (2) developing a field borehole test/modeling approach to quantify diffusion and degradation in unfractured matrix, with a focus on defining biodegradation rates at the matrix surface. Lastly, new laboratory research on anaerobic PFAS biodegradation with chlorinated solvent co-contaminants will be presented. Some of the bioremediation assessment techniques that will be highlighted include passive microbial community collection, in situ microcosms with Bio-Traps® to utilize molecular biology and stable isotope probing tools, advanced qPCR methods, and next generation sequencing.

The Spring 2020 meeting of the Federal Remediation Technologies Roundtable (FRTR) will be held as a two-part webinar on Friday, May 29 and Friday, June 5, 2020. As always, FRTR meetings are open to the public.

FRTR's objectives for this meeting are to:

1. Review the state of the practice of bioremediation: Broad overview of where it is commonly applied, where it is still experimental, and what are the challenges.


2. Discuss advances in bioremediation for organic and inorganic contaminants, including new approaches, optimization, and tools for monitoring technologies to determine successful performance.


3. Review brief case studies to demonstrate how new technologies are being applied and optimized.

Session 2: Current Research and Inorganic Contaminants

New Technology Briefings

• Superfund Research Program (SRP);


• Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP); and


• Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP)

Bioreactor and Vertical Wetland Remediation of Metal Contaminated Mine Influenced Water (MIW)
Abstract: There are over half a million abandoned mine sites in the U.S. potentially emanating mining-influenced water, contaminating streams and soils in adjacent areas. These sites present major challenges for remediation, including seasonal inaccessibility, rough terrain, lack of energy sources, high acidity, and metal concentrations (e.g. Fe, Al, Cu, Pb, Zn, Mn, Cd, etc.). To appropriately evaluate mining-impacted water treatment techniques that can provide the best cost benefit with the desired effluent quality, decision-makers usually rely on bench-scale and pilot-scale tests before designing field-scale reactors. Traditionally, the focus has been on metal removal efficiency to determine the feasibility of the proposed treatment, but it is difficult to replicate the high efficiencies of bench-scale tests with field-scale reactors. The integration of aqueous phase analytical chemistry (e.g. pH, alkalinity, metal composition, anions, sulfides, etc.) with solids analysis (e.g. elementary composition, speciation by XPS and XANES, etc.) and microbial transformation of soluble metals provides the tools to evaluate metal removal while elucidating the involved mechanisms. The benefit of this approach is that the impact of several variables (e.g. substrate volume, mass and composition, hydraulic retention time, dissolved oxygen content in the influent, etc.) can be evaluated for metal and sulfate removal. Case studies of passive biochemical reactors using actual mine water from abandoned mine sites will be used to demonstrate the benefits of this approach.

Advances in Long-term Monitoring Technologies for Supporting Bioremediation
Abstract: Bioremediation for heavy metals aims to immobilize them in subsurface and to reduce aqueous concentrations for an extended time. It has been investigated for many years at the Department of Energy (DOE)'s legacy sites; particularly for uranium. A variety of bioremediation technologies and associated monitoring/modeling methodology have been evaluated. Recently, hydroxyapatite-based novel permeable reactive barriers have been developed, which has shown a very promising result at the DOE's Rifle site (Colorado), showing more than two years of immobilization without rebound. During this process, groundwater monitoring has been found to be critical for understanding groundwater system dynamics, and its effect of bioremediation outcomes. We are currently developing a new paradigm of long-term monitoring approach to support bioremediation, by taking advantage of recent advances in in situ sensors and machine learning.

Are you interested in learning how to beautify your solar site and promote pollinator habitat? The Power and Pollinators webinar will examine how planting for pollinators on RE-Powering sites benefits cleaning up contaminated sites while beautifying communities. Planting for pollinators can help protect caps, control runoff, and provide habitat for struggling pollinator communities.

The Power and Pollinators: Pollinator-Friendly Landscapes for Solar Facilities and Beyond is hosted by: the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, VHB, Fresh Energy and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).The webinar explores the relationship between solar installations, contaminated lands and landfills, and pollinators.

The Commonwealth of Virginia will discuss how the solar power industry has an extraordinary opportunity to impact the landscape by encouraging native plants at solar facilities. Solar facilities located on brownfields, landfills and other contaminated lands present a unique opportunity to benefit the local community by cleaning up the property and redeveloping the site according to the community's goals. The Commonwealth will highlight the Virginia Pollinator-Smart Solar Program which is designed to provide incentives and tools for solar industry to adopt a native plant strategy to meet soil and water control regulations, community needs, and the needs of our biosphere.

Consultants VHB and Fresh Energy will share their knowledge and expertise of this growing trend and benefits to communities, developers and pollinators.

EPA's RE-Powering America's Land Initiative encourages renewable energy development on current and formerly contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites when such development is aligned with the community's vision for the site. The Initiative identifies the renewable energy potential of these sites and provides other useful resources for communities, developers, industry, state and local governments or anyone interested in reusing these sites for renewable energy development. EPA will present case studies and expertise related to renewable energy on underutilized lands.

Each year, thousands of emergencies involving hazardous substances are reported in the United States. Emergencies range from small-scale spills to large incidents requiring prompt action and evacuation of nearby populations. In response to these emergencies, EPA conducts short-term cleanups - called removal actions - to protect human health and the environment. This webinar will highlight EPA's involvement at removal sites and examples of successful removal site redevelopment in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The webinar will share lessons learned and information for those interested in Superfund site reuse and commercial, residential, agricultural and industrial redevelopment.

The NIEHS Superfund Research Program (SRP) is hosting a Risk e-Learning webinar series focused on understanding the health effects of exposures when there is a lag between exposure and the onset of the disease. In the second session, presenters will discuss new methods to better understand potential disease risk by identifying key characteristics or hallmarks of chemicals and disease. This research may provide insight into identifying chemicals that may lead to disease earlier on in the disease progression and help explore how aging itself can be a risk factor for disease.

Martyn Smith, Ph.D., director of the University of California, Berkeley SRP Center, will describe the key characteristics approach to helping identify chemicals that cause cancer and other adverse outcomes. In evaluating whether a chemical can cause cancer or another adverse outcome, three lines of evidence are typically considered: epidemiology, animal bioassays, and mechanistic evidence. The key characteristics (KC) form the basis of a uniform approach for searching, organizing, and evaluating mechanistic evidence to support hazard identification without the need for a deductive hypothesis. KCs are the established properties of the chemicals and have been developed for carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, reproductive and neuro-toxicants, and are becoming increasingly used by authoritative bodies and regulatory agencies.

Michelle La Merrill, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of California, Davis, will focus on using the key characteristics of endocrine disruptors to organize mechanistic support of the developmental basis of endocrine disruption. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are exogenous chemicals that interfere with hormone action, thereby increasing health risks, such as for cancer, reproductive impairment, cognitive deficits, and obesity. Inspired by work to improve hazard identification of carcinogens using KCs, they have developed 10 KCs of EDCs based on our knowledge of hormone actions and EDC effects. This presentation will reveal how these 10 KCs can be used to identify, organize and utilize mechanistic data when evaluating chemicals as EDCs that contribute to developmental vulnerability to adult disease, and use DDT and bisphenol A as examples to illustrate this approach.

Ron Kohanski, Ph.D., deputy director of the Division of Aging Biology at the National Institute on Aging, will focus on aging as a risk factor for disease. Geroscience is a recently evolved field of research on the intersection between the biology of aging and the biology of disease. The geroscience hypothesis states that "slowing the rate of aging will delay the onset and decrease the severity of chronic diseases and comorbidities that primarily impact older people." This does not mean that old age per se is a risk factor, any more than claiming that childhood is a risk factor for diseases that primarily afflict children. However, in the latter case the underlying causes may be the stage of development does not yet confer resilience against pathogens, for example. In the former case, the underlying causes may be loss of that resilience (acquired over a lifetime) from the failure of underlying molecular networks that maintain the body and adapt to environmental changes. This talk will present a viewpoint that aging can be treated as a risk factor, attempting to show that both the magnitude and duration of changes that are the process of aging can be altered in ways that are either beneficial or detrimental to health.

The NIEHS Superfund Research Program (SRP) is hosting a Risk e-Learning webinar series focused on understanding the health effects of exposures when there is a lag between exposure and the onset of the disease.

In the third session, presenters will describe studies linking early-life arsenic exposure and later-life disease risk. The focus on arsenic as a case study may also provide insights into linking other exposures to latent disease risk and identifying windows of susceptibility.

Yu Chen, Ph.D., and Maria Argos, Ph.D., co-investigators of a project with the Columbia University SRP Center, will present research from the Health Effects of Arsenic Longitudinal Study (HEALS) and ancillary studies linking early-life arsenic exposure and disease risk across the life course. For nearly two decades, HEALS has provided individual-level epidemiologic data evaluating risks from chronic arsenic exposure through drinking water in rural Bangladesh with clinical and molecular endpoints.

Fenna Sillé, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, will discuss her research focused on early-life exposures to arsenic and immune system changes. As an alumna of the University of California, Berkeley SRP Center, she will also discuss studies assessing the long-term effects of a unique early-life arsenic exposure situation in Northern Chile. She will present data from in vitro and in vivo models as well as from the Chilean population study.

Erik Tokar, Ph.D., leader of the NIEHS National Toxicology Program Stem Cell Toxicology Group, will discuss the association between early-life arsenic exposure and cancer in adulthood. His presentation will focus on cancer formation in adulthood following in utero and "whole life" exposure to arsenic. It will cover in vivo and in vitro models and discuss the effects of arsenic on stem cell recruitment and the microenvironment during transformation and cancer stem cell formation.

The NIEHS Superfund Research Program (SRP) is hosting a Risk e-Learning webinar series focused on exposures and latent disease risk. The series features SRP grantees and colleagues who are studying the health effects of exposures when there is a lag between exposure and the onset of disease.

In the fourth and final session, presenters will discuss emerging toxicology and modeling methods, as well as needs, to better link exposure to latent disease risk.

Stefano Monti, Ph.D., associate professor at Boston University, will provide an overview of the experimental and computational approaches he and his team have developed and applied to model environmental chemicals and to predict their long-term adverse effects from short-term omics assays. In particular, he will present vignettes from two studies, the first aimed at predicting chemical carcinogenicity and genotoxicity, and the second aimed at defining a molecular taxonomy of metabolism-disrupting chemicals. The focus will be on the experimental design and the computational approaches adopted, as well as on some of the challenges and lessons learned.

Stephen Ferguson, Ph.D., a scientist in the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Division of the NIEHS, will describe emerging toxicological approach methods (TAMs), which seek to enhance our understanding of human responses to xenobiotic exposures and their translation to human health outcomes. He will discuss progress at NTP towards enhancing the physiological relevance of Tox21 research through qualification of 3D liver screening models paired with informative assay systems (e.g., high throughput transcriptomics) in response to reference human therapeutics and environmental chemicals.

Manish Arora, Ph.D., professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will describe his work focused on environmental biodynamics, which focuses on the interplay between the environment and the body. He will discuss rethinking the role of time in environmental health research and will be sharing his work on neurological disorders at different life stages.

This webinar will describe the process and results from a research project concerning two issues that arise when assessing risks from contamination at Superfund sites. The first area of focus analyzed information from Superfund risk assessments and other publicly available studies on fruit and vegetable consumption by Native Americans that are outside of the twenty-four produce categories EPA includes in risk assessment models used to develop cleanup levels for residential gardens and farms at radioactively contaminated Superfund sites. The second area of focus of the project analyzed the sources for information on animal consumption by Native Americans that is outside of the twelve farm animal categories in EPA's risk assessment models.

At some sites, complex site-specific conditions make it difficult to fully remediate environmental contamination. Both technical and nontechnical challenges can impede remediation and may prevent a site from achieving federal- and state-mandated regulatory cleanup goals within a reasonable time frame. For example, technical challenges may include geologic, hydrogeologic, geochemical, and contaminant-related conditions as well as large-scale or surface conditions. In addition, nontechnical challenges may also play a role such as managing changes that occur over long time frames, overlapping regulatory and financial responsibilities between agencies, setting achievable site objectives, maintaining effective institutional controls, redevelopment and changes in land use, and funding considerations.
This training course and associated ITRC guidance: Remediation Management of Complex Sites (RMCS-1, 2017), provide a recommended holistic process for management of challenging sites, termed "adaptive site management." This process is a comprehensive, flexible, and iterative process that is well-suited for sites where there is significant uncertainty in remedy performance predictions. Adaptive site management includes the establishment of interim objectives and long-term site objectives that consider both technical and nontechnical challenges. Periodic adjustment of the remedial approach may involve multiple technologies at any one time and changes in technologies over time. Comprehensive planning and scheduled evaluations of remedy performance help decision makers track remedy progress and improve the timeliness of remedy optimization, reevaluations, or transition to other technologies/contingency actions.
By participating in this training course we expect you will learn to apply the ITRC guidance document to:

• Identify and integrate technical and nontechnical challenges into a holistic approach to remediation
  
• Use the Remediation Potential Assessment to identify whether adaptive site management is warranted due to site complexity
  
• Understand and apply adaptive site management principles
  
• Develop a long-term performance-based action plan
  
• Apply well-demonstrated techniques for effective stakeholder engagement
  
• Access additional resources, tools, and case studies most relevant for complex sites
  
• Communicate the value of the guidance to regulators, practitioners, community members, and others

Remediation at petroleum release sites is often infeasible for technical or cost reasons. Many of these sites could be depleted in typical indicator compounds, such as BTEXN, but still heavily contaminated in terms of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH). The traditional indicator compound approach for managing petroleum contaminants may not fully identify short- and long-term potential environmental concerns, can create delays in project schedules and cost overages for sub-surface utility work or redevelopment. It is important to consider a comprehensive cumulative risk-based approach to more effectively incorporate TPH data in addition to traditional BTEXN data for cleanup and long-term management decisions.

The basis for this training course is the ITRC guidance: TPH Risk Evaluation at Petroleum-Contaminated Sites (TPHRisk-1, 2018). The guidance builds on long-standing and current research and experience, and presents the current science for evaluating TPH risk at petroleum-contaminated sites. The methods and procedures to evaluate human and ecological risk and establish cleanup requirements in the various media at petroleum release sites will assist decision makers in developing and implementing a technically defensible approach. In addition, the guidance provides information and supplemental references to assist practitioners and project managers in the assessment of fate, transport, exposure, and toxicity of TPH. The guidance users will also gain information that may be used in conjunction with classic tiered approaches for risk-based decision making (ASTM 2015b, ITRC Risk 3 2015), including modifications in the assessment and remedial-decision and regulatory framework for TPH impacts through direct comparison to screening levels, site-specific modification of screening levels, and complete site-specific risk assessment for sources, receptors, and pathways, where appropriate.

The target audience for this guidance and training course is:

• Regulators and Program Managers interested in knowing how site management decisions can influence the TPH risk evaluation process.
  
• Risk assessors new to TPH data or those who want additional knowledge and training in the current methods and common practices for collecting and using TPH data in assessments to more accurately determine human health and/or ecological risks at petroleum-contaminated sites.
  
• Stakeholders who are either engaged in redevelopment at former petroleum release sites or folks who are involved in community engagement and revitalization activities.

• Recognize the ITRC document as a go-to resource for evaluating TPH risk at petroleum-contaminated sites
  
• Recognize how TPH -impacted media interacts with the environment and changes over time
  
• Select appropriate analytic method(s) to match site objectives
  
• Apply the decision framework to determine when a site-specific target level may be more appropriate than a generic screening level for TPH

The Training Exchange website (Trainex) is designed to provide a wide range of training information to EPA, other federal agency, state, tribal, and local staff involved in hazardous waste management and remediation. Trainex focuses on free training directed to federal and state staff. This site includes training schedules for deliveries of many courses, both classroom and Internet-based.

EPA works in partnership with organizations, such as the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council (ITRC), and other agencies, such as the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), to offer training relevant to hazardous waste remediation, site characterization, risk assessment, emergency response, site/incident management, counter-terrorism, and the community's role in site management and cleanup.