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Groundbreaking Research Shared to Improve Clean Up and Assessment Methods in the Future

AUGUST 19, 2016--On August 18, 2016, a large group of government scientists, academicians, and consultants learned about new research that could help decision-makers better measure injuries to natural resources from chemical contamination.

OR&R’s Dr. Ken Finkelstein broadcast his findings via webinar to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Contaminated Sediment Forum. This group meets monthly to share cutting-edge information about contamination affecting sediment, the layer of sand or soil at the bottom of rivers and oceans.

Dr. Finkelstein’s presentation stemmed from his work for NOAA’s Natural Resources and Damage Assessment program, where we collect scientific data to determine if natural resources have been injured, and then assess the injury. His study (along with two co-authors) focused on calculating injuries to benthic organisms exposed to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) pollution in sediment. Used extensively in transformers and capacitors from the 1950 through the 1970s, PCBs are both toxic and persistent. Their use was banned in the U.S. in 1977.

PCB contamination is a recurring problem at multiple waste sites around the U.S., including sites under Dr. Finkelstein’s portfolio (some recent cases include New Bedford Harbor and Housatonic River). He works collaboratively with EPA colleagues who clean up those sites, while he assesses the natural resource injuries at those sites.

His research analysis is the first to create a dose-response model, which allows the cleanup leader and/or risk/injury assessor to find a sediment cleanup remedy, or PCB injury concentration amount, based on a selected, specific injury percentage. This was a new approach as most previous investigations have found uncertain point values that may indicate risk to the native benthic organisms.

A spirited exchange followed the presentation. Several questioned the dose-response model with regard to the more popular empirical single-value model that reflects concentrations that may provide a possible or probable risk to the native benthic organisms.
Dr. Finkelstein and his co-authors believe this study will benefit the daily work of this audience, and they look forward to learning if the model proves successful in future cleanups and assessments.

For further information, contact Ken.Finkelstein@noaa.gov.

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Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2022 1:52pm PST