Use of GIS to Evaluate Health Risks for Contaminated Water Diving in

U.S. Waterways

Kristen M. StanleyMGIS Capstone Project – Peer Review

July 1, 2008

BackgroundWhat 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

BackgroundWhat 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.”

Superfund Sites – March 2007

Proposed Site

Current Site

Deleted Site

Map source: www.publicintegrity.org/Superfund/

BackgroundHazard 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

Background

EPA coordinates effortscommunities, 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

Portland Harbor, OR

General Characteristics– Six miles along Lower Willamette

River centered around downtown

– Heavily industrialized for over 100 years

– Added to NPL in Dec 2000

– Current fish advisories

Map Source: http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/CLEANUP.NSF/ph/Portland+harbor+Photo+gallery

Portland Harbor, ORChemicals 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 exposurePAHs

• Polyaromatic hydrocarbons• a product of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels• bioaccumulate

Dioxin• Incineration of solid wastes, copper smelting• Carcinogenic

Map Source: http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/cleanup.nsf/sites/ptldharbor

Critical Role of SCUBA DiversUnderwater tasks:

– Marine vessel and dock repairs– Search and rescue efforts– Sampling and monitoring– Underwater inspections

Potential Hazards– General SCUBA hazards– High level of contaminants

Current Tools for SCUBA Divers

Data sources

• EPA’s Superfund Program

• EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory

Maps

• TRI Facilities

• TRI Releases

• Superfund Sites

• Combination

ToxMap Environmental Health e-Mapshttp://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov

Current Tools for SCUBA DiversNOAA’s Portland Harbor Watershed Database and Mapping Project

http://mapping2.orr.noaa.gov/website/portal/portland/index.html

Information available:

• Sediment chemistry data

• River bathymetry

• Aerial photography

• Outfall locations

• Shoreline types

• Habitat features

• Property owners

• Dredging projects

• Cleanup projects

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.

Proposed SolutionDevelopment 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)

Data Layers and Sources

The core of the project is made up of two key layers

1. 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:

Sample Date CAS#

Concentration Concentration Unit

Sample Location X Y Coordinates

Data Layers and Sources

2. 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

Data Layers and Sources

3. Other reference layers– Road, hwy, interstate– Satellite imagery– Oregon counties– Waterways– Boat ramps– Major cities– River miles

Application Description

Map of Multnomah County, Oregon

Toggle layers on and off

Contaminated Water Diving ToolSearchGet Risk Information PanZoom In, OutFull ExtentPrevious, Next Extent

Project TimelineJune/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

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

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

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