As disasters become more frequent, costlier and more deadly, emergency managers worldwide are learning to apply the principles of risk management (ISO 31000) for a more comprehensive approach to disasters. This new paradigm of ‘disaster risk management’ is moving our work “to the left of the bang” – seeking first to prevent disaster-related health effects BEFORE they ever occur.

This session will feature representatives from DOI, EPA and FEMA discussing the various emergency support functions they are responsible for as part of the National Response Framework, including the lifelines concept.

This session will provide an overview of both North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality’s (NC DEQ) And Massachusetts’ Department of Environmental Protection (MA DEP) Incident Response Systems and how the two States have used their systems to respond and prepare for emergencies.

EPA’s Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) Providers can play an important role for communities and state programs as they undertake brownfield projects and support activities. These organizations often provide the services that can create the framework and understanding needed to make a project successful. In this session, the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) will briefly highlight the services available through the program as well as provide an overview of Opportunity Zones and their role in brownfield redevelopment. To round out the session, NJIT has assembled a panel to provide attendees with the developer’s view of brownfield redevelopment.

The session will provide an overview of the EPA final rule, Management Standards for Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals and Amendment to the P075 Listing for Nicotine.

The session will consider disaster management from several perspectives, from storm debris after a natural disaster to decontamination efforts following a large-scale radiological incident to managing animal carcasses after a blizzard event. One speaker will discuss how storm debris was managed in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, and changes made to their planned response to future events based upon their experience with Sandy. An industry perspective will be provided by a company involved in disaster planning, response and debris management with their materials handling, landfilling and recovery operations. The management of animal carcasses in Washington State after a blizzard event will be discussed. The EPA Office of Research and Development’s Homeland Security Research Program will present an overview of a suite of waste management decision support tools, their purpose and application to large-scale incidents, and a case study demonstrating their use in a hypothetical scenario.

This session will focus on activities taken by Federal and State governments to prepare for, prevent, and lessen environmental damages from natural disasters, with a focus on underground storage tank infrastructure. The EPA Office of Underground Storage Tanks will share resources it has developed to help States and UST owners prepare for natural disasters affecting UST facilities. EPA ORD will demonstrate how to use GIS to access UST vulnerability in disasters with a focus on floodplains. Washington State’s Department of Ecology will share a resource it developed for UST owners that provides information on wild fires, inundation and tsunami preparedness. Washington’s presentation will cover the steps taken to develop this handout and show examples of the potentially impacted areas.

This joint session will be presented by the CERCLA Post Construction and the Removals Focus Groups that will share several case studies focusing on how States have prepared for and addressed NPL, removal, and State superfund sites affected by natural disasters. The EPA Environmental Response Team will discuss how they prepare programmatically and technically before a natural disaster occurs.

The session will focus on PFAS in the context of solid and hazardous waste programs. In the context of solid waste programs, there will be a presentation of State and industry work to test for and mitigate PFAS in landfill leachate and in groundwater near landfills. From the hazardous waste program perspective, speakers will discuss the establishment of PFAS as a hazardous constituent in State RCRA corrective action programs. The session will also provide the opportunity for information-sharing among the speakers and attendees. Attendees will discuss solid and hazardous waste program activities related to managing/evaluating PFAS in their States, including their current State PFAS standards and others that may be under consideration or helpful for guiding corrective actions.

This session will focus on responses taken by federal and State governments following disaster events that have damaged underground storage tanks systems. Presenters will share cases documenting emergency response activities and cleanups and discuss funding impacts and mechanisms for responding to these events. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection will discuss its underground storage tank program’s response to Hurricane Sandy, followed by a presentation from North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality on their underground storage tank program’s response to Hurricane Florence.

Optimization Tools: EPA’s Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation (OSRTI) will present tools that are being developed by their office, as well as the optimization team, and how States can use them to grow their own optimization skills.