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OCR for page 1
Executive Summary
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
has important and challenging tasks in the areas of
building protection and decontamination. The EPA
initiated its Safe Buildings Program as a comprehen-
sive response to a chemical or biological attack on a
civilian or public sector facility. The Safe Buildings
Research Implementation Plan (RIP) was devised to
guide EPA research and demonstrates efforts in this
area over the course of three years ending in fiscal
year 2005.
The Research Implementation Plan has four research
foci: detection, containment, decontamination, and
disposal.
· The detection research focuses on research areas
that deal with real-time detection and "detect-to-
treat" types of detection of biological and chemi-
cal agents in the event of an attack.
· The containment research focus is on the devel-
opment and testing of methods to prevent the
spread of contaminants within buildings in order
to protect building occupants, first responders,
and decontamination crews. The overall objective
is to reduce or eliminate the impact of a chemical
or biological attack on building occupants as well
as to provide techniques and guidance to deter-
mine the efficacy of chemical and biological pro-
tection measures for new and existing buildings.
1
· The decontamination research area focuses on
providing the tools, techniques, technologies, and
guidance needed to decontaminate a building sub-
sequent to a chemical or biological attack.
· The final research area, disposal, aims to provide
guidance for disposal of materials contaminated
by chemical and biological agents or materials
that have been contaminated as a result of the
decontamination efforts.
At the request of the EPA, the National Research
Council formed a committee to provide a review of the
Research Implementation Plan of the National Home-
land Security Research Center's Safe Buildings Pro-
gram. The committee met twice (May 13-14, 2003, and
July 10, 2003) to learn about the program's context,
goals, and content through presentations and discus-
sions and to review the Research Implementation Plan
end associated background materiels. Committee-only
sessions were held at both meetings to begin the review
task and to provide an opportunity for committee mem-
bers to discuss and refine the review comments and
concerns.
As it began addressing the Statement of Task
(Appendix A), the committee found that some of the
questions were not really appropriate due to the relative
newness of the Safe Buildings Program and the RIP.
Specifically, the committee found that overarching
OCR for page 2
2
issues were the three-year time frame and the amount
of work EPA has proposed to accomplish. Rather than
perform a detailed review of every proposal in the RIP,
the committee felt it was more important to provide
EPA with key areas that it can impact during the
remaining time in the program by establishing a
prioritization of the four major program areas. For
similar reasons it was not useful to discuss sequencing
of the projects, as a three-year time frame does not
allow for programs beyond the short-term to be
addressed by EPA. However, recommendations for
establishing a longer-term project are mentioned in the
report. Given the committee's determinations in
regards to handling the questions in the Statement of
Task, it seemed unnecessary to comment on the pre-
sentation and structure of the RIP.
The overarching findings and recommendations of
the committee are presented below.
EPA has correctly identified the major research
areas essential for the Safe Buildings Program.
The primary areas of research associated with an
effective building decontamination strategy are pre-
sented in the Safe Buildings Program Research Imple-
mentation Plan: detection, containment, decontamina-
tion, and disposal.
The duration of the current program is insufficient
to deal with all the tasks and goals presented in the
Research Implementation Plan.
AS specifically noted in the various findings and
recommendations, the program time frame (scheduled
to end at the end of fiscal year 2005) is too short to
effectively accomplish all the goals set forth in the
Research Implementation Plan. The proposed plan
REVIEW OF EPA HOMELAND SECURITY EFFORTS
covers an extensive area of new research, of which
the scope and breadth is too large to accomplish in the
allotted time frame. Given current resources and the
extramural collaborations of EPA, it is unrealistic to
expect results in all areas of proposed research in the
. . .
remaining time.
The current effort should include a planning func-
tion for a potential longer-term research program
to address unmet needs in technical areas.
The short time frame proposed in the Research
Implementation Plan is an overarching concern;
accordingly, the committee has made specific recom-
mendations for tasks that can reasonably be completed
in three years or less. One of these tasks should be the
development of a coordinated program for a long-term
research and development effort focusing on the
agency's strengths. In some areas, the committee has
provided guidance or recommendations for long-term
research activities.
In the short term, the program should focus almost
exclusively on decontamination and disposal issues
and other parts of the program should be subordi-
nate to decontamination and disposal.
EPA has expertise in the area of decontamination
and disposal. The agency should focus the remaining
time toward improving these aspects of its work.
Activities in the remaining areas detection and con-
tainment should technically support decontamination
and disposal in a logical manner to achieve results
within the prescribed time period of the program. The
committee has made specific recommendations for
these areas.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
implementation plan
