The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Waste Estimation Support Tool (WEST) is a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based decision support tool for estimating waste generated from remediation and cleanup activities following a radiological incident. A suite of decision support tools (DSTs) has been developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help with the treatment and disposal of waste and debris from terrorist attacks, natural.
On September 28, 2016, EPA engineer Paul Lemieux presented on how I-WASTE is used in response to events of local, regional or national significance. EPA’s I-WASTE is a web-based decision support tool that organizes information related to managing waste resulting from natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or animal health emergencies. Examples for I-WASTE use include helping to facilitate management of debris and waste from floods in the Midwestern U.S. states, locating information on disposal of household hazardous waste that came from the San Diego County, California wildfires, and obtaining waste management information from a New York City residence anthrax contamination cleanup as well as an anthrax contamination incident in Connecticut.
You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.- I-WASTE Slides (PDF)(27 pp, 1 MB)
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Management of waste from a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) incident would likely constitute a significant fraction of the total remediation cost and effort. The U.S. EPA’s RDD Waste Estimation Support Tool (WEST) is a planning tool for estimating the potential volume and radioactivity levels of waste generated by a radiological incident and subsequent decontamination efforts. WEST supports decision makers by generating a first-order estimate of the quantity and characteristics of waste resulting from a radiological incident, and allows the user to evaluate various decontamination/demolition strategies to examine the impact of those strategies on waste generation.
Systems Approach for Wide-Area Remediation
- Initial development of remediation strategies for a wide-area radiological incident will start immediately following the contamination event
- Identification of the materials found in both the indoor and outdoor portions of the affected areas developing approaches for optimal cleanup of those surfaces and materials
- Decontamination and waste management processes are linked
- Prioritize remediation processes as soon as possible
Continuing Health Care Decision Support Tool
Radiological contamination plume
WEST Components
- ArcGIS scripts
- Define contaminated areas and extent of contamination
- FEMA Hazus-MH Software
- Estimate building counts, square footage, and composition
- Suite of applications
- Identify outdoor media based on satellite imagery
- Excel spreadsheet
- Estimate quantity, characteristics of the resulting waste
- Examine impact of various remediation scenarios on waste
Epa Decision On Water
This tool will aid responders and decision makers to implement an integrated response by effective analysis of many competing considerations, with a goal of a rapid, effective remediation that minimizes economic and health impacts to the affected community.
Waste Estimation Support Tool (WEST) User Guide (with download instructions)
Please direct questions to Paul Lemieux, US Environmental Protection Agency National Homeland Security Research Center, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; lemieux.paul@epa.gov; 919-541-0962.