EPA International Decontamination Research and Development Conference 2019

The EPA’s National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) will host the 2019 International Decontamination Research and Development Conference 19-21 November 2019 in Norfolk, Virginia.

Decontamination is one of the critical challenges that the United States and EPA would face in recovering from a major chemical, biological, or radiological (CBR) incident. The conference is designed to facilitate presentation, discussion, and further collaboration on research and development focused on an all-hazards approach to cleaning up contaminated buildings (both interior and exterior), infrastructure, and other areas/materials. The conference continues to focus strongly on matters involving CBR threat agents, but also includes all hazard elements.

Topics for this conference include:

• New chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) detection and decontamination research data or field activities and large scale demonstrations related to the detection and decontamination of biological (including agricultural threat agents and biotoxins), chemical, and radiological threat agents in indoor (in facilities) or outdoor areas/materials;
• Cross-cutting topics related to restoration, including: clean-up levels/risk assessment, exposure assessment, sampling/analysis of threat agents, fate/transport/containment, material compatibility with decontamination processes, tool and guidance development, waste management of threat agent-contaminated materials, water/wastewater decontamination, and systems approach to response and regulatory issues;
• Regional, state, and local initiatives highlighting local priorities, challenges, and science and technology developments related to response and recovery efforts from intentional or accidental environmental incidents; and
• Coastal Operational Resiliency (AnCOR) project: presentations and preliminary findings of the EPA/DHS/USCG collaborative project focusing on the post-biological incident consequence management (sampling, decontamination, waste management, etc.) of urban and maritime structures, assets, and surfaces.
• Illicit Drug Remediation Efforts: Opioid Epidemic Efforts
• Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Information Sharing, Mapping, & System Integration in Disaster Response
• Case Studies/Applied Research: Engaging Federal, State, Local Responders, and Industry
• Case Studies/Applied Research: How Does Bench Scale Correlate to Real Scenarios?

Click here to register for the 2019 EPA International Decontamination Research and Development Conference.