The Sediment-bound Contaminant Resilience and Response (SCoRR) Strategy – A framework for evaluating potential environmental contaminant exposures

OneNOAA Science Seminar Series

Title: The Sediment-bound Contaminant Resilience and Response (SCoRR) Strategy –
A framework for evaluating potential environmental contaminant exposures

Speaker: Daniel Jones, Geographer, US Geological Survey, Salt Lake City, Utah
Co-author: Timothy Reilly, USGS

Sponsor(s): NOAA's National Ocean Service Science Seminar Series; coordinators for this seminar include Mark.Osler@noaa.gov, Pamela.Braff@noaa.gov, and Tracy.GIll@noaa.gov

Remote Access: 
Register at: https://noaabroadcast.adobeconnect.com/scorr/event/registration.html.
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Abstract: In response to Hurricane Sandy, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed the Sediment-bound Contaminant Resiliency and Response (SCoRR) strategy to define baseline and post-event sediment-bound environmental health (EH) stressors (https://toxics.usgs.gov/scorr). The strategy includes a tiered decision-support tool, field survey methods, and geospatial screening tools for rapid and systematic local to regional-scale assessments of potential contaminant exposures. Foundational data used in the strategy include potential contaminant sources to ecological and human health, stakeholder submitted assets (key habitats, study locations, etc.), and historic storm vulnerabilities. The strategy was designed to accommodate variable data types and quality and is easily adaptable. While initially developed to evaluate vulnerabilities associated with coastal storms and flooding, the strategy has since been applied to inland areas, varied sample media, and other disaster scenarios. Of note has been a recent application to oil and gas-related hazards in the Northeast Region, which included an extensive multi-state stakeholder data compilation effort.Assembled data provides extensive accounting of stakeholder assets (e.g., key habitat, study locations, recreation) and their associated vulnerabilities to potential contamination from oil and gas-related activities. Ongoing work will expand upon previous data compilation efforts to other geographies, disaster scenarios, and focused contaminant hazards, and will continue to develop EH vulnerability metrics for each new data compilation. Key to these efforts is the identification of new federal, state, and local stakeholder priorities nationwide to apply the strategy to, ultimately leading to nationally consistent datasets and EH vulnerability metrics.

Bio(s): TBD

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(Daniel Jones, Geographer, US Geological Survey, Salt Lake City, Utah)