On August 10, as part of its 50th anniversary celebration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Mid-Atlantic Region is recognizing its contributions to innovative research to protect human health and the environment.

“From the very beginning 50 years ago, the agency has been guided by scientific research,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio. “EPA research has provided the tools, data and knowledge needed to tackle the nation’s most pressing environmental challenges and built a firm foundation for decisions and policies that have protected the health of the American people.”

In recent years, EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Office has partnered with other governmental and non-governmental organizations to conduct many critical environmental and public health research efforts including:

-- Integrating environmental services like flood control and stream bank retention into environmental decision making to develop a better understanding of how changes in the environment effect public health, local economies and quality of life.

-- Monitoring the migration of radionucleides in a freshwater environment and its implications for water utilities.

-- Assessing the impacts of federal, state and local decision-making on public health to reduce the disproportionate impacts to overburdened communities.

-- Using data more efficiently in decision making in order to make visible differences in communities.

-- Hydro-acoustically surveying submerged aquatic vegetation to establish a baseline in the Delaware Estuary.

-- Identifying best management practices for controlling stormwater and limiting runoff pollution from nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.

-- Predicting risks of radon in source waters from water quality parameters.

-- Tracking Cryptosporidium emanating from source waters impacting the Potomac River.

-- Measuring the effectiveness of restored wetlands for managing agricultural runoff.

-- Developing a new fence-line monitoring approach for refineries that offers compact, portable measurements that require no electricity and are easy to deploy and maintain.

-- Forecasting development and related water quality impacts in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

-- Evaluating the potential impacts of surface mining on instream aquatic resources.

-- Assessing risks to habitat and biodiversity in the Pocono region of Pennsylvania.

EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region continues to be at the forefront of investigating new environmental challenges, including:

-- Establishing a baseline for the Delaware Estuary’s nutrient concentrations and buffering capabilities and creating the first biological index for the tidal portion of the estuary.

-- Engineering poultry litter biochar to capture phosphorus, improve soil management and protect water quality.

-- Assessing current methods of extracting and isolating microplastics from sediment and conducting a multiregional survey of microplastics in estuarine and marine sediments.

-- Developing environmental DNA sampling and assessment techniques for warmwater fish assemblages and freshwater mussels in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

-- Identifying and addressing issues relating to lead in urban soils.

“For a half-century, EPA researchers have been at the forefront of environmental science,” said Dave Campbell, Director of the EPA Mid-Atlantic Laboratory Services and Applied Science Division. “Strong science informs all of EPA’s actions to safeguard human health and ecosystems from pollutants.”

Click Here for more on EPA’s 50th anniversary.  Click Here for on the impacts of the Agency’s research.

Visit EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region webpage for more information on EPA activities in Pennsylvania, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and seven federally-recognized tribes.

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-- EPA Accepting Applications For Over $3.6 Million In Grants To Reduce Nutrient Runoff From Farms In 38 Chesapeake Bay-Related PA Watersheds

[Posted: August 10, 2020]

8/17/2020