SUMMARY OF THE REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM
SEDIMENTS REMEDIATION ACTION TEAM
SEDIMENT DECISION SUBGROUP CONFERENCE CALL

11:00 p.m.-12:00 p.m.
May 24, 2002

On May 24, 2002, the following members of the Remediation Technologies Development Forum's (RTDF's) Sediments Remediation Action Team, Sediment Decision Subgroup, met in a conference call:

Nancy Grosso, DuPont Corporate Remediation (Action Team Co-chair)
Sabine Apitz, SEA Environmental Decisions/SPAWAR Systems Center, San Diego
Brian Diepeveen, BASF Corporation
Gary Bigham, Exponent Environmental Group
Joe DePinto, Limno-Tech, Inc.
Betsy Henry, Exponent Environmental Group
Joseph Jersak, Aquablok, Ltd./Hull and Associates, Inc.
Michael Kravitz, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Douglas McLaughlin, Blasland, Bouck, and Lee, Inc.
David Moore, MEC Analytical Systems, Inc.
Greg Peterson, Limno-Tech, Inc.
Dick Schwer, DuPont Engineering
Mel Skaggs, In Depth Environmental Associates
Jennifer Sutter, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
Brett Thomas, Chevron Texaco
John Wolfe, Limno-Tech, Inc.
Kirk Ziegler, Quantitative Environmental Analysis

Christine Hartnett of Eastern Research Group, Inc., (ERG) was also present.

INTRODUCTION

This conference call marked the first meeting of the Sediment Decision Subgroup. Nancy Grosso thanked everyone for their participation and explained why the Subgroup had been formed. In 2001, she said, during an EPA-sponsored forum on sediments issues, a plea was made to develop a sediments management decision tree framework. Since that time, a team of federal stakeholders (i.e., EPA, the Navy, the Army Corp of Engineers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) have joined efforts to develop such a product. This team is asking for input from the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) and the RTDF Sediments Remediation Action Team. The Sediment Decision Subgroup has been formed to provide input on behalf of the Action Team.

THE DECISION TREE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Grosso said that the federal stakeholder team hopes to complete the decision tree framework by the end of the year. The goal is to create a cohesive framework that is acceptable to federal stakeholders and is broad enough to be used across the nation but specific enough to be practical and useful. Grosso said that she was not sure what the end product would look like, but said she was under the impression that it would be released as an EPA guidance document.

Grosso said that the federal stakeholder team does not want to reinvent the wheel; thus, team members are reviewing previously existing frameworks and incorporating the elements that are relevant and useful. Grosso said that the federal stakeholder team has already created a draft flowchart for the decision tree framework. This flowchart--entitled Framework for Evaluating and Managing Contaminated Sediment Sites Flowchart #1--was forwarded to the Sediment Decision Subgroup on May 23, 2002. Grosso asked call participants to review the flowchart and to submit comments by May 28, 2002. The following comments were offered up front during the call:

• Post the final "Government" flowchart on the Internet. Call participants recommended posting the flowchart on the Internet, along with Web links to direct users to other sources of relevant sediments management information and the most current published guidance.



• Include exit criteria for long-term monitoring. Call participants said that "exit criteria" are used to help decision-makers determine when they can move onto other steps in the sediments management process. Apitz advised adding exit criteria for the long-term monitoring step.



• Highlight crucial steps. One call participant commented on the flowchart's level of complexity. He said that this might intimidate users, and suggested making a distinction between steps that are absolutely crucial (e.g., developing a site conceptual model) and steps that are not.

MISCELLANEOUS

Call participants said that EPA is writing a document called The Contaminated Aquatic Sediments Remedial Guidance (CASRG). Kravitz said that this document is in draft form and will probably be released for public comment in summer 2002. Apitz asked whether this guidance document is being developed separately from the sediments management decision tree framework. Kravitz and Grosso thought the efforts were separate, noting that the framework is broader in scope than the CASRG document and that the latter focuses primarily on remedial alternatives analysis.

ACTION ITEMS

• Subgroup members should send comments on Framework for Evaluating and Managing Contaminated Sediment Sites Flowchart #1 to Grosso (Nancy.R.Grosso@USA.dupont.com) by the close of business on May 28, 2002. At this point, feedback is needed on the flowchart's general flow and comprehensiveness. For example, if there are critical elements or questions missing, Grosso said, this should be brought to the flowchart developers' attention. Grosso will consolidate the comments and submit them to Mike Palermo.



• Grosso encouraged Subgroup members to review previously existing sediments management decision frameworks, such as those created by the National Environmental Policy Institute, the Sediments Management Work Group, and the Navy.



• Grosso will find out whether efforts to develop CASRG and the decision framework are linked.