AN EARTH SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE ON ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH IMPACTS OF MATERIALS GENERATED BY DISASTERS

Natural or anthropogenic disasters (i.e., earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires, landslides, hurricanes, industrial spills, terrorist attacks) can produce large volumes of solid, gaseous, or liquid materials of potential environmental and public health concern. Examples include contaminated or pathogen-containing waters, dusts, soils, or sediments; gases; smoke; ash; and debris. Many environmental processes (including physical, geochemical, and biological processes) influence the fate of these materials and their effects on health and the environment. However, disaster response efforts typically do not have the time or focus needed to characterize and understand these processes in detail, nor do disaster planning activities fully account for these processes in anticipating effects of future disasters. A wide variety of earth science methods can help emergency response experts assess and plan for the environmental and health effects of materials generated by disasters. Ideally, these methods should be applied starting in the very early stages of disaster response because key ephemeral environmental processes and byproducts could easily be missed without timely analysis. Examples of earth science contributions to disaster response include: 1) characterizing the physical and chemical characteristics of materials generated by disasters; 2) differentiating possible multiple sources for the materials; 3) characterizing and predicting how the materials respond to environmental processes; 4) tracking dispersal and evolution of materials in the environment, and; 5) identifying key characteristics and processes that influence the materials' toxicity to exposed humans and ecosystems. This talk will use results from USGS responses to the World Trade Center collapse and Hurricane Katrina as examples to help illustrate the earth science role, examine lessons learned, and underscore future opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in disaster response and planning.