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Emerging Contaminants The Scan-Watch-Action Approach To Emerging Contaminants Like water utilities, the Department of Defense keeps a close eye on emerging contaminants; here���s how they do it. By Erica Brown and Andrew Rak E merging contaminants (ECs) are among the many issues the water community tracks with great interest. Stakeholders ��� water agencies, research organizations, associations, laboratories, and interested community members ��� monitor legislative and regulatory initiatives, factor in public perception, and develop methods for risk communication. Water utilities often consider strategic risk management investments that reduce the potential for adverse health effects while allowing for the continued provision of a quality product and service. Advance notice of pending requirements enables these stakeholders to make the correct strategic investments to mitigate risk. This concept of strategic risk management is precisely what the Department of Defense (DoD) is implementing with its EC program. The program was initiated in 2006 to be a proactive, over-the-horizon early warning system. The program is operated by personnel within DoD���s Environmental Readiness and Safety Directorate with contractor and staff support from the U.S. Army Public Health Command, Institute for Public Health. As defined by the DoD, ECs are chemicals or materials with pathways to the environment that present actual or potentially unacceptable human health or environmental risks. ECs either do not have regulatory peer-reviewed human health standards or have standards or regulations that are evolving due to new science, detection capabilities, or pathways. This definition was developed cooperatively with the states and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of an Environmental Council of the States working group. This article describes a program to identify, assess, and manage ECs, and discusses ECs that are of interest to DoD and the water community. ��� of assets (facilities, equipment, platforms, and systems) Cleanup Program The Scan step encompasses three ongoing components: screening, scanning, and monitoring. This step screens ECs to identify those with potential negative impacts. Scanning and monitoring include ongoing examinations of the scientific literature, regulatory communications and publications, and industry/trade press articles to identify new contaminants of interest and monitor ECs previously identified by the program. Chemicals that are regulated internationally are also scanned. A monthly report is published as an update on the contaminants being monitored. ECs identified as possibly of concern enter into the next step as ���Watch List��� candidates. Candidate ECs are reviewed and approved by the Emerging Contaminants Steering Committee, a working group of qualified service representatives. Once a chemical is officially added to the Watch List, a Phase I Impact Assessment is conducted to qualitatively assess the potential impact of regulatory/policy changes (i.e., Figure 1. Risk management of emerging contaminants: Scan-Watch-Action The Process: Scan-Watch-Action A three-step process, labeled Scan-Watch-Action (Figure 1), was developed to identify, assess, and manage potentially problematic ECs. Impact is examined in five functional areas: ��� Environment, Safety, and Health (ESH) ��� Training and Readiness ��� Acquisition/Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation (A/RDT&E;) ��� Production, Operation, Maintenance, and Disposal (POMD) 38 wateronline.com ��� Water Online The Magazine