EPA 540-R-97/508

ABSTRACT

Annual Report to Congress FY 1996
The Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation Program
EPA 540-R-97/508
September 1997

The Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program has been successfully promoting the development, commercialization and implementation of innovative hazardous waste treatment technologies for more than 10 years. SITE offers a mechanism for conducting joint technology demonstration and evaluation projects at hazardous waste sites involving the private sector, EPA, and other federal and state agencies. The program provides environmental decision-makers relevant data on new, viable remediation technologies that may have performance or cost advantages compared to conventional treatment technologies.

Today, SITE is recognized as one of EPA's principal programs to advance innovative site monitoring, characterization, and cleanup technologies, with the potential to treat hazardous waste more efficiently, less expensively, and more safely than many existing methods. The SITE Program has successfully demonstrated 86 technologies, 4 of which were completed during FY96. One hundred and fourteen technology developers are currently participating in the demonstration program. A total of 77 technologies development projects were initiated under the Emerging Technology Program and 3 1 monitoring and characterization projects under the Consortium for Site Characterization Technologies Program.

The SITE Program has been estimating program cost savings since 1993. During 1996, the SITE Program collected information from signed Records of Decision (RODS dated 1993-1995) in all 10 Regions that selected an innovative technology as the selected remedy. This time period was selected for evaluation because more innovative technologies than conventional technologies were selected in RODS signed during this time period. Of 96 RODS selecting innovative technologies, 46 used technology types tested in the SITE Program and had enough cost information to allow a comparison of the innovative and standard treatment technology.

The total cost savings for the 46 RODS was 1.4 billion dollars. Six of the 46 RODS included in this estimate reported that the use of innovative technologies was more expensive than the established technology or treatment. The average percent savings per site was 70%. Using the 1986 SITE Program initiation date, total discounted costing savings for the SITE Program is 780 million dollars and the total SITE Program budget is 100 million dollars.

The SITE Program is only one part of the cost associated with developing and commercializing innovative technologies. During FY96, a Subcommittee of the Environmental Engineering Committee (ECC) of EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) conducted a formal review of the SITE Program. The preliminary review was favorable. In general the committee found that the accomplishments of the SITE Program had been met or exceeded. The SAB recommended that "the Agency should build upon the success of SITE either by continuing the existing program with some improvements or by creating a new technology evaluation program built upon the precepts of the current program."

In an effort to reduce expenditures, the SITE program has reviewed its approach to advancing innovative technologies. Building on existing strengths, the program will shift from a technology-driven focus to a remediation-problem driven focus driven by the needs of the hazardous waste remediation community. With this change in focus, the SITE Program can be defined in four operating principles, including (1) program planning; (2) matching priority sites with innovative technology solutions; (3) conducting technology field demonstrations; and (4) information dissemination. To ensure the highest possible quality, overall program direction and strategies will be evaluated each year based on input from the user community and other private and public sector stakeholders. Priority areas of highest interest during FY97 include topics such as groundwater contaminated with organics and inorganics, metals in soils and chlorinated organics. These areas will be reassessed during FY97 as part of the overall program planning.

The objective of the SITE Program is to conduct field demonstrations and high technical quality performance verifications of viable remediation technologies. The resulting data and reports are intended for use by the site owners and state and federal decision-makers in selecting remediation options and for adding credibility to technology vendors. Technology demonstrations are increasingly being conducted in partnership with other EPA offices, other federal agencies, states, private industry, and universities. SITE reports and dissemination of program information have been and continue to be a valuable resource to the technology user community.

Posted April 2, 1999

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