Research Directions: Multi-Year Plans

The Office of Research and Development (ORD) has initiated a multi-year planning effort to plan the direction of our research program in selected topic areas over five or more years. This approach promotes ORD's focus on the highest priority issues and provides coordination for achieving our long-term research goals. The focus of this effort is the development of Multi-Year Plans (MYPs).

The purpose of the MYPs is to provide a framework that integrates research across ORD's laboratories and centers and Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) goals in support of the Agency's mission to protect human health and the environment. The MYPs identify long-term goals, and present annual performance goals (APGs) and associated annual performance measures (APMs) for a planning window of approximately 5-10 years. By helping to identify the impact of potential annual planning decisions, MYPs aid in the evaluation of research options. MYPs also foster the integration of strategic risk-based environmental protection and anticipation of future environmental issues by communicating our research approach and timing for responding to environmental issues. MYPs are intended to be living documents and are updated as needed to reflect the current state of the science, resource availability, and Agency priorities.

MYPs include two major components: (1) a narrative description of the plan, and (2) a matrix of goals and measures. The narrative provides an introduction and background to the topic of the plan, describes the long-term goals, provides the logic/thinking used to array performance goals to achieve long-term goals, and describes the integration between goals and organizations. The matrix is used to indicate annual goals and measures needed to meet the long-term goals identified in the plan. These goals and measures are arrayed across time (i.e., fiscal years) and laboratories/centers and are based on total annual resource levels for the MYP topic area that will not exceed the resource level proposed in the most recent President's Budget.

Currently, MYPs have been developed/updated for 16 research topics. These topics are:

Particulate Matter

EPA's research on particulate matter (PM) represents the largest portion of the Clean Air research program. In building this program, EPA has been guided by expert advice from the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, and from several other organizations outside the Agency. PM research goals are being addressed through the use of in-house laboratory resources and partnering with numerous academic institutions, including five PM Research Centers around the Nation.

The PM research program focuses on reducing scientific uncertainties related to the exposure and health effects of PM to support statutory review under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and promote cost-effective implementation of NAAQS. From FY 2003 to FY 2007, research will focus on developing data and tools needed for implementation of the current PM standard, while continuing efforts to better understand how exposure to PM from different sources leads to adverse health effects. To support the scientific needs for the 5-year NAAQS review cycle ending in 2009, research in later years will focus on the information needed to determine whether standards should be retained or revised. Research will also continue to develop the data and tools required to implement the standards.

Under its multi-year plan for PM research, EPA has established five long-term goals to support development and implementation of PM NAAQS. Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will:

1. By 2006, develop and transfer new data and tools needed by OAR and the states and tribes to predict, measure, and reduce ambient PM and PM emissions to attain the existing PM NAAQS.

2. By 2009, develop and transfer to ORD and OAR new exposure, epidemiological, toxicological, and clinical data for improved assessments of health risks associated with short term exposure to PM in the general and select susceptible populations.

3. By 2010, integrate and assess new findings in atmospheric, exposure, biological, and environmental sciences and regularly communicate the state of science to OAR to improve environmental decision-making for the PM NAAQS.

4. By 2012, develop and transfer improved data and tools needed by OAR and the states and tribes to attain the PM NAAQS, especially in areas that remain in nonattainment after initial control strategies are implemented, and by ORD and other scientists to refine the environmental factors related to health risks associated with PM exposure.

5. By 2014, develop and transfer to ORD and OAR new exposure, epidemiological, toxicological, and clinical data for improved assessments of health risks associated with short- and long-term exposure to PM, especially in susceptible populations.

Particulate Matter MYP

Ozone (Under Development)

The tropospheric ozone research program addresses not only ozone, but other criteria pollutants such as SO₂, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and lead. It focuses on developing tools to help with implementation of National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), such as improving emissions estimates and modeling capabilities, and on developing the scientific criteria documents upon which NAAQS (and NAAQS reviews) are based. EPA's ozone research will continue to be an in-house program, with no extramural grants.

EPA has established three long-term goals for ozone research, which address development and implementation of air quality standards. Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will:

1. By 2010, provide air quality criteria documents, and consultation to the program office on the proposal and promulgation of the periodic review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide.

2. Support implementation and attainment of ozone NAAQS by EPA, States and Tribes, by providing evaluated state-of-science modeling, monitoring, and other tools, and training in their use, in order to increase the number of areas in attainment by 2008.

3. By 2013, provide regionally evaluated models and methods to attain 8-hr Ozone NAAQS focusing on remaining non-attainment areas and maintenance plans.

Ozone MYP (Under Development)

Air Toxics

The Air Toxics research program is designed to answer critical scientific questions that will result in more certain risk assessments and more effective risk management practices for stationary point, area, mobile, or indoor sources of air toxics. Research on air toxics is presently being addressed almost exclusively by utilizing the resources of in-house laboratories and research centers. In future years, EPA will consider the use of extramural research grants to complement the intramural program.

Under its multi-year plan for air toxics research, EPA has established three long-term goals for reducing uncertainties in risk assessments and implementing risk reduction. Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will:

1. By 2010, provide health hazard and exposure methods, data, and models to enable the Program and Regional Offices to reduce uncertainty in risk assessments of acute, chronic, and multi-pathway exposures to air toxics at the national and regional levels, and conduct 3-5 community-level exposure and epidemiology studies to characterize the risk of air toxics at that scale.

2. By 2008, produce fifteen new or modified tools in the form of methods, models, or assessments that enable national, regional, state, or local officials to identify or implement cost-effective approaches to reduce risks from stationary point, area, mobile, or indoor sources of air toxics.

Air Toxics MYP

For more information on Air Toxics, view the draft Air Toxics Research Strategy.

Drinking Water

The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 direct EPA to conduct research to strengthen the scientific foundation for standards that limit public exposure to drinking water contaminants. The Amendments contain specific requirements for research on waterborne pathogens, such as Cryptosporidium and Norwalk virus; disinfection byproducts; arsenic; and other harmful substances in drinking water. EPA is also directed to conduct studies to identify and characterize population groups, such as children, that may be at greater risk from exposure to contaminants in drinking water than is the general population.

EPA's multi-year plan for drinking water research establishes three long-term goals. Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will:

1. By 2010, develop scientifically sound data and approaches to assess and manage risks to human health posed by exposure to regulated waterborne pathogens and chemicals, including those addressed by the Arsenic, M/DBP, and Six-Year Review Rules.

2. By 2010, develop new data, innovative tools and improved technologies to support decision making by the Office of Water on the Contaminant Candidate List and other regulatory issues, and implementation of rules by States, local authorities and water utilities.

3. By 2009, provide data, tools and technologies to support management decisions by the Office of Water, state, local authorities and utilities to protect source water and the quality of water in the distribution system.

Drinking Water MYP

Water Quality

The water quality research program provides approaches and methods the Agency and its partners need to develop and apply criteria to support designated uses, tools to diagnose and assess impairment in aquatic systems, and tools to restore and protect aquatic systems. Water quality research addresses a wide spectrum of aquatic ecosystem stessors. However, particular attention is accorded to stressors that the Agency most often cites as causing water body impairment: embedded and suspended sediment, nutrients, and pathogens and pathogen indicators.

EPA's multi-year plan for water quality research establishes four long-term goals, three of which represent research to be conducted in support of clean and safe water. (The fourth long-term research goal, which focuses on exposures to and health risks presented by biosolids, is reflected under the Agency's Goal 3, Preserve and Restore the Land.) Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will:

1. Provide the approaches and methods to develop and apply criteria for habitat alteration, nutrients, suspended and bedded sediments, pathogens and toxic chemicals that will support designated uses for aquatic systems.

2. Provide the tools to assess and diagnose the causes and pollutant sources of impairment in aquatic systems.

3. Provide the tools to restore and protect impaired aquatic systems and to forecast the ecological, economic, and human health benefits of alternative approaches to attain water quality standards.

4. Provide the approaches, methods and tools to assess the exposures and reduce the human health risks from biosolids contaminants for use by the Office of Water, States and others in updating biosolids guidance and regulations.

Water Quality MYP

Contaminated Sites

EPA will continue to improve and demonstrate its capability to assess environmental conditions and determine the relative risks that contaminated land poses to health and the environment. The Agency will ensure that the environmental data it collects is of known, documented, and acceptable quality by implementing necessary field and lab procedures, practices, and controls. We will continue integrating technological advances to enhance our site maintenance of existing remedies. In addition, EPA will continue to coordinate with other agencies to identify and communicate program research priorities.

The Contaminated Sites MYP describes ORD problem-driven research supporting three Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) trust fund programs for which research is authorized: Superfund (SF), Leaking Underground Storage Tank Corrective Action (LUST CA) and the Oil Spills Program. Contaminated Sites research is aligned in four long-term goals, with three of the goals based on the affected medium--sediment, ground water, and soil/land--and one goal for cross-cutting issues:

1. By 2010 improve the range and scientific foundation for contaminated sediment remedy selection options by improving risk characterization, site characterization and increasing understanding of different remedial options, in order to optimize the protectiveness to the environment and human health and the cost-effectiveness of remedial decisions. Research to address this goal is presented in themes of site characterization and human and ecological risk assessment; human exposure pathways; and risk management.

2. By 2010, ORD will provide documented performance and cost information for at least 8 alternatives to pump and treat remedies and at least 6 tools for characterization and assessment that the Program Office can incorporate in guidance and that regions/states can apply in decision-making for sites in the clean-up programs. Ground water research is focused on DNAPLs, inorganics; fuels from leaking USTs; and complex hydrogeology/transport paths.

3. By 2010, 25 tools and methods will be provided that will allow the Agency to accurately and efficiently assess, remediate, and manage the soil and land in a healthy, productive, and sustainable state. Research themes include sampling and analysis for inorganic and organic contaminants; contaminant exposure; and containment/remediation/land management.

4. By 2010, provide 40 scientific tools, methods, and models, as well as technical support necessary to (1) characterize the nature and extent of multi-media site contamination; (2) assess, predict, and communicate risks to human health and the environment; (3) evaluate innovative characterization and remediation options; and (4) develop testing protocols, risk management strategies, and identify fate and effects of oil spills. Themes addressed in this goal are oil spills, technical support, SITE, exposure assessment, and toxicity assessment.

Contaminated Sites MYP

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (Under Development)

EPA will continue to improve and demonstrate its capability to assess environmental conditions and determine the relative risks that contaminated land poses to health and the environment. The Agency will ensure that the environmental data it collects is of known, documented, and acceptable quality by implementing necessary field and lab procedures, practices, and controls. We will continue integrating technological advances to enhance our site maintenance of existing remedies. In addition, EPA will continue to coordinate with other agencies to identify and communicate program research priorities.

EPA will focus its RCRA-related research primarily on treatment processes for hard-to-treat chemicals; innovative containment technologies; resource conservation; and site-specific technical support and state-of-the-art methods, tools, and models for addressing priority RCRA management issues. More specifically, the Agency's goals for RCRA research will:

1. Improve waste management for industrial and municipal wastes to enhance sustainability by providing at least 15 reports including technical support.

2. Support scientifically defensible and consistent decision-making for RCRA waste management and corrective action by providing a tested multimedia modeling system with at least 10 supporting technical reports, and technical support.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) MYP

Safe Food

The Safe Food Research Program, developed in response to the passage of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), builds on earlier research to reduce scientific uncertainty in risk assessment. Research results will provide data needed to develop refined aggregate and cumulative risk assessments, to develop the appropriate safety factors to protect children and other sensitive populations, to refine risk assessments and decisions regarding pesticide safety, and to provide risk mitigation technologies to reduce risks to humans. There is one long-term goal in the Safe Food MYP. Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will:

1. By 2008 provide scientific tools to OPP/OPPTS that can be used to characterize, assess, and manage risks across the exposure-to-dose-effects continuum in implementing the FQPA requirements.

Safe Food MYP

Safe Pesticides/Safe Products

Additional research on pesticides and toxics provides results that support the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). EPA's multi-year research plan establishes four long-term goals, designed to enhance the Agency's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS') human health and ecological risk assessment and risk management capabilities. The long-term goals established in this MYP are:

1. To provide EPA with predictive tools for prioritization and enhanced interpretation of exposure, hazard identification and dose-response information.

2. To create the scientific foundation for probabilistic risk assessment methods to protect natural populations of birds, fish and other wildlife.

3. To provide OPPTS with the scientific underpinnings for guidance to prevent or reduce risks of human environments within communities, homes, workplaces.

4. To provide OPPTS with strategic scientific information and advice concerning novel or newly discovered hazards.

Safe Pesticides/Safe Products MYP

Global Change

The Global Change Research Act of 1990 establishes the U.S. Global Change Research Program to coordinate a comprehensive research program on global change. This is an inter-Agency effort, with EPA bearing responsibility to assess the consequences of global change on human health, ecosystems, and social well-being. Research examines future global change scenarios and the influence of climate, land use, and other factors on issues that are important to the public. Additional assessments will focus on air quality, water quality, ecosystem health, and human health. EPA's research plan for global climate change lays out five long-term goals. Within this MYP, EPA will:

1. Determine the regional and national implications of climate change and variability for the people, the environment, and the economy of the United States in the context of other, non-climate (environmental, economic, and social) stresses.

2. Provide the approaches, methods and models to quantitatively assess the effects of global change (climate change, land use change and UV radiation changes) on regional air quality, identify technology advancements and adaptive responses and quantify their effect on, and feedback from, emissions and air quality, and develop and apply tools to integrate global change effects across environmental media.

3. Build the capacity to assess and respond to global change impacts on fresh water and coastal ecosystems.

4. Determine the possible impacts of global change on water quantity and quality and the consequences for aquatic ecosystems and drinking water and wastewater systems. Develop adaptation strategies to increase the resilience of those systems.

5. Build capacity to assess and respond to global change impacts on human health in the United States, and conduct initial assessments.

Global Change MYP

Ecological Research

EPA is focusing on strengthening our scientific basis to adequately assess and compare risks to ecosystems, to protect and restore them, and to track progress in terms of ecological outcomes. Global climate change, loss and destruction of habitat due to sprawl and exploitation of natural resources, invasive species, non-point source pollution, and the accumulation and interaction of these effects present emerging ecological problems. We will emphasize (1) monitoring ecosystem conditions that reflect the scale of the problem and need for action, the causes of harm, and the success of mitigation and restoration efforts; and (2) developing models and protocols to help diagnose the causes of ecosystem degradation and forecast future conditions. Additionally, efforts focus on developing risk assessment techniques that quantify and compare current and future ecosystem risks and developing cost-effective, stakeholder-driven restoration and protection strategies. The Agency has established four long-term goals for this effort. The long-term goals established in this MYP are:

1. The states and tribes use a common monitoring design and appropriate ecological indicators: to determine the status and trends of ecological resources.

2. Managers and researchers understand links between human activities, natural dynamics, ecological stressors and ecosystem condition.

3. Environmental managers have the tools to predict multi-stressor effects on ecological resources to assess vulnerability and manage for sustainability.

4. Managers have scientifically defensible methods to protect and restore ecosystem condition.

Ecological Research MYP

Human Health

EPA's human health research represents the Agency's only comprehensive program to address the limitations in human health risk assessment. The measurement-derived databases, models, and protocols developed through this research program will strengthen the scientific foundation for human health risk assessment and will be used by scientists across the Agency. Research efforts include developing principles that establish how chemicals or chemical classes act and improved risk assessment methods for evaluating selected subpopulations (including exploring ways that age, genetics, and health status influence susceptibility to chemical exposures); determining the effects of preexisting disease (such as pulmonary or cardiovascular disease) to humans exposed to environmental agents; and developing the tools and methods that comprise the framework to evaluate public health. Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will advance its long-term goals of:

1. By 2012, develop a commonly accepted approach for estimating the risk to human health posed by exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment that incorporates information on biological modes or mechanisms governing their toxicity.

2. By 2008, provide regulatory decision makers with data-based models, risk assessment approaches, and guidance that will be used for conducting assessments for aggregate exposure and risks to pollutants that pose the greatest health risks to the American public.

3. By 2012, provide regulatory decision makers with data-based models, risk assessment approaches, and guidance that will be used for conducting assessments for cumulative exposure and risks to pollutants that pose the greatest health risks to the American public.

4. By 2014, demonstrate why some groups of people, defined by life stage, genetic factors, and health status, are more vulnerable than others to adverse effects from exposure to environmental agents.

5. By 2008, provide the scientific understanding and tools to assist the Agency and others in evaluating the effectiveness of public health outcomes resulting from environmental risk management options.

Human Health MYP

Endocrine Disruptors

To support its regulatory mandates, EPA's research focuses on improving our scientific understanding of the exposures, effects, and management of endocrine disruptor chemicals and determining the extent of the impact they may have on humans, wildlife, and the environment. EPA will evaluate current and develop new standardized protocols to screen chemicals for their potential endocrine effects. The Agency has established three long-term goals for its research on endocrine disruptors. Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will:

1. Provide a better understanding of the science underlying the effects, exposure, assessment, and management of endocrine disruptors.

2. Determine the extent of the impact of endocrine disruptors on humans, wildlife, and the environment.

3. Support EPA's screening and testing program.

Endocrine Disruptors MYP

Mercury

A 1997 EPA Mercury Study Report to Congress discussed the magnitude of mercury emissions in the United States, and concluded that a plausible link exists between human activities that release mercury from industrial and combustion sources in the United States and methyl mercury concentrations in humans and wildlife. Regulatory mandates require EPA to address these risks. The Agency is developing risk management research for managing emissions from coal-fired utilities (critical information for rule-making) and non-combustion sources of mercury; risk management research for fate and transport of mercury to fish; regionally-based ecological assessments of the effects of methyl mercury on birds; assessment of methyl mercury in human populations; and risk communication methods and tools. EPA has established two long-term goals for mercury research. The long-term goals established in this MYP are:

1. To reduce and prevent release of mercury into the environment.

2. To understand the transport and fate of mercury from release to the receptor and its effects on the receptor.

Mercury MYP

Economics and Decision Sciences (Under Development)

As long as environmental policy is designed to change behaviors that cause environmental problems, economics and decision sciences research will be essential to understanding these behaviors. In addition, this research informs state and federal environmental agencies on how best and most cost-effectively to accomplish three overarching responsibilities: (1) anticipating, identifying, and setting priorities for managing environmental problems to protect ecological and human health; (2) developing policies to address the selected environmental priorities; and (3) implementing the policies to achieve better environmental outcomes.

Under its multi-year plan for economics and decision sciences, EPA has established five long-term goals for economics and decision sciences research that focus on changing behaviors that cause environmental problems; developing tools to assess the highest priority issues based on public preferences; and developing implementation strategies that accurately account for behavioral responses to government initiatives and interventions. Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will:

1. Develop reliable and widely applicable or transferable approaches and estimates of values for ecological benefits and human health benefits, with particular emphases on children's health issues and benefit transfer methods.

2. Identify the motivations influencing the environmental behavior of corporations and other regulated entities in order to accurately predict responses to various government interventions, including enforcement, technical assistance, information dissemination and voluntary initiatives.

3. Identify responses to market mechanism and economic incentives and investigate how incentive programs can be designed to take advantage of predictable responses to incentives.

4. Develop reliable approaches to estimate the benefits and cost savings from disclosing environmental information about firms' or facilities'; production processes, disposal practices, environmental releases, products and services.

Economics and Decision Sciences MYP (Under Development)

Pollution Prevention and New Technologies for Environmental Protection (Under Development)

Over the last decade, the Agency has increasingly focused on pollution prevention when addressing high-risk human health and environmental problems. A preventive approach requires: (1) innovative design and production techniques that minimize or eliminate adverse environmental impact; (2) holistic approaches that make the most of our air, water, and land resources; and (3) fundamental changes in the ways that goods and services are created and delivered to consumers.

As a part of its multi-year plan, EPA has established five long-term goals for pollution prevention and new technologies research. These goals focus on the development of tools, technologies, and sustainable environmental systems approaches and on continuing to prevent and control pollution by targeting sources and sectors that pose the greatest risks to human health and the environment. Within the scope of this MYP the EPA will:

1. Develop new and advanced theories and methods of environmental system analysis, along with decision support tools based on those methods, that can be applied both within and beyond the industrial sector (e.g., municipal, agriculture, transportation, energy).

2. By 2009, complete and document studies in areas such as kinetics, catalysis, reaction engineering, materials, interfaces, separations, and thermodynamics, and applied engineering which will enable regulators and the regulated community to determine how these new concepts can be applied to accelerate the introduction of cleaner processes and materials in specific industries, energy production processes, or consumer products in order to achieve reductions in emissions and resource usage.

3. Provide appropriate and credible performance information about new, commercial-ready environmental technology that influences users to purchase effective environmental technology in the US and abroad.

4. Assemble and deliver to EPA Regions, the Office of Water, and state and local governments a watershed-scale strategy for sustainable environmental systems based on computer based tools and a written manual of suggested management practices to reduce risks to human health and the ecology using combined economics, hydrologic, physical and ecological, land use, legal, and technological methods.

5. Use SBIR incentive funding to develop and commercialize innovative environmental technologies needed by EPA Regions and States and Agency regulatory and compliance programs to protect human health and the environment.

Pollution Prevention and New Technologies for Environmental Protection MYP (Under Development)