Information Diffusion/Utilization

EPA has several mechanisms to assist in marketing, advocacy and technology acceptance for reliably produced full scale technologies

EPA's Technology Innovation Program (TIP) is involved in several advocacy activities that help accelerate decision-making regarding the testing and use of various new environmental technologies. These programs assist regulators on the federal state and local levels through training programs and communication of evaluation data.

EPA’s Center for Environmental Industry and Technology (CEIT) identifies a global demand for environmental technologies and guides small companies to help them take advantage of these opportunities.

Both TIP and CEIT are involved in novel cooperative partnerships that help advance the use of innovative technologies at regional, state, and local levels. These programs are providing industry with additional avenues for generating reliable unbiased evaluation information, which in turn is being used at an accelerated pace in the regulatory/remediation process. Other programs provide technology information through document collections and databases, which assist in conveying knowledge about new technologies.

EPA has several mechanisms to assist in marketing and technology acceptance. These include technology databases and recognition and incentive programs. Private industry is invited to participate by including their technology descriptions in several of these electronic databases, which can broaden exposure at the regional, state, local and general public levels. For example the CEIT's Innovative Technology Inventory (ITI) database is used by several states and industries as a source of for new environmental technologies.

EPA has several recognition and incentive programs which may assist in increasing awareness and acceptance of new technologies. For example EPA's Energy Star program and its now publicly recognized product labeling can enhance public acceptance of new technologies.

There are also several export tools and services available through export.gov that can assist in locating export assistance, funding, marketing etc.

EPA has developed a guide (called the "Environmental Technology Research & Development Continuum") to the EPA programs that address environmental technology, and the type of support these programs provide along the path from development to commercialization.

EPA REACH IT is sponsored by EPA's Technology Innovation Program (formerly the Technology Innovation Office). It gives users access to comprehensive information about treatment and characterization technologies and their applications. It combines information submitted by technology service providers about remediation and characterization technologies with information from EPA, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and state project mangers about sites at which innovative technologies are being deployed. Those sources together provide you with up-to-date information, not only about technologies you can use to characterize or remediate a site, but also about sites at which those technologies are being used and the service providers that offer them.

As of June 1, 2003, EPA REACH IT contained information about:

Remediation Technologies

• 602 technology vendors
• 1,372 technologies
• 1,558 sites at which remediation technologies have been applied

Characterization Technologies

• 106 technology vendors
• 151 technologies
• 170 sites at which characterization technologies have been applied

IMPORTANT NOTICE

EPA has decided to discontinue the on-line REACH IT System. This action will take place in spring 2006.

As a first step, as of March 9, 2006, technology vendors will no longer be able to add or update information to the EPA REACH IT System; submit information by mail/e-mail; or provide other feedback. The helpline also will be disconnected.

Upon discontinuation of the EPA REACH IT System, a fully searchable database will no longer be available. However, limited technology vendor information will be preserved in a downloadable file at http://clu-in.org, EPA’s Cleanup Information website. Users will be directed to this information when it becomes available. Technology Vendors are encouraged to use the Vendor Support section on CLU-IN (http://www.cluin.org/vendor/) as a resource for other methods to promote their tools.

If you have comments or questions concerning the discontinuation of EPA REACH IT System, please contact Jean Balent at balent.jean@epa.gov or 703-603-9924.

NEET is an on-line repository for information about technologies that prevent, remove, destroy, sample, monitor, or model air pollutant emissions from stationary, mobile, and indoor sources. NEET contains information about technologies for improving air quality that are commercially available, as well as technologies that are currently being developed

VENDINFO is a database of more than 1200 listings of pollution prevention equipment, products and services. Users that know what type of equipment or services they need, and are looking for a source, can search VENDINFO using "Waste Reduction Equipment Classifications."

Users who do not know what waste reduction technologies are available for their manufacturing process can search using an "Industrial Process Classification" keyword and obtain a list of potential technologies. Company and technology listings may be added to VENDINFO - through the following link:
http://es.epa.gov/cgi-bin/eows.pl

CEIT identifies a global demand for environmental technologies and provides guidance to small companies to help them take advantage of these international opportunities. CEIT provides descriptions and links to various international export resources within the Department of Commerce, USAID, and the SBA/Office of International Trade.

The Department of Commerce has a number of web sites and tools that contain information that ranges from general exporting guidelines to specific country market analyses:
http://www.epa.gov/ne/ra/intl/doc.html

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supplies grants to foreign, developing countries. The grant money is in turn used for contracting services and supplies from U.S. companies seeking to do business abroad:
http://www.epa.gov/ne/ra/intl/aid.html

The Small Business Administration (SBA) helps businesses get over some of the hurdles of exporting by providing contacts, market information, and information on financing your export plans:
http://www.epa.gov/ne/ra/intl/sba.html

Export.gov's Export Basics web site describes the seven steps to market your product internationally.

Basic Guide to Exporting:

A Basic Guide to Exporting, which discusses various approaches to exporting, is an official publication of the U.S. Department of Commerce
http://www.unzco.com/basicguide/index.html

EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) is identifying the needs and future program technology requirements in the areas of site characterization, process control, waste testing and monitoring. 21M2 will seek out opportunities to showcase promising approaches through further research support, demonstrations, monitored “partnership” applications, case studies, training and technical outreach.

21M2 works with EPA’s Small Business Innovative Research Program (SBIR). It is also showcasing technologies and methods that are field-ready and at commercial scale development, including offsite and onsite analytical techniques, innovative subsurface characterization, emissions monitoring, fence-line monitoring, and computer-aided data interpretation.

21M2 will develop and report information on program needs, technological advances, and the subsequent acceptance and impacts of program-supported technologies. 21M2 has also initiated activities to identify and cultivate mutual interests in other EPA offices, and technology development and clean-up programs at other agencies, including the Departments of Defense and Energy. 21M2 is exploring several options that will allow interested users within EPA to field promising technologies.

For more information on 21M2 see: http://clu-in.org/programs/21m2/

The Brownfields Center provides a readily accessible resource for unbiased assessments and supporting information on options relevant to specific brownfields sites. The Center provides:

• A technology-oriented review process for investigation and clean-up plans for brownfields sites.
• Information about other available support activities, such as those conducted by the Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) Program located at the five EPA regional Hazardous Substance Research Centers.

The Center can help decision makers evaluate strategies to streamline the site investigation and cleanup process, identify and review information about complex technology options, evaluate contractor capabilities and recommendations, explain complex technologies to communities, and plan technology demonstrations

For more information on Brownfield clean-up technologies go to:
http://www.brownfieldstsc.org/

The New England Interstate Regulatory Cooperation Project is an innovative federal/state partnership, that provides an opportunity for federal and state environmental agencies to work cooperatively with the private sector in expediting the development and evaluation of promising innovative environmental technologies. Key government partners in this project include EPA-New England through its Center for Environmental Industry and Technology and the Environment Committee of the New England Governors' Conference, which is comprised of the six State Environmental Commissioners.

The Project has technology agreements in the following areas:

• Septic System Technologies

The Septic System Technologies agreement implemented a Regional Evaluation Program for Septic System Technologies, which is carried out under the auspices of the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC). As part of this program, the six New England States adopted a common protocol that standardizes the type of information required for permitting approval. For technologies that take part in the program, an Advisory Opinion is issued that provides guidance on the performance and cost of that technology. Advisory Opinions have been issued on seven individual technologies.

• Site Characterization and Monitoring Technologies

This technology agreement on waste site assessment and cleanup technologies for smaller sites was signed by the six New England States and the Northeast Waste Management Officials' Association.

In concert with industry input, an action plan has been developed. Key features of this action plan include activities that will increase and improve information sharing and education for state and local personnel; promote broader acceptance of field analytical technologies for site characterization and monitoring; and address institutional barriers that impede the use of these newer technologies. The states have issued Advisory Opinions on immunoassay and x-ray fluorescence field analysis technologies.

• Pollution Prevention (P2) Technologies

  The technology agreement on pollution prevention technologies was signed by the six New England states, New York State, and the Northeast Waste Management Officials' Association. This agreement calls for adopting the EPA's Pollution Prevention Technology Application Analysis Template as a tool for sharing technical information on innovative, commercially available P2 technologies.
  

This EPA group develops and coordinates implementation of cross-Agency strategies to improve environmental performance of entire sectors.

The Sector Strategies Program:

• Provides a staff-level point of contact for each industry participating in the program.
• Identifies barriers to performance improvement by the sectors and, in conjunction with trade groups and other stakeholders, explores innovative ways to overcome those barriers.
• Works with EPA programs, regions and state & local governments to make changes in regulatory-permitting-enforcement-assistance programs that will help businesses in the sectors improve performance.
• Promotes Environmental Management Systems, and assists trade groups in advocacy of their development and use by companies.
• Develops improved indicators, data and data collection strategies to measure sector-wide environmental performance.
• Reports annually on Sector Strategies Program progress.

For a list of participating sectors in EPA sector based programs see: http://www.epa.gov/sectors/list.html

• ATP Fosters National Benefit: ATP spurs its partners to invest in research and development that have payoffs far beyond private profit, bringing to Americans higher paying jobs, better consumer products, improved health, greater energy efficiency, and a cleaner environment;
• ATP Funds High-Risk Research: ATP accelerates the development of new-to-the-world technologies by sharing the cost and the risk with companies when research risks are too high for the private sector to bear alone.
• ATP Conducts Rigorous Peer Review: ATP's merit-based, rigorous selection process ensures high quality, objectiveness, and fairness.
• ATP Builds Partnerships: ATP catalyzes companies, universities, research organizations, and state and local entities to partner creatively to develop innovative technologies;
• ATP Encourages Diffusion of Knowledge: ATP encourages companies to publish and share their results and to pursue patents and licensing to give others a chance to benefit from new knowledge created in ATP projects.

ATP works with industry and universities to identify and promote investment in technologies with significant potential for broad-based economic benefits, but inadequate levels of private investment. The Program uses joint ventures and teaming arrangements to combine private investment and the best available scientific and technological talent in industry, universities, and government.

Established by the U.S. EPA's Technology Innovation Program and Office of Research and Development to foster collaboration between the public and private sector in finding innovative solutions to mutual hazardous waste problems. The RTDF is one of a few government programs designed to foster public-private partnerships to conduct laboratory and applied field research to develop, test, and evaluate innovative remediation technologies. Through the unprecedented collaboration of the RTDF, companies, government agencies, and universities voluntarily are sharing knowledge, experience, equipment, facilities, and even proprietary technology to address mutual remediation problems. This technology and test data generated by this partnership is shared with government and industry and is used to evaluate the correct technology remedies for various sites.

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ITRC consists of 40 states, the District of Columbia, multiple federal partners, industry participants, and other stakeholders, who cooperate to break down barriers and reduce compliance costs, making it easier to use new technologies, and helping states maximize resources. ITRC brings together a diverse mix of environmental experts and stakeholders from both the public and private sectors to broaden and deepen technical knowledge and streamline the regulation of new environmental technologies. ITRC accomplishes its mission in two ways: it develops guidance documents and training courses to meet the needs of both regulators and environmental consultants, and it works with state representatives to ensure that ITRC products and services have maximum impact among state environmental agencies and technology users.

The benefits that ITRC offers to state regulators and technology developers, vendors, and users include helping regulators build their knowledge base and raise their confidence about new environmental technologies helping regulators save time and money when evaluating environmental technologies guiding technology developers in the collection of performance data to satisfy the requirements of multiple states helping technology vendors avoid the time and expense of conducting duplicative and costly demonstrations providing a reliable network among members of the environmental community to focus on innovative environmental technologies The ITRC site relays many state examples showing how ITRC training and evaluation documents have accelerated decisions to use various new environmental technologies.

For more information on ITRC advocacy activities go to :
http://www.itrcweb.org/common/default.asp

Contact ITRC representatives

The State Coalition for Remediation of Drycleaners is composed of representatives from state governments with a formal program to address remediation of dry cleaning sites. The Coalition, supported by EPA's Technology Innovation Program, serves as a roundtable for discussion of issues related to cleanup of dry cleaner sites, with particular emphasis on the use of innovative technologies.

For more information on SCRD got to: http://www.drycleancoalition.org/

TIP advocates more effective, less costly approaches (i.e. "smarter solutions") by government and industry to assess and clean up contaminated waste sites, soil, and groundwater. Working with other federal agencies, states, consulting engineering firms, responsible parties, technology developers, and the investment community, TIP provides robust technology and market information and works to remove policy and institutional impediments related to the deployment of these technologies. The scope of the mission extends to Superfund sites, corrective action sites under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), underground storage tank clean-ups, state voluntary clean up programs and Brownfields. Technologies of interest are for field sampling and analysis and management (treatment and containment) of contaminated soil and groundwater.

As a part of its advocacy mission, TIP has developed several initiatives and partnerships, that assist in promoting the acceptance and use of new environmental technologies by government and industry. These activities help generate the necessary characterization and testing information, that in turn are used to leverage decisions at the federal, state, and industry levels. Additional information on these initiatives and partnerships can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/tio/partner.htm and http://www.epa.gov/tio/remed.htm#brow

The Clean Air Technology Center maintains the RACT/BACT/LAER Clearinghouse (RBLC) database that contains information distilled from early notification submittals and air permits received from state and local air pollution control programs in the United States. The RBLC Web site also contains summary information on air pollution emission standards. The data assist state/local agency personnel and private companies in determining what types of controls and pollution prevention measures have been applied to and/or are required for various sources and the effectiveness of these technologies.

The CATC also provides the Clean Air Technologies Database, developed by EPA in cooperation with RTI international. The database is a repository about commercially available and under development technologies for the reduction, destruction, modeling or monitoring of air pollution from mobile, stationary and indoor sources.

The Information Center on Air Pollution (CICA) provides technical support and assistance in evaluating air pollution problems along the Mexico - US Border. These services and products are available at no cost to federal, state and local agencies and universities in Mexico. Others can use these services depending on available resources.

A wide range of technical assistance is offered on:

• Air pollutants and control strategies
• Pollution prevention and control technology applications
• Operation and maintenance problems
• Emission inventory
• Emission factors
• Dispersion modeling
• Ambient monitoring
• Emission measurement
• Risk analysis

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