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FIELDS History
In 1992, U.S. EPA Region 5 established the Sediment and Technical Analysis Team in the Water Division. The Sediment staff performed numerous site-specific analyses for Superfund, including: sample design, data management and analysis, volume/mass calculations, baseline risk and risk-based cleanup goals. It became evident to staff involved with these difficult analyses that they could be integrated into a start-to-finish process paralleling the RI/FS process, which could also be supported by a suite of innovative technology tools.
By 1996, a series of ArcView GIS-based software tools were created and implemented at nearly 12 test sites in Region 5. During this year, the FIELDS name was adopted. In 1997 the Team broadened its development of innovative technology tools especially for real-time GPS and sophisticated 3D modeling.
In 1999, U.S. EPA Headquarters Office of Research and Development (ORD) selected the FIELDS Software Tools as one of the Agency's National Technology Transfer projects. In addition to the roughly 25 projects utilizing FIELDS assistance in Region 5, the team supported Technology Transfer projects in Regions 6 and 9 as pilots for ORD's using FIELDS Beta Version 1.0.
Also during 1999, a new partnership was created between the FIELDS Team and the University of Tennessee's (U of T) Center for Information Studies. The U of T Team developed a software called SADA (Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistance). SADA incorporates human health risk assessment and cost/benefit analysis with decision analysis. The partnership between FIELDS and SADA was initiated to continue the independent development of SADA and exchange technology on site characterization software. Funding for this effort was provided, in part, by a grant from the Technology and Innovation Office (TIO) within the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER).
Additionally, in 1999, Region 5 tasked The Volpe Center of the US Department of Transportation to develop a series of documents about the FIELDS effort. These documents included a FIELDS System Development Plan. Lastly, Team members traveled to Shanghai, China to give technology transfer workshops in sediment remediation.
During 2000, 20 new FIELDS projects were added from Superfund and Water Divisions. Assistance to Region 3 resulted in characterization work on the Kanawha River in West Virginia, a dioxin contaminated sediment site. Assistance also began for the Region 2 Superfund Division Passaic River Site in New Jersey, another dioxin site.
The results of the ORD-sponsored use of FIELDS software for pilot projects were highlighted at a two-day national conference hosted by the FIELDS team in Chicago. Over 130 participants attended the conference from 9 Regions, a number of State Agencies, and private companies. The conference also served as an opportunity for Regions without pilot projects to see the FIELDS software used and to discuss the potential for site characterization software. A new remediation module was added to the software package. Based on responses to questionnaires, the conference was considered highly valuable to most participants. Also during 2000, the Volpe Center also completed a draft of the FIELDS Comprehensive Systems Development Plan, in accordance with U.S. EPA IRM Policy Manual Chapter 17 for system development.
During 2001, a second FIELDS Conference was held, sponsored by U.S. EPA Region 8 in Denver. The conference was limited to 130 attendees, including nine of the ten EPA Regions, a number of States and Tribes, and contractors. In the fall of 2001, the FIELDS Team again traveled to Shanghai, China to follow up on the workshop of 1999. During this trip, the Team gave demonstrations on field techniques and FIELDS software tools to representatives of the Shanghai municipal government and the Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences.
In the spring of 2002, Version 3.0 of the FIELDS tools was completed. Full system documentation was also generated so that all operations are completely transparent. A technology transfer project occurred in September, 2002, for the Latvian Government.
Early in 2003, the FIELDS Team released an updated version of the FIELDS Tools for ArcView (version 3.5). In addition, the FIELDS Team, in cooperation with the SADA software development team, released version 1.5 of F/S Plus. F/S Plus is a stand-alone, 2D/3D data display and analytical tool for environmental data characterization.
The third annual FIELDS/SADA conference was held in Chicago in early March, 2003. The conference highlighted the integration of several freeware software such as FIELDS Tools, SADA, and VSP (Visual Sample Plan). The conference proceedings can be downloaded as a ZIP file. 