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A Benefit-Cost Model for Evaluating Remediation Alternatives at Superfund Sites Incorporating the Value of Ecosystem Services

Publications and Presentations

• Grant from Superfund Redevelopment Initiative to start Center of Expertise for Superfund Site Recycling
• Kenney, M.A., M.A. White, and J.H. Herman (2004). An Adaptive Cost-Benefit Model: The Potential of Ecosystem Services in the Reuse of Superfund Sites. In preparation.
• Kenney, M.A., M.A. White, and J.H. Herman (2003). Use of a Value-based Model to Assess Residential and Ecological Reuse of Superfund Sites. Presented at Virginia Lakes and Watersheds Association. Virginia Beach, VA (March 2003) and at the Technische Universität Dresden in Dresden, Germany (October 2003).
• Kenney, M.A. (2002) Development of a Value-based Model to Provide Options for Reuse of Superfund Sites. Environmental Sciences Distinguished Majors Thesis. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.

Description

To develop enforcement means to remediate the most contaminated hazardous waste sites (i.e., those posing the greatest risks to human health), Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and established an endowment to assist with cleanup costs nicknamed Superfund. EPA is charged with establishing, administering, and enforcing policies and procedures through which the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites might be identified, remediated, and returned to productive use. Despite the large number of Superfund sites, few have been returned to productive use.
While at the University of Virginia, I was part of an interdisciplinary research team that was exploring various aspects of Superfund redevelopment. I became interested in exploring the coupling of remediation and reuse schemes. I collaborated with Janet Herman (University of Virginia) and Mark White (University of Virginia) to answer the question: “How can we evaluate potential future Superfund redevelopment alternatives to better tailor current remediation strategies to promote future site reuse?”

How can we evaluate potential future Superfund redevelopment alternatives to better tailor current remediation strategies to promote future site reuse?

One of the ways to promote redevelopment of a Superfund site is to remediate the site with the reuse in mind. Often, however, it is difficult to determine what would be a likely future reuse and thus what remediation scheme would best encourage that reuse. As a result, we decided to construct a simple model we called the Superfund Adaptive Reuse and Redevelopment (SARR) model (Kenney and White, in press; Kenney, 2002). The backbone of SARR is a standard discounted benefit-cost analysis of alternative remediation technologies. Allowing for the possibility of different end-uses makes the model more interesting from an adaptive management perspective, and it becomes even more intriguing when values for ecosystem services are included in the ecological reuse scenario. SARR was parameterized using data from Emmell’s Septic Landfill, an actual Superfund site in New Jersey. We analyzed the model using Monte Carlo simulation, which identified a wide discrepancy in preferred treatment regimes and highlighted critical decision elements. Models such as ours can help decision-makers, such as those in EPA, to consider different alternatives and to reevaluate their choices, ultimately leading to improved Superfund site management decisions.