FRAMESHWIR Software System the 3MRA and Mine Waste

1
FRAMES-HWIR Software System the 3MRA and Mine
Waste

• Karl Castleton, Dave Brown
• NERL-ERD

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Terms in Title

• FRAMES
• Framework for Risk Analysis and Management of
  Environmental Systems
• HWIR
• Hazardous Waste Identification rule
• 3MRA
• Multimedica, Multireceptor, and Multipathway,
  Risk Assessment

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Media Research Teams

• Sources
• Air
• Groundwater
• Surface water / watersheds
• Exposure pathways / receptors
• Risk
• Chemical / biological fate

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Where Does HWIR Fit in ORD Scheme of Things?

• Multimedia, multipathway, multireceptor exposure
  model development
• site scale
• ecoregion scale
• watershed - basin scale
• continental scale
• Process integration

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Why focus on HWIR98 ?(ORD Criteria Addressed)

• National scale risk-based rule
• Focuses on human and eco risks
• Risk-based exit levels must be generated by
  "linking" medium specific fate and transport
  models with multimedia source models to estimate
  multipathway exposures.
• Maximum leverage

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Joint Technical Criteria

• Follows Risk Paradigm
• Multimedia / multipathway-based
• Assessment consistent across paths
• Mass balance preserved
• Applicable to any wastestream
• Captures uncertainty by source

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Major Assumptions

• Near-field, long term impacts on human
  individuals, eco populations
• Single source, single chemical based
• Environmental feedbacks not significant
• Simultaneous multiple path exposure, summed risks

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Technical Approach

• Screening-level, human and eco, long term,
  chemical exposure
• Land-based WMU's
• Site-based, National scope
• Fate and transport through multimedia environment
• Establishes chemical specific exit levels

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Assessment Strategy

• Geographic database
• Characterize WMU's and contents
• Characterize surrounding environ.
• Characterize receptor types, numbers, activities
• Simulate release, fate and transport, exposure
  and risk at site for chemical-specific waste
  conc's

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FRAMES-HWIR

• The FRAMES-HWIR software system was written to
  evaluate on a national basis the concentration in
  the waste that would protect A of people or
  ecological receptor group at B of the sites in
  the United States.
• The assessment strategy for FRAMES-HWIR is the
  3MRA.

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Mine Wastes

• Tailings ponds
• Surface Impoundments
• Leach Fields
• Waste Water
• Mostly land based

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FRAMES-HWIR Can...

• Simulate chemical movement through 11 different
  media
• Source, Air, Watershed, Vadose Zone, Aquifer,
  Surface water, Farms, Terrestrial Foodweb,
  Aquatic Foodweb, Ecological Exposure and Risk,
  Human Exposure and Risk
• FRAMES-HWIR is better suited to mine wastes
  because they are land based sources, typically,
  not point elevated releases for other industries.

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FRAMES-HWIR Can... (continued)

• Be used to perform Monte Carlo simulations of a
  site.
• Have the components work outside the FRAMES-HWIR
  software system.
• Run on a standard desktop PC that runs MS-Windows
  95,98, 2000, and NT
• Simulate a single Monte Carlo iteration of a in
  an average of 2 minutes

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FRAMES-HWIR Cannot ....

• Be used to easily input data for a single site.
• Simulate elevated air releases.
• Visualize the any results at a single site.
• Visualize the any input or conceptualization at a
  single site.
• Be used for areas much greater than 2km without
  some modification.
• Be assumed to work in the specific mine waste
  environments.

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The future of FRAMES-HWIR

• Office of Solid Waste has expressed some interest
  in building the Conceptual Simulation Editor
  (CSE) for FRAMES-HWIR.
• The CSE will be the software tool that allows a
  single site to be easily simulated in the
  FRAMES-HWIR software system.
• The CSE will also allow the user to bring
  visualization tools to the simulation.