Chemical spills and accidents contaminate the environment and disrupt societies and economies around the globe. From 2004 to 2014, there were approximately 172,000 chemical spills that affected US waterbodies, and more than 8000 of these spills involved non-petroleum-related chemicals. The traditional emergency responses or incident command structures (ICSs) that respond to chemical spills require coordinated efforts by predominantly government personnel from multiple disciplines, including disaster management, public health, and environmental protection. However, the requirements of emergency response teams for science support might not be met within the traditional ICS. In the aftermath of the Jan. 2014 Elk River, WV chemical spill, and the Feb. 2014 Dan River, VA/NC coal ash spill, a cadre of researchers from governmental agencies and academia spontaneously self-assembled to form ad hoc science response teams. In May 2015, the group of government officials and researchers that responded to these events gathered at a workshop entitled Fostering Advances in Water Resource Protection and Crisis Communication, Lessons Learned From Recent Disasters. Over 50 participants including University researchers from diverse disciplines, governmental and regulatory agency personnel, and non-profit/citizen groups convened to consolidate lessons learned on the science and risk communications of these and other disasters impacting water resources. In this presentation, lessons learned from workshop will be shared and future research needs will be identified. This research community proposed immediate, near-term, and long-term activities to support the response to chemical spills and calls for science support for spill prevention and spill-incident response. Development of a formal mechanism for external science support of ICS from governmental and nongovernmental scientists would benefit rapid responders, advance incident- and crisis-response science, and aid society in coping with and recovering from chemical spills.

Lessons learned from the Elk and Dan River disasters: Enhancing science support for water resource protection and crisis communication in spill-incident response

255th National Meeting (2018)

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