EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency  FOR RELEASE:   Friday, June 26, 1998

EPA ANNOUNCES EXPERTS SELECTED TO PEER REVIEW COMPUTER MODEL USED FOR THE HUDSON RIVER PCB SUPERFUND SITE

(#98076) NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’ (EPA) today announced the names of the experts who will serve on the Peer Review’ panel that will examine the scientific assumptions and approaches to be used by the agency in its computer modeling of the Hudson River PCB Superfund site. The modeling study is part of extensive work EPA has undertaken to understand the nature of the PCB contamination in the Hudson River. This work will be used to determine what action, if any, should be taken to address this problem. EPA is conducting a reassessment of its 1984 decision to take no action on the PCB-contaminated sediments in a 40 mile stretch of the Hudson River between Hudson Falls and the Troy Dam.

Peer review is conducted to ensure that the science upon which EPA makes its decisions is correct and credible. It addresses only the science on which decisions are based, not the decisions themselves. Under EPA’s national policy, major scientific and/or technical work products such as those which are part of the Hudson River PCB Reassessment are subject to peer review.

Throughout the study, EPA has employed innovative technologies such as PCB “fingerprinting” in order to ascertain the origin, fate and transport of PCBs in the Hudson. Computer modeling allows the agency to forecast future trends in the river under a variety of scenarios.

“We are extremely proud of the innovative and sound scientific approaches we have taken in our Reassessment of the Hudson River PCB contamination’ said Deputy Regional Administrator William M. Muszynski. “Peer review provides invaluable assurance that we are on the right track from respected and independent scientific experts.”

Members of the Peer Review panel were selected by Eastern Research Group Inc., (ERG), a contractor specializing in this type of work. The Peer Review panel is made up of individuals with expertise in the subject matter under review. Each panel member has been screened for conflicts of interest and has been determined to be unbiased and independent of the project under review. The members of the panel are:

Ellen Bentzen, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Department of Environmental and Resource Studies, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

Miriam Leah Diamond. Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

James W. Gillett, Director, Superfund Basic Research and Education Program and Professor of Ecotoxicology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Gordon Douglas Haffner, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Alan W. Maki, Ph.D., Environmental Advisor, Exxon Company USA, Houston, Texas

Thanos Nicholas Papanicolaou, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington

Frank Wania, Ph.D., Independent Research Scientist, WECC Wania Environmental Chemists Corp., Toronto, Ontario, Canada

SITE BACKGROUND

 

EPA began the Hudson River PCB Reassessment in 1990 in order to review its 1984 decision to leave the PCB-contaminated sediments in the Hudson River in place. The site is delineated as the Hudson River from Hudson Falls to the Battery in New York City. The Reassessment, while looking at the entire River, concentrates its efforts on a 40-mile stretch of the River between Hudson Falls and the Federal Dam at Troy, which contains historical “hot spots” of PCB-contaminated sediments. These sediments became contaminated from the release of approximately 1.1 million pounds of PCBs discharged into the river over a 30-year period (1940’s- 1970’s) by two General Electric capacitor plants at Hudson Falls and Fort Edward. New York. The PCB contamination of the Hudson River has resulted in health advisories on fish in the Lower Hudson (below Troy) and a total ban on consumption of any fish caught north of that location. PCBs are considered to be a probable human carcinogen by the EPA.

The Hudson River PCBs Reassessment Study is being conducted in three Phases, with the agency presently in the midst of Phase 2. The agency expects to have a draft of its decision to the public in December 2000, and a final decision on how to address this site in June of 2001.

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LOCAL  Friday, September 11, 1998

Scientists not impressed with EPA report

PCB report is acceptable but needs major revision

By JIM KINNEY

The Saratogian

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A group of independent scientists are highly critical of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency model for predicting how and where PCBs are getting into Hudson River fish. 

After two days of crunching numbers at the Sheraton Hotel in Saratoga Springs, a panel of seven scientists called the EPA plan acceptable — but only with major revisions. 

“We think the EPA should have known to do a better job,” said reviewer Thanos Papanico­laou. “They could have done a better job.” 

Papanicolaou, a professor of civil engineering at Washington State University, said the EPA didn’t draw a distinction between sediment that doesn’t flow and lighter sediment that can move.  Also, one of the three computer models gave results that were very different from the other two.

But, he said, the EPA is al­ready collecting data on both kinds of sediment and is address­ing several of his and his fellow reviewers concerns.

PCBs — polychlorinated biphenyls — which are suspected of causing cancer, were legally dumped by the General Electric Co. plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls from the 1940s to the 1970s. The chemical has since shown up in fish in dangerous levels. Some within the EPA have proposed dredging the up­per Hudson to remove contami­nated sediment.

EPA spokeswoman Ann Rych­lenski said the computer models will one day be used to predict what will happen under various conditions. They might also be used to predict how dredging will affect levels of PCBs in the water and in fish.

“We made some mistakes,” she said. “But we always said this report was an interim report. It is a work in progress.”

GE spokesman Mark Peehan said his company pointed out many of the same flaws the re­viewers noticed. Company scien­tists theorize that the fish are consuming PCBs that have recently washed into the river, not from sediments that collected at the bottom of the river years ago. He said a new study will confirm the company’s assertion.

The EPA released plans for the computer models —called a Preliminary Model Cali­bration Report in—October 1996.

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THE RECORD  Friday, September 11, 1998

 Scientists critical of EPA PCB model

By Jim Kinney

Special to The Record

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A group of independent scientists are highly critical of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency model for predicting how and where PCBs are getting into Hudson River fish. 

After two days of crunching numbers at the Sheraton Hotel in Saratoga Springs, a panel of seven scientists called the EPA plan acceptable — but only with major revisions. 

“We think the EPA should have known to do a better job,” said reviewer Thanos Papanico­laou. “They could have done a better job.” 

Papanicolaou, a professor of civil engineering at Washington State University, said the EPA didn’t draw a distinction between sediment that doesn’t flow and lighter sediment that can move.  Also, one of the three computer models gave results that were very different from the other two.

But, he said, the EPA is al­ready collecting data on both kinds of sediment and is address­ing several of his and his fellow reviewers concerns.

PCBs — polychlorinated biphenyls — which are suspected of causing cancer, were legally dumped by the General Electric Co. plants in Fort Edward and Hudson Falls from the 1940s to the 1970s. The chemical has since shown up in fish in dangerous levels. Some within the EPA have proposed dredging the up­per Hudson to remove contami­nated sediment.

EPA spokeswoman Ann Rych­lenski said the computer models will one day be used to predict what will happen under various conditions. They might also be used to predict how dredging will affect levels of PCBs in the water and in fish.

“We made some mistakes,” she said. “But we always said this report was an interim report. It is a work in progress.”

GE spokesman Mark Peehan said his company pointed out many of the same flaws the re­viewers noticed. Company scien­tists theorize that the fish are consuming PCBs that have recently washed into the river, not from sediments that collected at the bottom of the river years ago. He said a new study will confirm the company’s assertion.

The EPA released plans for the computer models —called a Preliminary Model Cali­bration Report in—October 1996.

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NEWS from Washington State University  September 29, 1999

MEDIA CONTACT: Nancy Hilliard, 509/335-5095, hilliard®wsu.edu

WSU ENGINEERS HELP FISH FIND THEIR WAY BACK HOME

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Washington State University engineers are seeking ways to aid fish migration in Washington’s mountain streams. But to do that, they need to find ways to improve the interior design and alter the flow in the state’s existing road culverts.

When new construction or development disturbs natural streambeds, replacing them with culverts, fish can’t easily make a return to their natural spawning grounds. The thousands of culverts already alongside Washington roads constrict water flow and produce higher velocities than fish can handle.

Engineer researchers Thanos Papanicolaou, Mike Barber, Ken Campbell and Rollin Hotchkiss are helping the Washington State Department of Transportation simulate natural gravel streambed conditions inside culverts. With a $72,300 grant from WSDOT, they test ways to maintain stable bed conditions in culverts and examine the role of relative roughness to successful fish passage.

WSU’s Albrook Hydraulic Laboratory contains several experimental runs to examine the resistance to the flowing water in beds of varied gravel roughness. One of these is a 75-foot re-circulating flume that can change its slope from 2-15 degrees, create a flow of 40 cubic feet of water per second, and simulate gravel beds with 2-8-inch rocks. Thus, it tests a wide range of slope variation and flow conditions, channel roughness, and depths. It is the only flume of its kind in the U.S.

By October, the team will make preliminary recommendations to the WSDOT about the hydraulics of culvert design allowing fish passages in stable beds on steep rivers, charting variable flow regimes for different slopes, relative roughness and channel profiles.

Phase two of the study, beginning in January, will involve measuring the velocity of the flow on fish -- first using mock plastic models of fish, until refined. Then the researchers will build holding pens for live fish testing.

Campbell, a biosystems engineer who also is on the veterinary medicine faculty, has developed a computer model to measure the effects of the turbulence on fish muscle.

WSDOT has documented problems with adult salmon passage in the state’s 7,000 miles of roads. Of 1,585 culverts important to fish passage inventoried between 1992-95, 32 percent were partially or completely impassable to adult salmon. Applying this percentage to the 42.000 miles of county roads and 11,000 miles of city roads, an estimated 19,000 problem-culverts lie along Washington’s paved roads. State and federal forest roads total another 21,000 miles, along which thousands more impassable culverts may exist.

In addition to the plight of adult fish, it is clear that juvenile salmon and trout are also affected. They use off-channel wetlands and ponds for feeding and rearing, for protection during high flows and to move between habitats. Therefore, their need for access to different parts of the watershed during their freshwater rearing period also will be factored into the study.

Nh 118-99

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SEATTLE DAILY JOURNAL OF COMMERCE  October 12, 1999

Build it well and salmon will swim through it

WSU comes up with recipe for better culvert design

By Jon Savelle
Journal Environmental editor

In the town of Pullman, out in the rolling Palouse wheat fields, a team of Washington State University researchers is focused on fish.

Using a grant from the state Department of Transportation and WSU’s Albrook Hydraulic Laboratory, the team has spent a year figuring out how to build culverts that are passable to salmon, and which would remain stable under various conditions.

Now the first phase of the research is finished, and a report has been submitted to the DOT for comment and review. Among other things, it contains what is essentially a recipe for good culvert design.

Thanos Papanicolaou, of the university’s civil engineering department, said he and three other researchers -- Mike Barber, Ken Campbell and Rollin Hotchkiss -- found that the best culvert is the one that most closely matches the stream bed above and below it.

However, being engineers, they arrived at this conclusion very methodically. The team used a 75-foot recirculating flume to examine slopes of 2 degrees to 15 degrees, with water flows up to 40 cubic feet per second and gravel beds with 2-inch to 8-inch rocks.

Data from the flume yielded a graph that predicts, for any given flow, the depth at which gravel is eroded. This “scour depth” data could be used to properly size culverts to avoid erosion.

The highest flows represent an extreme flood, a “200-year” event.

“We tried to find stable bed configurations, which means we have marginal erosion,” Papanicolaou said. “The natural condition is that you have sediment passing through the culvert, but you are not going to see the whole material totally eroded.”

Other essential culvert features, the team discovered, are things that nature creates very well: pools, riffles and steps.

 

In round numbers, a good culvert recipe is as follows:

•  The “gravel” in the culvert should be made up of rocks with a diameter no greater than 25 percent of the culvert’s diameter. So, a 12-foot culvert should contain rocks smaller than 3 feet across.

•  About 35 percent of the culvert pipe must be submerged in the gravel.

•  lnstream structures called sills must be built to stabilize the gravel, especially on steep slopes.

 

According to Papanicolaou, if gravel larger than 25 percent of the pipe diameter is placed inside it, the gravel’s irregular surface will trap trash and debris. This will degrade the culvert’s fish-passage characteristics and will contribute to blockages, flooding and washouts.

The research done so far has not involved live fish. That comes in the next phase of the study, when the team will measure the effects of velocity on salmon.

Jim Schafer, director of the environmental research program at the DOT, said the WSU data will have immediate practical value to the department. And it will be applied to the next phase of the research, which includes not only live fish testing at WSU but also fish-behavior studies at the University of Washington.

It is hoped that this last element will reveal what motivates juvenile fish to move upstream against strong currents, and when this trigger occurs. All new information will be utilized as quickly as possible by the DOT and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, who will disseminate it to builders and contractors.

Then, assuming money for salmon restoration finds its way into culverts, it could mean plenty of work for contractors. The state DOT has found that, of 1,585 culverts that are important to fish, about 32 percent are partially or completely impassable to them.

And those are just the culverts on the state’s own 7,000 miles of roads. When you add in 42,000 miles of county roads and 11,000 miles of city roads, the number of bad culverts could approach 19,000.

In addition, state and federal forest roads, which total another 21,000 miles in Washington, very likely have thousands more impassable culverts.

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WSU WEEK  February 4, 2000

Researchers receive WTC awards

Three university researchers have joined Washington-based companies to receive support from the Washington Technology Center.

The Research and Technology Development Program matches companies with university re­searchers to conduct product research and devel­opment on the company’s behalf.

WSU researchers received $260,000 of the $488,000 available. Awards include:

 

• Civil engineer Thanos Papanicolaou and D&A Instruments of Port Townsend: The com­pany has teamed with WSU Civil Engineering to develop an improved instrument for unattended measurement of gravel in a stream with greater accuracy and lower cost. Such measurement in stream beds is used to predict scour of bridge sup­ports and is vital to monitoring the effect of ur­ban encroachment on salmon spawning habitat.

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HILLTOPICS  June, 2000

Road Culverts Hazards to Migrating Fish

Washington State University engineers are seeking ways to aid fish migration in Washington’s mountain streams. To do that, they need to find ways to improve the interior design and alter the flow in the state’s existing road culverts.

When new construction or development disturbs natural streambeds, replacing them with culverts, fish can’t easily make a return to their natural spawning grounds.

The thousands of culverts al­ready alongside Washington roads constrict water flow and produce higher velocities than fish can handle.

Engineer researchers Thanos Papanicolaou, Mike Barber, Ken Campbell and Rollin Hotchkiss are helping the Washington State Department of Transportation simulate natural gravel streambed conditions inside culverts. With a $72,300 grant from WSDOT, they test ways to maintain stable bed conditions in culverts and exam­ine the role of relative roughness to successful fish passage.

WSU’s Albrook Hydraulic Labo­ratory contains several experimen­tal runs to examine the resistance to the flowing water in beds of varied gravel roughness. One of these runs is a 75-foot re-circulat­ing flume that can change its slope from 2-15 degrees, create a flow of 40 cubic feet of water per second, and simulate gravel beds with 2-8-inch rocks. Thus, it tests a wide range of slope variation and flow conditions, channel roughness, and depths.

Last fall, the team made prelimi­nary recommendations to the WSDOT about the hydraulics of culvert design allowing fish passages in stable beds on steep rivers, charting variable flow regimes for different slopes, relative roughness and chan­nel profiles.

Phase two of the study, begun in January, involves measuring the ve­locity of the flow on fish—first using mock plastic models of fish, until refined. Later, the researchers will build holding pens for live fish test­ing.

Campbell, a biosystems engineer who also is on the veterinary medi­cine faculty, has developed a com­puter model to measure the effects of the turbulence on fish muscle.

WSDOT has documented problems with adult salmon passage in the state’s 7,000 miles of roads. Of 1,585 culverts important to fish passage inventoried between 1992-95, 32 percent were partially or completely impassable to adult salmon. Applying this percentage to the 42,000 miles of county roads and 11,000 miles of city roads, an estimated 19,000 problem­ culverts lie along Washington’s paved roads. State and federal forest roads total another 21,000 miles, along which thousands more impassable culverts may exist.

In addition to the plight of adult fish, it is clear that juvenile salmon and trout are also affected. They use off-channel wetlands and ponds for feeding and rearing, for protection during high flows and to move be­tween habitats. Therefore, their need for access to different parts of the watershed during their freshwater rearing period also will be factored into the study.

—Nancy Hilliard

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SonTek February 18, 2001

Hydraulic Modeling of a V-Shaped Fish Screen

An interesting project using a SonTek ADV is being developed at Washington State University (WSU) under the direction of Dr. Thanos Papanicolaou and Research Assistant Adam Maxwell. The purpose of this project is to design the first vee-shaped bypass inlet ever to be used in conjunction with a rotary-drum fish screen.

This structure will be located on the Salmon River near Challis, Idaho. Consideration must be given to the design of this structure such that it will not be detrimental to the fish that pass through it. To accomplish this, several configurations need to be studied. There will be four different configurations with six tests run on each configuration. Through these tests, the ideal placement of the training wall, a structure that divides the flow upstream of the bypass, will be determined.

The ADV will be used to determine water velocity immediately upstream of the rotating drums, which must be 0.4 ft/s or less to avoid high mortality rates for the fish. These tests will be conducted at Albrook Hydraulic Laboratory on the campus of WSU using a 45.45% scale model of a “fishing pool” fabricated by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game in conjunction with the facilities and equipment already present at the laboratory.

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