SREL Reprint #1798
Orchestrating environmental research and assessment for remediation
David D. Breshears1, F. Ward Whicker2, and Thomas E. Hakonson3
1Department of Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, USA
2Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, South Carolina 29802, USA
3Environmental Science Group, Mail Stop 1495, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 8754S USA
Introduction: The interfaces between science, assessment, and policy have come to the forefront of national attention recently as the result of problems related to pollution and environmental remediation, habitat modification and fragmentation, and endangered and invading species. Issues at these interfaces were recently summarized for the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP) by Levin (1992) and reviewed as a case study (Cowling 1992, Loucks 1992, Russell 1992, Schindler 1992). More than half a billion (>0.5 x 109) dollars were invested in NAPAP over more than a decade and thousands of researchers were involved. Due to the magnitude of the program and its role at the science/policy interface, Levin (1992) posed the question "ls NAPAP a model for future studies?" Although opinions on the success of the program varied greatly (Cowling 1992, Loucks 1992, Russell 1992, Schindler 1992), several common lessons emerged from the papers. We thought it appropriate to ask if these lessons are being applied to another ongoing large-scale environmental program: the remediation of contaminated sites in the US Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons complex.
SREL Reprint #1798
Breshears, D.D., F.W. Whicker, and T.E. Hakonson. 1993. Orchestrating environmental research and assessment for remediation. Ecological Applications 3:590-594.
This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).