Technical Support Project
The United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER), Regional Waste Management Offices, and the Office of Research and Development (ORD) established the Technical Support Project (TSP) in 1987 to provide technical assistance to Regional Remedial Project Managers, Corrective Action Staff, and On-Scene Coordinators. The Project consists of a network of regional forums and specialized Technical Support Centers located in ORD and the Office of Radiation Programs (ORP) laboratories, and OSWER's Environmental Response Team. The objectives of the TSP are to network with other EPA programs and other Federal agencies.
Regional Forums
Regional technical personnel have established three technical Forums within the TSP: the Engineering Forum, the Ground Water Forum, and most recently, the Federal Facilities Forum. Members of these Forums work to improve communications and assist in technical transfer between the Regions and the Centers. The Forums also act as technical resources, and disseminate information resulting from the Project to their Regional colleagues. They also meet semi-annually to discuss technical and policy issues, new technologies, and to network with other Federal agencies.
Technical Assistance Requests
There are many ways an RPM can access technical assistance through the Technical Support Program (TSP):
1. Consult the TSP Expertise Directory (18pp, 277KB) or call your Region's Forum representative to discuss your question. This directory is searchable and provides a snapshot of the various types of expertise possessed by the current members of the three Technical Support Project forums. It is based on input provided by the members themselves.
2. The ORD Superfund and Technology Liaison in your region can help you initiate a technical assistance request or site visit from the appropriate Technical Support Center.
3. Technical support questions may also be communicated directly to any of the Technical Support Centers Contacts.
4. RPMs can present technical questions to the forums as a whole during their conference calls - either by presenting their questions directly or through their regional forum representative(s).
5. RPMs can call the Technology Information and Field Services Division
(TIFSD)
within the Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology
Innovation (OSRTI).
Accomplishments
The Technical Support Centers respond to approximately 400-500 requests for technical assistance each year. These projects have included various types of technical assistance, such as:
- Reviews of contractor workplans and reports: RIs, FSs, and RDs
- Treatability studies (e.g., bioremediation, stabilization/solidification, soil washing, incineration)
- Selection and evaluation of remedial technologies
- Development and review of sampling plans, application of models, interpretation of data
- Application of innovative technologies
- Development of technical transfer papers
CLU-IN Website
The
Hazardous Waste Clean-up Information (CLU-IN) web site provides information
about innovative treatment technologies to the hazardous waste remediation
community. It describes programs, organizations, publications and other tools
for federal and state personnel, consulting engineers, technology developers
and vendors, remediation contractors, researchers, community groups, and
individual citizens. The site was developed by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency but is intended as a forum for all waste remediation
stakeholders.
Click here to visit CLU-IN.
![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif)