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U.S. Department of Energy
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A watershed-level approach to evaluating ecological impacts at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland

Conference ·
OSTI ID:40131
; ; ;  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. ICF Kaiser Engineers, Abingdon, MD (United States)
  2. Directorate of Safety, Health, and Environment, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (United States)
  3. Weinberg Consulting Group, Washington, DC (United States)
Aberdeen Proving Ground is a US Army installation occupying approximately 32,400 hectares of relatively undeveloped coastal plain uplands, wetlands, and estuary on the upper Chesapeake Bay. The installation was established in 1917 and historically has been used for research, development, and testing of chemical warfare agents, conventional weapons, and other material. Past activities have resulted in several hundred known or suspected potential sources of contamination in numerous drainage basins of two main watersheds (the Gunpowder River watershed and the Bush River watershed) and several smaller watersheds. All of these watersheds discharge to the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay. Investigations are being conducted to evaluate risks to ecological resources in the drainage basins of these watersheds. Following these investigations, watershed-level risk assessments will be conducted to evaluate the individual and combined risks of these multiple sources of contamination to ecological resources within each watershed. Risks to ecological resources in the potentially affected regions of the upper Chesapeake Bay via the migration of contaminants from the watersheds will also be evaluated. The approach being used for the watershed-level ecological assessment is discussed along with the implications of applying this approach to the evaluation of hazardous waste sites.
OSTI ID:
40131
Report Number(s):
CONF-9410273--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English