Recent Additions

NIH just released the new Small Business Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) for eligible U.S. small businesses advancing innovative technologies toward public health impact. In addition to reviewing the current funding opportunities, applicants are encouraged to register for NIH Small Business 101, a new webinar series designed to help small businesses prepare for this next chapter of the program. Attendees will learn how to navigate new opportunities and policy changes, with each session followed by live Q&A with NIH Small Business experts. For questions about remediation and detection technology project ideas, please contact Heather Henry at heather.henry@nih.gov.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Superfund Research Program (SRP) is pleased to announce the continuation of the Superfund Hazardous Substance Research and Training Program (P42). The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), RFA-ES-27-004, calls for applications to establish P42 Centers, which support problem-based, solution-oriented research relevant to Superfund. The Centers consist of multiple integrated projects representing both the biomedical and environmental science disciplines. Center cores are also tasked with administrative (that includes Center’s leadership, data management and analysis, and training functions) and translational research and engagement, and as applicable, research support functions. The next application due date is September 25, 2026 (5:00 PM local time of applicant organization).

Natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes) and wide-area chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) incidents (e.g., the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, foreign animal diseases), can generate a significant amount of debris (including both materials and waste) during the incident itself or subsequent remediation efforts. The quantification, segregation, transportation, staging, storage, and disposal of waste resulting from disasters can be an arduous and costly undertaking that is difficult for states, local governments, tribes, and territories to manage. In addition, processes are linked with decisions made throughout the response and recovery timelines and therefore, the remediation, including materials and waste management, must be holistically considered. To this end, many EPA program offices and teams have worked over the years to develop waste and materials management tools to assist decision makers with waste management decisions in the pre-planning, mitigation, response, and recovery phases of an incident.

• I-WASTE: Incident Waste Decision Support Tool
  Assists planning in how to handle, transport, treat, and dispose of contaminated waste and debris. I-WASTE helps characterize and produce order-of-magnitude estimates for the weight and volume of waste materials that may require management and/or disposal, as well as identifies and locates potential treatment and disposal facilities. This tool has been used to support several past responses and exercises including: Hurricane Florence response, planning for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza carcass disposal, examining disposal options for floods and fires in Idaho, estimating potential waste during the Ebola response, and it has been used during national level exercises. I-WASTE has an active user-base with over 63,000 views in 2025. Previously recorded training is available for I-WASTE.
• AHWMPT: All Hazards Waste Management Planning Tool
  Assists emergency managers and planners in creating or updating a comprehensive plan for managing materials and wastes generated from manmade and natural disasters. This tool walks users through the process of developing and implementing a plan while serving as a resource on various aspects of the planning process. EPA is currently working on enhancements to the AHWMPT in order to improve usability and to increase community uptake of the tool. Since 2022, there have been over 20 communities that have created waste management plans. Step-by-step instructions and a previously recorded training are available for AHWMPT.
• DDRT: Disaster Debris Recovery Tool
  Interactive mapping tool for locating recyclers and landfills capable of managing different materials and wastes that may be found in disaster debris. This tool provides information and locations of over 20,000 facilities with data for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands. The DDRT has been used to inform Tribal Emergency Operations Plans. It has an active user-base with over 179,000 requests for the national DDRT feature layer from September 2024 to March 2025.
• WEST: Waste Estimation Support Tool
  Estimates waste generated from remediation and cleanup activities following a radiological incident. This tool allows users to evaluate various decontamination and demolition strategies that examine the impact of those strategies on waste generation. It has been used to provide waste quantity estimations for the 2017 Gotham Shield Exercise which included a scenario of an improvised nuclear device in New York City. For more information on this tool, check out our webpage.
• Waste Storage and Staging Site Tool
  Identifies and prioritizes locations for staging and storing waste. Using a site suitability analysis, the tool considers complicating factors such as soil type, land cover, topography, ease of transportation, and proximity to surface waters. The tool will analyze various criteria for a specified geographic area to identify candidate sites and their total available land surface areas.
• Waste Logistics Tool
  Identifies optimal routes for transporting large volumes of waste from a disaster response area to waste management facilities. This tool calculates the cost and time to manage user-specified quantity of waste and allows users to run routing scenarios with user-defined destinations. Factors specific to waste type, hauling rates, and acceptance rates allow users to explore options and evaluate constraints to improve preparedness for managing large volumes of waste.

This event, co-sponsored by US EPA Region 9 and the Society of American Military Engineers, San Francisco Post, will include structured opportunities for facilitated technical exchange, presentations, posters, and networking focused on key mine cleanup topic areas. The submission deadline for presentations and posters is May 19, 2026.

The Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment Initiative (EMRTAI) announces a Call for Applications for assessments of technologies to characterize and recover critical minerals from mining and mineral processing waste. The deadline for applications is May 8, 2026.

The 2027 National Brownfields Training Conference Call for Ideas is open through June 12, 2026. Submit your ideas for dynamic educational sessions that explore the latest and greatest tools, methods, trends and case studies in brownfields redevelopment and revitalization. The Conference Topic Areas (Tracks) are: Brownfields Financing, Healthy and Resilient Redevelopment, Future Economic Trends and Transformation, Community Involvement and Public Participation, Brownfields Assessment and Cleanup Approaches, and Tribal Brownfield Programs.

The Superfund Redevelopment Program, and the Brownfields Program, have assembled information, tools and resources to help interested parties assess the viability of Superfund and Brownfield properties as possible locations for data centers in response to the Executive Order on Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure. Superfund and Brownfield sites often already have infrastructure and industrial zoning that can make building data centers appealing. EPA’s new information clarifies important factors for interested parties to consider when planning AI data centers at Superfund and Brownfield sites, including compatibility with site conditions and cleanup, legal responsibilities, community input, and access to infrastructure. Along with existing guidance for redevelopment and land revitalization, this information can help speed up the process of returning contaminated sites to productive use and help stakeholders assess the viability of data centers as an option for reuse.

The Department of Defense's Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) released a solicitation on January 8, 2026, requesting proposals that address energy security, infrastructure resilience, and sustainment challenges. The due date for all pre-proposals is March 12, 2026.

The CPM calculator converts cleanup goals expressed in picocuries per mass, area from risk assessments, dose calculations, or Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements (ARARs), into equivalent counts per minute for real-time field surveys. The Counts Per Minute calculator may also assist in the standardization of correlating lab data and real time site-specific measurements while reducing the amount of lab sampling needed for site characterization and confirmation studies. Note this tool will not replace the need for sampling.

On October 16, 2025, OLEM issued a directive providing updated guidance and establishing a new approach to accelerate cleanup of lead contaminated soil on residential properties at CERCLA (also known as Superfund) sites and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act hazardous waste cleanup facilities.

The directive establishes:

• A regional removal management level of 600 parts per million for lead in residential soil.
• A regional screening level of 200 parts per million for lead in residential soil.


• A target children’s blood lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter to determine preliminary remediation goals.
• A series of process improvements to accelerate response actions.

This directive supersedes the January 2024 Updated Soil Lead Guidance for CERCLA sites and RCRA Corrective Action Facilities.