Reduce Costs

Technological advances in field analytical methods combined with experiences gained from historical hazardous waste site cleanup work have led to the EPA's Triad approach to hazardous waste site characterization, remediation, and closure.

In general, environmental cleanup programs have been criticized for their cost, duration, and efficacy (or lack of it). The way data collection programs have been conducted is partly to blame. Traditional sampling and analysis programs rely on work plans that dictate how many samples will be taken and where, and what laboratory analyses will be conducted on those samples. Turn-around times for laboratory analyses were usually measured in weeks with per sample costs at times running into the four figures. Error reduction focused on removing as much analytical error as possible from sample analyses, but ignored significantly greater decision errors introduced by basing decisions on a limited number of samples. When surprises were encountered in resulting data sets (e.g., contamination encountered where none was expected), site managers were left with the difficult choice of staging another expensive round of sampling, or basing decisions on incomplete data.

The past decade has seen significant advancements in data collection technologies and measurement systems.

The use of dynamic work strategies and real-time measurement technologies allows data collection programs and field activities to adapt or adjust to site conditions and analytical results as they are encountered. This, in turn, focuses work on site decision-making needs, and provides a mechanism for responding to unexpected site conditions or data quality problems while the work is underway. This ultimately means that with a Triad approach data collection can continue until decision quality goals have been achieved and decisions confidently made.

From a sampling program perspective, the goal of the Triad is to produce effective or decision quality data (i.e., data that are of known quality, that are defensible, and that support the decision that needs to be made) in a manner that is as cost and schedule-efficient as possible.

View details of Columbia Technologies' SD Full Triad Implementation used as an example on the EPA's Triad Resource Center »