Overview of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Preparedness Workgroups

EPA Chemical Warfare Agent Preparedness Workgroup

The Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Consequence Management Advisory Team (CMAT) chairs EPA’s Chemical Warfare Agent Preparedness Workgroup, a cross-agency workgroup made up of representatives from each of the 10 EPA Regions, Special Teams, EPA’s Office of Research and Development, and several EPA program offices. The workgroup’s mission is to enhance emergency response planning, preparedness, and technical capabilities of On-Scene Coordinators (OSCs) to respond to incidents involving chemical agents and precursors that are scheduled under the Chemical Weapons Convention, their degradation products, and non-routine chemical compounds and/or non-traditional chemical agents. 

The workgroup’s objectives are to:

1. Develop response tools/guidance/products and policy recommendations for OSCs to use when responding to a chemical agent incident.
2. Ensure that operational needs and gaps are identified, prioritized and addressed.
3. Develop and assess chemical agent response exercises, standard operating procedures, trainings, and research and development projects – ensuring that resources are focused on OSC priority needs.
4. Increase awareness, planning, and coordination across EPA on chemical agent response issues.
5. Provide planning and operational scientific support for exercises, events, and incidents.  

The workgroup includes four subject-specific subgroups that support the workgroup's mission. The subgroups include: 

• Sampling and Analysis - Ensures sampling and analytical readiness for response to a chemical warfare agent incident.
• Health and Safety - Addresses health and safety protocols and standard operating procedures for use in response to a chemical warfare agent incident.
• Decontamination and Clearance - Addresses decontamination and clearance related gaps in a response to a chemical warfare agent incident.
• Waste Transportation, Staging, and Disposal - Identifies and addresses knowledge gaps and technical challenges in the management of chemical agent-impacted waste.

National Biopreparedness Workgroup

CBRN CMAT co-chairs EPA’s National Biopreparedness Workgroup. The workgroup’s mission is to enhance the preparedness and technical capabilities of EPA’s emergency response resources to respond to incidents involving biological agents and biotoxins. This is accomplished through assembling a highly experienced and technical group of OSCs, Special Teams, and other EPA personnel to provide cross-regional and cross-programmatic coordination, information sharing, reach back support, and standardization of procedures. Many of the OSCs in the workgroup also serve as BioWatch coordinators within the EPA Regions, providing a local point of contact for BioWatch related issues and actions.