RAAS, MEPAS and ReOpt

Prepared by:
Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories

Prepared for:
Department of Energy (DOE)

Application:
Financial analysis:
Environmental impact analysis: ---
Waste management/P2:
Environmental cost listing/database: ---
Cost estimation: ---
Alternative product/process comparison: ---

To assist professionals at each stage in the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) process.

Elements of control:
Cost control
Resource control ---
Estimating control ---
Schedule control ---
Scope control
Risk control

Development date and updates:
Latest versions (version 1 of RAAS) available in April 1995.

Public availability:
Available

Purpose and current use:
ReOpt and MEPAS have been available as stand-alone applications and are already in use in the DOE, EPA, and industry. RAAS has not yet been released.

Cost information:
The total cost of ReOpt (for Federal contracts) obtained through the DOE's Energy Science and Technology Software Center (ESTC) is approximately $600. Commercial versions of ReOpt may be obtained through Battelle. Cost estimates for commercial versions are not available.

System requirements:

System requirements: System requirements for RAAS:


ReOpt is available for both Macintosh and Microsoft windows platforms.

Software summary

Size and complexity of projects:
Information not available

Other compatible systems offered:

ReOpt and MEPAS

Nonquantifiable information:
Decisions are made using both quantitative and qualitative data. For example, users can identify and document facts, assumptions, and operating constraints. Information on any separate note-writing capability is not available.

Remedial Action Assessment System (RAAS), MEPAS (Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System) and Remedial Options (ReOpt) are designed to assist professionals at each stage in the Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study(RI/FS) process. The development of RAAS began in 1985 and is expected to be completed in April 1995. The RAAS software system will include the following:

  1. ReOpt, an electronic encyclopedia that provides detailed information about contaminants, mediums, and environmental remediation technologies.
  2. MEPAS, a physics-based risk computational model.
  3. A site description module that helps users quantify site data and define cleanup strategies, constraints, and assumptions.
  4. A report writing feature that allows users to document information.
  5. Simulations of over 100 state-of -the-art technologies.
  6. Information on hundreds of contaminants.

RAAS is designed to help users understand what, how, why, and when environmental remediation alternative can effectively solve site-specific problems. RAAS assists in users in the following:

  1. Analysis of preliminary data (prior to availability of actual site data) and identification of other data required. Also helps users identify and document facts, assumptions, and operating constraints.
  2. Estimation of baseline risk through user-specified data in MEPAS portion 2. Detailed user-specified information is used for creating holistic cleanup alternatives (though ReOpt).
  3. Identification of feasible remediation options and comparison of performance of preliminary alternatives can be made using criteria such as cost, residual contaminant concentrations and volume, toxicity and mobility reduction. Defining remedial options consists of linking feasible technologies to find combinations that will meet objectives.
  4. Evaluation of complete remediation alternatives

Users supply RAAS with site-specific data, operating assumptions, and cleanup objectives. These are further refined through a series of questions presented by RAAS. A short list of clean-up alternatives is given to users(based on one or more environmental remediation technologies), which users can analyze in depth. RAAS allows users to analyze various alternative scenarios and helps them decide which technology (or combination of technologies) will be most effective in site cleanup.

ReOpt, a component of RAAS, is like an electronic database of information on remedial action technologies with auxiliary data on contaminants and regulations. It assists users in identifying potentially appropriate alternatives. ReOpt includes references to previous applications of remediation technologies and has as many as 500 bibliographic references for follow-up research.

MEPAS (Multimedia Environmental Pollutant Assessment System) is a human health risk model. MEPAS is a menu-run program and an enhancement of the Remedial Action Priority System (RAPS). It can be used at both active and inactive chemical and radioactive mixed-waste disposal sites. Within the RAAS methodology, MEPAS is used to estimate baseline and residual risk to potential on-site or off-site receptors associated with a hazardous and radioactively contaminated site. As a stand-alone application, it can estimate total population exposures associated with a contaminated site. MEPAS computes risk using empirical, analytical, and semi-analytical mathematical algorithms and methods specified in EPA risk assessment guidance.

Life-cycle stages covered

Raw material acquisition ---
Manufacturing stage ---
Use/reuse/maintenance ---
Recycle/waste management

RAAS looks at remediation effects on-site and after the contaminants are removed off-site (ex situ technology module). It does not consider how the contaminants were generated in the first place.

Type of costs considered

Conventional
Potentially hidden ---
Contingent ---
External ---

Costs are calculated based on algorithms associated with each remedial technology. RAAS does not use cost alone to evaluate alternatives. Thus, data on risk and effectiveness, for instance, are not converted into costs. The system mainly considers direct costs of particular remediation alternatives.

Method of cost estimation

Remedial alternative cost is estimated by combining RAAS methodology estimated parameters such as treated volumes, treatment times, and other appropriate factors with corresponding cost factors. Such cost and technology data are included as part of the individual technology modules in RAAS to support these alternative comparisons.

Generation of financial indicators

Net present value (NPV) ---
Payback period ---
Internal rate of return (IRR) ---
Benefits cost ratio ---
Other ---

Ability to include environmental costs

User friendliness and flexibility

RAAS has a graphical user interface that makes information easier to understand and use. It may be possible for a company to use MEPAS and ReOpt to estimate risks and liability costs of on-going projects, using hypothetical scenarios. ReOpt, for instance, contains data on regulations and technology requirements for remediation. However, these tools were not developed with that objective in mind.

User support

Though an annual maintenance contract, ReOpt is updated and redistributed every six months to reflect regulatory and technological changes.

Limitations

RAAS is not a tool to help users avoid generation of wastes or in waste management. It is designed primarily for problem solving. In the end the decisions between alternatives are not based on one number, rather a list of parameters that users can inspect to make their decisions. It is limited to remediation.

Basis for evaluation:
Based on telephone communication with Janet Bryant (Battelle) and information package received in January 1995.

Contact information:

Commercially available

Battelle, Pacific Northwest Laboratories
Battelle Boulevard
PO. Box 999
Richland, WA 99352

Janet L. Bryant
Senior Research Editor
RAAS Technology Transfer and User Training

509-375-3765
509-375-6417 (FAX)

Return to the top of this document.

Return to the Chapter 4 Index

Return to the Table of Contents