Research for Environmental Protection

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Puget Sound 1999 Area Oil Spill Exercise: Evaluation Report
May 1, 1999
This report serves as the Navy's formal evaluation for the 1999 Puget Sound Area Oil Spill Exercise. The report includes exercise results, lessons learned, and recommendations. The basic aim of the exercise was to improve the Navy's ability to interface with the local response community in the effort to organize and respond to a worst-case oil spill and to test the response strategies set forth in the regions Area Contingency Plan and Geographic Response Plans. The report examines both the success of the exercise in meeting its fundamental goals and the success of the spill response. Recommendations include conducting additional Incident Command System (ICS) training, ensuring greater familiarity with exercise goals and roles in future exercises, and predetermining the where the command center should be established in the event of a real oil spill.
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Utility of Ecological Risk Assessments
April 1, 1996
Ecological Risk Assessments (ERAs) are performed at hazardous waste cleanup sites under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) program to determine the risk that contaminants pose to the environment. A number of concerns have been expressed with respect to ERAs and other studies conducted at CERCLA sites including the following: too much effort is being spent on 'studies' instead of remedies; and remedies are largely determined on the basis of human health risk and any applicable cleanup standards in place as opposed to ecological risk. As a result of these concerns, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Installations and Environment) asked the Center for Naval Analyses to conduct a study of the utility of ecological risk assessments. This study was to review the ERA process in general and address specific issues. This report documents the results of the study.
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A Methodology for Evaluation of PREP Area Exercises
February 1, 1996
For many years, the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) has been charged with reconstructing and analyzing the Navy's major fleet exercises. Before deploying, a carrier battle group completes its work-up cycle by participating in a major exercise war. CNA provides reconstruction and analysis support at the request of the fleet commanders, who need an objective evaluation of their battle group's tactics and readiness. On 26 and 27 September 1995, Commander, Naval Base San Diego and Fleet Industrial Supply Center, Sand Diego hosted the 1995 San Diego Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) Area Exercise. This report documents our evaluation methodology, and offers a suggested evaluation plan for use in future PREP area exercises.
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Alternative-Fuel Vehicles for the Department of the Navy: Appendixes
October 1, 1992
This research memorandum presents three appendixes that support, and expand on, material in CNA Research Memorandum 92-91, dated July 1992. Appendix A summarizes available information on alternative fuel-vehicle emissions. Appendix B describes several hypothetical strategies that the Department of Navy might use in distributing alternative fuel-vehicles among its facilities. Finally, Appendix C describes the calculation of the cost estimates presented in CNA Research Memorandum 92-91 and includes additional tables and figures comparing the cost of vehicles powered by compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and a blend of 85 percent methanol and 15 percent gasoline (M-85).
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Alternative-Fuel Vehicles for the Department of the Navy
July 1, 1992
Laws and regulations taking effect over the next several years will determine the types of administrative vehicles the Department of the Navy (DON) must buy. Of most concern are a recent Executive Order, which requires purchasing vehicles that operate on nonpetroleum fuels, and the Clean Air Act, which requires fleet owners to purchase low emission vehicles for use in certain parts of the country. CNA analyzed the options available to DON for meeting these requirements. The results tend to favor one alternative fuel for vehicles held for two or three years and different fuels for vehicles held for more than eight years. These results are sensitive to changes in fuel prices and other vehicle costs. Because current data are limited and the alternative-fuel-vehicle industry is undergoing rapid change, we recommend that DON not commit to a single technology until more is known about the on-road performance and costs of all the choices. Appendixes covering emissions, DON fleet composition and distribution, and cost comparisons are published separately as CNA Research Memorandum 92-92.
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Estimated STOVL Strike Fighter Danger Area
January 1, 1992
Effects of impinging gas from the AV-8B Short-Takeoff Vertical-Landing (STOVL) aircraft require that personnel remain 50 feet away during vertical operations. In future STOVL aircraft, vertical thrust will be greater, with a potentially larger danger area. This memorandum examines the factors that determine the size of the danger area and models the amount of area future STOVL aircraft will need.
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The Displacement of Local Spending for Pollution Control by Federal Construction Grants
June 1, 1984
This paper measures the extent to which state and local government spending on sewer system construction is displaced by Environmental Protection Agency construction grants.
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AGGREGATION, BIFURCATION, AND EXTINCTION IN EXPLOITED ANIMAL POPULATIONS
February 1, 1981

In this paper, the following type of harvesting problem is considered. An animal population is divided into two stocks: an 'underlying' population and a 'surface' population. It is assumed that there is a natural exchange between the two population levels. The predator or harvestor affects only the 'surface' population and does not influence the 'underlying' population directly. Such a situation occurs, for example, in the off-shore Eastern Tropical Tuna Fishery. In this case, tuna associate with porpoise schools. The fishery harvests only those tuna associated with porpoise. Consequently, the underlying population of tuna is not sampled by the fishery. One may wonder what information measurements on the surface, harvested population provides about the unobservable underlying population. Furthermore, it is interesting and important to know if the standard, linear relationship between harvest and effort is valid in an aggregating population.

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