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of new tools and science for addressing EPA's goals of safe and sustainable wa-
ter.
If a quantitative microbial risk-assessment framework were put into prac-
tice by EPA, it would need to incorporate alternative indicators based on ge-
nomic approaches, microbial source-tracking, and pathogen-monitoring. Also,
the complete human-coupled water cycle would need to be explored, including
built and natural systems.
Implementation of a quantitative microbial risk-
assessment framework would require investment in a health-related water mi-
crobiology collaborative research network. The network would bring molecular
biologists, ecologists, engineers, and water-quality health and policy experts
together to build internal capacity, to develop external partnerships, and to foster
national collaboration. Regardless of whether EPA decides to systematically use
a quantitative microbial risk-assessment framework, the future of science at the
agency would benefit from continuing to build exposure databases and support
work on the survival and inactivation of pathogens that can feed into quantita-
tive microbial risk assessment. Agency science would also benefit from new
informatics and application tools that are based on quantitative microbial risk
assessment models to enhance decision-making to meet safe-water goals.
An example of an area in which EPA may be able collaborate to more ef-
fectively fill information gaps or address funding overlap in a resource-
constrained environment is through microbiology research. There are other or-
ganizations that have microbiology programs, but few address the environment.
NIH's Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases supports clinical re-
search and basic science for microbes and infectious disease. NIH has recently
partnered with the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Ag-
riculture to fund research on the ecology and evolution of infectious disease.
The partnership addresses diseases that have an environmental pathway and can
include waterborne diseases, but most of the efforts have been related to cholera
and little attention has been given to other groups of pathogens. EPA has not yet
played a role in the partnership, but it could contribute to filling a gap in knowl-
edge about wastewater treatment and monitoring as it relates to microbes and
environmental and human health.
TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES
RELATED TO SHIFTING SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES
Chapter 2 noted that current environmental challenges are expanding in
both space and time and it emphasized that long-term data are needed to charac-
terize such changes and to characterize the cause and the potential implications
of different policy options. To address the challenges of increasing spatial and
temporal scales for a variety of environmental problems, new approaches, tools,
and technologies in such areas as computer science, information technology
(IT), and remote sensing will become increasingly important to EPA. The ability
to take full advantage of all the new tools and technologies discussed in the pre-
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