The report examines the Environmental Protection Agency's three-year plan for a comprehensive response to a chemical or biological attack on a civilian or public sector facility. The report states that EPA has correctly identified the essential major research areas (detection, containment, decontamination, and disposal) but calls for an initial focus on decontamination and disposal efforts and a longer term research program.

Concern over terrorist attacks since 2001 has directed attention to potential vulnerabilities of the nation's water and wastewater systems. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which leads federal efforts to protect the water sector, initiated a research program in 2002 to address immediate research and technical support needs. This report, conducted at EPA's request, evaluates research progress and provides a long-term vision for EPA's research program. The report recommends that EPA develop a strategic research plan, address gaps in expertise among EPA program managers and researchers, and improve its approaches to information dissemination. The report recommends several high-priority research topics for EPA, including conducting empirical research in behavioral science to better understand how to prepare people for water security incidents.

The report examines a draft plan, prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency, that identifies critical security issues for drinking water and wastewater and outlines related research and technical support needs. This report recommends increased attention to interagency coordination and encourages additional consideration of current restrictions on secure information dissemination. It further suggests that EPA incorporate the results of their research activities into an integrated water security guidance document to improve support for water and wastewater utilities.

In the three decades since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was created, the agency's scientific and technical practices and credibility have been independently assessed many times in reports from the National Research Council (NRC), EPA Science Advisory Board, General Accounting Office, and many other organizations; in congressional oversight and judicial proceedings; and in countless criticisms and lawsuits from stakeholders with interests in particular EPA regulatory decisions. As a previous independent panel put it in the 1992 report Safeguarding the Future: Credible Science, Credible Decisions, EPA's policy and regulatory work receives a great deal of public attention, but the agency's scientific performance typically receives a similar degree of attention only when the scientific basis for a decision is questioned. Thus, strong scientific performance is important not only to enable EPA to make informed and effective decisions, but also to gain credibility and public support for the environmental protection efforts of EPA and the nation. This report is the fourth and final one in a series prepared by two independent expert committees convened by the NRC in response to a request from Congress and to subsequent, related requests from EPA. The Committee on Research Opportunities and Priorities for EPA-the companion committee in this study-was charged to provide an overview of significant emerging environmental issues, identify and prioritize research themes most relevant to understanding and resolving those issues, and consider the role of EPA's research program in the context of research being conducted or supported by other organizations. That committee published an interim report in 1996 and a final report, Building a Foundation for Sound Environmental Decisions, in 1997. The Committee on Research and Peer Review in EPA was charged to evaluate research management and scientific peer-review practices in the agency. The committee published an interim report in 1995 and this final report.

This inventory is intended to provide researchers and practitioners with information about available resiliency tools that they may distribute and use to help communities protect their resources and become more resilient to all-hazards. It also addresses further research needs and opportunities to continue advancing the science and practice of community resilience.