Âé¶ą´«Ă˝

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Supporting Guam’s Chemical Round Up

Woman pours works with chemical with a test kit

Senior chemist working on the Âé¶ą´«Ă˝Â contract with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) supported the Guam Lab Chemicals Round Up in March of 2024 and July of 2025. During both mobilizations, START supported EPA’s mission to collect chemical waste items from across the U.S. island territory of Guam for off-island transport and disposal. As a field chemist, Âé¶ą´«Ă˝ employee owner supporting the effort conducted Hazard Categorization (HazCat) testing on hundreds of unlabeled waste items to help determine the most appropriate waste stream for safe shipping and disposal of each item. Âé¶ą´«Ă˝ employee owner used the EPA Region 9 GeminiTM Chemical Identification analyzer to identify chemicals that appeared to be in their original containers, but that had missing or weathered labels. START supported worker health and safety by conducting screening of the chemical collections and storage spaces for toxic and volatile gases, explosive limits, radiation, and mercury vapor prior to initiating work, and by conducting air monitoring for toxic and volatile gases, and explosive limits during all handling and packing of the chemical wastes. 

woman works with chemicals under a fume hood.
HazCat testing unlabeled waste chemicals in a fume hood for disposal characterization during the Guam Lab Chemicals Round Up. 
woman tests chemical with a kit
HazCat testing the contents of an unlabeled waste drum in Guam for disposal characterization during the Guam Lab Chemicals Round Up. 

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view of lake with a small lighthouse on a jetty

Over 1,600 Great Lakes Water Samples Analyzed

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