CSS scientists have been major developers and contributors to the online U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EcoService Models Library (ESML) database since its inception in 2012. The ESML database contains detailed but concise descriptions of ecosystem service models to facilitate the selection of models by ecosystem scientists for a variety of management and research applications. The database contains over 290 ecosystem service models, with additional entries for specific model runs. CSS employee owners helped design the database and the framework for summarizing models. In addition, CSS has selected models from the database for generating scenarios of remediation options for specific Superfund sites to identify the ecosystem services they could provide. Models that have been applied include pollinator (e.g., bumblebee), carbon sequestration, and bird ecosystem services. The database can be accessed at www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoservice-models-library/

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tractor trailers stationed in a parking lot

Emergency Response Support for the Republican National Convention

CSS employee owners on contract with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Portable High-throughput Integrated Laboratory Identification System — a mobile analytical unit known as PHILIS — provided emergency response support for the 2024 Republican National Convention. PHILIS mobile laboratory units are designed to provide onsite analysis of environmental conditions, including air and soil samples, contaminated…

Diesel Leak Remediation 

Our employee owners have been supporting a remediation project in the Philippines. Diesel fuel leaked from a storage tank and seeped into the groundwater and soil. Emergency measures were taken but clean-up was delayed due to COVID restrictions. After some of the more strict COVID restrictions were lifted, CSS scientists joined the environmental due diligence…

Entrance to an abandoned mine in a hillside

Assessing Contamination in Abandoned Mines

CSS supports the Environmental Protection Agency with assessing contamination within abandoned mines. There are thousands of abandoned mines throughout the western United States. Many of these mines are leaching heavy metals into nearby streams or have contaminated soils causing vegetation die off.   CSS employee owners conduct field work to assess the extent of this contamination.…