- Success Stories
- Environmental Resource Assessment & Management
Studying Mesophotic Coral Health
Mesophotic coral can live at depths of 500 feet below the ocean surface. Even at this depth, some of the mesophotic corals in the Gulf of Mexico were affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Our coral scientists supporting NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science are studying the extent of this impact.
Three of our employee owners participated in a mission to extract the corals from the Gulf of Mexico that were then transported to laboratories in Galveston, Texas, Gainesville, Florida, and Charleston, South Carolina. Once the Charleston specimens were housed in custom-made tanks, our scientists began studying and caring for the corals. They feed the colony multiple times daily, and study their growth and reproduction. In an effort to restore the damaged coral colonies in the Gulf of Mexico, the team is studying how to maximize growth and outplanting at a larger scale.
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Developing a Decontamination Line Guide for EPA Responders
CSS employee owners supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Scientific and Technical Assistance for Consequence Management (STACM) contract have been working with the National Chemical Preparedness Workgroup and Sub Workgroups to create a decontamination (decon) line guide and detailed drawing for EPA on-scene coordinators and EPA’s special teams to use for emergency responses and incidents. The…
Assessing Methylene Chloride Levels in Laboratories
CSS employee owners supporting the University of Kentucky have started sampling campus laboratories with high use of methylene chloride to assess levels of employee exposure. This effort is in response to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issuing methylene chloride regulations under Section 6(a) of the Toxic Substance Control Act in the Federal Register on May…
Ongoing Support for the Huntington Beach Oil Spill
Oil spills are disastrous and the clean-up is ongoing. Following the Huntington Beach, California oil spill in October 2021, our staff supported the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration with communications, data collection, and damage assessments. As various agencies collected data, our staff assisted the client in developing this map to…