Database Allows Ready Access 
Charged with maintaining the national waterways, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is responsible for dredging projects to maintain depth or improve navigability of federal channels and harbors. Under federal law, all dredging projects considering ocean disposal must be evaluated for potential environmental impacts resulting from chronic toxicity or bioaccumulation of contaminants that may be present in dredged material. Information on the biological effects of bioaccumulated contaminants is more readily accessible as a result of a recent Battelle effort for the USACE Waterways Experiment Station (WES). The USACE/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Residue-Effects Database (ERED) provides a centralized location for biological effects data for many environmental contaminants. ERED is limited to studies where biological effects and tissue contaminant concentrations were measured in the same organism. Battelle developed ERED for the USACE to assist regulators with the interpretation of bioaccumulation exposures of dredged material. In addition to designing the database front-end, or user interface, Battelle also conducted literature reviews to gather the data, and consolidated findings into a single database. 
Originally comprised of an MS Access database and a search engine to allow users to query the database, the original ERED was accessed remotely using a plug-in. As a result of Battelle-designed upgrades employing the latest Internet technologies, ERED is now a Web-based application that is easier to use, readily accessible, and simpler to maintain. Users can access ERED through the familiar interface of a Web browser with faster response time and the ability to directly print and save results. The database includes 327 studies conducted between 1964 and 1997 and contains 3,052 distinct observations, with 238 chemicals in the analytes table and 173 in the species table. The interactive nature of the database allows the user to make specific queries concerning contaminants of concern, receptor species, or measured effects. Users build a query by picking items of interest from the drop-down lists on the query page. Four basic options are available for viewing the query results: summary and detailed data reports, reference report, or graph (for queries restricted to one analyte). Graph display options enable interactive selection of log scale, label displays and unit conversions. ERED is capable of downloading reports to a user’s computer in a format that is readable by most spreadsheet applications. Graphs can be printed from the Web site, pasted into a variety of software applications, or saved as an image. Information on the biological effects of bioaccumulated contaminants is essential to the evaluation of toxic chemical residues in the environment and the potential impact of dredging operations. With Battelle’s upgrade, the ERED enables the easy dissemination of this information to the regulatory and scientific communities. ERED can be accessed at http://www.wes.army.mil/el/ered/. For more information, please contact Karen Foster at (781) 952-5370 or via e-mail at foster@battelle.org. 
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