The Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are in talks about a research collaboration that could improve water decontamination detection and cleanup procedures, with applications for military and homeland security programs.

The cooperation could help the Air Force laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to test new methods that battlefield troops could use for decontaminating water supplies and ground surfaces, said Rajesh Naik of the AFRL’s materials and manufacturing directorate.

In the civilian sector, the collaboration could help researchers at the EPA’s Cincinnati water quality research laboratory devise better methods for homeland security and emergency response use in detecting water contamination and fixing it, said Sally Gutierrez, an official at the EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory.

“The opportunities to build on each other’s research are many,” Gutierrez said. “EPA’s exposure research, performed in Cincinnati, assesses and predicts exposures of humans and ecosystems to harmful environmental stressors such as pollutants, microbes and pathogens.”

The AFRL directorate specializes in research to test new materials and techniques that could be used in manufacturing new technologies to support military operations.

The EPA and AFRL are still defining terms of the proposed joint effort and how long it would continue. Officials are hopeful it could be worked out in time to start collaborating this summer, said Mick Hitchcock, an AFRL official who works to set up efforts with outside organizations.

Officials of both agencies said they hope the results could encourage technology innovation in government and industry. YSI Inc., a Yellow Springs-based manufacturer of sensors and other instruments for environmental monitoring of water quality, is among the regional companies involved in related fields.

The discussion resulted from meetings at the Wright Brothers Institute where EPA officials learned more about the AFRL and its directorates, Gutierrez said. The Dayton-based Wright Brothers Institute is a nonprofit organization that works with the Air Force and regional partners to support research of mutual interest.