SUMMARY OF THE REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM
PERMEABLE REACTIVE BARRIERS ACTION TEAM
STEERING COMMITTEE CONFERENCE CALL

3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.
April 3, 2002

On Wednesday, April 3, 2002, the following members of the Remediation Technologies Development Forum's (RTDF's) Permeable Reactive Barriers (PRB) Action Team met in a conference call:

Bob Puls, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Action Team Co-chair)
John Vidumsky, DuPont (Action Team Co-chair)
Matthew Turner, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Stephen White, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Also participating in the call was Christine Hartnett from Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG).


THE ACTION TEAM'S FUTURE

Bob Puls noted that the last few conference calls have not been well attended. He asked whether PRB Steering Committee members are losing interest in RTDF activities. Call participants did not think it was time to sunset the PRB Action Team, and suggested discussing the Action Team's future at the group's next meeting.


THE NEXT PRB ACTION TEAM MEETING

During previous conference calls, Steering Committee members talked about meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in summer 2002. This plan has been abandoned: fall 2002 was identified as a better timeframe. Matt Turner said that the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Cooperation (ITRC) plans to hold a meeting in late October or early November. (Specific dates and a location have not been released yet.) Turner agreed to find out whether it would be possible to hold a PRB Action Team meeting in conjunction with the ITRC meeting. Call participants expressed enthusiasm for this idea.

Call participants discussed the meeting's agenda briefly. A preliminary agenda is listed in the February 13, 2002, conference call summary (see http://www.rtdf.org/public/permbarr/minutes/default.htm). Call participants said that they are particularly interested in discussing whether PRBs move sites closer to compliance points and closure, and whether they meet the needs of consumers and regulators. Steering Committee members should be on the lookout for good talks.


MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS

Matt Turner said that two Internet courses have been developed to deliver information about PRBs.

Call participants noted that PRBs are being installed at several new sites. For example, Vidumsky said that PRBs have now been installed at three DuPont sites, and that another will be installed later this year.