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

11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
May 14, 2003

On Wednesday, May 14, 2003, 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)
Tom Krug, GeoSyntec
Bob Gillham, University of Waterloo
Matthew Turner, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
Stephen White, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Also participating in the call was Michelle Arbogast from ERG.

NEXT PRB ACTION TEAM MEETING

Call participants tentatively decided that the next PRB Action Team meeting should take place in Canada on October 15 and 16, 2003. Tom Krug and Bob Gillham agreed to take a leading role in organizing the meeting. They proposed Waterloo, Toronto, and Niagara Falls as possible meeting locations and agreed to discuss all three of these possibilities in greater detail. Once they decide upon a location, Krug and Gillham will ask ERG to start making logistical arrangements for the meeting.

Call participants decided that the meeting's agenda should be structured around the following four topics:

• Source zone remediation. Gillham agreed to chair this session and to identify speakers who could talk about PRBs (and/or other novel mixing techniques) that have been used to address contaminated source zones. John Vidumsky said that DuPont could present at least one paper on this topic.



• Hydraulic effects. Vidumsky agreed to find speakers for this session, noting that DuPont is willing to present a paper on hydraulics. Bob Puls said that Stan Morrison might also be interested in presenting a paper on this topic.



• Novel applications. Krug will chair this session and identify speakers who can talk about novel applications, such as using PRBs to treat chemicals other than chlorinated solvents, using reactive media other than iron to clean up contaminants, and/or using PRBs as part of a treatment train.



• Long-term performance. Puls agreed to organize a short session on PRBs' long-term performance. As part of this session, he said, information will be presented on recent discoveries about the reactivity of corrosion products.

Call participants agreed that a poster session should be held during the meeting. Stephen White agreed to identify potential poster presenters and to organize this session.

UPDATING THE PRB ACTION TEAM'S WEB SITE

The PRB Action Team's Web site needs to be updated. Krug has already made some recommendations on how to accomplish this task. Puls strongly encouraged all of the Steering Committee members to visit the PRB Action Team's Web site over the next few weeks and review the site profiles, the list of involved participants, and the section that lists technical documents and useful links. Recommendations for improvements and updates should be sent directly to Puls, who will consolidate the comments and work with the webmaster to make the necessary changes.

ACTION ITEMS

• The PRB Action Team will hold a meeting in fall 2003. Toward this end:



• Krug and Gillham will determine whether it is possible to hold a meeting in Canada on October 15 and 16, 2003. Once they have confirmed a city and dates, they will ask ERG to start making logistical arrangements for the meeting.



• Those who have been assigned to coordinate the meeting's thematic sessions (i.e., Puls, Vidumsky, Krug, and Gillham) will start identifying speakers for these sessions. They will also identify a title for each session.



• ERG will set up the next PRB Action Team meeting for June 9, 2003, between 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.



• Steering Committee members will visit the PRB Action Team's Web site and examine the site profiles, the list of involved participants, and the section that lists technical documents and useful links. They will send Puls recommendations on how to update the Web site.



• Turner will contact Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council members to determine whether there are additional sites that should be added to the PRB Action Team's site profile database.