SUMMARY OF THE REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM
ACTION TEAM CO-CHAIRS CONFERENCE CALL


July 17, 1997
12:30 p.m.­2:00 p.m


On July 17, 1997, Walter Kovalick, co-chair of the Remediation Technologies Development Forum (RTDF), met with co-chairs from six of the seven RTDF action teams in a conference call. The following co-chairs were present:

Bill Berti (IINERT Soil-Metals Action Team)
Dave Ellis (Bioremediation Consortium)
Greg Sayles (Bioremediation Consortium)
Lynn Wood (In Situ Flushing Action Team)
Bob Puls (Permeable Reactive Barriers Action Team)
Dale Schultz (Permeable Reactive Barriers Action Team)
Steve Rock (Phytoremediation of Organics Action Team)
Dennis Timberlake (Sediments Remediation Action Team)

Also present were Trish Erickson (sitting in for RTDF Co-chair Robert Olexsey); Michael Kosakowski (EPA/TIO); Carolyn Perroni of Environmental Management Systems, Inc. (EMS); and Susan Brager Murphy and Colin Devonshire of Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG). Due to scheduling conflicts, neither co-chair of the Lasagna Partnership™ was able to participate.


ACTION TEAM UPDATES

In-Place Inactivation and Natural Ecological Restoration Technologies Soil-Metals Action Team
Bill Berti (DuPont)

Berti said that three weeks ago members of the In-Place Inactivation and Natural Ecological Restoration Technologies (IINERT) Soil-Metals Action Team met in Berkeley, California, at an international workshop of researchers to discuss stabilization of metals and other soil contaminants. Berti stated that European researchers have developed interesting stabilization and measurement methods. He noted that the European researchers' approach to soil-metal remediation appears more focused on ecosystem health, while U.S. research is geared toward human health. Berti said he hopes that the workshop host, ILZRO (International Lead and Zinc Research Organization) will make a written report on the meeting available by the end of July. Berti will attempt to add a summary of this workshop to the RTDF Web site or provide a link to the ILZRO Web site.

The IINERT Soil-Metals Action Team held a conference call last week. The team discussed developing a bibliography of articles and reports relevant to IINERT and the possibility of using the team's Web page to collect references and make the bibliography available to a broad audience. In the conference call, Dr. Stan Casteel of the University of Missouri discussed preliminary data that analyzed the effect of phosphate treatment on the bioavailability of soil lead. The data indicated that the bioavailability of lead in phosphate-amended soil (treated by Dr. Bob Blanchar of the University of Missouri) was significantly reduced in a swine model. Members of the Action Team are currently studying methods of soil treatment that will reduce lead bioavailability in soil using a variety of animal, laboratory, and human models.

Bioremediation Consortium
Greg Sayles (EPA)
Dave Ellis (DuPont)

Sayles told the group that the Bioremediation Consortium is involved in three biotechnology projects to treat chlorinated solvents: vadose zone bioventing, accelerated anaerobic treatment of ground water, and natural attenuation in ground water. The Consortium's first field study site for these projects is at Dover Air Force Base. A second site for bioventing study has been chosen at Hill Air Force Base, and the search for a second ground-water study site is ongoing. Sayles said fieldwork at the Dover bioventing study is on hold because of an unusually high water table. Laboratory study of soil treatability is underway in preparation for bioventing fieldwork at Hill Air Force Base, which will begin next spring.

Ellis said the accelerated anaerobic treatment study has completed a bioaugmentation process. Because there has been little well-documented research on bioaugmentation of chlorinated solvents to this point, this project has required development of new protocols and QA/QC methods. Ellis said the researchers are currently waiting for biodegradation to measurably affect ground-water contamination at the study site.

Ellis told the group that the natural attenuation research is focused on a transect study that will quantify the mass balance of biodegradation during ground-water migration. Data reduction is underway, and the results should help determine the value of transect studies.

Ellis added that the Bioremediation Consortium has a "principles and practices" document under review with EPA and state regulators.

Permeable Reactive Barriers Action Team
Bob Puls (EPA)
Dale Schultz (DuPont)

Puls told the group that the Permeable Reactive Barriers Action Team Steering Committee is in the process of planning an open meeting of the Action Team, scheduled for September 18 to 19 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Action Team will devote one day of the meeting to approximately a dozen speakers, and a partial day to a field trip to the EPA/University of Waterloo permeable reactive barrier (PRB) research site in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

Puls said the Steering Committee has been reviewing the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Cooperation (ITRC) Work Group's guidance document on PRB technology. Puls said the ITRC Work Group hopes the Action Team will "sign off" on this document. The document largely addresses regulatory concerns surrounding PRB technology, and could be used by state regulators dealing with this remediation technology.

The Steering Committee and additional Action Team members are also working on what they hope will be an official RTDF PRB issues document. Puls said this paper will be more comprehensive than earlier papers on the technology, including ITRC and Department of Defense (DOD) documents. The paper is being finalized and should be distributed to the Steering Committee for review by the end of July.

Puls said members of the Steering Committee have also developed a proposal outlining the primary research initiatives needed for further application of PRB technology. These initiatives include study of the long term reactivity and hydraulic conductivity of PRBs. Puls stated that the Steering Committee will finalize this proposal and distribute it as an RTDF document to relevant agencies (e.g., EPA, DOD, and Department of Defense (DOE)) in an effort to raise research funding. Kovalick suggested that the Action Team circulate this document to the Federal Facilities Forum leadership council and members.

Schultz informed the group that he has stepped down as co-chair of the Action Team, due to a pending reassignment within DuPont. The co-chairs thanked Schultz for his efforts on behalf of the Action Team and the RTDF.

In Situ Flushing Action Team
Lynn Wood (EPA)

Wood told the co-chairs that the In Situ Flushing Action Team met at Hill Air Force Base in May. Nearly 70 representatives from government, academia, and the private sector attended. During the meeting, the team identified several focus areas falling under one umbrella project, a conceptual design of a large-scale non-aqueous phase liquid extraction system. Focus areas included: technical practices and protocols for flushing technologies; economic evaluation of these technologies; recoverability and reuse of adjuvants used in in situ flushing; and assessment of appropriate endpoints and performance criteria for source remediation. The Action Team is in the process of dividing into working groups to study these areas. Wood said that the team will reconvene in September or October to combine the working groups' efforts into an overall action plan. Wood added that while the Action Team does not have field activities ongoing, it is investigating opportunities to begin a field program.

Phytoremediation of Organics Action Team
Steve Rock (EPA)

Rock explained that the Phytoremediation of Organics Action Team is divided into three subgroups, two of which have not met since the last co-chair conference call. The third subgroup, studying vegetative caps, is moving quickly to begin field monitoring of vegetative caps and is actively searching for field sites. Several caps are scheduled to be installed soon, and the subgroup's monitoring equipment must be in place before cap installation, because retrofitting the caps after construction may be impossible. The group is currently developing proposals for these field monitoring activities.

Rock said that the team has developed a bibliography of around 850 citations that is almost ready for posting on the Web site. At this point, the bibliography is arranged alphabetically and has not been sorted. Rock said he was open to suggestions about methods of sorting the bibliography.

Rock noted that the Action Team has also worked with the ITRC Work Group on its phytoremediation document, though the ITRC Work Group is focused on the remediation of metals rather than organic contaminants.

The Action Team plans to meet in September in Cincinnati, where it hopes to develop a field plan. Rock said that the Action Team is growing rapidly and may need to adopt a two-tiered structure; Rock said he would appreciate advice on this matter from co-chairs of other large action teams.

Sediments Remediation Action Team
Dennis Timberlake (EPA)

Timberlake said that he is still searching for a co-chair. However, through the Action Team's Web page, Timberlake has received many inquiries from industry members expressing interest in the Action Team.

Timberlake said that members of his EPA laboratory and the Action Team met with the Army Corps of Engineers last month. The Corps may be able to help the Action Team by providing sites for field demonstrations.

Timberlake said that John Kingscott (EPA) will speak to the Association of Ports and Harbors next week, and may be able to recruit more participants for the Action Team. Kovalick said he and Timberlake contacted this lobbying group because it presumably represents "problem owners" (i.e., owners of sites with contaminated sediments). Kovalick added that, this month, the International Joint Commission will issue a list of contaminated ports and harbors that the Action Team can use to identify problem owners. Kovalick said that ports and harbors may also have brownfield properties available for staging possible RTDF field studies. Kovalick has also approached the environmental committee of the National Shipbuilders Association to discuss possible RTDF field demonstrations using contaminated shipyard sediments.


RTDF ANNUAL MEETING

While the target date for the RTDF annual meeting is October 15 to 16, Susan Brager Murphy and Carolyn Perroni informed the group that hotels and meeting spaces are booked in Cincinnati throughout the fall. The first dates available at a suitable facility are November 12 to13. In order to meet earlier in the fall while accommodating the many participants from Cincinnati, the group agreed that EMS and ERG should investigate hotel availabilities in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, or Washington, D.C., for October 15 to 16. ERG and EMS will attempt to make arrangements in the city with the cheapest government-rate airfare from Cincinnati. If none of these options is feasible, the group will try to schedule the meeting in Cincinnati on the earliest available date in November.

Kovalick noted that because the full RTDF meeting will not begin until 1:00 on the first day, there will be time for action teams to hold half-day meetings before the full meeting begins. Rock and Puls said that the Phytoremediation and Permeable Reactive Barrier Action Teams will not meet then, while Wood and Timberlake said that the In Situ Flushing and Sediments Remediation Action Teams, respectively, will try to meet at that time. Other co-chairs said they have not determined whether their action teams will meet at that time. Perroni and Brager Murphy requested that the co-chairs resolve this question by the end of the week because this information will influence selection of a meeting space.

Kovalick said that, in addition to the presentations specific to each action team, he would like to devote some meeting time to a discussion of broader issues. Kovalick said that a policy-related or cross-cutting topic, or perhaps a guest speaker, would be desirable. Wood said that the National Academy of Sciences will soon be releasing a National Research Council report on innovative remediation technologies, and suggested inviting to the RTDF meeting some of the contributors to this report. Kovalick agreed and suggested inviting Jackie Macdonald to speak about problems with remediation technology development.

Kovalick said that the annual meeting is a good opportunity to recruit new participants, especially from industries that are not yet represented in the RTDF. He said that the RTDF should make an effort to invite trade associations to the meeting to learn about the RTDF.

EMS/ERG will draft an agenda for the meeting and provide it to the co-chairs by August 1 for review.


RTDF WEB SITE UPDATE

Perroni said that EMS has entered all the information it has been given during 1997 into the RTDF Web site. EMS is still working on password-protect features for some of the action teams' pages, and is still adding some historical information to the site. Perroni asked the group to discuss with her any additional ideas or requests for the Web site.


RTDF PUBLICATION UPDATE

Perroni and Kovalick told the co-chairs that some of the action team fact sheets are outdated and need to be revised. EMS will update them as much as possible before giving them to the co-chairs for further revision. The revised fact sheets will be due back at EMS by August 29, and will be published before the annual meeting. Perroni said that EMS will also produce a new edition of the RTDF Update newsletter/fact sheet for the annual meeting and will need some short articles describing the recent activities of each action team. The co-chairs agreed to provide these descriptions to EMS by August 29.


NEXT CO-CHAIR CONFERENCE CALL

The next co-chair conference call was tentatively scheduled for 12:30 to 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 9. Berti suggested discussing ways to take advantage of the RTDF Web site during an upcoming co-chair conference call.


ACTION ITEMS



MISCELLANEOUS

Kovalick informed the co-chairs that a conference on ground water treatment technology, organized by the Ground Water Remediation Technology and Analysis Center, is scheduled for July 31 at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia.