SUMMARY OF THE REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM
IN-PLACE INACTIVATION AND NATURAL ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION
TECHNOLOGIES SOIL-METALS ACTION TEAM
CONFERENCE CALL
May 2, 2001
2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
On Wednesday, May 2, 2001, the following members of the In-Place Inactivation and Natural Ecological Restoration Technologies (IINERT) Soil-Metals Action Team met in a conference call:
Bill Berti, DuPont Central Research and Development (Action Team Co-Chair)
James Ryan, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Action Team Co-Chair)
Carl Ma, EPA
Mark Maddaloni, EPA
Mike Ruby, Exponent Environmental Group
Gary Pierzynski, Kansas State University
Kirk Scheckel, EPA
Michelle Arbogast of Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), was also present.
THE ACTION TEAM’S SYMPOSIUM
Symposium Title, Agenda, and Abstracts
The IINERT Action Team plans to hold a symposium at the 2001 American Society of Agronomy (ASA) conference. The symposium’s title is currently listed as “Field Evaluation of In Situ Treatment to Reduce Soil Lead Bioavailability.” Gary Pierzynski said that this title must be shortened. Call participants gave Pierzynski free rein to make the change, but stressed that “Soil Lead Bioavailability” should not be removed from the title.
Bill Berti said that eight papers will be presented during the symposium, noting that the paper titles have already been submitted to ASA. The next step in the process, he said, is to submit abstracts. Call participants agreed to submit electronic versions of their abstracts to Berti or James Ryan by the first week of July. These will be submitted to ASA by 1:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on August 1, 2001, but modifications may be made to them until August 30, 2001.
Time Slot for the Symposium
The ASA conference will take place between October 21 and 25, 2001. Call participants talked at length about what day would be best for the symposium. Tuesday, October 23, was ruled out because Mike Ruby would not be able to attend. Call participants agreed that the morning of October 22 was an option, but that they strongly preferred to meet during the morning or afternoon of Wednesday, October 24, 2001. They agreed that it would be ideal to have their symposium on the same day as the session that Nick Basta and Roman Lanno are presenting on ecosystem topics. (Call participants said that they want to have the RTDF symposium on Wednesday morning and the ecosystem symposium on Wednesday afternoon. But the reverse is also acceptable.) Pierzynski said that he would do his best to reserve the slots that the IINERT Action Team prefers. He will know whether this is possible when he talks to the meeting’s planning committee. Pierzynski said that both the morning and afternoon sessions are scheduled to be three hours long. When he asks for the slots, Pierzynski said, he will need to submit information on the length of the symposium’s talks. Call participants agreed that the agenda should include: (1) a 10-minute introduction, (2) eight 20-minute talks, and (3) a 10-minute break. This will fill up the three-hour session. Call participants also expressed interest in having a discussion session. Pierzynski agreed to find out whether the session might be extended beyond three hours. If not, speakers may be asked to cut a few minutes off of their talks so that 20 minutes of discussion can be held at the end of the symposium.
Travel Expenses
Mark Maddaloni asked whether any funds could be made available to defray travel costs for speakers. Pierzynski said that some funds are available to pay up to $500 of the travel expenses incurred by attendees who are not ASA or Soil Science Society of America members.
Publications
Call participants agreed that publications should emerge from the symposium. The important thing, they agreed, is to make sure that the information is presented in one journal. This could be accomplished either by having all of the presenters publish individual papers in the same journal or by releasing one review paper that summarizes the entire symposium. Call participants agreed that the latter was the preferable option, noting that it is not practical to expect diverse presenters to choose the same journal for publication since the topics being covered cross a broad range (i.e., soil science, toxicology, and risk assessment). Ruby suggested that all of the presenters send brief synopses of their work to Ryan and Berti so that they can be pulled together into a cohesive summary. If this approach is used, Ruby said, Berti and Ryan could be listed as the lead authors. Call participants agreed that this option might be worth pursuing. Berti and Ryan were optimistic that the paper could be completed by early 2002 if all of the presenters submitted information to them before the October 2001 symposium. Call participants talked briefly about journals that would be appropriate for the summary paper. Six suggestions were offered: Environmental Health Perspectives, Environmental Research, Toxicological Sciences, Journal of Environmental Quality, Journal of Soil Contamination, and Environmental Science and Technology. The latter was chosen as the ideal choice for the summary paper. Individual presenters, however, should feel free to pursue whichever journal is best suited to their topic.
ACTION ITEMS