11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
July 17, 2002

On Wednesday, July 17, 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)
Bob Gillham, University of Waterloo
Bruce Sass, Battelle
Matthew Turner, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

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

THE NEXT PRB ACTION TEAM MEETING

The next PRB Action Team meeting will be held in conjunction with the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Cooperation (ITRC) conference that is scheduled to take place November 6 through 8, 2002, in Washington, D.C. Call participants agreed that the RTDF meeting should have three components: (1) a general meeting, (2) a poster session, and (3) a Steering Committee meeting. They agreed that it was not necessary to include a field trip, but said that one could be added to the agenda if a Steering Committee member knows of a site near Washington that would be beneficial to visit.

The General Meeting

The RTDF's general meeting is tentatively scheduled for November 6 and November 7, 2002. The time slots are still fairly flexible. When choosing times, Bob Puls said, it would be best to target slots that do not overlap with the ITRC's Radionuclides Work Group and Dense Non-aqueous Phase Liquids Work Group meeting sessions. (Puls hopes representatives from these two groups will attend the RTDF meeting.) Puls asked Matt Turner to contact the Work Groups' leaders (i.e., Tom Schneider, Carl Spreng, and Eric Hausamann) to inform them of the RTDF's agenda items, to find out which topics interest them most, and to find out when the Work Groups are tied up in ITRC meetings. Once this information is obtained, Puls said, it may be possible to schedule the RTDF sessions in a manner that minimizes conflict.

Call participants agreed to focus the PRB Action Team meeting on the following four themes:

• PRBs and cleanup efficacy. The goal of this session will be to discuss whether PRBs are helping sites meet actual cleanup goals. Puls said that he will identify speakers for this session; those chosen will be asked to present case studies on PRB sites that already have robust downgradient ground-water data sets collected. Potential candidate sites include: the Elizabeth City site, the Denver Federal Center, the Sunnyvale site, and a site located in upstate New York. Call participants recommended contacting John Vogan for additional recommendations. John Vidumsky indicated that he is willing to give a presentation on a PRB site in California.
  
  
• Long-term performance. Bruce Sass agreed to identify speakers for this session. Bob Gillham expressed interest in contributing as well.
  
  
• Site design. This session's goal will be to discuss new PRBs. Attention will be focused on the reactive media used, the thickness of walls, installation methods, and probabilistic design. Vidumsky, who expressed a willingness to identify speakers, indicated that DuPont will give a presentation during this session.
  
  
• Monitoring. Call participants agreed that monitoring is a worthwhile theme but were unsure which aspects to highlight. During a previous call, interest was expressed in focusing talks on: (1) the extent of monitoring required at real-world sites and (2) efforts that are underway to identify cheaper, faster, and better monitoring techniques. During this conference call, Steering Committee members expressed interest in learning about new monitoring methods that are in development. This includes Tim Sivavec's research on in situ and continuous monitoring, Lynn Robert's work on in situ methods based on electrochemical changes, and the University of Waterloo's efforts to identify in situ methods that measure reactivity. Puls said that a geophysicist from Kansas might provide useful information as well. Gillham agreed to contact Sivavec to find out whether he wants to identify speakers for this session. If not, Gillham is willing to assume the responsibility.

Each thematic session should have four to eight speakers. Puls asked to be notified if more than five speakers are identified per session. Turner suggested asking ITRC members to give presentations. Call participants also recommended contacting their European colleagues to determine whether they have information to present on one of the abovementioned themes. Puls will pursue this avenue.

The Poster Session

ITRC plans to hold a reception and an exhibit during the evening of November 6, 2002. Call participants asked whether it would be possible for the RTDF to present posters at these events. ERG will contact ITRC's conference coordinator to determine whether this is possible. In the past, Puls said, RTDF members who wanted to present posters submitted abstracts to him and Vidumsky. Call participants agreed to use the same approach this time.

Steering Committee Meeting

Call participants agreed that the Steering Committee should hold a short meeting to discuss the PRB Action Team's future direction and goals. A time slot for this meeting will be identified in the future.

THE NEXT STEERING COMMITTEE CONFERENCE CALL

ERG will set up the next PRB Steering Committee conference call for August 15, 2002, between 11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. ERG will notify Steering Committee members of the call's phone number and access code. In addition, if requested to do so, ERG will invite the following ITRC people to participate as well: Tom Schneider, Carl Spreng, and Eric Hausamann.