REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM
PERMEABLE REACTIVE BARRIERS ACTION TEAM

Progress Report
Fourth Quarter 2002

Introduction

The Permeable Reactive Barriers Action Team is one of the six active Action Teams under the Remediation Technologies Development Forum (RTDF). The Permeable Reactive Barriers Action Team includes representatives from industry, government, and academia who share an interest in accelerating the development of cost-effective permeable barrier technologies.

This report documents progress of the Permeable Reactive Barriers Action Team during the fourth quarter of 2002.

Accomplishments

  1. The Team held a meeting November 6-7 in Washington, DC. The meeting included presentations on permeable reactive barrier (PRB) activity in Europe, meeting site compliance goals, site design advances in PRB implementations, advances in monitoring PRBs, and the long-term performance of PRBs.
  2. The Team Steering Committee held a meeting on November 5 in Washington, DC to discuss the Team's purpose, mission, and next steps. They agreed that future efforts should be focused on inviting new members to join the Steering Committee, expanding the Team's web site with a "Recommendations" or "Frequently Asked Questions" section, holding annual meetings to encourage the exchange of technical information, and offering brief Internet-based seminars on various topics related to PRBs.
  3. A three-year, collaborative, long-term performance study conducted by the U.S. EPA, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy was recently completed. A 50-page summary report will be released in the near future, and will likely be published under the auspices of the Federal Remediation Technologies Roundtable.