SUMMARY OF THE REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM
PHYTOREMEDIATION ACTION TEAM
CHLORINATED SOLVENTS SUBGROUP
CONFERENCE CALL

May 11, 2000
1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

On May 11, 2000, the following members of the Remediation Technologies Development Forum's (RTDF's) Phytoremediation Action Team, Chlorinated Solvents Subgroup, met in a conference call:

Lee Newman, University of Washington (Subgroup Co-chair)
Keith Rose, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Subgroup Co-chair)
Bob Tossell, GeoSyntec Consultants (Subgroup Co-chair)
Linda Fiedler, EPA, Technology Innovation Office (TIO) (Subgroup Co-chair)
Steve Rock, EPA (Subgroup Co-chair)
Frank Beck, EPA
Jim Jordahl, CH2M Hill, Inc.

Also present was Michelle Arbogast of Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG).

BOSTON MEETING

A phytoremediation conference was held in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 1-3, 2000. Call participants agreed that the conference was a huge success--it was called the best phytoremediation conference anyone in the group had attended. On the third day of the conference, Bob Tossell presented information about the Chlorinated Solvents Subgroup. He received positive feedback from the audience; in fact, three people (Steve McCutcheon, Valentine Nzengung, and Larry Erickson) expressed interest in joining the Subgroup.

GROUP STRUCTURE

Call participants said that people who are interested in participating in the Subgroup can become involved by participating in one of the following membership tiers: (1) Steering Committee, (2) Reviewer, or (3) Observer/Interested Party. Jim Jordahl suggested developing more detailed roles, responsibilities, requirements, and expectations for the three tiers. This will help interested parties decide the level at which they want to participate. Steve Rock volunteered to draft a framework for the three tiers of involvement.

Call participants talked briefly about the Steering Committee. They agreed that it should have 9 to 11 members. Keith Rose, Tossell, Lee Newman, Milton Gordon, Rock, and Jordahl are currently on the Committee. (Linda Fiedler is an observer. Frank Beck has not defined his status yet.) Those who participate on the Steering Committee may be expected to commit time or money to the Chlorinated Solvents Subgroup. Call participants agreed that EPA will need to prepare Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) once money starts to be involved.

Call participants noted that the Subgroup is currently composed of representatives from consulting groups, academia (i.e., the University of Washington), and EPA. They agreed that industrial partners and private-sector clients should be sought to round out the list. The Air Force, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, GE, Savannah River, and United Technologies are possible candidates. Call participants agreed to continue to define a list of potential Subgroup members; they will target people/entities that are paying to remediate chlorinated solvent contamination.

THE SUBGROUP'S FIELD PROGRAM

The Subgroup is in the process of developing a field study program. Site managers who participate in the program would be expected to perform their own site assessments and to design their own phytoremedial systems. The Subgroup would provide technical expertise to help make the systems work. Also, Subgroup members would be expected to share information on their designs, field procedures, and data. Access to this kind of real-world information would benefit all who participate in the Subgroup; each participant would benefit from the lessons that have been learned by others. Newman asked who would pay for phytoremediation. Call participants agreed that involved parties would pay for cleanup either by paying for their own sites separately or by pooling funds.

The Subgroup is developing a protocol that explains how to (1) evaluate a site as a candidate for phytoremediation, (2) implement and monitor a phytoremediation plan, and (3) evaluate the efficacy of the technology. It is intended to serve as a useful guide to those who use phytoremediation to address chlorinated solvents. Call participants agreed that they would like to implement phytoremediation at sites next spring. Therefore, they plan to have the protocol completed by the end of September. They did recognize, however, that the protocol may need some refining to address specific questions and concerns once phytoremedial systems have been installed at a number of sites.

Tossell noted that an outline has been prepared for the protocol, and that Subgroup members have been assigned to work on different sections. He said that he has worked on three of the four sections he was tasked with:

• A description of the properties of the different classes of chemicals that the protocol will be discussing--chlorinated ethenes, ethanes, and methanes.

• A literature review for the aerobic and anaerobic microbial attenuation pathways. One call participant suggested removing some of the information on anaerobic pathways in order to shorten the literature review. Call participants discussed the available literature and talked about what portion of the review should concentrate on aerobic pathways rather than anaerobic pathways.

• Descriptions of degradation pathways for compounds that were e-mailed to Tossell prior to the conference call. Tossell said that he is still developing descriptions of plant, microbial, and mammalian pathways. Call participants agreed that data on mammalian pathways should be used as a surrogate for lacking plant pathway data, because enzymatic systems in plants are closer to mammalian systems than microbial systems.

Fiedler, who was tasked with developing a reference list for the protocol, said that she has a contractor working on this. She said that the contractor would like Subgroup members to send the cover and table of contents from phytoremediation conference proceedings. Newman agreed that this could be helpful, because phytoremediation projects tend to take a long time and the research that is being done may not be published in peer-reviewed journals for many years. The call participants agreed that they would try to find the most recent conference proceedings (i.e., those less than three years old) and fax them to Fiedler at 703-603-9135. The contractor told Fielder that the reference list will be done in a couple of weeks.

Tossell asked that Chapters 1 and 2 be drafted by the next conference call. Because the contractor will not have the reference list ready for a few weeks, Newman and Gordon will prepare only an outline for the literature review by the next conference call. Rock and Rose agreed to have their sections ready by the next conference call. Sections should be given to Tossell by May 31; Tossell will incorporate them into the outline, which he will send to Subgroup members for review and comment. Subgroup members agreed that it would be useful to recruit additional people to help develop the protocol and to provide insight.

FACT SHEET

To help convince site managers to participate in the Subgroup, Fiedler said, prospective clients need to receive something that defines what is expected of them and how they would benefit from working with the RTDF. Call participants decided that a fact sheet that summarizes the Subgroup's purpose and goals would serve that function. It should include a description of the three levels of involvement. Everyone was asked to list ways (from a client/user perspective) in which sites will benefit from RTDF involvement. Subgroup members should e-mail thoughts to Tossell or Rock, who will incorporate them into the fact sheet. Fiedler asked ERG to e-mail Subgroup members fact sheets for the Trichloroethylene (TCE) in Ground Water and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) in Soil Subgroups; these will be useful models.

Call participants decided that it is not possible to get a fact sheet ready in time for Battelle's Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds conference that is scheduled for the week of May 22, 2000. Thus, they defined a more realistic goal: Tossell and Rock agreed to have a draft ready by the next conference call. (Tossell will summarize the beginning of the protocol into a few short paragraphs and Rock will write a couple of paragraphs that introduce the fact sheet and describe the three-tier system.) Call participants decided that Environmental Management Support, Inc. should produce the fact sheet once the Subgroup members compose the text for it.

MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS

Beck said that he has not heard back about the proposal he submitted to the Department of Defense. He will keep the Subgroup posted.

Newman and Fiedler will attend Battelle's Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds conference. Tossell will have a poster there, but will not be able to attend. Fiedler said that Walter Kovalick will give a presentation; as part of it, he will summarize the status and success of the RTDF Phytoremediation Action Team's subgroups. She said that Kovalick has asked for a bulleted list that describes the success of the TPH in Soil Subgroup and the Alternative Covers Assessment Program (ACAP) Subgroup. (The list should mention an ACAP site that is being built near Monterey, California.)

ACTION ITEMS

• Call participants agreed to send Tossell text for the Subgroup's protocol by May 31, 2000. (Newman and Gordon will prepare an outline for the literature review. Rock and Rose agreed to complete the sections they have been assigned). Tossell will also continue to work on the protocol's literature review; he will shorten the section that addresses aerobic and anaerobic microbial attenuation pathways, and will continue to develop the plant, microbial, and mammalian degradation pathways. After receiving text, Tossell will incorporate it into the protocol's existing outline and will e-mail a revised version to Subgroup members for review and comment.

• Before the next conference call, Tossell and Rock will compose a draft fact sheet for the Chlorinated Solvents Subgroup. The following action items are related to this effort:
  
  
  

  —	Tossell will generate a few short paragraphs that summarize the beginning portion of the Subgroup's protocol.
  —	Rock will write a couple paragraphs of introductory material.
  —	Rock will describe the Subgroup's three membership tiers: Steering Committee, Reviewer, and Observer/Interested Party.
  —	Call participants will list ways that site owners and other users could benefit from participating in the Chlorinated Solvents Subgroup. They agreed to forward all of their suggestions to Tossell and Rock via e-mail.
  —	ERG will send Subgroup members electronic versions of the fact sheets that have been written for the TCE in Ground Water Subgroup and the TPH in Soil Subgroup.

• Call participants will continue compiling a list of potential Steering Committee members. (They will target people/entities that are paying to remediate chlorinated solvents.)

• Call participants agreed to fax the cover and table of contents of recent phytoremediation conference proceedings to Fiedler at 703-603-9135.

• Kovalick will present information about the RTDF's Phytoremediation Action Team at Battelle's Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds conference. Call participants agreed to write up bullet points on the Action Team's subgroups. These will be forwarded to Fiedler and Kovalick.

• Beck will keep Subgroup members up to date on the status of the proposal that he submitted to the Department of Defense.

• ERG agreed to set up the next conference call for Thursday, June 1, 2000, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Tossell will draft a formal agenda for the next conference call and e-mail it to Subgroup members for comments.