On November 30, 2000, the following members of the Remediation Technologies Development Forum’s (RTDF’s) Phytoremediation Action Team, Chlorinated Solvents Subgroup, met in a conference call:

Bob Tossell, CH2M Hill, Inc.
Kelly Madalinski, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Technology Innovation Office
Jim Jordahl, CH2M Hill, Inc.
Lee Newman, University of Washington
Milton Gordon, University of Washington
Frank Beck, EPA

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

RECRUITING NEW MEMBERS

Shortly before the conference call, Bob Tossell sent Subgroup members an e-mail that contained an agenda and a curriculum vitae for the Subgroup’s new member, Mike Witt. The Subgroup is very excited to have Witt as a new member, because he represents the end user in the phytoremediation process.

Conference call participants agreed that they needed to adopt a strategy to recruit new members. (They noted that conference calls should include, at most, 11 or 12 people—that is the largest number that will allow for a clear, productive meeting.) Tossell said it would be advantageous to have an equal mix of government, industry, and academia.

Since new members have recently joined the Subgroup, Milton Gordon suggested that an updated contact list with names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, affiliations, etc., be distributed with the next set of meeting minutes. Tossell mentioned that ERG could grant this request.

Tossell said that he reworded Section 2.0 according to the suggestions made during the previous conference call; he will continue to draft the section describing the reliability of the technology. Gordon said he read over sections that were sent to him, but that he had no comments. Tossell reminded the call participants to send him suggestions and comments on Section 4.1.

Lee Newman and Gordon were tasked with providing a literature review for the protocol. They have already done an extensive literature review of trichloroethylene metabolism, included as a chapter of the phytoremediation book that Steve McCutcheon is editing. Rather than duplicate efforts completely, they agreed to modify the chapter to make it appropriate for inclusion in the protocol. Tossell suggested expanding the literature review to include other chlorinated ethanes, ethenes, and methanes, but limiting it in length to five to seven pages. Perhaps, said Tossell, the review should refer to other publications. The call participants agreed that the review should focus on chlorinated ethanes, ethenes, and methanes, but not be limited to those groups.

Gordon asked about distribution of the protocol. During the review, the protocol will be distributed first to Subgroup members, then to external reviewers (i.e., EPA). Once approved, it will be made available on the RTDF Web site in a downloadable format like PDF. Kelly Madalinski mentioned that EPA will make hard copies of the protocol for distribution.

ADDITIONAL BUSINESS

Frank Beck said that there are two fire training pit sites, owned by the Navy in Washington state, at which EPA may be involved in the remediation.

Jim Jordahl mentioned that it is time to get test sites started with the phytoremediation process to identify procedures, etc., to include in a semi-uniform protocol.

Newman and Gordon said they still have one experimental site with leaves still on the trees. They noticed a difference in leaf retention depending on the compound to which a tree is being exposed. For example, genetically identical trees, grown side by side in the same soil, lost all their leaves 3 to 4 weeks ago if exposed to 15 parts per million (ppm) of trichloroethylene, but—if exposed to 8 ppm of perchloroethylene instead—retained 90% of their leaves. They mentioned that ethylene is a known growth hormone for trees, and that trees dosed with trichloroethylene are consistently taller than control trees. They collected leaf tissue and will look at this phenomenon in closer detail next year.

ACTION ITEMS

• Bob Tossell agreed to forward Frank Beck recent Subgroup e-mails.

• Subgroup members should send suggestions and comments on Section 4.1 to Tossell, who will integrate the edits into the protocol.

• Tossell will create tables and matrices for Section 4.1 to help direct the evaluation process.

• Tossell will write Section 4.2 (the detailed evaluation), and will call Jim Jordahl and other committee members for support.

• Lee Newman and Milton Gordon agreed to modify their literature review on trichloroethylene metabolism to make it suitable for inclusion in the Subgroup’s protocol.

• ERG agreed to provide an updated contact list (with names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and affiliations).

• ERG agreed to set up the next conference call for Thursday, January 11, 2001, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.