SUMMARY OF THE REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM PHYTOREMEDIATION ACTION TEAM
TOTAL PETROLEUM HYDROCARBON IN SOIL SUBGROUP
CONFERENCE CALL

November 3, 2000
12:30–2:00 p.m.

On November 3, 2000, the following members of the Remediation Technologies Development Forum’s (RTDF’s) Phytoremediation Action Team, Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) in Soil Subgroup, met in a conference call:

Phil Sayre, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Subgroup Co-Chair)
Steve Geiger, ThermoRetec, Inc.
Peter Kulakow, Kansas State University
Steve Rock, EPA
Duane Wolf, University of Arkansas

Christine Hartnett of Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG), was also present.


UPDATE ON FIELD DEMONSTRATION SITES

The TPH in Soil Subgroup has created a field study program to evaluate how effectively plants degrade petroleum hydrocarbons. Call participants gave updates on sites that are participating in the program:


THE POTENTIAL FOR ADDITIONAL RESEARCH PROJECTS AT RTDF SUBGROUP SITES

Call participants noted that EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) is offering grants for phytoremediation research projects and that proposals are due by the end of January 2001. These grants, Phil Sayre said, will be awarded to academic or nonprofit organizations. Subgroup members expressed hope that some of the grants would be used to perform additional research at the Subgroup’s field sites. They described two avenues by which this could happen:

Call participants agreed that it would be useful to compose a "wish list" that summarizes the types of projects that they would like performed at the Subgroup’s field sites. They brainstormed briefly on topics to include on the list and identified the following:

Call participants agreed to discuss their "wish list" in more detail during their next conference call. Once the list is compiled, it will be posted to the RTDF Web site. That way, people who are interested in performing research at the Subgroup’s sites will be aware of the kinds of projects that the RTDF Subgroup would welcome.


ACTION ITEMS