SUMMARY OF THE REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM
SEDIMENTS REMEDIATION ACTION TEAM
CONFERENCE CALL

2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.
August 18, 2003

On August 18, 2003, the following members of the Remediation Technologies Development Forum's (RTDF's) Sediments Remediation Action Team met in a conference call:

Nancy Grosso, DuPont Corporate Remediation (Action Team Co-chair)
Dennis Timberlake, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Action Team Co-chair)
John Davis, The Dow Chemical Company
Kelly Madalinski, EPA

Christine Hartnett of ERG was also present.

PURPOSE OF THE CALL

Kelly Madalinski said that there were two agenda items for the call: (1) obtain an update on the Natural Recovery Subgroup's activities, and (2) decide when to hold the next Action Team meeting.

UPDATE ON THE NATURAL RECOVERY SUBGROUP'S ACTIVITIES

John Davis, the chair of the Natural Recovery Subgroup, provided a progress report of the Subgroup's activities. In late September 2003, he said, some Subgroup members will travel to Venice, Italy, to present papers about the Subgroup's activities. Five papers will be presented. In addition, each of the presenters will be allowed to include an eight-page manuscript in the conference proceedings booklet. Davis said that the Subgroup members are well on their way to completing the manuscripts: each author has already prepared an abstract and completed an annotated outline. The first draft of the manuscripts is due within the next couple of weeks. Once the manuscripts have been submitted, the Natural Recovery Subgroup will meet (via conference call) to perform an internal review. Dennis Timberlake and Madalinski expressed interest in participating in the internal review. Davis said that their feedback would be much appreciated, and he agreed to include them. Madalinski advised thinking about posting the final versions of the manuscripts on the RTDF Web site.

Davis said that the Natural Recovery Subgroup has focused its activities on two tasks: (1) developing a framework and (2) creating case studies. The framework, which lists five lines of evidence, can be used to determine whether natural recovery is a viable option for a contaminated site. As a tool, it is meant to encourage a consistent approach to site evaluation. Subgroup members have started applying the framework to six sites and are now generating case studies for all six. (The sites selected are ones that Subgroup members have worked on in the past.) Tim Dekker is working on a monitored natural recovery (MNR) case study template, Davis said, noting that all the Subgroup members will use this template when they develop their case studies. Once the six case studies are completed, the Subgroup will likely release the template to the public and make an effort to post the case studies on the RTDF Web site. In addition, Subgroup members will consider publishing the case studies in a peer-reviewed journal, such as Environmental Science and Technology. Davis said that the Subgroup members hope to take on additional sites in the future. They also hope that people from outside the Subgroup will start using the framework to evaluate sites and to contribute case studies to the RTDF Web site. Davis's discussion on the RTDF Web site prompted Nancy Grosso to say that it would be beneficial to post all kinds of sites--not just natural recovery sites--on the RTDF Web site. She suggested making the Web site a repository for case studies that discuss sites addressed through capping techniques, dredging, natural recovery, or any other remediation approach. Such a task, she admitted, goes beyond the scope of what the Natural Recovery Subgroup is trying to do.

Madalinski asked Davis whether the Subgroup's evaluation framework jibes with the information provided in EPA's Remediation Guidance Document. Davis said that there is strong agreement between the two. For some topics, he said, the Subgroup's framework goes into more detail than the EPA document.

NEXT ACTION TEAM MEETING

Call participants talked about the possibility of having an Action Team meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 9-10, 2003. They agreed that it would be useful to invite speakers to talk about treatment technologies. Timberlake agreed to ask Annette Gatchett (from EPA's Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation program) whether she is willing to present information at the meeting or to help identify potential speakers. Madalinski agreed to ask Andrea Leeson about technologies that are being used to address contaminated sediments through the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. Davis will ask Scott Cieniawski whether someone from the Great Lakes National Program Office would like to deliver a presentation at the meeting, perhaps on the Great Lakes Legacy Act. After contacting all of these individuals, the Action Team leadership will reconvene (via conference call) to finalize the dates and location of their meeting.

NEXT CONFERENCE CALL

ERG will set up the next Action Team conference call for September 5, 2003, between 10 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.