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JCCES Additional Projects
Preparations for Field Study at Savannah River Site After the successful demonstration of the inorganic phytoremediation technology in Poland, the JCCES plans to conduct a full-scale test of the technology at the Savannah River Site, potentially at one of several on-site firing ranges. These ranges have been used for several decades as training areas for the security guards at SRS, resulting in high levels of lead contamination in the soils of the impact area. Although some of these ranges remain active, some of the contaminated areas have been decommissioned as firing ranges, making them potentially available for remediation. Scientists at IETU will determine the feasibility of conducting a field scale study of lead phytoremediation on the impact berm at SRS. The final result of this activity will be a full-scale deployment of phytoremediation to treat one or more of these contaminated sites. If the project proves successful, the technology would be readily applicable to government and private former firing ranges.
Phytoremediation Field Optimization
Innovative Approaches to Mercury Contamination in Soil Work completed in FY00 suggested that combined chemical/phyto stabilization is promising as an in situ method to reduce the mobility and bioavailability of mercury in soil. These studies will be expanded and evaluated at field scale. Findings of the FY01 studies should provide important results to evaluate the potential widespread applicability of this integrated stabilization approach. In addition, IETU will begin testing an innovative process for volatilization and capture of mercury. This technology is under development and will continue towards full-scale evaluation during this task. Evaluating the potential of these approaches will be a key task for FY01.
Computerized Application of Soil Amendments Soil amendments, such as ethylene diamine tetracetic acid (EDTA), account for a large percentage of the cost of lead phytoremediation (i.e., up to 70% of the total project cost); therefore, improved management of their use has been a priority of the phytoremediation project. Overspraying of soil amendments onto plants tends to affect plant growth adversely. Furthermore, pollutants tend to be distributed unevenly across the contaminated area, with respect to actual contamination; a system that distributes amendments close to the stem and only in relation to heavy metal concentrations in the soil would reduce project costs. Therefore, scientists at IETU and FSU have been working collaboratively to design a dispenser that could move through the field without damaging the crop and distribute amendments in amounts depending on soil concentrations of contaminants.
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Near Katowice, Poland, a full-scale field deployment of the latest generation of phytoremediation technology will be conducted for the removal of lead from soil. Over the past three years, IETU, in collaboration with FSU and Central European Advanced Technologies (CEAT), has developed advances in several aspects of lead phytoextraction from soils. During FY01, IETU will conduct an integrated field demonstration of these advances including the computerized amendment application technology in conjunction with CEAT's Chlorophyll Fluorometer (CFM). The results of this demonstration are expected to document the efficiency of this integrated system as tools to optimize the phytoremediation process.