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MAPPING DISSEMINATION OF CHEMICAL AFTER DISPERSIVE EVENTS USING AN AMBIENT-AIR, SURFACE SAMPLING TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETER
Citation:
GRANGE, A. H., G. SOVOCOOL, AND R. CODY. MAPPING DISSEMINATION OF CHEMICAL AFTER DISPERSIVE EVENTS USING AN AMBIENT-AIR, SURFACE SAMPLING TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETER. Presented at NERL Peer Review of ESD, Louisville, KY, January 22 - 25, 2007.
Impact/Purpose:
Provide state-of-the-science sampling, analysis, separation, and detection methods to allow rapid, accurate field and laboratory analyses of contaminated soils, sediments, biota, and groundwater to support Superfund clean-up decisions. Apply state-of-the-science methods in chemical analysis and data interpretation (e.g., mass spectral interpretation) to actual problems of OSWER, the Regions, and the States, in cooperation with the Las Vegas Technical Support Center as well as by direct contacts with Regional and State employees. Provide technical advice and guidance to OSWER using the environmental chemistry expertise (e.g., mass spectrometry, analytical methods development, clean-up methodology, inorganics, organometallics, volatile organics, non-volatile organics, semi-volatile organics, separation technologies, etc.) found within the branch.
Technical research support for various projects initiated either by Regions/Program Offices or ECB scientists. While these efforts will support the Regions and Program Offices, they cannot be predicted or planned in advance, and may serve multiple duty (e.g., solve real-world problems, serve to ground-truth analytical approaches that ECB is developing, transfer new technology). Many of the activities in this task support requests involving enforcement decisions and therefore are categorized as "environmental forensics".
Description:
Chemicals are dispersed by numerous accidental, deliberate, or weather-related events. Often, rapid analyses are desired to identify dispersed chemicals and to delineate areas of contamination. Hundreds of wipe samples might be collected from outdoor surfaces or building interiors both before and after any remediation. The distribution map of a chemical in Figure 1 is comprised of a 25 x 40 grid for obtaining 1000 wipe samples after a dispersive event.