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New Tools and New Approaches to Improve the Assessment and Evaluation of Monitored Natural Attenuation of Organic Compoundsin Ground Water
Citation:
WILSON, J. T., B. Wilson, AND T. Wiedemeier. New Tools and New Approaches to Improve the Assessment and Evaluation of Monitored Natural Attenuation of Organic Compoundsin Ground Water. Presented at The Seventh International Conference on Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds, Monterey, CA, May 20 - 28, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
The course will introduce a new statistical approach to analyze long term monitoring data to determine whether a site is on track to meet a clean up goal.
Description:
In the years since publication of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. EPA technical protocols for evaluating Monitored Natural Attenuation, MNA had found widespread application to organic contaminants in ground water. These documents were issued more than a decade ago; the science has moved on. This course is intended for environmental practitioners with limited background in applications of MNA, and for experienced engineers and geologist with little background in the new tools that are now available. This course will review the U.S. EPA’s expectations for the appropriate applications of MNA as well as current good practice for the use of geochemical footprints and mathematical modeling to recognize and characterize natural attenuation processes. Then the course will summarize and integrate the new science, including (1) recent discoveries concerning abiotic processes that degrade of chlorinated organic compounds, (2) the application of compound specific stable isotope analyses to document the degradation or organic contaminants at field-scale, (3) the use of stable isotope probes to document the capacity for biodegradation of organic contaminants in ground water and (4) the application of molecular biological tools to identify and enumerate organisms in ground water that can degrade contaminants. The course will introduce a new statistical approach to analyze long term monitoring data to determine whether a site is on track to meet a clean up goal.