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USEPA'S RESEARCH PROGRAM ON REMEDIATION AND CONTAINMENT OF ARSENIC AND MERCURY IN SOILS, INDUSTRIAL WASTES, AND GROUNDWATER
Citation:
Randall*, P M. AND D W. Grosse*. USEPA'S RESEARCH PROGRAM ON REMEDIATION AND CONTAINMENT OF ARSENIC AND MERCURY IN SOILS, INDUSTRIAL WASTES, AND GROUNDWATER. Presented at Air and Waste Management Association Annual Conference, San Diego, CA, 06/22-26/2003.
Description:
In the U.S. and around the world, mercury and arsenic contaminated soils, industrial wastes, and groundwater are difficult to effectively and cheaply remediate and contain. Mercury is a serious health concern and has been identified as a contaminant in the air, soil, sediment, surface water, and groundwater. Also, arsenic is a widespread and a difficult contaminant to remediate. The current revision of the arsenic MCL may have ramifications for hazardous waste and cleanup/corrective actions such as lower treatment standards for arsenic in hazardous waste. There have been a number of technologies to clean soil and groundwater which contain mercury and arsenic. For soil, the technologies include: stabilization/solidification(S/S) and in-situ chemical fixation with many different types of binders and chemical additives (i.e. sodium sulfide, portland cement, ceramic phosphates etc ), phytoremediation, natural attentuation, and electroremediation or electrokinetics. With S/S technologies further evaluation of the long term stability of the stabilized mercury or arsenic material is required to assure the material will continue to pass the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP). For industrial wastewater and groundwater, the technologies include: sulfide reaction and coprecipitation, iron coprecipitation combined with cross-flow ceramic membrane filtration, bioreactors to remediate mercury in groundwater, permeable reactive barriers with zero valent iron or other reactants. Some of these technologies are specific to mercury or arsenic depending on the process conditions. USEPA's research program provides a better understanding of the capabilities and extent of technologies and processes that may meet stricter requirements for mercury and arsenic remediation and disposal. This paper will provide an overview of the USEPA research effort.