Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments (CHSUE)
EPA Grant Number: R828771Center: Center for the Study of Childhood Asthma in the Urban Environment
Center Director: Hansel, Nadia
Title: Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments (CHSUE)
Investigators: Bouwer, Edward J. , Alavi, Hedy
Institution: The Johns Hopkins University
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: October 1, 2001 through September 30, 2007
Project Amount: $6,000,000
RFA: Hazardous Substance Research Centers - HSRC (2001) Recipients Lists
Research Category: Hazardous Waste/Remediation , Land and Waste Management
Objective:
The Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments (CHSUE) completed its final year of existence under EPA’s Hazardous Substances Research Centers program with Collateral Grant funding (expiration date of August 31, 2007). The CHSUE was a cooperative activity between Johns Hopkins University (lead institution), University of Maryland, Morgan State University, University of Connecticut, and New Jersey Institute of Technology and covered EPA Regions 1, 2, and 3.
About 80 percent of the U.S. population live in metropolitan areas. These urban residents face a number of pressing environmental problems including exposure to toxic chemicals from contaminated sites, landfills, incinerators, abandoned industrial sites (Brownfields), industrial releases, lead, and pesticide use. In this context, EPA Regions 1, 2, and 3 have identified “Urban Livability” as a strategic priority. Focusing on the upper mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, the mission of the CHSUE was two-fold: (1) to promote a better understanding of physical, chemical, and biological processes for detecting, assessing, and managing risks associated with the use and disposal of hazardous substances in urban environments and (2) to disseminate the results of the research and provide technical expertise to various stakeholders including community groups, municipal officials, regulators, academia, and industry. A Research Program and an Outreach Program were funded through the Core Grant. The accomplishments of these two programs are described below.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Through a combination of laboratory-and field-scale research, several projects within the CHSUE addressed contaminants and sources that are known to be prevalent in urban environments. These include gas and particulate emissions of mercury, other toxic metals, and organic compounds from contaminated sites and hazardous waste incinerators; chromium, arsenic, nickel, zinc, and cadmium in waters and soils; and chlorinated solvents in waste site gases, soils, sediments, and groundwaters. Risks to humans from toxic materials in urban environments come from contaminated groundwater and airborne particles and from direct or indirect exposure to contaminated soils. Several of the research projects within this Center were aimed at better quantifying the sources and cycling of toxicants and exposure pathways. These improvements in characterizing the sources and pathways will, in turn, help others to determine whether exposure levels have been or will be high enough to cause adverse health effects. The improved exposure assessment for our work can be used to determine priorities for risk management and for determining appropriate clean-up levels for contaminated sites. Some of the research projects that addressed exposure pathways also provided information that can be used to assess the effectiveness of natural attenuation as a means to reduce risks at contaminated sites.
Participants in the Research Program
The interdisciplinary and multimedia nature of urban environmental problems demand a diverse array of scientific talent and facilities. The affiliation and expertise of each Principal Investigator that participated in the Research Program is detailed below:
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland (Lead Institution). Faculty from the Departments of Geography and Environmental Engineering (DoGEE), Mechanical Engineering (ME), and Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) participated in the research projects:
Director: Edward Bouwer (DoGEE) (environ., bioremediation, and engr. Microbial.)
Assoc. Director: Hedy Alavi (DoGEE) (environ. Engr., haz. Waste and solid waste management)
William Ball (DoGEE) (environmental engineering, contaminant fate and transport)
Howard Fairbrother (Chemistry (surface spectroscopy and catalysis, and corrosion proc.)
Charles Meneveau (ME) (turbulence modeling, large-eddy simulation)
Charles O’Melia (DoGEE) (environmental engineering, colloid chemistry)
Marc Parlange (DoGEE) (environmental fluid mechanics)
Alan Stone (DoGEE) (environmental inorganic chemistry)
University of Maryland. Faculty from the Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL) (Solomons, MD) and the Department of Chemistry (College Park, MD) at the University of Maryland (UM) participated in the research program:
Joel Baker (CBL) (transport and fate of organic compounds in environmental media)
Robert Mason (CBL) (transport and fate of mercury in environmental media)
John Ondov (Chemistry) (movement and chemistry of aerosol particles)
Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland. The following three faculty from the School of Engineering at Morgan State University (MSU) participated in the research program:
Guangming Chen (Industrial) (risk assessment, experimental design and statistics)
G.B. Oguntimein (Civil) (chemical engr., hazardous waste management, bioremediation)
Sedley Williams (Civil) (soil chemistry, water quality analysis, environ. assessment, GIS)
University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut. Faculty from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Connecticut (UConn) participated in the research program:
Allison MacKay (Environ. Engr.) (environ. organic chemistry, contaminant hydrology)
Barth Smets (Environ. Engr.) (contaminant biotransformations, microbial ecology)
Summary of Research Projects
Six major research projects were funded within the Center. The project title, list of collaborators, and brief summary of the goals and results for each research project appears below. A listing of publications from the research projects appears in Appendix A.
- One project addressed the movement of airborne particles in urban environments to improve our capability of quantifying exposure pathways.
Journal Articles: 20 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other center views: | All 108 publications | 22 publications in selected types | All 20 journal articles |
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Bou-Zeid E, Meneveau C, Parlange MB. Large-eddy simulation of neutral atmospheric boundary layer flow over heterogeneous surfaces: blending height and effective surface roughness. Water Resources Research 2004;40:W02505. |
R828771C004 (2004) R828771C004 (2005) R828771C004 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Bou-Zeid E, Meneveau C, Parlange M. A scale-dependent Lagrangian dynamic model for large eddy simulation of complex turbulent flows. Physics of Fluids 2005;17:025105. |
R828771C004 (2005) R828771C004 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Carbonaro RF, Stone AT. Speciation of chromium(III) and cobalt(III) (Amino)carboxylate complexes using capillary electrophoresis. Analytical Chemistry. 2005;77(1):155-164. |
R828771C005 (2004) |
not available |
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CHSUE assisted with preparation. Description of the Phase II HSRC grants. 2002 Centerpoint 2002;7(1). |
R828771 (2002) |
not available |
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Crimmins BS, Baker JE. Improved GC/MS methods for measuring hourly PAH and nitro-PAH concentrations in urban particulate matter. Atmospheric Environment 2006;40(35):6764-6779. |
R828771 (Final) R828771C015 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Crimmins BS, Baker JE. Measurement of aerosol PAH and Nitro-PAH concentrations in ambient urban air with hourly resolution. Atmospheric Environment. |
R828771C015 (2005) |
not available |
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Gan P, Yu R, Smets BF, MacKay AA. Sampling methods to determine the spatial gradients and flux of arsenic at a groundwater seepage zone. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 2006;25(6):1487-1495. |
R828771 (Final) R828771C013 (Final) |
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Haws NW, Ball WP, Bouwer EJ. Modeling and interpreting bioavailability of organic contaminant mixtures in subsurface environments. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 2006;82(3-4):255-292. |
R828771C001 (2004) R828771C001 (2005) R828771C001 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Haws NW, Bouwer EJ, Ball WP. The influence of biogeochemical conditions and level of model complexity when simulating cometabolic biodegradation in sorbent-water systems. Advances in Water Resources 2006;29(4):571-589. |
R828771C001 (2005) R828771C001 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Haws NW, Ball WP, Bouwer EJ. Effects of initial solute distribution on contaminant availability, desorption modeling, and subsurface remediation. Journal of Environmental Quality 2007;36(5):1392-1402. |
R828771C001 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Landis MS, Stevens RK, Schaedlich F, Prestbo EM. Development and characterization of an annular denuder methodology for the measurement of divalent inorganic reactive gaseous mercury in ambient air. Environmental Science & Technology 2002;36(13):3000-3009. |
R828771 (Final) R828771C015 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Laurier FJG, Mason RP, Whalin L, Kato S. Reactive gaseous mercury formation in the North Pacific Ocean's marine boundary layer: a potential role of halogen chemistry. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 2003;108(D17):4529, doi:10.1029/2003JD003625. |
R828771 (Final) R828771C015 (Final) |
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Nguyen TH, Sabbah I, Ball WP. Sorption nonlinearity for organic contaminants with diesel soot: method development and isotherm interpretation. Environmental Science & Technology 2004;38(13):3595-3603. |
R828771C001 (2004) R828771C001 (2005) R828771C001 (Final) |
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Pancras JP, Ondov JM, Zeisler R. Multi-element electrothermal AAS determination of 11 marker elements in fine ambient aerosol slurry samples collected with SEAS-II. Analytica Chimica Acta 2005;538(1-2):303-312. |
R828771 (Final) R828771C015 (2005) R828771C015 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Park SS, Pancras JP, Ondov J, Poor N. A new pseudodeterministic multivariate receptor model for individual source apportionment using highly time-resolved ambient concentration measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 2005;110(D7):D07S15, doi:10.1029/2004JD004664. |
R828771 (Final) R828771C015 (2005) R828771C015 (Final) |
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McGuire MM, Carlson DL, Vikesland PJ, Kohn T, Grenier AC, Langley LA, Roberts AL, Fairbrother DH. Applications of surface analysis in the environmental sciences: dehalogenation of chlorocarbons with zero-valent iron and iron-containing mineral surfaces. Analytica Chimica Acta. 2003;496(1-2):301-313. |
R828771C006 (2003) R828164 (Final) |
not available |
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Grenier AC, McGuire MM, Fairbrother DH, Roberts AL. Treatment of vapor-phase organohalides with zero-valent iron and Ni/Fe reductants. Environmental Engineering Science. 2004;21(4):421-435. |
R828771C006 (2003) |
not available |
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Sabbah I, Ball WP, Young DF, Bouwer EJ. Misinterpretations in the modeling of contaminant desorption from environmental solids when equilibrium conditions are not fully understood. Environmental Engineering Science 2005;22(3):350-366. |
R828771C001 (2004) R828771C001 (2005) R828771C001 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
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Tseng Y-H, Meneveau C, Parlange MB. Modeling flow around bluff bodies and predicting urban dispersion using large eddy simulation. Environmental Science & Technology 2006;40(8):2653-2662. |
R828771C004 (Final) |
Exit |
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Yu R, Gan P, MacKay AA, Zhang S, Smets BF. Presence, distribution, and diversity of iron-oxidizing bacteria at a landfill leachate-impacted groundwater surface water interface. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 2010;71(2):260-271. |
R828771 (Final) R828771C013 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
air quality, groundwater contamination, organics, metals, hyporheic zone, TOSC, TAB, outreach projects, Brownfields,, RFA, Scientific Discipline, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Geographic Area, Waste, POLLUTANTS/TOXICS, Environmental Chemistry, Chemicals, Hazardous Waste, Brownfields, Mid-Atlantic, Ecological Risk Assessment, Hazardous, hazardous waste disposal, hazardous waste management, hazardous waste treatment, brownfield sites, environmental hazards, contaminated waste sites, mercury, urban waste management, Chromium, risk assessment , assessing metal speciation, chemical releases, cadmium, hazardous waste characterization, arsenic, heavy metalsRelevant Websites:
Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments http://www.jhu.edu/hsrc/index.htm Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original Abstract Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R828771C001 Co-Contaminant Effects on Risk Assessment and Remediation Activities Involving Urban Sediments and Soils: Phase II
R828771C002 The Fate and Potential Bioavailability of Airborne Urban
Contaminants
R828771C003 Geochemistry, Biochemistry, and Surface/Groundwater Interactions
for As, Cr, Ni, Zn, and Cd with Applications to Contaminated Waterfronts
R828771C004 Large Eddy Simulation of Dispersion in Urban Areas
R828771C005 Speciation of chromium in environmental media using capillary
electrophoresis with multiple wavlength UV/visible detection
R828771C006 Zero-Valent Metal Treatment of Halogenated Vapor-Phase Contaminants in SVE Offgas
R828771C007 The Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments (CHSUE) Outreach Program
R828771C008 New Jersey Institute of Technology Outreach Program for EPA Region II
R828771C009 Urban Environmental Issues: Hartford Technology Transfer and Outreach
R828771C010 University of Maryland Outreach Component
R828771C011 Environmental Assessment and GIS System Development of Brownfield Sites in Baltimore
R828771C012 Solubilization of Particulate-Bound Ni(II) and Zn(II)
R828771C013 Seasonal Controls of Arsenic Transport Across the Groundwater-Surface Water Interface at a Closed Landfill Site
R828771C014 Research Needs in the EPA Regions Covered by the Center for Hazardous Substances in Urban Environments
R828771C015 Transport of Hazardous Substances Between Brownfields and the Surrounding Urban Atmosphere
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
- 2006
- 2005 Progress Report
- 2004 Progress Report
- 2003 Progress Report
- 2002 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
20 journal articles for this center