Grantee Research Project Results
2005 Progress Report: Rocky Mountain Regional Hazardous Substance Research Center Training and Technology Transfer Program
EPA Grant Number: R829515C005Subproject: this is subproject number 005 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R829515
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: Center for Comprehensive, optimaL, and Effective Abatement of Nutrients
Center Director: Arabi, Mazdak
Title: Rocky Mountain Regional Hazardous Substance Research Center Training and Technology Transfer Program
Investigators: Wildeman, Thomas
Institution: Colorado State University
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: November 1, 2001 through October 31, 2003
Project Period Covered by this Report: November 1, 2004 through October 31, 2005
Project Amount: Refer to main center abstract for funding details.
RFA: Hazardous Substance Research Centers - HSRC (2001) Recipients Lists
Research Category: Hazardous Waste/Remediation , Land and Waste Management
Objective:
The Rocky Mountain Regional Hazardous Substance Research Center’s (RMR HSRC) goal of technology transfer is to take the research results generated within the Center, package them with related technologies created in other settings, and develop these technologies for the Center’s customers through the demonstration phase and then to full-scale operations.
The objectives of the research project are to: (1) seek out appropriate personnel in the agencies that are our primary customers to determine their needs concerning environmental projects at mine sites, make certain that those needs appear in the Request for Proposals distributed by the Center, and also give the customer a written assessment of how to meet these treatment needs; (2) interview the principal investigators for each Center research project, determine from them what would be a reasonable demonstration situation that would use the technology that they are developing, and write a short description of the project and the demonstration situation to have available when contacting customers; (3) identify other public and private agencies, with which we can combine results, generate packages that showcase the technologies, make our customers aware of these technology packages, and generate proposals that use technologies that are within the package; and (4) advise other agencies contacting the Center about demonstration situations using either our research results or technologies that have been developed by other organizations, and assist them in generating proposals for those situations.
To further focus efforts, the Center’s primary customers are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 8, EPA Mine Waste Technology Program, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Office of Surface Mining. Additional customers include the U.S. National Park Service and the State Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) Programs in the western United States. All other agencies will fall under Objective 4; they will be assisted when they contact us. Note that these objectives and the following measures of achievement are similar to how the Technical Outreach Services for Communities (TOSC) and Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) Programs operate and measure success.
Progress Summary:
As stated last year, most proposals and project suggestions were formulated in the last 4 months of the project year. From these activities, a number of projects were started successfully and in some cases have been extended. The activities relative to the objectives are summarized below. In some cases, projects extend over a number of objectives and so they were placed under the most appropriate objective.
Objective 1:
- Contact has been maintained with personnel from EPA Region 8 throughout the year. In addition, the Center has been developing contacts with EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) in Cincinnati. Also, meetings with Superfund coordinators on priority site activities have been conducted. As a result of these efforts, the assessment activities on North Clear Creek conducted by Jim Ranville’s group have been extended to performing total toxicity assessment tests in conjunction with EPA Region 8 and to finding a low cost enzyme test in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
- On May 10-12, an Abandoned Mine Lands Treatment Technologies Workshop sponsored by EPA was held in Denver. The participants were state and federal project managers who had a particular interest in mining activities. Thomas Wildeman helped with organizing the workshop, particularly the activities on Thursday, May 12, when the workshop moved to Golder Associates where presentations relevant to dealing with abandoned mines were given by Center faculty. The following talks were presented: (1) Simple Methods for Mine Waste Evaluations and Bioaccessability Assessments, Jim Ranville; (2) New Methods of Biochemical and Microbiological Design and Assessment of Bioreactors Treating Metal Contaminants, Linda Figueroa and Amy Pruden; and (3) Design and Assessment of Alternative Covers for Tailings and Mine Waste, Charles Shackelford.
- From previous meetings and also during these workshop activities, Dave Reisman and Thomas Wildeman were able to put together an integrated passive treatment program that concentrated on the projects that EPA has sponsored in this area. Jim Gusek from Golder Associates, Amy Pruden from Colorado State University (CSU), and Linda Figueroa from Colorado School of Mines (CSM) are collaborating on the engineering, biochemistry, and molecular biology of passive treatment systems so that better design guidelines can be generated and the reasons for success and failure can be better understood. Dave Reisman from EPA’s ORD is providing the funds for the project.
- The contract under which CSM students assist with operation, sampling, and analysis activities of demonstration projects in Region 8 was extended for another year. Currently, the students are assisting in the operation of the Pulsed Limestone Bed demonstration at the Argo Tunnel in Idaho Springs, in the analysis of samples from EPA demonstration projects in Montana, in the analysis of samples from the Formosa Mine in Oregon, and in the analysis of samples from the Elizabeth Mine in New Hampshire.
Objective 2:
A draft of a technical applications summary for each project has been prepared. A brochure on demonstration projects that can be disseminated was developed and has been used since October 2004.
Objective 3:
- Last year, a cooperative agreement with Phil Sibrell and Barnaby Watten of the USGS in Kearneysville, West Virginia, was initiated to provide assistance on projects that demonstrated the pulsed limestone bed reactor that they developed. As stated above, a contract to help with operation and analytical activities at the Argo Tunnel currently is being carried into Year 2 of the project. The proposal on using this technology for zinc removal was submitted to the Mine Waste Technology Program (MWTP). Although the zinc study was not funded by the MWTP, startup funds were provided by Dave Reisman through the EPA Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program to try out the idea on a bench-scale basis. Two students from CSM were sent to Kearneysville this summer to maximize the process variables so that super saturation of carbon dioxide in the water can be achieved at neutral pH. Then, when the water is exposed to atmospheric conditions, CO2 is released, the pH rises, calcium carbonate is precipitated, and zinc is co-precipitated. Water from the Palmerton Zinc Refinery that is neutral but contains up to 700 mg/L of zinc will be tested to determine how well removal can be achieved. This is an important example of how technology transfer is using Center capabilities to fill in scientific gaps and make a promising technology more viable.
- With regard to mine waste assessment, Jim Ranville and Thomas Wildeman are collaborating with Kathy Smith and her colleagues at the USGS to further our work on assessment methods. This has resulted in a number of short courses, field trips, presentations, and papers that were produced in the last year.
Objective 4:
- Last year, inquiries were made to see how technologies that are being developed at MSE Technology Applications, Inc., in Montana can be combined with the research that is being conducted at the Center. The specific objective is to find proper combinations of projects that can be combined for proposals to the MWTP. Project No. R829515C003 on the metal removal capabilities of passive bioreactor systems appeared to be in the best position to combine with an MSE proposal. A joint proposal with MSE and the Center on passive bioreactor systems was submitted to MWTP. This proposal was funded and the research has started.
- Last year, in conjunction with Jim Herron of the Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology, a proposal was submitted to the Colorado Abandoned Mine Lands Program for assessment work in Gilson Gulch in the Idaho Springs/Central City Superfund Site. Again, no money for assessment work was available this year, so the Upper Clear Creek Watershed Association worked with Dr. Timothy Steel of TDS Consulting to put together a preliminary assessment project for Gilson Gulch. In this work, Thomas Wildeman and the students at CSM have helped to show how to sample mine wastes, gulch sediments, and waters and are doing the analytical and leachate work on the collected samples. A report on this work will be ready by late 2005.
- At last year’s annual meeting of the Center, members of the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) informally discussed how to best use the research that Linda Figueroa’s group is doing on characterization of organic substrate materials and the research that Amy Pruden’s group is doing on microbial characterization of substrates. It was decided that the best course of action would be to use the tools that these two groups have developed to do assessment work on actual sulfate-reducing bioreactors. Thomas Wildeman put these groups in contact with Jim Gusek of Golder Associates who has pilot- and full-scale systems working in Montana and California. He sampled the substrates and the two groups used their organic and microbial characterization tools to see what could be found. This activity resulted in four presentations at the annual American Society of Mining and Reclamation (ASMR) conference. Also, Dave Reisman asked Linda Figuero and Amy Pruden to give special presentations on this topic at EPA’s Abandoned Mine Lands Treatment Technologies Workshop in May 2005. Also, Dave Reismen has provided special funds for Linda Figuero and Amy Pruden to sample the Lutrell Repository Reactor and the Peerless Jenny King passive treatment system this summer. It is hoped that this research activity will provide insight into how such bioreactors should be designed and operated such that passive treatment is taken from the realm of art and intuition to firmer scientific and engineering grounds.
Although the objective on contacting and interacting with related societies and committees, has been eliminated, activities in this area have not ceased. The short course titled, Assessing the Toxicity Potential of Mine Waste Piles, was given at the National Meeting of Geological Society of America in Denver, Colorado, on November 6 and at the National Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in Portland, Oregon, on November 14. As part of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Short Course, a field trip to the Idaho Springs-Central City Mining District was developed. At the Rattler Mine Site in Virginia Canyon, sampling and leachate methods were demonstrated.
Related to the activities of the treatment focus group, James Gusek and Thomas Wildeman again gave their revised Passive Treatment Workshop at the Tailings and Mine Waste Conference on October 10 in Vail, Colorado.
Besides these activities, Thomas Wildeman has given talks representing the Center at the Tailings and Mine Waste Conference in Vail, Colorado, in October 2004; at the National GSA Meeting in November 2004; at the National Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Meeting in November 2004; to South Korean environmental chemists in December 2004; at EPA’s Abandoned Mine Lands Treatment Technologies Workshop in May 2005; and at the annual ASMR meeting in Breckenridge, Colorado, in June 2005.
Summary
For treatment and assessment, we have completed the goal of bringing the research activities to the demonstration phase. Our customers in federal and state agencies are using the results of this research to assess their problems and to determine how best to treat mining influenced waters that they encounter on abandoned sites. In both areas, faculty members of the Center are working with professionals from state and federal agencies and from private industry to achieve the general goals of the RMR HSRC to minimize the environmental problems associated with abandoned mines. Given another year, there is a good chance that the project on Hydrologic Models for Alternative Covers at Mine Waste Sites and the project on Metal Toxicity Thresholds for Important Plant Species of the Rocky Mountains could both be taken to the demonstration phase.
Future Activities:
Although there will be no funding from EPA for the HSRCs in the coming year, technology transfer activities will continue. With respect to research, it is hoped that funding for at least three projects can be obtained to keep them operating. Recently, we were successful in finding some funding for the assessment of mine wastes project headed by Jim Ranville (Project R829515C013). These funds came from the National Science Foundation to help in the assessment of sediments deposited by Hurricane Katrina. Currently, Linda Figueroa and Amy Pruden are negotiating with Dave Reisman at EPA to see what funding can be found for their integrated passive treatment research. Year 3 funding for the pulsed limestone bed project at the Argo Site is available. Hopefully, the bench-scale work on zinc removal using the pulsed limestone bed will be successful and this treatment process can be taken to the pilot stage.
In the next year, presentations and papers will be given at the combined Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration Annual Meeting and 7th International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage that will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, in March 2006. A number of Center faculty members are helping out on the planning for that meeting. In December 2005, Jim Gusek and Thomas Wildeman will present a short course on passive treatment at the Annual Meeting of the Northwest Mining Association in Spokane, Washington. Finally, Jim Ranville, Kathy Smith, and Thomas Wildeman are in negotiation with Dennis Neumann to present a short course at the Billings Conference in June 2006, and also to present some of the research that has been done within the Center this last year.
Supplemental Keywords:
acid mine drainage, acid mine runoff, aquatic ecosystems, arsenic, contaminant transport, contaminated marine sediment, contaminated waste sites, field monitoring, metal contamination, mining impacted watershed, mining wastes,, RFA, Industry Sectors, Scientific Discipline, Waste, Water, Contaminated Sediments, Remediation, Mining - NAIC 21, Hazardous Waste, Ecology and Ecosystems, Ecological Risk Assessment, Environmental Engineering, Hazardous, Geology, risk assessment, contaminant transport, contaminated waste sites, contaminated marine sediment, suspended sediment, runoff, sediment transport, stream ecosystems, acid mine drainage, remediation technologies, training and outreach, natural organic matter, field monitoring, mining, Selenium, treatment, aquatic ecosystems, technology transfer, arsenic, mining wastes, redox, groundwater, mining impacted watershed, acid mine runoff, heavy metals, technical outreachRelevant Websites:
http://www.engr.colostate.edu/hsrc/ Exit
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractMain Center Abstract and Reports:
R829515 Center for Comprehensive, optimaL, and Effective Abatement of Nutrients Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R829515C001 Redox Transformations, Complexation and Soil/Sediment
Interactions of Inorganic Forms of As and Se in Aquatic Environments: Effects
of Natural Organic Matter
R829515C002 Fate and Transport of Metals and Sediment in Surface Water
R829515C003 Metal Removal Capabilities of Passive Bioreactor Systems: Effects of Organic Matter and Microbial Population Dynamics
R829515C004 Evaluating Recovery of Stream Ecosystems from Mining Pollution:
Integrating Biochemical, Population, Community and Ecosystem Indicators
R829515C005 Rocky Mountain Regional Hazardous Substance Research Center
Training and Technology Transfer Program
R829515C006 Technical Outreach Services for Communities and Technical Assistance to Brownfields
R829515C007 Evaluation of Hydrologic Models for Alternative Covers at Mine Waste Sites
R829515C008 Microbial Reduction of Uranium in Mine Leachate by Fermentative and Iron-Reducing Bacteria
R829515C009 Development and Characterization of Microbial Inocula for High-Performance Passive Treatment of Acid Mine Drainage
R829515C010 Reactive Transport Modeling of Metal Removal From Anaerobic Biozones
R829515C011 Assessment of Electrokinetic Injection of Amendments for Remediation of Acid Mine Drainage
R829515C012 Metal Toxicity Thresholds for Important Reclamation Plant Species of the Rocky Mountains
R829515C013 An Improved Method for Establishing Water Quality Criteria for Mining Impacted Streams
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.