Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) for the State of Montana under the EPA-Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)
EPA Grant Number: R827457E01Title: Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) for the State of Montana under the EPA-Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)
Investigators: Ganesan, Kumar
Institution: Montana Tech of the University of Montana
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: July 1, 1999 through June 30, 2002
Project Amount: $152,190
RFA: EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) (1998) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: EPSCoR (The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research)
Objective:
The objective of this research project was to promote, coordinate, and foster growth in statewide research activities specifically with regard to environmental problems associated with decades of mining activities in Montana. The objective of the Montana U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program was to stimulate systemic and sustainable improvements in both quality and in the capability of environmental science and engineering research in Montana. The Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) involves a series of information exchange activities, fellowships, and review processes to assist the investigators of the Science and Engineering Environmental Research (SEER) Projects as they address research on fate of toxic metals, including arsenic on the diversity, structure, and function of microbial communities in riverine systems contaminated by decades of mining activities.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
The SIP provided support in a number of areas. The SIP supported minority and underrepresented undergraduate and graduate research fellows to work with the SEER projects. The research carried out under the SIP funding on mercury related to old gold mining generated four M.S. theses. Four papers on mercury are under review for publication as a special issue in a science journal. This journal will be published in June 2003. The SIP efforts also have resulted in funding from the Mine Waste Technology Program for phytoremediation of mercury-contaminated tailings. This funding involves two students and one senior faculty member. Thus, the Montana U.S. EPA-EPSCoR project has been very effective in accomplishing its objectives.
The primary result of this research is enhancement of the visibility and productivity of environmental research and an increase in undergraduate and graduate research training. The measures of success were: increased research support from other extramural sources, publications, and presentations for the faculty associated with the SIP and SEER projects, as well as an enhanced intellectual atmosphere for environmental research within the State of Montana.
Determining the role of microbial community structure and function in establishing the health of multicomponent-metal contaminated river benthic systems was the title of the SEER-1 project from the University of Montana-Missoula (Dr. Bill Holben, Principal Investigator). Microbial control of arsenic speciation and redox cycling in contaminated riverine sediments was the SEER-2 proposal from Montana State University (Dr. Tim McDermott, Principal Investigator). These projects were specifically designed to improve the understanding of toxic metals because of mining or other activities on the microbial activities, colonies, and their functions. The results from both of these projects were published in four different peer-reviewed journals. Thus, the SEER projects have been completed and have successfully accomplished their objectives.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 17 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
gold mining, hard rock mining, hydraulic mining, amalgamation, mercury in tailings, risk reduction, arsenic in sediments, redox cycling, microbial community, structure and diversity, Montana, MT, EPA Region 8., RFA, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Geographic Area, INDUSTRY, Waste, Water, POLLUTANTS/TOXICS, Hazardous, Industrial Processes, EPA Region, Fate & Transport, State, Monitoring/Modeling, Hazardous Waste, Arsenic, Chemicals, Water Pollutants, heavy metals, contaminant transport, Montana , mining, mining impacted watershed, Region 8, aquatic ecosystem, environmental monitoring, groundwater contamination, fate and transport , mining wastes, monitoring, strategic improvement plan, fate and transport, groundwater, contaminant dynamics, analytical chemistry, chemical kinetics, contaminant transport models, chemical transport models, environmental chemistry, chemical releases, mine tailingsProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe 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.