Assessing Risk and Dispersion Rate of Ionic Contaminants in Permafrost Terrain

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This award in the Arctic Contaminants program is supported by the Office of Polar Programs, the Divisions of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, and the Math and Physical Sciences' Office of Multidisciplinary Activities. Dr. Ronald S. Sletten of the University of Washington will conduct the research in collaboration with Dr. Tom Pratum, also of the University of Washington, Dr. Steven Grant from the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, and Dr. Thomas Osterkamp from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Together the research group has expertise in environmental and analytical chemistry, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methodology, thermodynamic modeling, and ionic migration in frozen soils. The group will conduct laboratory and field studies and theoretical analysis of soils contaminated with ionic pollutants under subfreezing conditions. Using NMR pulsed-gradient techniques, they will assess diffusion rates on the molecular scale. The solutes under investigation include lithium, sodium, lead, cadmium and zinc chlorides, and calcium sulfate. Of particular interest is contaminant migration in permafrost areas, both in the continuously frozen subsurface and the annually thawing, surface active-layer. The expected result is improved fundamental understanding of the transport and fate of pollutants in cold terrestrial environments underlain by permafrost.