SGER: Rapid Assessment Techniques in Support of Soil/Sediment Removal Strategies for Katrina Cleanup

卡特里娜飓风过后，墨西哥湾沿岸最迫切的健康和环境需求可以说是提供干净的饮用水。一旦这个问题得到控制，就必须把注意力转向清除在新奥尔良等城市地区内堆积的大量土壤和沉积物。需要回答的一个紧迫问题是，这种材料是否含有令人担忧的化学污染物。这个问题的答案将定义如何和在哪里可以处置这些材料，工人必须穿戴何种程度的个人防护装备来清除这些材料，以及这些材料在清除后是否会造成任何进一步的环境问题。为了推进土壤和沉积物的清除，必须回答两个问题。首先，该材料是否被视为有害废物，因此必须在特殊的垃圾填埋场处理？第二个问题是，这种材料是否对人类和/或环境构成毒性风险？这两个问题必须在几周内得到回答。这种紧迫性对解决这些问题的一些传统手段构成了挑战。显然，在这种情况下需要新的评估方法。我们建议通过应用和验证我们一直在发展的新技术来回答这两个问题中的每一个，这些新技术一般是在矿区评价方面进行的。我们将对这些样品应用酸性溶液（醋酸），设计用于在模拟垃圾填埋场的条件下从固体中滤出污染物。将通过与标准TCLP测试进行比较，开发和校准这种基于现场的测试。测量将侧重于有毒金属（铅、砷、镉、铬、镍、铜、锌等），重点是铅和砷。通过这种方式，我们将确定是否需要专门处理这些材料。这里的目标是制造一种现场便携的方法，近似于epa批准的较慢且更费力的TCLP测试的结果。

0553970 Ranville Arguably the most immediate health and environmental need for the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is in providing clean drinking water. Once this problem is under control attention must be turned to the removal of vast quantities of soil and sediment deposited within urban areas such as New Orleans. An urgent question to be answered is whether this material does or does not contain chemical contaminants at levels of concern. The answer to this question will define how and where the material can be disposed, what degree of personal protection gear must be worn by workers removing this material, and if any further environmental concerns will be posed by this material after removal.There are two questions that must be answered in order to move forward with soil and sediment removal. First of all, is the material considered hazardous waste and must therefore be disposed of in special landfills? And second question is, does the material pose a toxicity risk to humans and/or the environment? Both of these questions must be answered in a matter of weeks. This urgency poses a challenge to some of the conventional means of addressing these questions. Clearly new assessment approaches are needed in this case. We are proposing to answer each of these two questions through the application and validation of new techniques that we have been developing, generally in the context of mine site evaluations.We will apply to these samples an acidic solution (acetic acid) designed to leach contaminants from the solids under conditions that simulate a landfill. This field-based test will be developed and calibrated by comparison to standard TCLP tests. The measurements will focus on toxic metals (Pb, As, Cd, Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, etc.) with an emphasis on lead and arsenic. In this way we will determine if a need for specialized disposal of these materials exists. The goal here is to make a field-portable method that approximates the results of the slower and more laborious EPA-approved TCLP test.