Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2007NJ130B

The influence of flooding cycles and iron oxides on arsenic retention in contaminated, planted microcosms in comparison with phosphate retention.

Institute: New Jersey
Year Established: 2007 Start Date: 2007-03-01 End Date: 2008-02-29
Total Federal Funds: $5,025 Total Non-Federal Funds: $11,738

Principal Investigators: Luke MacDonald, Peter Jaffe

Project Summary: This project will seek to enhance our understanding of treatment technologies for arsenic contaminated surface water and shallow sediments and the effects of land-use practice on contaminated waters, thereby addressing NJWRRI research priorities II and V. A common cleanup practice used in New Jersey and throughout the country is to excavate and remove contaminated sediments and groundwater, an expensive and labor-intensive process. A further drawback of this approach is that it does not allow for containment of arsenic prior to excavation. The goal of this research is to evaluate the efficacy of using relatively inexpensive and easily deployable alternatives to trap and contain mobile arsenic, the methods of using natural or planted vegetation in detention ponds and of using iron oxide soil amendments. As the belowdiscussion illustrates, it is not clear whether this approach will prove to be an effective modality of arsenic containment.