Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID LA_2025_Subedi

PFAS Transport and Fate in Rivers and Wastewater Discharges: Harnessing Nature-Based Systems for Water Quality Improvement

Institute: Louisiana
USGS Grant Number:
Year Established: 2025 Start Date: 2026-08-01 End Date: 2029-07-31
Total Federal Funds: $296,062 Total Non-Federal Funds: $296,071

Principal Investigators: Bikram Subedi

Project Summary: PFAS are chemicals that have been found in surface and drinking water, soils and organisms in the environment. We want to understand how these chemicals are removed in the environment because they don?t break down much naturally. This research project looks at two sources of these chemicals, both in wastewater and Mississippi River water that discharge into wetlands in Louisiana. Wetland treatment works for removing nutrients, heavy metals and other contaminants but we don?t know under what conditions these PFAS chemicals stick onto different soils or if wetland plants can play a role in their removal from water. Therefore, this project seeks to improve detection methods of PFAS in soils, and plant material, seeks to measure how much sticks to different types of wetlands soils and measure how much is taken up into plants. We are also looking at if PFAS harms important wetland functions like water quality improvement.