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| FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE REPORT |
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The Federal Corner
By John Ungvarsky, U.S. EPA
Nutrients in the Nation’s
Streams and Groundwater
This report presents an assessment
of the occurrence and distribution
of nutrients in the Nation’s
streams and groundwater provided by
the National Water-Quality Assessment
Program of the United States Geological
Survey (USGS). Although the use
of artificial fertilizer has supported
increasing food production to meet
the needs of a growing population,
increases in nutrient loadings from
agricultural and, to a lesser extent,
urban sources have resulted in nutrient
concentrations in many streams and
parts of aquifers that exceed standards
for protection of human health and (or)
aquatic life, often by large margins.
GAMA Assessment Report Available for Central Eastside Study Unit
USGS has just released the Priority Basin Project Data Summary and Assessment Report, and informational Fact Sheets, for the Central Eastside study unit (Modesto, Turlock, and Merced area). This work was completed as part of the CA State Water Board’s
Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and
Assessment (GAMA) Program. These
and other GAMA reports and fact
sheets can be found on the GAMA web
site. The assessment report provides
a status of groundwater quality using
data collected by the USGS and existing
water quality data from the California
Department of Public Health.
The assessment report characterizes
the quality of groundwater from the
primary aquifer accessed by wells, not
necessarily the actual drinking water
delivered to consumers.
Treating Contaminants
of Emerging Concern:
A Literature Review
EPA has published the results of an
extensive review of the recent literature
on wastewater treatment technologies
and their ability to remove a number
of chemical contaminants of emerging
concern (CECs). EPA is also making
available the data from this literature
review. The report discusses 16 of the
over 200 CECs present in the database,
and the average percent removals
achieved by full-scale treatment systems
that employ six of the more than
20 reported treatment technologies.
Wastewater treatment plant operators,
designers, and others may find this information
useful in their studies of ways
to remove CECs from wastewater. The
report is not designed to promote any
one technology, nor is it intended to
set agency policy or priorities in terms
of risk. The literature review and the
searchable file were peer-reviewed for
completeness and usability.
From Lab to Consumer –
EPA Research at Work
Arsenic is an odorless, tasteless element
that enters groundwater through
erosion of natural deposits or from
human-made sources such as agricultural
and industrial runoff. Arsenic is
a human carcinogen; chronic exposure
to low levels of arsenic has been linked
to skin, kidney, lung and bladder
cancers, as well as neurological and
cardiovascular effects. The EPA allowable
limit for arsenic in drinking water
of 10 parts per billion, established by
EPA in 2001, impacted around 5,000
water systems, the majority of them
serving fewer than 10,000 people.
Recognizing the technical and financial
burden the new standard could impose
on small drinking water systems, EPA,
with additional Congressional earmark
funding, conducted a technology demonstration
program to test a variety of
arsenic-removal technologies in small
systems across the country. Beginning
in 2003, EPA drinking water specialists
worked with communities at 50 sites in
27 states to select an optimum removal
technology. The technology selection
depended on variables such as the quality
of the local source waters, estimated
capital and operating costs, the quantity
and type of waste produced and
the disposal options available. Two
examples are provided below. For more
information, please go to the Arsenic
Research website.
Arsenic Removal from Drinking
Water by Iron Removal
This report documents the activities
performed and the results obtained from
January 30, 2006 to April 29, 2007 at
the EPA Arsenic Removal Technology
Demonstration site in Sabin, MN. Publication
No. EPA/600/R-10/033.
Arsenic Removal from Drinking Water by Coagulation/Filtration
This report documents the activities performed during, and the results obtained from the arsenic removal treatment technology demonstration project at the Town of Felton, DE. Publication No. EPA/600/R-10/039.
New Cost and Performance Information on Cleanup
Technologies
The Federal Remediation Technologies
Roundtable (FRTR) recently
announced the release of 26 new case
study and technology assessment
reports. These reports document the
cost, performance, and lessons learned
in implementing a wide range of hazardous
waste site cleanup technologies
in the field, ranging from large-scale
demonstrations to full-scale applications.
The remediation case studies and
general technology assessment reports
and other related FRTR information
are available at the FRTR web site.
Test/QA Plan for Verification
of Nitrate Sensors for GW
Remediation Monitoring
The purpose of this test/QA plan
is to specify procedures for a verification
test applicable to commercial
nitrate sensors. Environmental sensors
are small, transportable analytical
devices that provide data in real time,
are rugged enough to withstand a wide
range of weather conditions, operate
remotely, acquire data continuously or
on demand, and provide processed data
directly to the user. Underlying any approach to the reduction of nitrogen in
the environment (i.e., groundwater) is
the need to measure concentrations in a
timely and useful manner. This verification
test evaluates a newer approach
to monitoring of groundwater in a
monitoring well, and in an end-of-tile
bioreactor using environmental sensors.
Publication No. EPA/600/R-10/104.
Program for Simulating
Groundwater Flow, Solute
Transport, and Multicomponent
Geochemical Reactions
The purpose of this document is
to provide the user with information
about the capabilities and usage
of the reactive-transport simulator
PHAST (PHREEQC And HST3D).
The Federal Corner – Continued
The computer program PHAST
simulates multicomponent, reactive
solute transport in three-dimensional
saturated groundwater flow systems.
PHAST is a versatile groundwater flow
and solute-transport simulator with
capabilities to model a wide range of
equilibrium and kinetic geochemical
reactions. PHAST is applicable to the
study of natural and contaminated
groundwater systems at a variety of
scales ranging from laboratory experiments
to local and regional field scales.
PHAST is not suitable for some types
of reactive-transport modeling; in particular,
PHAST is not appropriate for
unsaturated-zone flow and does not
account for flow and transport of gas
or nonaqueous-liquid phases.
John Ungvarsky is an Environmental
Scientist at the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 9. He works
in the Water Division’s Ground Water
Office and oversees source water protection
efforts in CA, HI, and NV. For
information on any of the above topics,
please contact John at 415-972-3963
or ungvarsky.john@epa.gov. |
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GRA WEB SPONSOR
FOR FEBRUARY 2012
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