US EPA

1485513 

Technical Report 

Research Training For Understanding the Fate of Environmental Pollutants. (FY91 AASERT) 

Madsen, E 

1994 

NTIS/02994594_a 

GRA and I 

GRA and I 

This proposal requests funds to further involve graduate students in environmental research sponsored by the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). The participants will learn to utilize a combination of laboratory and field approaches to identifying physical, chemical, genetic, and physiological influences that govern the accumulation and biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These and related compounds are among the chemicals whose environmental fate is of concern to the U.S. Air Force and other Department of Defense agencies. The Principal Investigator and colleagues have conducted a prior, independent study that has shown that, despite the presence of PAH metabolizing microorganisms, PAHs persist at a site where freshwater sediments are fed by PAH-contaminated groundwater. Hypotheses to be tested address fundamental mechanisms for the persistence of environmental pollutants, these include: the rate of delivery meets or exceeds the rate of biodegradation; the PAHs are not available to microbial populations due to rapid, short term sorption onto the sediment organic matter, or due to long term (aging) sorption into a spatially remote compartment of the microporous structure of sediment organic matter, or due to complexation reactions with dissolved organic carbon, or due to the physical arrangement of the sediment matrix which prevents contact between PAHs and microorganisms. 

Water pollution; *Naphthalenes; *Phenanthrenes; Accumulation; Chemical contamination; Biodeterioration; Polycyclic compounds; Environmental management; Department of Defense; Genetics; Hypotheses; Microorganisms; Sediments; Sorption; Students; United States Air Force Academy; Toxic hazards; Air force research; PAH(Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons)