CURE: Pollutants in the environment - PowerPoint Presentation

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CURE: Pollutants in the environment

Day 1*Professors: Find data from your own state’s or federal EPA websites

by Dr. Jessica Smith-Rohrberg is licensed under

CC BY 4.0

Itinerary

Discuss levels of contamination Go over lab instructionsLook

over Mass. Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs

or EPA Superfund sites

Each

group will decide on a site to take samples from

Drive to sites

Collect samples

Contaminated

Sites

Tier 1:

pose

an imminent hazard or affect public water

supplies

DPS

:

Downgradient

Property

Status, contamination

on their property is coming from an

upgradient

property (property “up-stream” from them – the property owners did not produce the contaminants)

PSNC

: Permanent

Solution with No

Conditions – they’ve cleaned it up completely

For example, contaminated soil has been shipped to Montreal for “Reuse, Recycling, or Treatment”

PSC

: Permanent Solution with

Conditions

For example, if disposal site

where an existing private water supply well(s) is removed from

service

as a source of drinking water and maintained for uses other than as a private water

Example:

X-Chemical CompanyThis property has been found to contain chlorinated hydrocarbons:

tetrachloroethylene

and

trichloroethylene

, which may cause cancer and central nervous system problems.

The X-Chemical Company is a former hazardous waste transfer and recycling facility. It is not eligible for federal funding under a federal law (

SuperFund

) as it failed to score high enough in a preliminary assessment, in part because the chemicals polluting the groundwater there were found to not be currently harming humans or animals – note that it is near an elementary school.

Image from inside an abandoned factory – not the same building in this example

chlorinated hydrocarbons

In Groundwater & entering drinking water: symptoms include diarrhea

eye irritation

sleepiness

Exposure may lead to chronic illnesses such as:

respiratory

diseases

Seizures

cancers in the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and genito-urinary organsMay cause human renal

toxicity (kidney disease) by disrupting the immune system and damaging renal structures, leading to an increase in the excretion of high molecular weight proteins in urine

Federal or State epa website

Search for Superfund sites:

https://

www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live

Massachusetts:

https://eeaonline.eea.state.ma.us/portal#!/search/wastesite/results?TownName

=

Materials

Before leaving, you need to assemble your equipment:Soil Sample

: Label a

glass sampling tube

with your Group’s Name or Initials and the date. Cut a square of

Parafilm

to cover it with after you get the sample

Water

Sample: On a piece of tape, write your initials and the date. Stick onto a plastic test vial; put a lid on it.

Methods

Choose your site and plug directions into a GPS.

Drive out to site.

Park safely – if you can’t park on the property, park nearby. If you can’t get onto the property, get samples as close to it as possible.

Find the precise geographical location and write on your paper.

Someone in your group should take pictures – these will be inserted into a future paper

.

Make observations of your

site, such as:What does it look like?

Are there any strange smells? What do the plants and grass look like?

Superfund sites across the country

Groups and Locations

Names

of Group Members

Address of Site