Groundwater & Hazardous Waste

Faculty in the Program conduct research to characterize subsurface pollution and to understand the nature of bioremediation in contaminated soils, providing expertise in groundwater modeling, biological processes in the subsurface, and transport of particles and colloids in the subsurface. Faculty members have extensive field drilling and sampling experience, capabilities for innovative chemical and biological analysis in the laboratory, and have worked at numerous contaminated groundwater sites. Principal areas of study include the fate and transport of light nonaqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) and associated soil gas, transport of solutes in heterogeneous media, soil vapor extraction and air sparging of volatile organic compounds, vapor-phase bioremediation, and field sampling techniques for assessing contaminated soils and groundwater. Related work has involved the impacts of road salt on ground and surface water. These studies have involved petroleum hydrocarbons, volatile halogenated solvents and simple organic acids.

Associated Faculty

Example Research Projects

• Hydraulics of Glaciated Bedrock River Valley Deposits in New England (David W. Ostendorf (PI), Erich S. Hinlein, Don J. DeGroot (CoPI), and Aaron I. Judge) Massachusetts DOT Interagency Service Agreement 56565 (2008-2012)

• Natural Attenuation of ethylene dibromide (1,2-Dibromoethane [EDB]) at MA Military Reservation Chul Park, Sarina Ergas(Univ. South Florida), Klaus Nüsslein(Microbiology, UMass Amherst)

• Perchlorate Remediation Using a Novel Autotrophic Perchlorate-Reducing Microbial Community, National Science Foundation, Sarina Ergas.

• Biogeochemistry of Fe(III) and Sulfate in Extreme Acidic Environments, NSF Biocomplexity in the Environment Program, (Richard Yuretich, David Ahlfeld, Sarina Ergas, Allan Feldman, Klaus Nüsslein, Jonathan R. Lloyd (Univ Manchester UK).

• Groundwater Management Models for Sustainable Water Use, US Geological Survey, David Ahlfeld.

• Salt Remediation Program, MassHighway Department Interagency Service Agreement, David Ostendorf and Don DeGroot.