Current Projects

Calumet Phytoremediation

News

WMRC Scientists Present Poster at Chicago Joint Conference on the Environment

Two WMRC scientists presented a poster at an environmental conference.

Gary Bordson and Luann Wiedenmann of WMRC are authors of the poster along with Jeff Levengood of the Illinois Natural History Survey. The poster is titled "Organic contaminant levels in forage fish collected in the Calumet Region of South Chicago."

The poster was presented to the 2004 Chicago Joint Conference on the Environment. The conference "Megacities, climate change and biodiversity: Challenges for the urban environment" was held April 6-7 at the Chicago Illini Union at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Click here to view the poster referenced above. (1.5MB PDF)

Description

The Calumet area Cluster Site represents nearly a square mile of former landfills and other waste disposal areas. The site has received over the decades both hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. Ground water beneath the site is contaminated with ammonia and various organic and inorganic constituents. Ground water from this site flows into Indian Ridge Marsh to the immediate east. This marsh is a component of the City of Chicago’s plans for developing natural sites in the region for recreation and education.

The US Forest Service (USFS) is exploring the use of trees to form a phytoremediation boundary between the Cluster Site and Indian Ridge Marsh. They are engaged in the 2nd year of an above-ground tank study to evaluate the ability of poplar and willow trees and switch grass to remove contaminants from the ground water. Tanks are watered with either contaminated well water or clean water, and tank effluents are sampled weekly for chemical analysis. Insect larvae that feed on poplar will be grown on the poplar trees in a controlled experiment. The larvae, plant tissues including leave, stem and root tissues, and the soil in the tanks will be chemically examined at the end of the growing season. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) is a collaborator on the study, providing the tank soil analyses.

We are providing technical, sampling and analytical assistance on this project. Two hourly technicians, hired on a collaborative research agreement with USFS, manage the study site and handle routine operations. These technicians collect tank samples and ship them to WMRC for nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, sulfate, chloride and pH analysis. They also collect contaminated well samples for heavy metals analysis. Monthly, our personnel assist a more thorough sampling, collecting samples for analysis of nutrients, anions, filtered and total metals, and sulfide.

Black-crowned Night Herons in the Calumet Region

Black-crowned night herons (BCNH), a state threatened bird species, nest in colonies in the industrially contaminated wetland areas in the Calumet region of south Chicago. The City of Chicago is planning improvements to the wetlands in the area in the hope of encouraging recreational use of some of these sites. This study seeks to better understand the behavior of the BCNH nesting colonies and how they might be impacted by increased human contact. It also seeks to understand whether the contamination in the region is impacting the viability of the breeding colonies. The study is a collaborative effort between the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the USGS, IEPA, and the Center.

Prey fish, bird regurgitate samples and eggs were collected in the region through the 2002 breeding season. WMRC is analyzing these samples for 30 PCB congeners, 11 organochlorine pesticides and 2 aliphatic hydrocarbons, 14 polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons and 12 toxic elements known to occur in contaminated environments in the region. Egg results will be compared to eggs collected at contaminated and non-contaminated sites in other parts of the US.

CERL Project

US Army Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory scientists have been exploring the degradation of common military explosive and propellant components for several years. During that time, the Center has been collaborating with CERL scientists, developing methods for the quantitative analysis for degradation products, and applying those methods to samples generated in research studies. This year’s effort is focusing on analyzing methanol and formadehyde generated during the biodegredation experiments.

Atrazine Removal by Activated Carbon Fibers (ACF)

University of Illinois researchers in Dr. James Economy's group are developing advanced materials for selective removal of trace contaminants from drinking water. One of the facets of the project is the synthesis and structural characterization of activated carbon fibers (ACFs), which are used in the contaminant removal process. Organic compounds such as atrazine, benzene, chloroform, TCE and MTBE are being used as model compounds for targeted removal from water using the experimental ACFs. The characterization of the ACF's will focus on capacity, selectivity, and adsorption kinetics for the targeted compounds.

The WMRC GC group is working with Dr. Yue, a member of Dr. Economy's group, by analyzing contaminant levels of aqueous solutions before and after they have been exposed to the different ACFs. Funding for the research is coming from the National Science Foundation.