Only nature-based management practices can effectively and sustainably reverse the effects of contamination in the environment. We have worked to develop a quantitative understanding of the fate and transport processes at the sediment-water interface and used this understanding to develop and implement nature-based and minimally invasive sediment management approaches, including capping. The efforts to understand and develop such approaches has been the focus of my career and were aided by a number of great students as well as mentors and colleagues.<br/>Much of the recent activities have been related to passive means to assess the availability and mobility of contaminants in sediments. Interstitial water concentrations of contaminants, e.g. as measured by polymeric passive samplers for hydrophobic organic contaminants, directly indicate the proportion of contaminant in the mobile phase (water) and have also been observed to indicate exposure and effects to organisms. Although the application of passive samplers is superficially straightforward there are a number of issues with evaluation of the extent of equilibration, effects of nonlinear sorption and the relationship to organism effects and bioaccumulation that have limited their successful application and their acceptance by the regulatory community. The presentation will outline some of these issues and our recent work to overcome these limitations as well as efforts to employ passive sampling for a variety of constituents simultaneously to develop site conceptual and quantitative models of contaminant fate and behavior.<br/>The presentation will also touch on other current problems of sustainable water management including stormwater recontamination of sediments by conventional contaminants and perfluorinated compounds and the challenges to upgrade produced and brackish waters for beneficial reuse.

Sustainable water & sediment management

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.