HR: 0800h
AN: B51B-0379    [Abstracts]
TI: Preliminary analysis of a metals-contaminated brownfield: Palmerton, PA
AU: * Sahagian, D
EM: dork.sahagian@lehigh.edu
AF: Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences; Environmental Initiative, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, United States
AU: Peters, S
EM: scp2@lehigh.edu
AF: Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences; Environmental Initiative, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, United States
AU: Yasko, G
EM: gby0@lehigh.edu
AF: Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences; Environmental Initiative, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, United States
AB: Palmerton, PA was the site of zinc smelting for most of the 20th century, and the resulting airfall deposits of zinc, cadmium, lead, and arsenic, led to the destruction of a forest ecosystem along the neighboring Kittatinny Ridge and metals contamination in the town and surrounding area. Preliminary results from analysis of soil samples from the site of one of the smelting plants provides a baseline for the chemical distribution of metals as well as an indication of the time scale of dissipation of soil contamination since the smelter was shut down in the 1980's. An accurate and representative sampling of soil metal concentrations on the site was planned using a 100 meter grid and the identification of areas of concern using historical site data collected during a phase 1 investigation. Field sampling locations were locating using GPS enabled portable field computers equipped with ArcMap and a georeferenced set of digital aerial photographs and arc vector boundaries. Concentrations of metals were analyzed in the field using a portable x-ray fluorescence analyzer (Innov-X Systems). Analyses of samples from 141 shallow soil pits had zinc concentrations up to 95 mg/kg, with a mean value of 14 mg/kg. Lead concentrations in the same soils had concentrations ranging up to 250 mg/kg, with a mean value of 72 mg/kg. Continued sampling and digestion of soils is underway to validate and compare the field x-ray fluorescence technique to approved United States Environmental Protection Agency laboratory soil digestion techniques. An investigation of the contamination of soils at distances away from the field site can ascertain if any residual metal contamination exists and if strategies should be developed to mitigate incorporation of metals into the surface ecosystem, or if dissipation in recent decades has rendered baseless any community concerns of harmful metals concentrations.
DE: 0418 Bioremediation
DE: 0461 Metals
DE: 0478 Pollution: urban, regional and global (0345, 4251)
DE: 0481 Restoration
DE: 0496 Water quality
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting