Project 4 - Bridging Superfund Site Based Bioavailable Extracts with Biology

Objective

The organizations that remediate Superfund sites face the challenge of how to measure success; i.e., how to assess the changes in the bioavailability of contaminants. They need quantitative tools that can characterize contaminants and predict their risk to local organisms and humans. Non-chemical factors such as ultra-violet radiation can transform the parent compounds into unmonitored chemicals that can change the toxicity of waters and sediments. To address this issue, we have developed passive sampling devices (PSDs) that can sequester thousands of bioavailable chemicals. These devices can help regulatory agencies to evaluate new remediation technologies that may either produce or release previously unmonitored chemicals. We will develop PSD-bioaccumulation models that can predict chemical load in aquatic tissues with useful accuracy on the basis of measured PSD extracts. The ability to predict aquatic tissues from PSD extracts will enable Superfund managers and public health officials to collect data with better temporal and spatial resolution.

Activities

Collect mixtures of chemicals at Superfund sites with complementary PSD materials and identify the components of those mixtures that induce biological responses.
Apply additional stressors to PSD extracts and characterize the chemical and biological effects.
Develop PSD-bioaccumulation models that can predict chemical load in aquatic tissues with useful accuracy on the basis of measured PSD extracts.

Significance

We assume a small minority of the chemicals at Superfund sites are responsible for the majority of the toxicity. We propose to help the Superfund Program achieve one of its key goals, which is to identify the components that have adverse biological effects. We will assess the impact of stressors to characterize exposure more accurately. We propose an alternative to tissue analysis that may help provide a better metric for measuring chemical concentrations in fish during remediation.

Major Accomplishments

Evaluated passive sampling devices (PSDs) as surrogates for biological organisms with respect to bioavailable PAHs.
Deployed PSDs at numerous NPL sites in the country and characterized hundreds of PAHs and PAH derivatives.
Established the world’s largest repository of PAHs and PAH derivatives (alkyl, oxy-, hydroxy-, nitro-).
Deployed the first PSDs in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deep Horizon Gulf Oil spill and collected the only data set with an accurate baseline before the oil arrived on shore.
Organized an SRP webinar to disseminate information on the utility of PSDs.