• Testing Remediation Technologies
• Site Characterization

• Tritium
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Phytoremediation in the desert might be a possibility. Research at the Amargosa Desert Research Site has documented the importance of plants in the upward movement and discharge of water from the deep (110-meter-thick) unsaturated zone at the site. New studies are now underway to evaluate the role of plants in the detection and remediation of subsurface contamination. These studies could lead to the development of a method to conduct long-term monitoring at low-level radioactive waste sites that will (a) provide an accurate indication of changes in subsurface tritium concentrations at low cost and (b) quantify the transport of tritium from the subsurface to the atmosphere.

• Waste Disposal and Contaminant Migration in the Arid Southwest -- Amargosa Desert Research Site, Nevada
• Field Applications of Unsaturated Zone Flow Theory, Contains Information on Evapotranspiration in Arid Environments
• Are Deserts Still Drying Out Since the Ice Age?

• Andraski, B.J., 1997, Soil-water movement under natural-site and waste-site conditions--A multiple-year field study in the Mojave Desert, Nevada: Water Resources Research, v. 33, no. 9, p. 1901-1916.
• Andraski, B.J., and Prudic, D.E., 1997, Soil, plant, and structural considerations for surface barriers in arid environments--Application of results from studies in the Mojave Desert near Beatty, Nevada, in Barrier Technologies for Environmental Management, Summary of a workshop: Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, p. 68-78.
• Andraski, B.J., Prudic, D.E., and Nichols, W.D., 1995, Waste burial in arid environments--Application of information from a field laboratory in the Mojave Desert, southern Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet FS-179-95, 4 p.
• Gee, G.W., Wierenga, P.J., Andraski, B.J., Young, M.H., Fayer, M.J., and Rockhold, M.L., 1994, Variations in water balance and recharge potential at three western desert sites: Soil Science Society of America Journal, v. 58, no. 1, p. 63-72.
• Walvoord, M.A., Phillips, F.M., Tyler, S.W., and Hartsough, P.C., 2002, Deep arid system hydrodynamics--2. Application to paleohydrologic reconstruction using vadose zone profiles from the northern Mojave Desert: Water Resources Research, v. 38, no. 12, p. 27-1 to 27-12.
• Walvoord, M.A., Plummer, M.A., Phillips, F.M., and Wolfsberg, A.V., 2002, Deep system hydrodynamics--1. Equilibrium states and response times in thick desert vadose zones: Water Resources Research, v. 38, no. 12, p. 44-1 to 44-15.
• Walvoord, M.A., Stonestrom, D.A., and Phillips, F.M., 2002, From multi-year observations to millennial inferences--Uncertainties in paleohydrologic reconstructions of deep unsaturated zones in the desert southwest, U.S.A.: Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 83, no. 47, Fall Meeting Supplement, Abstract H22F-07, CD-ROM.
  

USGS Phytoremediation Information

• Can Trees Clean Up Ground Water? Phytoremediation of Trichloroethene Contaminated Ground Water at Air Force Plant 4, Fort Worth, Texas
• Using Phytoremediation to Control Fuel Oxygenate Plumes in Northern Climates
• Natural Attenuation of Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds in Ground Water at Operable Unit 1, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Keyport, Washington
• Assessment of the Ground-Water Flow System and Potential Remediation of the Logistics Center, Fort Lewis, Washington (see Report, Fact Sheet 082-98)