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Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) for the State of Montana under the EPA-Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)

EPA Grant Number: R827457E01
Title: Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) for the State of Montana under the EPA-Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)
Investigators: Ganesan, Kumar
Institution: Montana Tech of the University of Montana
EPA Project Officer: Winner, Darrell
Project Period: July 1, 1999 through June 30, 2002
Project Amount: $152,190
RFA: EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) (1998)
Research Category: EPSCoR (The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research)

Description:

Objective:

The main goal of Montana EPA-EPSCoR program is to stimulate systemic and sustainable improvements both in the quality and in the capability of environmental science and engineering research in Montana. The main objective of the project was to promote, coordinate, and foster growth in statewide research activities specifically in environmental problems associated with decades of mining activities in Montana. The Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) involves a series of information exchange activities, fellowships, and review processes to assist the investigators of the SEER Projects as they address research on fate of toxic metals including arsenic on the diversity, structure, and function of microbial communities in riverine systems contaminated by decades of mining activities.

Approach:

The Strategic Improvement Plan (SIP) provided support in a number of areas. The SIP supported minority and underrepresented undergraduate and graduate research fellows to work with the SEER Projects. The research carried out under the SIP funding on mercury related to old gold mining generated four MS theses. Four papers on mercury are under review for publication as a special issue in a science journal. This will be published during June 2003. The SIP efforts have also resulted in funding from Mine Waste Technology Program for phyto-remediation of mercury contaminated tailings. This funding involves two students and one senior faculty member. Thus, the Montana EPA-EPSCoR project has been very effective in accomplishing the objectives that were set out.

Expected Results:

The primary result will be to enhance visibility and productivity in environmental research and to increase undergraduate and graduate research training. The measures of success will be increased research support from other extramural sources, publications, and presentations for the faculty associated with the SIP and the SEER Projects, as well as an enhanced intellectual atmosphere for environmental research within the State of Montana.

Determining the role of microbial community structure and function in establishing the health of multi-component-metal contaminated river benthic systems was the title of the SEER-1 project from University of Montana, Missoula [Dr. Bill Holben, PI]. Microbial control of arsenic speciation and redox cycling in contaminated riverine sediments was the SEER-2 proposal from Montana State University [Dr. Tim Mc Dermott, PI]. These projects were designed specifically to improve the understanding of toxic metals due to mining or other activities on the microbial activities, colonies and their functions. The results from both of these projects were published in four different peer reviewed journals. Thus, the SEER projects have been very successfully completed and accomplished their objectives.

Publications and Presentations:

Publications have been submitted on this project: View all 17 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

gold mining, hard rock mining, hydraulic mining, amalgamation, mercury in tailings, risk reduction, arsenic in sediments, redox cycling, microbial community, structure, diversity. , Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, POLLUTANTS/TOXICS, INDUSTRY, Water, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Geographic Area, Waste, RFA, Arsenic, Industrial Processes, Chemicals, Hazardous Waste, Water Pollutants, EPA Region, Fate & Transport, Hazardous, Monitoring/Modeling, State, heavy metals, aquatic ecosystem, contaminant transport models, chemical transport models, fate and transport, mining impacted watershed, fate and transport , strategic improvement plan, mining, mining wastes, groundwater, monitoring, chemical kinetics, contaminant dynamics, contaminant transport, environmental monitoring, Region 8, environmental chemistry, groundwater contamination, analytical chemistry, mine tailings, stream ecosystem, chemical releases

Progress and Final Reports:
Final Report

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The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.

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