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Research on Arsenic in Ground Water
Successful prevention of public exposure to arsenic in ground-water resources impacted by natural sources or contaminated sites is dependent on scientifically based strategies for site remediation and water resource management. Research within the Ground Water and Ecosystems Restoration Division is directed towards building the fundamental basis for optimizing remediation technologies and management approaches to protect ground-water resources. Through various in-house and extramural research efforts, the Division actively pursues three key areas addressing arsenic contamination in ground-water systems: 1) elucidation of arsenic geochemistry at local and regional scales in various aqueous environments, 2) development of remediation technologies for subsurface systems, and 3) development of robust site characterization technologies for arsenic in liquid and solid matrices. Together, these research components provide the Agency with a technically defensible approach to protect human health.
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Site of arsenic contamination due to ground-water discharge into a wetland. The chemical cycling and ultimate transport of arsenic within the ground-water aquifer and wetland is controlled by the biogeochemical cycling of iron, sulfur and carbon. Knowledge of the redox chemistry of these elements and application of appropriate site characterization methods are critical to understanding the fate of arsenic. |
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Recent Highlights
- Publication: Special Issue published in Chemical Geology - Controls on Arsenic Transport
in Near-Surface Aquatic Systems (Robert G. Ford, Scott Fendorf, and Richard T. Wilkin, Guest Editors)
- Introduction: Controls on arsenic transport in near-surface aquatic systems. Robert G. Ford, Scott Fendorf and Richard T. Wilkin, 228(1-3): 1-5 (2006).
- Arsenic cycling within the water column of a small lake receiving contaminated ground-water discharge. Robert G. Ford, Richard T. Wilkin and Gina Hernandez, 228(1-3): 137-155 (2006).
- Arsenic solid-phase partitioning in reducing sediments of a contaminated wetland. Richard T. Wilkin and Robert G. Ford, 228(1-3): 156-174 (2006).
- Field Project:
Public-Supply Well-Head Arsenic Remediaton in Western Cleveland County, Oklahoma (PDF)
(1 pg, 17.3K) Contact: Robert Puls (puls.robert@epa.gov)
- Field Project:
Natural Attenuation of Arsenic in an Urban, Industrialized Watershed (PDF)
(1 pg, 20.8K) Contact: Robert Ford (ford.robert@epa.gov)
- Laboratory Project:
Laboratory Studies on Arsenic Interactions with Iron Sulfides and Green Rusts (PDF)
(1 pg, 193K) Contact: Richard Wilkin (wilkin.rick@epa.gov)
- Laboratory Project:
Laboratory Study of the Attenuation of Arsenic by Iron (Hydr)oxides in Soils/Sediments (PDF)
(1 pg, 7.5K) Contact: Robert Ford (ford.robert@epa.gov)