vvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Research and Development (481)
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response (51O2G)
EPA542-F-97-014
November 1997
Phytoremediation of Organics
Action Team
RTDF
Remediation Technologies
Development Forum
RTDF Action
Teams
Lasagna™ Partnership
Bioremediation Consortium
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IINERT Soil-Metals Action
Sediments Remediation
Action Team
In Situ Flushing Action
Team
What Is the Phytoremediation of
Organics Action Team?
The Phytoremediation of Organics Action Team, established in 1997, is one of
seven Action Teams under the Remediation Technologies Development Forum
(RTDF). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the RTDF
in 1992 to foster collaboration between the public and private sectors in devel-
oping innovative solutions to mutual hazardous waste problems. The
Phytoremediation of Organics Action Team includes representatives from
industry, government, and academia who share an interest in further developing
and validating the use of plants and trees to remediate organic hazardous wastes
in soil and water.
What Is Phytoremediation?
Phytoremediation is the use of certain plants and trees to clean up soil and water
contaminated with metals and/or organic contaminants such as solvents, crude
oil, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Phytoremediation is an aestheti-
cally pleasing, solar-energy driven, passive technique that can be used along
with—or, in some cases, in place of—mechanical cleanup methods at sites with
shallow, low-to-moderate levels of contamination.
Phytoremediation can be used to clean up contaminants in four ways:
>• Phytodegradation occurs when certain enzymes inside plants cause rapid
chemical reactions that break down organic pollutants. In order for this
method to work, the organic contaminants must be absorbed inside the
plant. Not all organic contaminants are absorbed into plants.
>* Enhanced Rhizosphere Biodegradation occurs when microorganisms
such as fungi or bacteria in the soil surrounding plant roots (an area called
the rhizosphere) consume and digest organic substances for nutrition and
energy.
>• Hydraulic Pumping occurs when certain tree roots reach down toward
the water table and establish a dense root mass that takes up large quanti-
ties of water. The capillary action of the roots counteracts the tendency of
surface pollutants to sink toward ground-water zones and into drinking
water. This uptake of water also can control hydraulic gradient and prevent
lateral migration of pollutants within a ground-water zone.
>• Phytovolatilization occurs as growing trees and plants take up water and
the organic contaminants within it; some of these contaminants pass
through the leaves and volatilize into the atmosphere.
Phytoremediation may be slower than mechanical cleanup methods such as
excavation and proper disposal and is limited to soil depths that are within
the reach of plants' roots. Phytoremediation can be used in combination with
other remediation technologies.
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What Is the Action Team's Mission?
The Action Team's mission is to bring together technological, environ-
mental, and regulatory interests to develop and demonstrate phytoremedia-
Uon technologies that can clean up soils and ground water contaminated
with organics, and to achieve regulatory and public acceptance of these
technologies.
What Are the Action Team's Goals?
The Action Team's goals are to:
>• Assess the status of current phytoremediation research
>• Identify and determine ways to address key research gaps
>• Facilitate validation of phytoremediation technologies
>• Determine appropriate uses of phytoremediation
What Activities Are Planned?
The Action Team selected three contaminant/media combinations to explore
as possible phytoremediation case studies and formed subgroups to investi-
gate issues and develop strategies for addressing them. These are:
>• Trichloroethylene (TCE) hi ground water
>• Total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH)/PAH in soil
>• Vegetative caps (long-term, self-sustaining, low-maintenance plant
covers, growing in or over materials that pose environmental risk, that
serve to reduce this risk)
In addition, the Action Team plans to standardize protocols for phytoreme-
diation site evaluation, designs for implementation, and monitoring for
efficacy/risks; and determine what regulators need to know to approve
phytoremediation.
What Organizations Are Represented
on the Action Team?
Applied Natural Sciences, Inc.
Battellc
Chevron
DuPont
Exxon
Global Remediation, Inc.
ManTcch
McLaren Hart
NewRclds, Inc.
Occidental Chemical Corporation
OHM Remediation Services
Corporation
Parsons Engineering Science
Retcc, Inc.
Shell Development Company
Union Carbide Corporation
Argonne National Laboratory
Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
U.S. Navy
Gas Research Institute
Kansas State University
Texas A&M University
University of Oklahoma
University of Nebraska
University of Washington
RTDF
Remediation Technologies
Development Forum
Would You Like
More Information?
For more information about the
Phytoremediation of Organics Action Team,
please contact:
Steve Rock
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
National Risk Management Research
Laboratory
26 West Martin Luther King Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Tel: 513-569-7149
Fax: 513-569-7105
E-mail: rock.steven@epamail.epa.gov
Lucinda Jackson
Chevron Corporation
100 Chevron Way
P.O. Box 1627
Richmond, VA 94802-0627
Tel: 510-242-1047
Fax: 510-242-5577
E-mail: Iuaj@chevron.com
For more information on the RTDF or other
Action Teams, please visit the RTDF World
Wide Web site at www.rtdf.org or contact:
Robert Olexsey
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
26 West Martin Luther King Drive
Cincinnati, OH 45268
Tel: 513-569-7861
E-mail: olexsey.bob@epamail.epa.gov
Walter W. Kovalick, Jr., Ph.D.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M Street, SW (5102G)
Washington, DC 20460
Tel: 703-603-9910
E-mail: kovalick.walter@epamail.epa.gov
To request other RTDF fact sheets, please
write/fax to:
EPA/NCEPI
11305 Reed Hartman Highway, Suite 219
Cincinnati, OH 45241
Fax: 513-489-8695
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