Hazardous Substance Research
Center-South/Southwest Renewed by EPA
The Chemical Engineering Department will continue to host the
Hazardous Substance
Research Center-South/Southwest, having been awarded $5 million
over the next 5 years by the EPA. One of five such centers in
the country, the South/Southwest facility focuses its research
efforts on contaminated sediments found in aquatic environments.
The Center was established in 1991 with a grant from the EPA as
a cooperative effort between LSU, Georgia Tech, and Rice, and
with the renewal, now includes Texas A&M. Twenty-seven university
consortia entered the recent renewal competitions, including schools
in North Carolina and Texas competing within the region and the
University of Illinois and University of Washington competing
nationally in the Center's theme area of contaminated sediments.
Director Danny Reible says of the recent award and renewal, "I'm
very pleased that the EPA has recognized the importance of contaminated
sediment as a hazardous substance problem, and also recognized
our role in responding to the problem nationally." Dr. Reible
says that they expect to supplement the EPA grant with an average
of one million dollars per year in other funding.
Research
HSRC is called a "pass through" organization, meaning that it
attracts faculty from other LSU departments and other universities
to collaborate on research in their particular areas of hazardous
substances. Some of the HSRC research projects based at LSU include
determination of pipeline contamination, i.e., radium amounts
in oil exploration/production equipment, in the early 1990s, and
more recently, understanding contaminant availability to plants,
animals, and microbes, and developing models to predict the fate
of contaminants in sediments.
Dr. K.T. Valsaraj researches airborne contaminants
One of the current projects underway at the HSRC continues Professor
Valsaraj's research into airborne contaminants released from dredged
materials. After developing mathematical models to predict emissions,
Drs. Valsaraj, Thibodeaux, and Reible are collaborating with the
U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers to determine the potential for
contaminant emissions from confined disposal facilities, and how
those emissions can be minimized. Contaminated sediments from
five different sites - University Lake in Baton Rouge, Louisiana;
New York Harbor; Rouge River, Michigan; Grand Calumet River, Indiana;
and the Indiana Harbor Canal - have been examined to assess the
potential release of compounds such as PAHs and PCBs.
In more closely examining the volatility of the sediments, Dr.
Valsaraj and his colleagues have been able to further refine the
mathematical models developed in the previous study. According
to the latest research, the effects of oil and grease contamination,
along with aging and irreversibility in sorption of contaminants,
found in most of the sediments examined will play a significant
role in determining optimal methods for reducing emissions from
exposed sediments.
Outreach
Another mission of the Center involves outreach. This includes
education of communities about their local hazardous substance
issues through its Technical Outreach Services for Communities
(TOSC) and Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) programs.
The TOSC program helps communities understand technical issues
related to hazardous waste, enabling citizens to be more knowledgeable
in their involvement in local hazardous substance problems. As
part of this educational service, the first Outreach Environmental
Fact Sheet went on-line in March 2001, kicking off a monthly series
of updates on topics of interest to communities served by the
TOSC and TAB programs. Meanwhile, the TAB program assists in areas
where contamination problems have already discouraged economic
progress and disturbed the environmental balance. Clean-up efforts
improve these areas physically and cosmetically; in addition,
TAB personnel also provide interaction between government agencies
and residents, along with land use planning and further clean-up
technologies, among other revitalization services.
What is the HSRC/SSW?
The HSRC/SSW was established in 1991 to look at environmental
problems specific to EPA regions that include Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. The Principal Investigator for
the EPA grant that funds the HSRC is Dr. Danny Reible, and co-investigators
include Louis Thibodeaux and K.T. Valsaraj from Chemical Engineering,
John Pardue from Civil and Environmental Engineering and John
Fleeger from the Department of Zoology and Physiology. For more
information about HSRC/SSW, visit their website at www.hsrc.org/hsrc/html/ssw.
Dr. Reible Discusses Future Plans for the HSRC
with Dean Egblelu (center) and associate Dean Tumay.K.T. Valsaraj
researches airborne contaminants.
HSRC/SSW Director Wins AIChE Award
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Danny Reible, Director of HSRC/SSW
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Danny Reible, director of
the Hazardous
Substance Research Center-South/Southwest, has won the
Lawrence K. Cecil Award in Environmental Chemical Engineering
presented annually by the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers (AIChE).
This award, sponsored by B.P. America, Inc., recognizes
an individual's outstanding chemical engineering contribution
and achievement in the preservation or improvement of the
environment. The recipient must be a member of AIChE, have
15 years of chemical engineering experience in the environmental
field, and demonstrate leadership in research, teaching,
engineering, or regulatory activities in either the public
or private sector. |
Award criteria considered in selecting a winner include:
- New discoveries,
research, or the development of new processes or equipment applications
in the protection of the environment;
- Outstanding
contributions of a chemical engineering nature in the design,
construction, operation, or management of environmental protection
facilities or enterprises;
- Distinguished
service in environmental protection as a professional engineer,
industrial leader, or educator.
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