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Battelle Memorial Institute, a not-for-profit research organization _base_d in Columbus, Ohio, is sponsoring and organizing a wetlands and remediation conference this fall to attempt to bring together wetlands and remediation experts to discuss common issues.  I have included below some information about the conference and would be pleased to answer any questions you might have about it. We also sponsor large international conferences on bioremediation (April '99, San Diego) and remediation of chlorinated solvents (May '00, Monterey). More information on these can be found at http://www.battelle.org/conferences/ Thank you for your time. Karl Nehring Environmental Restoration Dept. Battelle Memorial Institute 614/424-6510 This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Wetlands and Remediation: An International Conference Background:   The scope of this conference will include both the treatment and remediation of contaminated wetlands (by engineered and natural attenuation approaches) and the use of wetlands (natural and constructed) for the treatment and remediation of contaminated water and wastewater. Program Overview:      The conference will be held in at the Salt Lake City, Utah, Hilton Hotel (downtown) November 16-17, 1999.  There will be two or three platform tracks held each day.  The platform tracks will consist of talks of about 15-20 minutes in length.  Assuming two tracks, this will mean about 50 platform presentations will be given (roughly 12 talks per day per track).      If the quality and quantity of the abstracts received allow, we can add a third track.  There will also be an evening poster session consisting of approximately 40-100 posters, depending on the number and quality of the abstracts received.  The technical program will include several invited speakers.  All other speakers and all posters will be selected from the abstracts.  Papers already committed to the conference include:   o  Use of Wastewater to Enhance Wetlands Productivity and Protect      Threatened Wetlands   (Dr. John W. Day, Jr., Coastal Ecology      Institute, Louisiana State University)   o   Natural Attenuation of Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds      in a Freshwater Tidal Wetland  (Michelle Lorah, USGS)   o   Engineering and Construction Challenges in the Remediation      of a Large Superfund Site in a Texas Coastal Wetlands  (Ernie      Schroeder, Parsons Engineering Science)   o   Using Surface and Subsurface Flow Wetlands to Remove _meta_ls      from Mining-Impacted Groundwater  (John Pantano, ARCO      Environmental Remediation)   o   Investigations of Chromium Attenuation in a Tidal Connecticut      Wetland  (Richard Post, Sikorsky)   o   _meta_ls Removal and pH Adjustment in a Constructed Tidal      Treatment Wetlands on the Chesapeake Bay  (Joe McKeon, BASF      Corporation)   o   Reductive Dehalogenation Mediated by Humic Acids in Wetlands      Soils  (David Burris, Air Force Research Laboratory)   o   Creating and Restoring Wetlands for Water Quality and Habitat      Improvement   (Dr. William Mitsch, Olentangy River Wetland      Research Park/The Ohio State University) Organization:      Jeff Means of Battelle will serve as Conference Chairman, with Rob Hinchee of Parsons Engineering Science serving as Co-Chairman. Karl Nehring (614/424-6510, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Carol Young of Battelle will serve as Conference Coordinators.  The Conference Group of Columbus, Ohio, is handling the meeting logistics. Sponsorship:       Battelle is the sponsor and organizer.  Parsons Engineering Science, ESTCP/SERDP, and NFESC have thus far committed to being co-sponsors.   Companies or organizations interested in becoming co-sponsors should contact The Conference Group at 800/783-6338. Exhibitors:      Companies or organizations interested in having an exhibit booth at the conference should contact The Conference Group at 800/783-6338. Participating Organizations:      Organizations committed to helping with publicity for the conference and encouraging participation include The Center for Wetlands and Riparian Design (University of Utah), Environmental Business Journal, the USDA NRCS Wetlands Science Institute, the University of Florida Center for Wetlands, The Michigan State University Institute of Water Research, the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park (The Ohio State University), The Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences/Coastal Ecology Institute (Louisiana State University), The U.S. Army Construction Engineering Laboratory, and the New York State Wetlands Forum. Interested organizations should contact Joanie Purvis at 800/783-6338. Schedule:                The Call for Abstracts will be mailed in March. Abstracts will be due on May 31.  We will review the abstracts, put together a technical program, and notify the accepted presenters in July.  We will also produce a preliminary program brochure that will be mailed to the mailing list approximately the first week of August. Proceedings:      A proceedings volume will be prepared and then published by Battelle Press and mailed to registrants shortly after the conference.  Proceedings papers will be optional.  Authors wishing to have their papers appear in the proceedings will be requested to provide camera-ready copies of their papers (app. 6 pp.) by September 30. Registration:      Because registration fees are by far the major source of funding for the conference and a significant percentage of registrants will make presentations, all presenting authors and session chairs are expected to register and pay the standard fees. Early registration fees (payment received by 31 August 99) are $545 government/university and $595 industry; after 31 August, the rates will be $595 government/university and $645 industrial. Potential topics to be addressed at this conference include:   o  Construction Problems Associated with Wetlands Remediation   o  Natural Attenuation in Wetlands Remediation of Contaminated   o  Wetlands Sediment Treatment and Remediation   o  Groundwater/Surface Water Interaction (GWSI) Environments   o  Ecological and Human Health Risk Assessment in Wetlands   o  Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment Phytoremediation in Wetlands   o  Wetlands Geochemistry   o  Wetlands Hydrogeology and Hydrology   o  Using Wastewater to Enhance Wetlands   o  Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Wetlands   o  Chromium-Contaminated Wetlands   o  Chlorinated Compound-Contaminated Wetlands   o  Natural Resources Damage Assessment   o  Subsurface- v. Surface-Flow Wetlands   o  Mine Waste Considerations   o  MGP Sites   o  Research Programs   o  Regulatory Issues Technical Overview:      Wetlands issues are becoming more and more apparent at contaminated sites.  Historically, industrial sites were constructed near water bodies for navigation to obtain process water and/or energy.  Many wetlands have been filled, often inviting convenient waste disposal.  The EPA has estimated that more than 20% of Superfund sites have groundwater plumes that discharge to wetlands or sensitive habitats.  Some wetlands sit on contaminated sediments, some directly contaminated by discharges into the wetland, some as the result of fill with contaminated dredge material or other waste.      It has been shown that wetlands can have significant capacity for assimilation of some wastes.  The use of wetlands for wastewater treatment has become an accepted practice.  More recently wetlands have been show to naturally attenuate a variety of contaminants ranging from Chromium to TCE.  This has led to the development of concepts for the use and construction of wetlands for the specific purpose of interception and treatment of contaminated groundwater.      Addressing wetlands remediation issues requires the involvement of a wide variety of disciplines, many times necessitating combining people and organizations that are not accustomed to working together.  For example, wetlands construction and studies of ecological structure are well developed disciplines, as are remediation and hydrogeologic assessment, but rarely have these people been brought together in a venue appropriate for addressing the complex issues surrounding remediation and wetlands.      This conference will seek to bring together site managers, scientists, engineers, and regulators involved in this field and to help start to lay the foundations for future progress.  As the remediation business matures it is becoming apparent that to effectively clean up many contaminated sites, a variety of wetlands issues will need to be addressed, such as: Remediation of Contaminated Wetlands -      Contaminated wetlands present many unique remediation problems ranging from the geotechnical challenges of working in often difficulty conditions to problems associated with the contaminated medium itself supporting sensitive habitat.  Excavation of contaminated materials, which may be relatively straightforward on dry land sites, becomes much more difficult on an unstable and saturated wetland.  In some locations endangered species concerns have even limited accessibility for the equipment required for site characterization.  To successfully characterize and remediate contaminated wetlands will require an understanding of conventional remediation as well as unique environmental sensitivities and geotechnical challenges. Wetlands for Water and Wastewater Treatment -       The assimilative capacity of wetlands for a variety of wastes has long been recognized.  The engineered use of wetlands to treat high BOD wastes and for nutrient removal was proven in the '70s, and today has become accepted practice in many areas.  More recently, the use of wetlands to treat _meta_ls and more recalcitrant organics such as TNT, hydrocarbons, and chlorinated solvents has emerged as viable technology.  For example, recent work has been done showing the assimilative capacity of wetlands for treatment of _meta_ls contaminated mine drainage. Integration of the knowledge we have gained in this area into the emerging use of wetlands in remediation will be essential to developing cost-effective remedial approaches. Natural Attenuation in Wetlands -      Groundwater plumes that do not readily attenuate in situ in an aquifer or are not captured in a pumping well generally discharge to some form of surface water.  This is true of many chlorinated solvent plumes, heavy _meta_ls plumes, perchlorate plumes, as well as many other plumes of both organic and inorganic contaminants.  Many of these plumes do or will discharge to wetlands.  Wetlands are frequently locations of high biological activity, and often result in degradation or other natural treatment of the contaminants.  For example, it has been shown that chromium in groundwater is readily reduced from the soluble hexavalent form to the insoluble, and nontoxic trivalent form in peaty materials underlying many wetlands.  Similarly it has been shown that chlorinated solvents in groundwater may be biologically reduced to nontoxic end products in similar high organic materials in wetlands.  This is an emerging area, and an understanding of the natural assimilative capacity of wetlands will help balance the need for engineered remediation against potential environmental impacts, and cost. Engineering of Wetlands for Remediation -      Wetlands are frequently groundwater discharge areas, this coupled with the natural assimilative capacity of wetlands has lead to the proposed use of constructed wetlands to capture and treat groundwater plumes.  This approach has the potential to become an environmentally sound and cost effective approach to remediation of many plumes.  To date, however, very few such engineered subsurface flow wetlands have been utilized.   One of the reasons for this is the diversity and complexity of the technical issues involved.  Successful engineering requires a good quantitative understanding of the hydrogeology to ensure plume capture and understand discharge rates into the wetland; the geochemistry and biology of the attenuation processes; as well potential ecological and environmental impacts.  Properly developed engineered wetlands have great potential for practical application.