ADDITIONAL SOURCES FOR PHYTORECLAMATION INFORMATION

Technical Note DOER-C9

November 1999

alternatives including no-action alternatives (no-action alternatives may require long-term ecosys-

tem monitoring). These include instances where reuse of contaminated dredged material as

manufactured soil is considered but contaminants such as metals and PAHs limit its use. Phytore-

clamation of some metals and petroleum hydrocarbons in dredged material is ready for demonstra-

tion while phytoreclamation of PCBs, dioxins, and other contaminants is inconclusive at this time

and will require further research before demonstration-scale testing is warranted. There is still

disagreement among Federal agencies and between State and Federal agencies on acceptable soil

reclamation goals. These disagreements concern mostly the question of soil concentration versus

bioavailable concentrations of contaminants. Some contaminants, such as lead, can be present at

elevated concentrations and yet not available for uptake by plants and animals. Until universally

acceptable goals are established, local authorities will more than likely set reclamation goals.

Demonstrations of phytoreclamation on a plot scale in the field should be preceded by careful

selection of plant materials and necessary soil amendment and management techniques. Manufac-

tured soil screening tests to determine plant/manufactured soil blend interactions and quantification

of effective contaminant degradation/uptake using plant bioassays in controlled conditions are

recommended prior to initiating field demonstrations.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES FOR PHYTORECLAMATION INFORMATION: A previous tech-

nical note (Price and Lee 1999) provides additional information on determining the suitability of

dredged material for phytoreclamation. Plant-assisted cleanup of contaminated soil materials and

water is readily accepted by the public due to its image as a `green clean' technology. As such,

there is a great deal of interest in phytoreclamation research and commercial application of

phytoreclamation processes. A number of phytoreclamation sites can be found on the Internet and

new ones are added frequently. One informative site can be found at http://www.plaii.com/

Matrix/section4/4_5.html#poc. Some other sites that include extensive bibliographies can be found

at the following Web addresses: http://www.rtdf.org/public/phyto/phytobib/biba-b.html,

http://www.aehs.com/phytohome.htm, http://hano.tricity.wsu.edu/~vmedina/biblio.html, and http://

www.wes.army.mil/el/phyto/pubs.html.

POINTS OF CONTACT: For additional information, contact one of the authors, Mr. Richard A.

Price (601-634-3636, pricer1@wes.army.mil), Dr. Charles R. (Dick) Lee (601-634-3585,

leec@wes.army.mil), Dr. John W. Simmers (601-634-2803, simmerj@wes.army.mil), or the pro-

gram managers of the Dredging Operations Environmental Research Program, Mr. E. Clark McNair

(601-634-2070, mcnairc@wes.army.mil), and Dr. Robert M. Engler (601-634-3624,

englerr@wes.army.mil). This technical note should be cited as follows:

Price, R. A., Lee, C. R., and Simmers, J. W. (1999). "Phytoreclamation of dredged

material: A working group summary," DOER Technical Notes Collection (TN-DOER-C9),

U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS.

www.wes.army.mil/el/dots/doer