A Nationwide Field Test of Petroleum-contaminated Soils

P.A. Kulakow and L. Erickson Department of Agronomy, Throckmorton Hall, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506; Phone: (785) 532-7239; e-mail: [email protected]. Department of Chemical Engineering, Durland Hall, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506; Phone: (785) 5324313; e-mail: [email protected]. ABSTRACT The TPH (total petroleum hydrocarbon) subgroup of the RTDF (Remediation Technologies Development Forum) Phytoremediation Action Team has initiated a collaborative trial to test the use of vegetation to enhance treatment of surface soils contaminated with weathered petroleum hydrocarbons. Collaborators include PERF (Petroleum Environmental Research Forum), USEPA, DOD, major petroleum and energy corporations, environmental consultants, and university participants. Petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated soils are highly variable in composition and in the physical and chemical characteristics of the soils. The TPH subgroup has developed a standard protocol for conducting cooperative field trials. Features of the protocol specify common procedures for each trial covering vegetation treatments, experimental design, analytical parameters, analytical laboratories, and data analysis. As of March 2000, 11 locations have been entered into the RTDF program. Although each trial has unique features, there is enough commonality to the experimental design at each location to enable comparison of the results. Nine of the trials have been planted with the remaining two scheduled to begin in spring 2000. This report will summarize initial conditions for the five locations where analytical data were available.