Hazardous Waste

At hazardous waste sites around the state, we monitor and conduct research on the sources, transport, extent and fate of contaminants in groundwater, surface water, and soils to better inform site, state, tribal and federal managers of risks and potential remediation strategies. For example, WAWSC hydrologists, chemists, geologist, engineers, and modelers utilize numerous tools and approaches, like ground-penetrating radar, tracer and age dating analyses, and geochemical modeling, to assess the status, extent and future conditions in groundwater at a number of Superfund sites and military facilities within the state. Staff scientists have invented new methods for characterizing the amount of contaminated suspended sediment in a river that may re-contaminate a downstream Superfund site as well as specialized samplers to characterize water chemistry at the groundwater/surface water interface downstream of a contaminated site. All of these efforts are designed to help managers evaluate the effectiveness of proposed and on-going clean-up activities.