ITRC Training Expands Technical Knowledge
Charles Sullivan is a lawyer, but when talking to him one would think he had always been a
scientist. He credits the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) with helping to
expand his technical knowledge.
During his term as an Environmental Protection Specialist at the Saratoga National Historical Park, recently
retired Sullivan served as a project manager for the environmental cleanup of the upper 40-mile stretch of the
Hudson River Superfund site. In his role working on environmental projects for the National Park Service
(NPS), Sullivan had to broaden his expertise from primarily legal to include an understanding of the technical aspects
of environmental cleanup. Sullivan said in the past he would typically consult
engineers and scientists for assistance, but found ITRC offers a wide variety of free
guidance documents and training
that he could also rely on information from ITRC
courses to help increase technical
for technical support.
knowledge, advance environmental
decision-making, and develop
“It is very useful to have the technical information
technically sound and innovative
that ITRC provides,” concludes Sullivan.
solutions to protect human health
and the environment.
The Issue – Identifying Remediation Solutions
Saratoga National Historical Park is located on the banks
of the Hudson River in New York and is known for one of
the crucial battles of the Revolutionary War: the Battle
of Saratoga – an American victory and a turning point
of the war. For nearly 30 years, manufacturing
plants discharged polychlorinated biphenyl
(PCBs) into the river. When the river flooded, PCB
contamination was carried onto the floodplain.
The park is in the early stages of remedial
efforts and is working with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
and General Electric to develop a
remedial investigation/feasibility study (RI/FS)
work plan to investigate the nature and extent of the
PCB contamination on the floodplain. Due to the
complexity of the problem, it will take a number of years
and several steps to decide if, and what, remedial action
will be taken on the portion of the
floodplain located within the park.
While PCB-contaminated sediment
is being dredged from the river,
Sullivan does not believe that
removing PCB-contaminated soils
in the floodplain by excavation
is a good option because excavation could disturb
cultural and historical resources from the Revolutionary
War. If feasible, the park would like to find “a way
remediation can occur without digging.”
www.itrcweb.org ■ email: [email protected] ■ July 2014
A Solution - Phytotechnologies
A Variety of Training Courses
Sullivan and his supervisor had discussed the possibility
of phytoremediation as one alternative to excavation,
but they did not know much about it. When Sullivan
heard about the free ITRC Phytotechnologies training
course, he “jumped ahead” and took the course online.
In addition to the ITRC Phytotechnologies training
course, Sullivan also participated in sessions on mining,
sampling, and project management at remediation sites.
This training course familiarizes participants with the
ITRC guidance document, Phytotechnology Technical
and Regulatory Guidance and Decision Trees, from 2009,
which provides more detailed guidance on selecting and
applying phytotechnologies for environmental cleanup.
Phytotechnologies use plants to
remediate or contain contaminants
in soil, groundwater, surface water, or
sediments. These technologies have
become attractive alternatives to
conventional cleanup technologies
and can be applied to a wide range of
environmental conditions.
“All the courses are useful for a person like me, who
comes from a different background,” said Sullivan.
As Sullivan learned, ITRC offers a wide variety of
training courses and guidance documents to help
increase technical knowledge, advance environmental
decision-making, and develop technically sound and
innovative solutions to protect human
health and the environment. The
“[The courses] are uniformly
training courses are technical in nature
well presented by thoughtful,
and Sullivan appreciates this, adding
conscientious people who
that, “even though it is not my
know what they are
professional background, I can grasp
talking about.”
95 percent of what is presented.”
The ITRC training course and guidance exposed Sullivan
to concepts he had not considered, and he learned about
the wide variety of phytotechnologies available, such as
phytoextraction. “It [the training] expanded my ideas
of what phytoremedation encompasses.”
This technical knowledge helped Sullivan identify
possible alternatives to remediate the soil
contamination at Saratoga National Historical Park
without disturbing the potential cultural and historical
resources beneath the soil.
To help expand an individual’s technical background,
ITRC offers numerous free Internet-based training courses,
as well as classroom training courses, on a variety of
topics. Each year select courses are offered live on
the Internet, and all courses are archived on the ITRC
website and can be accessed at any time.
To learn more about ITRC’s many guidance documents
and training courses, which are offered for free, please
visit the ITRC website at www.itrcweb.org.
ITRC Internet-based Training Courses
■ Contaminated Sediments - Incorporating
Bioavailability Considerations into the Evaluation
of Contaminated Sediment Sites
■ Mining Waste Treatment Technology Selection
■ Environmental Molecular Diagnostics - New Tools
for Better Decisions
■ Remedy Selection for Contaminated Sediments
■ Green and Sustainable Remediation
■ Groundwater Statistics for Environmental
Project Managers
■ Project Risk Management for Site Remediation
■ Soil Sampling and Decision Making
Using Incremental Sampling
Methodology
■ Use and Measurement of Mass
Flux and Mass Discharge
www.itrcweb.org ■ email: [email protected] ■ July 2014