[CPEO-MEF] Hunters Point (CA) sediment technology

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Cleanup method uses activated carbon to anchor toxins to bottom of the bay

BY RACHEL TOMPA
Stanford Report
November 28, 2007

Imagine a Brita filter big enough to clean up San Francisco Bay.

Richard Luthy, chair of Stanford's Department of Civil and Environmental 
Engineering, has a plan to clean polluted sediment at Hunters Point in 
San Francisco with activated carbon—the same technology in many water 
filters. Luthy proposes to sequester dangerous toxins by mixing 
activated carbon, a type of carbon with a large surface area, into the 
bay's contaminated sediment.

Luthy, the Silas H. Palmer Professor of Civil Engineering, has 
discovered that certain toxins in mud stick so well to activated carbon 
that they are rendered much less harmful—like flies stuck to a fly 
strip. Luthy and his team want to apply this technique to contaminated 
waterways. They recommended their technique to the U.S. Navy, which is 
responsible for the cleanup at Hunters Point.

"This technique is radical because we are changing the chemistry of the 
sediment rather than digging up the mud and hauling it away," Luthy said.

...

For the entire article, see
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/november28/luthy-112807.html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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