Perchlorate is a widespread, environmentally persistent contaminant recently discovered in U.S. groundwater and drinking water supplies. This book summarizes the most current knowledge and understandings of the extent and potential sources of perchlorate contamination, its behavior, exposure pathways in the environment, toxicology and risk assessment, and recent advances in treatment technologies for removing perchlorate. Its natural occurrence and its unique isotopic signature (between natural and anthropogenic sources) and novel detection techniques are discussed. A description of the perchlorate chemistry, microbiology, biochemistry, genetics, geochemical occurrences and environmental forensics, toxicology and risk assessment to engineering solutions and policy is provided. Also included are remediation technologies and monitoring tools for cleaning up contaminated sites including bioremediation, selective and regenerable ion-exchange, modified granular activated carbon, and catalyzed destruction.
Baohua Gu is a research scientist at Oak Ridge National laboratory since 1993. He has been a researcher for the past 18 years who has published over 50 refereed articles His research highlights include biogeochemical processes, nano-scale complexity at mineral-water interface, and molecular and interfacial mechanisms controlling the retention and transport processes of organic and inorganic pollutants among numerous other projects. He was awarded by R& D Magazine for ORNL highly selective, regenerable perchlorate treatment system in 2004.
Bruce Logan has been teaching at Penn State since 1997. For the previous ten years he taught Chemical and Environmental Engineering the University of Arizona Tucson. He has published close to100 refereed articles. He authored "Environmental Transport Processes" with John Wiley and Sons in 1998. Among his awards is the Pennsylvania Water Environment Association Professional Research Award for outstanding research (2003). His research focuses on Bioenergy Production, environmental transport processes and bioremediation and treatment. His 2001 article in Environmental Science and Technology, 35:23 titled "Assessing the outlook for perchlorate remediation" is highly cited.
John Coates is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of California, Berkeley since 2002. For the previous five years he was Assistant Professor of Microbiology at Southern Illinois University. His main research interest is geomicrobiology applied to environmental problems. He has given more than 60 invited presentations at international meetings. He has authored more than 60 peer reviewed articles including 3 in Nature. He is on the editorial board for the journals Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, and Geomicrobiology Journal.
