Doctoral Dissertations

Keywords and Phrases

Directionality; Phytoforensics; Superfund; Tree Sampling; Vapor Intrusion; VI

Abstract

"Vapor intrusion (VI) occurs when contaminants in the vapor phase migrate in the shallow subsurface and enter buildings through cracks, seams, and gaps and has been recognized as a serious human-health threat as occupants are exposed to potentially harmful concentrations over long periods of time. The VI pathway has recently (2017) been identified as a primary exposure pathway and implemented into the Hazard Ranking System for inclusion on the Nation Priorities List. However, assessing VI and human exposure is not simple and current methods are time-, cost-, and labor-intensive; intrusive; and temporally and spatially variability. Trees are ideal candidates for environmental biomonitors because they are ubiquitous, active samplers of vapor and groundwater and because they are thought to sample over large spatial and temporal scales, effectively averaging variability. Sampling trees is noninvasive and does not require the construction of sampling ports in homes, increasing the likelihood of obtaining property access and VI data. Tree samples are representative of the shallow subsurface with a footprint similar to a residential building. Directional tree sampling can also be used to elucidate shallow subsurface contamination from a single tree, and tree sampling is shown to be correlated with VI samples, especially when environmental samples are averaged over months and years. However, non-uniform distributions of tree-core samples likely resulted in large interpolation error in areas where trees are sparse. Although these findings demonstrate that tree sampling can augment traditional VI assessment methods, tree sampling is best applied as a screening tool because of the many parameters, and their associate uncertainties, that control mass transfer of contaminants in the subsurface and entry into plants and the built environment"--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Burken, Joel G. (Joel Gerard)

Committee Member(s)

Morrison, Glenn
Limmer, Matt
Fitch, Mark W.
Westenberg, David J.
Mendoza, Cesar

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Degree Name

Ph. D. in Civil Engineering

Sponsor(s)

National Science Foundation (U.S.)

Comments

Financial support of National Science Foundation (U.S.) 1336877

This dissertation had been downloaded eleven times as of 24 Jul 2018 when it was added to the doctoral dissertation series.

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Fall 2017

Journal article titles appearing in thesis/dissertation

  • Tree sampling as a method to assess vapor intrusion potential at a site characterized by VOC-contaminated groundwater and soil
  • Contaminant gradients in trees: Directional tree coring reveals boundaries of soil and soil-gas contamination with potential applications in vapor intrusion assessment
  • Phytoforensics: Trees as bioindicators of potential indoor exposure via vapor intrusion

Pagination

xi, 128 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographic references.

Rights

© 2017 Jordan Lee Wilson, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11247

Electronic OCLC #

1021858351

Download

Share

 
COinS