Development and application of in-situ monitoring and bioassay technologies for assessing groundwater contamination

The goal of this research was to further evaluate the submitochondrial particle (SMP) bioassay as a surrogate for whole organisms in toxicity assessments. Studies conducted to establish SMP assays' relevance as replacements for well-established whole organism assays included: (1) a correlation analysis between the results of SMP and multiple human-cell-line assays on a standard series of compounds of human toxicologic interest; and (2) a mechanism of toxic action study on the n-alkanols. To further pursue the use of the SMP assay in environmental monitoring, groundwater from a pesticide production facility was tested using the SMP bioassay in conjunction with other biologic, chemical, and toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) analyses. Also, long-term in-situ chemical concentration devices (semipermeable membrane devices, SPMDs) were evaluated for use in combination with the SMP assay. The SPMDs were deployed in groundwater at a former manufactured gas plant contaminated with polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and accumulated PAHs were compared to residues from conventional groundwater sampling techniques. Prior to using SPMD extracts in bioassay analyses, a novel solid-phase extraction (SPE) cleanup method was devised using a restricted-access sorbent to remove an SPMD-derived interference. SPMD extracts and raw groundwater extracts were subsequently tested in the SMP and Microtox bioassays and compared to analytically determined chemical concentrations to evaluate the combination of these technologies for describing the extent of groundwater contamination.