Key issues regarding the fate and transport of emerging contaminants

The environmental industry is continuously challenged with new and emerging compounds that pose a real or potential health or environmental risk. To address this challenge, improved insight into the nature of the compound, its behavior in the environment, and its susceptibility to natural and enhanced degradation processes are typically needed. Regardless of the emerging compound of interest, many of the same key issues often need to be understood in order to address uncertainties regarding risk and treatment. For this study, three emerging compounds (or, classes of emerging compounds) were selected. These compounds include perfluorinated compounds, for which perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) were selected as model compounds due to the regulatory emphasis currently placed on PFOA and PFOS in the United States, 1,4-dioxane, and ethylene dibromide (EDB). These compounds have all impacted (or, potentially impacted) a large number of sites, are relatively mobile in groundwater, have limited or undetermined intrinsic degradation under typical conditions, and are recalcitrant to many conventional treatment technologies. (author)