Limitations of the Preliminary Screening for Anaerobic Biodegradation Processes Presented in the 1998 USEPA Technical Protocol for Evaluating Natural Attenuation of Chlorinated Solvents in Ground Water
Background/Objectives: Since its publication in 1998, the Preliminary Screening for Anaerobic Biodegradation Processes (Screening Process) presented in the Technical Protocol for Evaluating Natural Attenuation of Chlorinated Solvents in Ground Water (USEPA, 1998) has been used, and perhaps more importantly, misused, by thousands of scientists and engineers evaluating the efficacy of monitored natural attenuation (MNA). At the time, our understanding of the degradation mechanisms for chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons (CAHs) was in its infancy. Indeed, the bacteria that degraded chlorinated solvents as a source of energy had been discovered only a few years before, and abiotic mechanisms such as the degradation caused by magnetite were as yet unknown. Furthermore, our understanding of biological oxidative processes for compounds such as dichloroethene (DCE) were not, and still are not, fully understood.
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