Dibyendu Sarkar
UTSA Center for Water Research receives EPA grant
(Feb. 18, 2003)--University of Texas at San Antonio Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Dibyendu Sarkar and researcher Rupali Datta were recently awarded a $392,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to study the biogeochemistry of arsenic in contaminated soils of Superfund sites.
The project starts in August 2003 and continues for two years. Results from
the study are expected to improve the guidelines for health-risk assessment
associated with direct exposure to high doses of arsenic in Superfund soils,
and lower remediation costs by setting more realistic cleanup goals.
A Superfund site is defined as any land in the United States that has been
contaminated by hazardous waste and identified by the EPA as a candidate for
cleanup because it poses a risk to human health or the environment.
Sarkar's team will investigate the chemical fate of arsenic in various types
of severely contaminated soils and develop clean-up methods using both chemical
and biological techniques.
"We are trying to find out what fraction of total arsenic in soils becomes
available to the human digestive system upon ingestion, and how it varies
in different types of soils," said Sarkar. "We will also try to
understand the molecular biological reasons why certain plants can accumulate
arsenic, wheras most others cannot."
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry ranks arsenic at the
top of its priority list of hazardous substances at Superfund sites. Since
arsenic is a cancer-causing chemical and is toxic even at low levels, an elevated
health risk is associated with long-term human exposure to arsenic in contaminated
soils.
Sarkar's proposal received the only "excellent" rating in the Hazardous
Substance Research program sponsored by the EPA.
Sarkar, who came to UTSA from the University of Florida in Fall 2000, developed
an analytical research facility to support environmental research. He has
generated more than half a million dollars in grant funding and is the founding
director of the UTSA Environmental
Geochemistry Laboratory in the Center for Water Research.
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