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Person

Cassandra R Harris

Biologist
Email: crharris@usgs.gov
Office Phone: 703-648-5487

Location
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston , VA 20192-0002
US
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Water resources around the world are contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) due to releases from point sources on military installations, fire training centers, and chemical manufacturing sites. Non-point sources have also been identified including wastewater effluent, landfills, and biosolids application. PFAS are a major concern to myriad stakeholders as some are known to bioaccumulate, they have eco-toxicity effects, and they are highly recalcitrant. PFAS are often called “forever chemicals” due to their environmental persistence but many precursor PFAS are transformed in the environment by microbes. Recent work has shown that PFAS can be biologically degraded in laboratory studies, but...
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Anaerobic microcosm experiments were conducted in April-May 2018 with PFAS-contaminated soil from a U.S. Army installation (Fort Drum, New York) and simulated groundwater. All microcosms, except for a live sediment control, were amended with perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), and 6:2 fluorotelomer sulfonate (6:2 FtS). Replicate treatments were prepared with and without bioaugmentation with the WBC-2 dehalogenating culture and with and without addition of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane and trichloroethylene). Two additional treatments were prepared containing granular activated carbon. All microcosms were prepared in duplicate and sacrificed for sampling....
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Oil and gas (OG) wastewaters are commonly disposed of by underground injection and previous research showed that activities at a disposal facility in West Virginia affected stream biogeochemistry and sediment microbial communities downstream from the facility. Microorganisms can control the fate and transport of organic and inorganic components of OG wastewater highlighting the need to characterize the effects of OG wastewater components on microbial activity. We conducted a series of aerobic microcosm experiments to assess the influence of high total dissolved solids (TDS) and hydraulic fracturing fluid additives (2,2-dibromo-3-nitrilopropionamide (DBNPA), a biocide, and ethylene glycol, an anti-scaling additive),...
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Soil, soil porewater, groundwater, and playa lake sediment samples were collected between September 2021 and November 2023 at Cannon Air Force Base (CAFB) in eastern New Mexico as part of a study on the sources, fate, and transport of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Soil cores (2-foot-long) were collected in September 2021 from six sites that were potential PFAS source areas and one background site. Soil cores were analyzed for targeted PFAS compounds, total oxidizable precursor (TOP) assay, protein content, anions, total organic and inorganic carbon, cation exchange capacity, and pH. Physical properties, which included soil particle size distribution, oxide composition, moisture content, and water potential...
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