The Environmental Chemistry Lab
at
George Mason University

The Environmental Chemistry lab at GMU is under the direction of Dr. Gregory D. Foster, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry. The laboratory is managed by Bud Roberts.

Immersion pump sampling water at the
NW Branch of the Anacostia River in
the Washington DC suburbs in Maryland.

Our primary mission has been in contributing to the Chesapeake Bay Fall Line Toxics Monitoring Program. This study has been commissioned by the Chesapeake Bay Program Office of the US EPA in conjunction with the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory, and the United States Geological Survey.

Our contribution has been in determining the loadings of organics into the Chesapeake through the major tributaries (Susquehanna, Potomac and James Rivers). By determining the concentrations in the rivers at the fall line at a given moment and using the flow data, we have been able to estimate the amount of target compounds entering the Chespeake through fluvial transport annually. Our target list includes PCBs, PAHs, ON & OP pesticides and organochlorine pesticides.

Bud Roberts sampling storm flow.

The GMU Environmental Chemsitry Lab uses four main methods for analyzing POPs in samples. Samples include dissolved phase extraction with a Goulden Large Sample Extractor, and bedded or suspended particulate extractions ith a Soxhlet apparatus.

GMU 120 analyzes samples for PAHs using a Hewlett-Packard GCD benchtop GC-mass spec.

GMU 220 analyzes samples for ON & OP pesticides using the HP GCD.

GMU 320 analyzes samples for PCBs using an Hewlett Packard 5890 Series II GC with an electron capture detector (ECD).

GMU 420 analyzes samples for OC pesticides using the HP 5890.

Last update: November 17, 1997.

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