The Puerto Rico Test site for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) Center

Supported with funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ Superfund Research Program, The PROTECT P42 Research Center investigates exposure to environmental contamination in Puerto Rico and its contribution to adverse reproductive outcomes, specifically preterm birth (less than 37 completed weeks of gestation). Through integrated analytical, mechanistic, epidemiology, fate-transport, and remediation studies, along with a centralized, indexed data repository, the PROTECT Center is focused on delivering new knowledge and technology in the area of contaminants of interest to the Superfund Research Program as a potential cause of preterm birth. The new knowledge and technology will also be useful more broadly in the overall field of environmental health. Puerto Rico has been selected as a test site because it has the highest rate of preterm birth (~20%) among the states and territories of the U.S., and because of the extent of hazardous waste contamination on the island.  The PROTECT Center is a multi-project, multi-institution collaboration that involves four primary institutions: Northeastern University, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez,  and University of Michigan.  The PROTECT Center is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary and involves significant interaction and sharing of samples, testing, and results among the disciplines of analytical chemistry, epidemiology, engineering, and toxicology.

Conceptual Design of Proposed Green Remediation Strategy 

Electrochemical Setup

Developing models of groundwater flow, contaminants transport, and remediation processes in karst aquifers

Team Members: Prof. Akram Alshawabkeh, Prof. Ingrid Padilla (University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez), Prof. Dorothy Vesper (West Virginia University),  Xue Yu (Postdoctoral Fellow), Reza Ghasemisadeh (Ph.D. Student), Harshi Weerasinghe, PhD (PhD Student), Shirin Hojabri (PhD Student)

In collaboration with Project 4 (on contaminant fate and transport) and Core D (Data Management and Modeling), stochastic models are developed to simulate groundwater behavior considering spatial variability and uncertainty in hydrogeologic parameters. We use deterministic models to study the spatial and temporal changes in groundwater levels, and to evaluate the fate and transport of contaminants in karst aquifers. Furthermore, the fate and transport of contaminants in surface water resources is studied using complete hydrologic cycle model. Fine resolution spatial and temporal scale data are used to analyze dynamics of the flows in surface water resources connected with karst aquifers and the behavior of contaminants in such scenarios. By using data mining techniques and statistical analysis methods, we investigate spatiotemporal variability in subsurface hydrodynamics (e.g. fractal scaling behavior) and hydrogeochemistry (e.g. patterns of CVOCs). Socio-demographic profiles of water usage are studied to examine water consumption patterns and water sustainability in Puerto Rico. The research also focuses on modeling the chemical reactions in the electrochemical treatment process of contaminants; including the influence of different chemicals and parameters existence in the model, as different species and situations can alter the result and the rate of a chemical reaction. Developed models would predict in situ electrochemical remediation processes of TCE in groundwater for the specific sites.

The Center for Research on Early Childhood Exposure and Development in Puerto Rico (CRECE)

 As a multi-project, multi-institution collaboration (including Northeastern University, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, University of Georgia and University of Michigan), CRECE has been designed to tackle the conceptual, epidemiological and methodological challenges that mixture studies require by conducting a multifactorial exposure investigation in an existing birth cohort in Puerto Rico called PROTECT. Using a holistic source-to-outcome strategy that captures the totality of the environment known as the “exposome”, CRECE integrates analytical, mechanistic, epidemiology, psychosocial, toxicogenomic and air quality data to deliver new knowledge in the area of contaminants of interest and their effects on childhood growth and development. As part of its mission to be a vital and informative children’s environmental health resource for stakeholders, CRECE will also provide environmental health knowledge, education, and capacity building for researchers, cohort participants, the broader underserved Puerto Rican community, and beyond.

Research Opportunities for Undergraduates: Training in Environmental Health Science (ROUTES)

The “Research Opportunities for Undergraduates: Training in Environmental Health Science” (ROUTES) program is developed to increase the number of undergraduate underrepresented minority (URM) students participating in environmental health (EH) research, training them in interdisciplinary settings and continuing onto graduate studies and lifelong EH research careers. Given that minority populations are disproportionately burdened by exposures to environmental contamination, ROUTES addresses an urgent need to increase awareness and participation of underrepresented groups in EH research. ROUTES engages and prepares URM students for EH research careers through hands-on research experience, research community engagement, training, mentoring, and support. Program is bringing together the combined educational and experiential resources of Northeastern University faculty (with associated research centers and institutes), who provides their teaching, mentoring, and research expertise in environmental health sciences, including that in environmental engineering, environmental epidemiology, exposure sciences, and environmental chemistry and biology. Program will create a new educational program for URM students that transcends disciplinary knowledge in environmental health sciences.

Induced Partial Saturation (IPS) through Transport and Reactivity for Liquefaction Mitigation (PI: Yegian)

Mitigation of liquefaction-induced damage to the built environment continues to be an important priority and a major challenge in civil engineering. This project advances the IPS as a liquefaction mitigation measure to be considered by the professional engineering community in practice. The goal of the project include evaluating the fundamental factors affecting the process of IPS in sand by chemicals injection under field conditions, demonstrating the effectiveness of IPS in preventing the occurrence of liquefaction. The proposed research takes advantage of the unique experimental and field facilities of the NSF George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) to acquire fundamental knowledge on the behavior of IPS in sands and to develop enabling technologies to verify the effectiveness of IPS as a liquefaction mitigation measure. This is a collaborative effort and the research team is composed of experts in the geotechnical earthquake engineering and liquefaction, and the geoenvironmental field. The program includes small-scale laboratory tests and numerical simulations at Northeastern University, tests using NEES@Buffalo’s large laminar box, preliminary field tests at Northeastern University and at Boise State University (utilizing their drilling rig and equipment), and field research and verification of the effect of IPS on liquefaction using NEES@UTexas T-Rex at the NEES@UCSB Wildlife Refuge. One of the tasks that our group is leading is evaluating, testing and simulating transport and reactivity of a low concentration of sodium percarbonate solution in sand, rates of oxygen gas formation and associated changes in saturation and hydraulic conductivity.  The Project is led by Professor Yegian (PI) and is sponsored by NSF NEES Program award #1134940.