In her spare time, Dawn acts as personal and telephone receptionist for Reclamation Research Unit, and also assists the staff in field and laboratory research activities. There are 36 undergraduate students pursuing Bachelor of Science degrees in Abused Land Rehabilitation. The Conoco Oil Refinery in Billings, Montana creates a waste stream that is applied to soils within an 11-acre impoundment known as the Land Treatment Unit. Soil microbes are able to degrade the petroleum based waste constituents. However, metal concentrations in the soil have risen over the 20 years that the Land Treatment Unit has been in operation.
Selenium is of particular concern.
Conoco is seeking a cost-effective method of removing these metals and has granted the use of the Land Treatment Unit for research purposes. The objectives of my research are to evaluate the abilities of several selenium accumulating plant species to establish at the Conoco Land Treatment Unit and to determine which of these species is the most effective at removing selenium from the soil. While the selection of plants for this project was based specifically on the ability of each plant to accumulate selenium, the abilities of these plants to phytoextract arsenic, chromium, lead and zinc will also be monitored. The purpose of this study is to test two mechanical and one biological methods to decrease erosion of newly reclaimed steep slopes. Soil erosion off each test plot is quantified by collecting sediment accumulated in a collection trough at the bottom of each treatment plot.