Comparison of Fiberglass and Other Polymeric Well Casings, Part III. Sorption and Leaching of Trace-Level Metals |
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| Authors: | Thomas A. Ranney Louise V. Parker |
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| Affiliation: | Thomas A. Ranney;is a staff scientist with the Science and Technology Corp. (P.O. Box 127, Hanover, NH 03755). He received a B. S. in education from Castleton State College and an M.S. in plant and soil science from the University of Vermont. His research interests are evaluating environmental sampling procedures and developing analytical methods. Louise V. Parker;is a research physical scientist at the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755-1290). She received a B.A. in microbiology from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in food science and nutrition (food microbiology) at the University of Massachusetts. Her research interests are ground water sampling and material interactions. |
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| Abstract: | This series of experiments was initiated to determine the overall suitability of three alternative polymeric well casing materials (fluorinated ethylene propylene [FEP], fiberglass-reinforced epoxy [FRE], and fiberglass-reinforced plastic [FRP]) for use in ground water monitoring wells and to compare these materials with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) well casings. This paper focuses on sorption and leaching of metals.
Generally, the fiberglass materials leached more metal contaminants than PVC, FEP, and PTFE. However, with one exception (Pb leaching from FRP), leached concentrations were below maximum allowable limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for drinking water. With respect to sorption, none of the polymers sorbed the anions tested, but all of them sorbed one or more of the cations tested. FEP and PTFE were much less sorptive than the other materials. |
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