A tractor pulls a microenfractionator, a soil mixing implement, through windrowed soil contaminated with the herbicide metolachlor. Iron is mixed with the soil to dramatically reduce contamination.

NU Research Yields Simple Solution to Pesticide Contamination

By Steve Ress, Water Center

A relatively simple method of mixing iron into soil contaminated with pesticides could save millions of dollars for those faced with cleaning up environmental spills, University of Nebraska research shows.

"There are always going to be spills that go unreported in large part because of the high costs associated with treating them," said Steve Comfort, an NU soil environmental chemist. "If a low-cost, low-tech way of cleaning up these spills can be used as an alternative, more of them may be reported and dealt with and that's good for everyone."

As part of ongoing research on ways to clean up soil and groundwater contaminated with potentially toxic pesticides and ordinance compounds, Comfort and NU Residue Chemist Pat Shea recently struck upon a method of mixing pesticide-contaminated soil with iron and water. This technique successfully eliminates up to 95 percent of the contamination, which allows the soil to be returned to the ground.

The process is environmentally beneficial and potential cost savings could be huge.

"The approximate cost of treating the contamination on-site, including the labor the iron and other chemical additives, if needed, is about 2.5 cents per pound of soil," Comfort explained. In contrast, current methods that require digging up, transporting and then incinerating contaminated soil typically cost about $1.25 per pound of soil.

An accepted alternative to burning the soil is removing it from the contamination site and spreading it out over a large area where the contamination dissipates naturally over a long time.

"The low-tech nature of our iron additive approach should make it readily adaptable to many contamination sites. It could make pesticide users and distributors, where many of the spills occur, much more inclined to disclose a spill and have the contamination treated using this technique," Comfort explained.

These IANR researchers were able to test their method on a large scale last year in southwest Nebraska.

The site was a farm cooperative and pesticide dealership where nearly five years ago an accidental spill dumped more than 750 gallons of metolachlor from a storage tank into a sump draining water into a clay-lined waste lagoon at the co-op.

Metolachlor is one of the most commonly used agricultural herbicides in Nebraska, most often encountered under the Dual trade name.

"The water table is shallow at the site and analysis of groundwater from on-site wells near the lagoon indicated high concentrations of both metolachlor and atrazine," Comfort said. Atrazine is by far the most commonly used herbicide in the state.

After the accidental spill, about 1,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil were excavated from the lagoon and held at the site, awaiting either removal or remedial treatment.

"The pesticide concentrations were high enough that they posed a threat of sustaining groundwater contamination, as well as being potentially toxic to surrounding plant and animal life," Comfort said.

Last summer, the IANR researchers began a demonstration project at the site to test their methods. The project was aimed at cleaning up metolachlor from the spill-contaminated soil stockpiled at the co-op.

The soil was placed into long windrows using common earth-moving equipment and mixed three times using a high-speed soil mixing and fracturing implement that its manufacturer calls a microenfractionator. The device combines the actions of homogenizing the soil, reducing the size of its particles and aeration. A tractor is used to pull the implement through the soil windrows. Iron particles were added to the mixing operation, along with water.

"The machine provided for uniform distribution of the iron within the windrowed soil and helped homogenize the concentrations of pesticides," Shea said.

The mixed and treated windrows were then covered with sheets of clear plastic and kept moist for three months.

"After treatment, metolachlor concentrations in the contaminated soil rapidly decreased, with chemical destruction rates between 75 and 95 percent within the first 42 days," Comfort said. Even one day after treatment, the soil began showing measurable drops in metolachlor contamination.

Researchers also found that mixing the iron with amendments such as acetic acid also proved to be up to 95 percent effective in decreasing pesticide concentrations from the soil.

"Although the metolachlor concentrations were dramatically reduced, there was still the potential for leaching, especially if the treated soil was put back into the wastewater runoff pit. To counteract that problem we proposed placing a protective, permeable barrier of iron in the bottom of the pit before returning the treated soil there," Comfort said.

The estimated cost of transporting and incinerating the 2.5 million pounds of contaminated soil was more than $3.1 million. Using Comfort and Shea's iron-barrier approach cost $62,500.

"The iron is the key. It shows the potential to very quickly and effectively attenuate a wide variety of pesticide chemical compounds," Shea said. An added bonus of this method is that people can be quickly and inexpensively trained to do it using relatively inexpensive and readily available machinery and supplies, soil additives and techniques.

This IANR Agricultural Research Division research is ongoing and is conducted in cooperation with NU's School of Natural Resource Sciences and Water Center/ Environmental Programs.

Darryl White in his Westbrook Hall studio. Photo: Kelly Bartling

Assistant Professor in Jazz Releases First Solo CD

White Hopes Ancient Memories Leads to New Beginnings

By Kim Hachiya, Public Relations

Darryl White has added one more task to his busy life: record promoter.

In addition to teaching about 20 trumpet students this semester, the assistant professor in the School of Music continues his performing duties (he and his band gigged a couple of weeks ago in Aspen, Colo.). Now, he's also promoting his first solo CD effort in hopes of finding a national or international label for the album.

Ancient Memories is a straight-forward jazz CD cut last May in Denver by White and his band, the Darryl White Quintet. The recording is dedicated to his parents and features three pieces composed by the trumpeter.

"The Tree Has Fallen ...but the roots will live forever" is dedicated to his late father, who died in 1996. "Be Sweet" is dedicated to his mother. A third White composition is titled "Half Steppin'."

"The Tree Has Fallen" was the first piece White wrote that he recorded on another artist's CD and he wanted to include it on his own solo CD.

The title track, "Ancient Memories" by Fred Hamilton, tied into the theme of White's background, he said, which is why it was chosen as the recording name.

"This is a tribute CD to my parents," White said. "But it was my first opportunity to do a big project with real professional musicians, so I wasn't going to do a CD only for my mom." His mother, he said, has background in music, playing organ and singing in church gospel choirs.

The CD reflects White's musical influences ­ Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw ­ but White's unique musical style is evident. The album is warm, inviting and accessible without slipping into the Kenny G/new age mode.

There are just three of his compositions on the recording, in part, he said because labels judge new artists by how well they perform jazz standards, like Monk's "Well 'U Needn't."

"Labels are looking for new ideas and new faces and new sounds, but they judge you by how you sound with the standard jazz literature," he said.

White is completing his third year at Nebraska. Classically trained, he finds jazz to be his performance passion. And while he enjoyed composing and the camaraderie of collaborating on the recording, it's the joy of making music that drove the recording sessions.

"Most of the pieces were set down in one take," he said. "We're like a little family. We've played together so much that they understood emotionally what I wanted from each piece. It's hard to explain emotion but they knew what I was going through when I wrote it, so they got it."

White was raised in Warren, Ohio, where his dad worked in steel mills and his mom raised five sons. He remembers being in the fourth grade and seeing Louis Armstrong playing trumpet on television and announcing "I want to do that." His future sister-in-law lent him her own trumpet, and the youngster messed around with it for a couple of weeks. When she asked for it back, he pitched such a fit, that his folks got him his own trumpet.

Self-taught, he began in the school music program in the fifth grade, and the music teacher recognized his talent. He encouraged White's parents to enroll the child in private lessons.

He earned a bachelor of music from Youngstown State University and a master's from Northwestern. It was in Chicago that the infamous "dog bite" episode occurred.

White said that a freak incident involving a roommate's dalmation almost ended his career. The dog bit White in the face, severely lacerating his upper lips.

A skillful plastic surgeon pieced the then 26-year-old's face back together. And an even more skillful Northwestern professor, Vincent Cichowicz, coached the fearful White back from musical death. White had to relearn how to blow his horn, and he also had to grapple with some emotional changes that the near-loss of his career had brought on.

The incident is one which White would like to forget, although he acknowledges that it has changed his music career for the better, in part because he no longer takes things for granted. Cichowicz is one of many people whom White thanks on this release. He also thanks the UNL Research Council, which gave him a grant that helped fund the recording, and the School of Music, which he said has supported his performance goals.

Those interesting in purchasing Ancient Memories can contact White or they can find the CD at Homer's or The Mill.

Character Counts' Josephson Lecturing Feb. 28

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is sponsoring a series of workshops with Michael Josephson, founder of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, Feb. 27-29.

"Creating a Community of Character" is the theme of these workshops, which will focus on implementing the Character Counts programs in schools, businesses, athletics and other aspects of life. Character Counts is based on the six pillars of character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.

Chancellor James Moeser encourages all UNL staff and faculty to attend a free presentation by Josephson from 2:30- 3:30 p.m. Feb. 28, in the auditorium of the Nebraska Union. Josephson will talk about how character education helps create an ethical society that benefits everyone.

The Character Counts program has been significantly promoted throughout the state by 4-H, a program of UNL Cooperative Extension.

Symposium Scheduled for March 4

Sheldon Explores Missions of University Arts Museums

The role of university art museums in the intellectual life of an institution is the topic of an upcoming symposium at the Sheldon Gallery.

"The Educational Mission of the University Art Museum," runs from 10 a.m. to noon March 4 in the Sheldon Gallery auditorium. The symposium will explore the unique role and potential of the art exhibition in the intellectual life of educational institutions.

The symposium will explore this question within the context of the exhibition Parallel Perspectives: Early 20th Century American Art, a collaborative endeavor between the Sheldon and the Addison Galleries, two museums with specific teaching missions located at educational institutions.

Moderated by Karen Janovy, curator of education at the Sheldon, the panel will feature Adam Weinberg, director of the Addison Gallery of American Art, Susan Faxon, associate director and curator of the Addison Gallery, and Daniel A. Siedell, curator and interim director of the Sheldon Art Gallery.

"Since my arrival at the Sheldon Art Gallery in 1996 I have been committed to integrating the Sheldon Art Gallery into the fabric of the intellectual life of the University of Nebraska, an intellectual life that includes both advanced teaching and research," Siedell said. "The art collections housed at the Sheldon Gallery originated within a specific educational mission and it is our responsibility to re-invest in that mission in concrete and specific ways. I'm therefore very pleased to have the opportunity to engage in the context of the University's celebration of graduate education."

Established in 1931, in Andover, Mass., the Addison Gallery of American Art sits on the campus of the Phillips Academy, founded in 1785, the oldest boarding school in the United States. Its major donor, Thomas Cochran, established the museum and its art collection for the express purpose of facilitating the study of the visual arts within the educational mission of the Academy.

Both Weinberg and Faxon, who are on the teaching faculty at the Phillips Academy, are deeply committed to the educational potential of museums, particularly through the venue of the exhibition.

Weinberg came to the Addison Gallery in January 1999 from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York where he was senior curator of the Permanent Collection. He also served as the artistic and program director for the American Center in Paris, and director of education at the Walker Art Center. Faxon came to the Addison Gallery in 1986 from the University of New Hampshire, where she served as director of the University Art Galleries and adjunct faculty in the Art Department.

This symposium, funded by the Centennial Celebration of Graduate Education, Research and Creative Activity at the University of Nebraska, provides an opportunity to explore the relationship between the Sheldon's collection and programming activities and advanced teaching and research at the University of Nebraska.

The symposium is free to the public and registration will begin at 9 a.m. in the Great Hall with coffee, juice, and rolls.