Ohio Sea Grant Research Continues Development of Sediment Cleanup Technique Using Ultrasound
Ohio Sea Grant researchers are continuing to work on a method to remove contamination from Lake Erie rivers and streams, using ultrasound and chemical agents that bind to contaminants and render them inactive on the river bottom. The eventual goal is to treat contaminated sediments right where they are, instead of having to dredge them up for treatment or disposal.
Dr. Linda Weavers and her team at The Ohio State University have built a basic model of a river cross-section in their lab, and are moving from experiments where the contaminated sediment samples are mixed into water to one where the sediment has settled into the bottom of a glass column, closer to how they would find contamination in an actual river or lake.