Webinar – Approaching PFAS Data – Integrating an Array of Visualizations to the Conceptual Site Model, December 7, 2023
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Performance and Risk Assessment Community of Practice invites you to the following webinar:
Approaching PFAS Dat- Integrating an Array of Visualizations to the Conceptual Site Model
Dr. Ryan Swanson
HydroGeoLogic Inc.
Thursday, December 7, 2023
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Title:
Approaching PFAS Data – Integrating an Array of Visualizations to the Conceptual Site Model
Synopsis:
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) consist of thousands of chemicals with numerous applications. The regulatory environment surrounding PFAS continues to evolve, and the U.S. EPA has established interim and final health advisories for a few select types of PFAS, including PFOA, PFOS, PFBS, and GenX chemicals, with additional regulatory action expected. PFAS consist of a unique suite of compounds, determined by the manufacturing process, that can be used to identify them and delineate their extent in soil and water.
Sites impacted by PFAS can have (1) numerous release areas and corresponding sample locations, (2) multiple impacted environmental media (e.g., soil, sediment, surface water, groundwater), and (3) up to 40 types of PFAS identified in each sample. Managing the volume of data can become cumbersome with traditional figures and tables.
The low advisory levels and environmental persistence of PFAS demand engineered solutions to stabilize, restrict or remediate impacted media. Delineating the impacts of potentially dozens of PFAS analytes is challenging. For engineered solutions to be effective, the approach for presenting PFAS data must be rethought. We showcase approaches to manage and visualize analytical PFAS results to support engineered solutions through Conceptual Site Model (CSM) development.
These approaches include developing pie charts to highlight relative concentrations of PFAS, carefully curating visualizations of concentrations with increasing depth, and analyzing PFAS with a 3-D CSM framework. Having an array of tools is essential to support complex CSMs involving PFAS.
Bio:
Dr. Ryan Swanson is a hydrogeologist with HydroGeoLogic, Inc. (HGL) with a Ph.D. in hydrology from the Colorado School of Mines and a B.S. in geophysics and in geology from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Swanson supports HGL’s numerous PFAS investigations by constructing and updating Conceptual Site Models while developing innovative data visualization approaches. Dr. Swanson has fostered the development of HGL’s PFAS Community of Practice; an internal group that shares ideas, problems and solutions, and leading research related to PFAS.